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Interview
by SaschaS
20-2-2004
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| Speedway's Jill Jackson breaks moulds |
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The Speedway you do it
Speedway carve own niche in a bland popworld
As one would expect from a band called Speedway, they set a record with their first outing - the highest single chart debut by a Scottish act. Double-A sided single ‘Genie In A Bottle/Save Yourself’ reached the Top Ten few months back but, when I mention the achievement, singer Jill Jackson reminds me that unfortunately it has been eclipsed by the Franz Ferdinand’s No.3 January charting.
The Ferdinand future is gonna be a tricky one because it is hard to survive and live up to their kinda hype - while Speedway got here simply on the strength of music and playing it to an ever-increasing fan base. Now, there is more for all to savour on their debut album, ‘Save Yourself’, featuring songs written by singer and drummer Jim Duguid together and in collaboration with the cream of contemporary UK songwriters including Guy Chambers, Ash Howes and Martin Harrington.…
The debut album ‘Save Yourself’ - preceded by a single ‘Can’t Turn Back’ that cracked the Top 10 again - is imminent and we ask Ms Jackson to highlight its best features, merits...
“I hope it will surprise people because there are plenty of different songs,” Jackson states calmly but persuasively, “I hope people will like the variety. I can’t stand albums that sound the same, each song being a version of the previous one. All interchangeable, all sickening…”
It could well be that it is only reaction to the market demands; perhaps public is happy to have ‘stars-for-a-week’, until the next hype is set up?
“I don’t believe so,” JJ’s full of attitude and her outspokenness will become apparent when we get her to the ‘Pop Idol’ topic, “because we’ve toured enough and seen the reaction of public. People want more than albums that are made of 80 per cent of covers. No, that can’t be what people really want and that’s why our album offers variety of songs.”
“It’s got a new sound that is neither rock nor pop but a mixture of both. There are some really heavy guitar sounds but also acoustic guitar. It’s really an easy album to listen to. A breath of fresh air. Better than plenty of other albums you hear, the TV Shite you see these days.”
Celtic oxygen
The Scottish four piece are the handiwork of vocalist/guitarist Jackson and drummer Jim Duguid. Jackson is a 24 year old from Paisley for whom performing literally is a question of DNA: her grandmother was an opera singer and her grandfather a magician. Her first forays into the spotlight were just Jill, a guitar and a bunch of country songs. She soon formed a band and in the winter of 1998, when they needed a new drummer, a friend recommended Duguid.
Glasgow born drummie spent his early years listening to his brother’s Beatles and AC/DC albums and dreamt of ‘hittin’-the-skins’. As soon as he was old enough, he got the kit and joined a band although after seeing U2 live he realised a change of direction was needed. Enter Jackson and through mutual friends Speedway became four when bassist Tom Swann and guitarist Chris Leonard joined.
From the moment they first attracted media attention comparisons with Texas started and keep coming. Apart from sharing Celtic roots and, obviously, being fit femmes, there is little similarity because Speedway are more related to The Pretenders, the rockier end of pop.
“Thank you,” Jackson coos with appreciation, “because she [C. Hynde] is my heroine. Texas are from Scotland, a band fronted by a woman, it all adds up in the lazy journalistic camp. When I was growing up I played country music, listened to U2 and plenty of other music, such as opera. So, my influences are wide, as well as the band’s.”
Releasing a [Christina Aguilera] cover as a debut single, then having Guy Chambers [Robbie Williams’s former collaborator] co-write on the album, and touring with Blue, it appears that the band is attempting to make a statement of a kind.
“No, not really,” Jackson said, “it’s just how things happened. We simply want to demonstrate that you can play our kind of music to different audiences and still have great response. Why can’t you do it, what’s stopping you? With Blue we proved that you can do it. It was a great fun touring with them.”
“But, making a statement, I don‘t really think so… Still, when you put it like that… It looks like we are making a point.”
As befits a person originating from the northern side of the Hadrian’s Wall, JJ is friendly but also a fatale: this woman not only seduces with her accent - her guttural consonants are a real turn-on - she has the photogenic looks to match it. Onstage, she fronts the band with ease of Debbie Harry with a measure of Hynde in. But, JJ is her own performer, not a homage to [bygone?] idols.
It ain’t what you do but…
Speedway caught the eye of label head Hugh Goldsmith at a show at Glasgow’s infamous King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut at the end of 2000. Impressed with their onstage charisma and highly charged original material, Speedway were soon added to the Innocent Records roster. Thus, some three years later they have the new album out while… Many pop stars have bounced in and (quicker) out, the type of Michelle McManus, for instance… Well, she couldn’t lower the reputation of Scottish music even if she tried her damnest.
“To be honest with you,” Jackson replies, “I don’t think we occupy the same universe and I don‘t really think she is that good a singer, after all. She is rather average and although I don’t watch programmes like that, I couldn’t escape hearing about it and forming an opinion. I find it fascinating to hear someone like Joss Stone, she is so young but sounds so mature, so experienced, so pained. I wonder where did she find it all to sing the way she does. She didn’t need ‘Pop Idol’.”
This craze, as any other, will pass but there is a concern that music has been damaged beyond recovery…
“Let’s hope not,” Jackson sees the bright side of life, “and this is just a phase. Whether this damaged music is something only the future will tell. We believe that there is always going to be an opposition to whatever obsession the mainstream industry was feeding . There are already a lot of guitar bands around, from Funeral For A Friend to Franz Ferdinand, and it is going to increase and continue as people realise that you can be a ‘Pop Idol’ but not have a career out of it. Nothing beats hard work.”
And, propaganda; pop stars have been endorsing and advertising products, the latest being Britney, Beyoncé and Pink flogging Pepsi; what would Jill sell her soul for?
“Tunes,” she says after a lengthy pause, “I suck them all the time, I am addicted to them.”
A babe with a ‘healthy’ addiction, not like J-Lo’s life-like dependency on Luis Vuitton luggage.
If JJ and the boys need a motto, it could well be - It ain’t what you do but the Speedway that you do it.
SaschaS
20-2-2004
Speedway’s debut album ‘Save Yourself’ is released 23 February 2004 by Innocent
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