John Willmott

Musician, songwriter and publisher.

What was your first group and the ones that followed?

The first band that I played with was called The Switch. At that time I was very keen on R & B. We first imitated people like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, etc., and then moved onto copying Tamla and Stax Volt music before it was really heard of here. We used to import Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding records and copy them.

This would have been about 1965/66 time. In those early days I was mainly played bass. I also played violin in an orchestra and wrote a lot of poetry. All of this at 14. In 1967 I was a bit upset that the music I loved was being used as a mascot for skinheads, though, I laugh at my attitude now. The hippies were mentally violent so I do not know which is the best or worst of the trends.

At this point I was frustrated and searching for a musical direction. I was writing songs at the rate of at least five per week, a rate that I managed for about about six years. A lot were self-indulgent and depressive, a trap about 90% of songwriters seem to fall into.

'67 saw me do lots of musical things. I played in all sorts of experimental bands, none to be known of now. '68 and '69 saw me playing a lot of rock. Much was with a band called Hoversquirrel, which, with a bit of member changing, became U.F.O. Eddie Grant offered a recording deal as long as the band changed its name. I did one tour with them. Fed up with heavy rock I left them. Regarding Europe, I have done well doing acoustic music.

You then moved into writing musicals, one of which appeared at the 1974 Bath Festival -- have you written any since?

This I had been creating since my first poems of 1966 onwards. WHEN COMES THE SUN was a mood thing about death of the old and rebirth of the new. The main symbolism used was that of the dying of Autumn and rebirth of Spring. WHEN COMES THE SUN has been performed in many guises -- the best were at a festival in Exmoor,about 1973. The other occasion was at one of the Bath fringe festivals about 1974, when it was a multi-media thing, which included dancing, lights and film. We had plans to make it grow -- it did, but I lost money and ran away to become a folk singer.

In 1975 (my songs had dried up) I went into vaudeville and music hall stuff and sang in a lot of folk clubs with a small group. In 1976 I left music altogether, out of sheer boredom. My interest was not aroused until I started to hear what was being done on cheap synthesizers. Here was the opportunity to do what I always wanted to do with orchestras and choirs, available in a little keyboard box. Dance music in the 80s, in my opinion, has been better than it has ever been.

Has your musical taste changed a great deal, since you first started?

It always changes. For a while I went off R & B. Nowadays, I am back into R & B music. I like dramatical stuff and energetic moody music.

Which artists do you most respect?

The first artist that put chills up my spine was Bo Diddley after I saw three Christmas shows on television when I was about eleven. Since then, I loved the early Stones records and even more so, The Pretty Things, especially as I delivered newspapers to two of their homes and shared with their first drummer in Liverpool. Otis Redding and James Brown are still very important to me and some of Eric Clapton's work with John mayall, The Yardbirds and on the live album he did with Stevie Wonder, Albert Lee & Co. , about two years ago. Greater than all these people at the moment are New Order, Ultravox, U2, Simple Minds, The Cure and The Fall

I love the roughness and simplicity of what these people do, except Ultravox and Simple Minds, who, to me, are complete both in mood, lyrics and as dance music at times. I also love the stuff done by Chaka Khan and Womack & Womack. Favourite of all, though, are a band from Bristol called Jump, who I saw in Cornwall last summer -- happy songs that get beyond "Get Down", etc.

Have you ever dabbled seriously in other art forms?

Well, I have acted a lot. In Bath, I got involved in mainly street and comedy theatre. I go for comedy in a big way, when I have the chance. I sometimes write scripts, but have not done this for about eight years. In my break from music, from about 1977, I have got involved in photography and painting, too. I also greatly advanced my other interests in astrology and psychosynthesis, which is meditating on symbolic imagery, which in time becomes a material reality, helping others to create their own little dramas in their minds.

How do you view current music as a whole?

Never been so good. The diversity is amazing and always getting better. The charts do not matter, so much as there are so many local bands making music and selling it. There will soon be as many home studios as there are bands, now that such good gear is quite cheap to buy. Musical snobbery is breaking down. Also, a record consisting of a three note riff is now accepted as being as valid as a 7/4 jazz symphony. Great!

You have plans to launch a record label and sell various tapes -- how are those plans progressing?

Well, to date, I have been a continual near miss when it comes to fame and fortune. I have been sacked from one band -- Lode Stone, at rehearsal stage, to be replaced by Steve Hillage. I failed an important Humble Pie interview that I was sure I was going to get, and I might of been a U.F.O. tight-trousered millionaire, but I have never been a fan of heavy metal. It is the heavy drinking, drugs and continuous screwing of women that did not appeal to me, as I am honestly into music. With all of the musicians I played with in the late 60s and 70s, I was probably the only one that did not catch the pox.

Anyway, '85 and '86 are my years and I am back on the R & B trail. I have just moved into a bigger house and I am converting one room into a recording studio and launching a recording label called BOOGIE SHOP. This will have nothing else but music to dance to. We would love to manage and record one band, The Riff, who sound like The Fall, but boogie along like ZZ top. We also hope to do a range of live recordings under a series called BOOGIE SHOP BOOTLEGS, though the bands will be paid their royalty.

I am forming two bands. One is called Rockin' Rocket & the Spaceships, which is to be an extravaganza theatrical rock and roll band with a back-up female section called The Star Tarts. The other band is simply Blipper Bop, which is just a couple of us providing a rhythm with whoever we can get, a bit like The Crusaders set-up. Our other label is Awareness, which is to be a range of relaxation and inspiration music, and some will be spoken, auto-suggestion. A recorded version of When Comes the Sun. Overall we are hoping to get twenty recordings out in the first year, i.e.: one a fortnight. It's a tall order, but that's enthusiasm for you.

Thanks to John for taking the trouble to give such detailed answers.