One wet October night I travelled to the North London Tavern near Kilburn to see The Jones, and when they all walked out on stage they were all wearing ties.
Three days before the gig, I spent an hour with them on a bench near Regent’s Park during which Charlie Woods, the guitarist, told me that Harry Castle, the drummer, was the fashionista of the band, before Harry added: “I want it to have like a uniform thing. I love it when you go into a gig and you clearly recognize who the band is”.
They occasionally wear military jackets when they play, but not on that night I saw them on stage performing a set of mainly cover songs.
“We need to get money from cover gigs”, Jack Matthews, the lead singer told me in Regent’s park. “They are the only ones that pay more, but we want to get to a point where we can be an original band”.
One thing I particularly remember from the interview was their ambition. “It’s more than a career, it’s a life. It’s not only professional“, said Charlie, before Harry added, “To gig every day would be the dream. If we stay on track maybe, we can do that”.
In The North London Tavern, the level of interaction between musician and crowd was very strong. There was a cowbell at the front of the stage. People were hitting it with a stick that they passed around the audience, including me.
This exiting energy that they are able to genrate leaves me feeling that The Jones are really going somewhere. The venue obviously agree, because after that gig they asked if the band could come back on the next day, and play every Friday if possible.
To see the band in action, watch the video, and also watch this space for a follow up piece with the full interview.