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Kate Whittaker asks will the
real Jools Holland please stand up?
 Surf your way onto almost any
Jools Holland website and you'll be cyber-swamped by the
contents. Page after page of gig reviews, discographies, tour
dates and photographs reflect Holland's status of living
legend, a cult figure still very much alive and boogie-ing.
Last month saw the release of
Hop The Wag, Holland's latest recording with his Rhythm and
Blues Orchestra and his 13th album to date. He's now on a UK
tour with the Orchestra, belting an irrepressible blast of
blues and boogie-woogie to foot-tappers nationwide. Seeing as
Jools has more fans per square mile than bass notes per gig,
they're not likely to be thin on the venue ground.
The phenomenal success Holland
has enjoyed with his orchestra constitutes only part of an
acclaimed career as musician and presenter. Squeeze, Juke Box
Jury, The Tube and Later With Jools Holland have conspired to
make the unassuming Londoner a household name. Yet despite the
cult following he has acquired, Holland remains enigmatic. He
is the last celebrity you would find snagged by the gossip
columns or relaxing at home with the family and a Hello!
photographer. He is fiercely protective of his loved ones and
warmly loyal to his friends. He excels as an interviewer but
rarely allows others to interview him. Jools Holland is, quite
simply, an exceedingly private megastar.
Born and raised in Deptford in
a large, musical family, Holland has always retained a strong
sense of his roots. He had a happy, if impoverished,
childhood, first flexing his fingers over a piano keyboard at
his grandmother's when he was eight. Since becoming famous he
has travelled all over the world, jamming with musicians from
a wide variety of backgrounds. Despite his fixation with
blues, R&B and boogie-woogie, Holland has remained
consistently eager to explore alternative musical styles and
their cultural roots.
During the 1980s he made two
documentary films that revolved around the music of New
Orleans, Memphis and Nashville. But when in England, he drinks
at one of his two locals in South East London. The
contradictions don't stop there. Holland is as eclectic as any
stereotypically eccentric Englishman. His love of tea and
cakes at four, to pick one delightful example, contrasts with
a desire for new musical knowledge and experience. His pride
and love for South East London jostles awkwardly alongside a
weakness for oysters and vintage cars. He posed in red
Y-fronts for Paula Yates's Rock Stars in Their Underwear, but
can't stand to be interviewed. I repeat, will the real Jools
Holland please stand up?
In September of this year, U2
singer Bono sang Blue Skies at Paula Yates's funeral. Holland
accompanied him on the piano. The death of a long-standing
friend and former colleague genuinely affected Holland, a man
whose relationships seem to transcend the superficiality of
the industry he works in. Chris Difford, co-founder of
Holland's first band Squeeze, formed in 1973, co-wrote some of
the material for the new Hop The Wag album this year. Their
friendship has lasted decades. Likewise Gilson Lavis,
Squeeze's drummer, and numerous producers and directors
Holland has worked with for TV and radio. Against a culture of
pop groups swearing solidarity one week and splitting up the
next, Holland is nothing if not sincere, supporting his close
friends whether the paparazzi are nearby or not.
It is, in fact, Holland's very
disinterest in a carefully airbrushed public image that makes
him seem like such a paradox. Oh, there are the standard
publicity shots of course - principally Jools dressed in black
and looking moody, his faithful piano by his side - but
nothing that resembles the PR excesses of stars like Posh and
Becks. Ultimately fame came to Jools Holland almost as the
by-product of his talents, not because someone else decided to
make him into a celebrity. He is the antithesis of the star
who is famous for being famous.
As for the man behind the
maestro: well, intertwined though they are, Jools Holland
minus baby grand seems to my mind a genuine and gregarious
soul who'll be sticking around for a long time yet. Mind you,
he may just have really good PR.
Jools Holland is at The
Brighton Centre on Dec 20.
copyright New Insight 2000
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