INTERVIEW

Pete Jones had the Jah Wobble job for only 8 months or so, but in that time the last true PiL album "Commercial Zone" was made. After his departure, very little had been heard of him musically. Here is a transcript of an interview given to "Spunk Sister", Net magazine, in July 1997.

Interviewed by Beniditte Love.

Pete, its been some time since you left PiL. What you been up to since then?

I left PiL in 1982 and spent a while putting together a band and trawling round talking to people, collecting promises, recording crap songs etc. A black Monday descended on me one week and I thought "bollocks" and went into retirement. I got fed up talking to little shits who thought they could run your life for you, at the same time cutting the corners off all your pockets and sucking out the money..like, people would be really up when talking to your face then the next minute when you rung they wouldn't entertain you, return your calls stuff like that. I would spend endless hours on the phone only for things to fall through at the last minute. I knew there must be a better life..I had spent enough time working with tossers whilst with PiL..I'd had enough, so I bailed out. I got a job, got a life and found inner peace. (Laugh). Seriously though it really freaked me for a while when I started working with "real" people.. they had no egos to massage, weren't out to rip you off and were generally interested in what you were doing. It put me on the defensive for a while but I really learnt how to relate to people again and it was like a weight had lifted from me and I could breathe again....

What were you doing?

It doesn't really matter what I was doing...I was doing enough, just earning a living, putting food on the table and bringing a few kids into the world... there's nothing wrong in that. It was so good to be dealing with the real world again. I think I had lost the plot somewhere along the way and it felt time to get back on the rails.

So why did you leave PiL anyhow? The Kudos of playing with such a well known band and all that..

Politics my dear, politics...Ha Ha!! You gotta realise that working with PiL carried a lot of baggage you know.. dealing with the bullshit, immaturity and drug hyped egos wasn't the easiest job in the world. Unfortunately it all came to a head over fuck all one day and I thought "Bollocks, I'm off" I was living with my girlfriend and the roadie in a cockroach infested apartment in Manhattan, while all the profits from the gigs shot straight up the noses of the growing entourage, I wasn't getting paid......need I say more?

So you ran away?

F**k off!!...As far as I'm concerned , it took a lot of bottle to walk away from all of that. John Lydon would say "There are a lot of weak people out there..." to explain the many personnel changes over the years. The truth is, very few people would put up with the shit that came with working alongside the great Johnny Rotten. There's more to life than being in a famous band, and I had a great deal of self respect that I wasn't prepared to compromise any more.

Such as?

When I was in the band Keith was a big problem. At times he was a genius, but the counterpoint to that like many creative people, was something bordering on lunacy. Quite often.. I wouldn't have a clue what he was talking about, things just didn't make sense. All this was going on in the midst of a power struggle between Martin Atkins and Lydon, it was so pathetic you wouldn't believe. I walked before I killed somebody. At one point I had 12 dollars in my pocket, a 1200 dollar hotel bill, and all Keith could say was "..we are all individuals in this band man" I had to do a runner from the hotel in the end.

But wasn't it that chaos that defined the greatness of PiL if you like?

(Great rolling of eyes.) When are people going to f***ing wake up and see the emperor ain't wearing no goddamn clothes?... The chaos was just that...chaos.....in the extreme. At that time there were three musically challenged blokes tossing around in the studio. If you were lucky a halfway interesting tune came out over which John Lydon would wail until the notes landed somewhere in the right ballpark. That was dished up on a bed of bullshit and the waiting punters gorged themselves on it. A lot of wool was being pulled over a lot of eyes. We were being "managed" by a coke headed crook who was ripping the band off big time, call that greatness?

Sounds a bit like sour grapes..

If you like....I was there..you weren't...I couldn't give a toss.

Sorry!.

Don't apologies, you are entitled to your viewpoint. You are not the first person to have said that you know. Perhaps I have trouble getting my point across....perhaps you just ask crap questions.

Lets try another tack? You say you left PiL and retired? How come you are now producing and writing again? What was the inspiration or influence for you to start again?

Big question... Ever since I left PiL I never stopped being creative. I wrote a lot, got heavily into black and white photography, even sculpted for a while, I never stopped playing my guitars I just never bothered to record anything. Almost subconsciously, I had no control in some ways. (Sounds like Levene bullshit ) .... I wanted to make music. I wanted to make music for one person, (myself) I wanted to make music free from all the outside influences that drive most artists. To do that I had to sever all ties with finance and business. I was in a position to do that in 1992. I no longer had to consider making my music pay for itself or to put food into the mouths of my family, That was all sorted. Artistically, that made me as free as a bird. Fame and fortune were no longer the driving forces, I had left my ego in New York when I left PiL and all I had to think about was my art, no outside influences, I could listen to my soul!!

So what makes your stuff so special?

Nothing..I mean it doesn't matter a toss what you or anybody else thinks about my music. I write for my own enjoyment, I am not driven to desire that everybody in the world should experience it. I have no ego to pump, I write. Period. I write what I write as long as it pleases me. I do not write for fans, managers, accountants, record company, publishing house, or any other goddamn pimp that should be hanging around waiting to suck blood. Pure, simple, selfish. If I want to record some news bulletin into the PC, shove it into an audio programme, chop it up and play with it, write sound algorithms until it sounds like nothing else then I will. If I want to play my bass four to floor I will, If it sounds shite, it gets erased, if not, it stays for a bit, then gets erased. Ten second tracks or 30 minutes, doesn't matter. I will not use any pre-defined method of writing, only that it is all my own work. No name dropping, no credits, no mutual back slapping to prop up a sagging ego, just Pete Jones, the total control.

Why then did you release a limited edition of selected tracks?

The stuff wasn't exactly "released". There was no label or publishing deal. I was conscious that there was a genuine interest from like minded people who were mostly friends and associates. I decided that if they wanted a copy of the EP they could get a personalised copy, burnt to CD on my own PC, as long as they met certain conditions of ownership if you like. Which, before you ask, are not for explanation. But basically, you had to demonstrate that you were worthy of listening to my tunes! Ha Ha! It sort of snowballed from there until I said "Enough" I then didn't care if anyone else had a copy, I changed the rules! Stopped making it available. Once again, no need for the income, you can do things like that when the financial shackle has been removed.

Sounds a bit pretentious to me.

That doesn't surprise me....You're wearing the same blinkers as everybody else, I don't care what you think, I have no interest in your thought processes, I have no need for you to slap me on the back, I do not rely on you to make a living, I have no desire to prostitute myself in the mainstream recording industry. Ipso facto.

Look Pete, all I'm trying to do is understand where you are coming from, to make sense of all this. I've heard you stuff and I think its great and deserves a wider audience that's all, rather than being some dark secret underground movement...

And all I am trying to do is get music back to where it belongs, in people hearts and souls, not in the boardroom and balance sheet because thats when we all get fucked by the grey suits who write the cheques...Take any chart boxed pigeon holed compartmentalised genre of modern music you like, it all boils down to the same thing...paying the bills... just don't tell me that "we only do it cos we just love playing in a band" crap, all you want is to get on the fat cat payrolla and shag pretty women....or ugly women for that matter.

Steady there now!!...

No.. f**k it.. The lot of them should be taken out and shot!

Who?

Any arsehole who thinks that selling a two bit turd on a CD for £14 is a good thing. Why do people put up with it? I mean.. what we have here is just an exercise in marketing, it has nothing to do with musical integrity, What do you think is more important, Selling a million records or teaching one kid with cerebral palsy how to sing Old MacDonald? The whole world is f**ked, oppressed people are getting killed by the million round the world and all we want to do is sell 3 minute slices of the same mouldy cake. We have all lost the perspective somewhere along the way.

But people want this stuff, supply and demand and all that?

But who tells them what they want? Media driven? music created to make money by clever marketing. Make the punter think it originated from some youth culture movement or the club dance floor... Oh yeah!! Just look at how many people want to get their hooks into you when you start selling a few records and how they all want a slice of the cash..you're coccooned in a vacuous space of virtual insanity, do you think that is the way it should work?

So where do we go now?

Well I'm going to go and burn one copy of my latest four track, then erase all the sound files and samples that were used in creating it. Then I'm off to the United States of Kiss my Ass to sell pegs and spread the word!

And how do you change the world?

Me on my own?...Hardly...But the world is shrinking and technology will eventually bury all the musical dinosaurs. Without doubt, the internet will be the caller of the tune. What makes me sad is that the record companies will wake up soon and will probably find a way of stuffing that down their trousers and control that too. But ideally, the internet will be the medium through which we will all find the heart and soul. The end of the record shop is nigh!! On top of that the technology to create and record on home equipment is climbing exponentially, big fat hard drives, top end audio and midi sequencing, all zapped down to your own CD burner or DAT, are within easy reach and becoming cheaper all the time. You won't need a fat record deal advance, all the record companies will be dead and, musical creativity will be released in an unstoppable wave, and finally, the emperor will be standing stark bollock naked for the whole world to stand and laugh at. People will make music for themselves to dance, take drugs, shag or whatever, there will be no need to fawn over some other twats tunes, if you do, it will be freely available.

So we will all be an Elvis?

Don't be a twat... we are all capable of throwing a few samples together. .Hey.. even Lydon could do it. You don't need any "musical" talent to do it, but you will need to be able to "feel" something. From the heart. And fucking hope to god there will never be another Elvis. God that guy was shite in a white suite.....and people still travel thousands of miles to visit his old house? How sad can you get... and if you think I'm wrong remember that he died sad, fat, bloated and drug ridden......Great role model!!

And where will you be in all this?

Down the pub, laughing my bollocks off. .....After being crowned the new messiah of course HA HA (Scream).

Pete jones is unique, as he gets up to leave he is smiling from ear to ear, tongue firmly in cheek. totally happy, and in control of his artistic output. Time will tell if his prophecy of the future rings true, but i've got the feeling that his finger is somewhere near the pulse. We probably won't realise it until it's too late. Beniditte Love XXXX

link