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Jon McClure from Reverend and the Makers |
Reverence for Jon the music maker
JON McClure’s still talking.
The outspoken Reverend and the Makers frontman’s waiting for the Sheffield train at St Pancras, to return to newlywed life, juggling thousands of thoughts in his head and speaking at 100 miles an hour.
He’s a multi-tasker too – mid flow in a tirade against the soulless music scene of the noughties he’s pausing to grab a light from a passer-by and forming his next big point.
Next month, McClure joins former Suede man Brett Anderson, ex-Libertine/Dirty Pretty Things’ Carl Barat and the legendary New Silver Cornet Band to celebrate Jack Daniels’ birthday at Village Underground, Shoreditch, on October 8.
Expect Tennessee sounds and off-the-wall-collaborations. “It's going to be good,” he says. “The guys in the band are pretty legendary, there’s some proper heavyweights.
“You’re meant to do cover songs but we can mash it up a bit. We’re going to do Psychotic Reaction by Count V, that’s a pretty out-there tune so we could go a bit mental.
“I’m sure it’ll be a bit seat-of-your-pants but I quite like that because I come from that background anyway. There’s a club in Sheffield called Club 60, in the red light district. It’s a cellar like the Cavern Club, it’s open till 8am and everyone’s just jamming in there so I’m used to playing it by ear.”
McClure recently wed bandmate Laura Manuel. He said: “We had a nice do, married in Italy, then had a little wedding in Yorkshire in a field. Just got a blinging ring, it’s nice, man. I met Laura through doing the band then we got together, split up, then got back together and got married, so it’s been a bit of a journey, mashed the band up a bit a few times but it’s all good.”
While he’s talking about a million things at once, he’s also embarking on a similar number of projects.
The Makers have released their second album, McClure’s got his side-project Mongrel, he’s working on three different albums, is about to tour India, is involved in a Twitter row with NME which has prompted him to begin his own magazine, and is planning to busk from Sheffield to Shanghai via Moscow and Outer Mongolia.
He said: “I’m going to stop at all these cities, towns and villages and record music with the people I meet. Hopefully we’ll get a documentary out of it. The record label’s furious because they want me to stay at home and promote my records.”
And he’s still got time to rail against the industry: “My heroes are Lennon, Marley and Strummer and I know for a fact if all three gentlemen were alive today they’d despair at how awful music’s got.
“People call things like peace and love cringeworthy. I’m vilified as some kind of ranting hippy nutter. I don’t want to look back on my life and think I formed a band to headline Reading Festival, there’s got to be more than that – it’s just soulless.
“Now people cater to what they think the kids want – you want a Reverend and the Makers album that sounds just like Heavyweight Champion of the World? Sorry but you’re not having it because I’m not in the business of doing that kind of thing.”
He asks if I’ve seen The Wire: “Someone said to me recently, ‘You’re MacNulty, you don’t do yourself any favours. Even though your intentions are really good you want to fight everyone’s battles’. At the end of the day I’d rather be like that than on my knees all my life.” |
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