In depth: Elly Bailey meets Jack Jones.
It was Saturday 7th April and I was sitting in Banners in Crouch End, tucked away in the back corner of the restaurant, waiting to interview Trampolene frontman and general sweetheart, Jack Jones.
I had already had a very apologetic phone call from the musician informing me he’d just woken up and was running late, his kindness over the phone instantly putting me at ease and instantly dismissing any nerves I may have had.
Ten minutes later, Jack walked in, eagerly greeting me like I was a long time friend of his, making easy conversation, and only stopping to order an espresso which he reluctantly downed in an apparent attempt to wake himself up.
Welsh indie rock band Trampolene, made up of Jack Jones, Wayne Thomas and Rob Steele and self-described by Jack as “the sound of new rock and roll” released their debut album 'Swansea to Hornsey' in October 2017 and spent most of last year touring the country, playing festivals and gaining a widespread supportive fan base.
In the same style as The Beatles or The Byrds they intentionally use a misspelling of the word trampoline for their band name and got this unique spelling from an old Julian Cope song:
“For some reason, he spelt Trampolene wrong, I think he had a dream that Trampolene was a woman he
met and she’d spelt the name wrong. It was while I was reading his book that I had the idea to involve spoken word and poems into our set. The name was in my head already and then I walked into a club one night where they were playing ‘For the Benefit of Mr Kite’ by The Beatles and one of the opening line is
“There will be a show tonight on trampolines...”
It made me realise that yeah that is a really cool band name, everything sort of fit together.”
Jack Jones and Trampolene can often be found on tour with Peter Doherty, The Libertines and most recently had a stint supporting Liam Gallagher on his headline UK tour. However, the boys are now going at it on their own, and are about to embark on their biggest ever headline tour, spanning over thirteen dates and finishing with a show at London’s Scala. You would have thought that going from support to headline would be a scary process but it seems not for this band...
“It’s not daunting to me because I’m very excited about it, I’m quite driven and ambitious; I want my own tour bus,” ...He says with a cheeky smile.
“I’m not apprehensive because it’s what I’ve always dreamed of and having a dream and then having the courage to go after it is everything.
And now we’ve got a say in choosing our own support acts. I’ve still got a few mates trying to get on board but supporting us are the Himalayas, a Welsh band that are really working hard to make it, so I thought fair enough, we'll give them a shot. And then Sophie and the Giants, we were sent over some of their tracks and really liked them, it’s cool to have something different in the line up.
We might try to find some local acts that we can get on board in the area, see if I can find someone busking on the street and ask them if they can do our gig that night, it’s always fun to find people that way.”
With the band originating from Wales, it wasn’t a huge surprise to find out that of the thirteen shows that make up the tour, Jack is most excited to play his old stomping ground in Cardiff;
“When I was growing up in Swansea going to Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff was a big thing, we saw big bands there and it was inconceivable to me that we could ever sell that place out and when it happened I was pinching myself. It’s a small club but it’s a legendary place in Wales. However one of the first gigs we ever did was supporting Carl Barat and the Jackals in Scala, London and I always dreamt of playing a headline show there thinking it would never happen. It’s nice to have a dream and work hard but we all know the world isn’t fair, so the fact that it actually came through is a mad thing.”
As he sat back in his chair, deep in thought, I took the opportunity to ask a more light-hearted question regarding the unintentional ‘controversy’ surrounding Trampolene’s debut album cover. In October 2017 Trampolene released their debut album Swansea to Hornsey, which gained a lot of positive reviews and was even included in The Independent newspaper's 30 best albums of 2017.
However in a strange turn of events, after the album was released the bands Facebook account was threatened to be deleted, and any post containing a photo of the album cover was removed, due to it featuring a photo of Jack and his sister naked as children. It has also caused issues with the album release in Japan and as a result, alternative covers have been released. Unable to hide the smile on his face, Jack laughed off controversy and happily explained the meaning behind the cover photo:
“I had a bone tumour when I was a 3 or 4, and had just come out of hospital, if you look at the image I have a cast on my leg. And I was just too hot all the time because of the cast, my Mum said I was just constantly naked, but I was embarrassed about being naked. So my sister Hannah decided to be naked with me as support and that’s where that photo came from. We were just outside playing with traffic cones. That’s the front image, and then the back image is a picture of me and Wayne when we moved to Hornsey in London, so the album is front to back, Swansea to Hornsey.“
Arguably, it was moving to London that changed the boys’ lives and introduced them to fellow writers, musicians and poets. There are a few rumours surrounding this time and I was eager to find out if what I had read was true; did they move to London and live in a hippie commune? Were they trying to recreate Andy Warhol’s factory? Did they really not allow Internet, phones or any real connection to the modern world?
“I think the thing with us is we always take things a bit too far,” chuckled Jack. “In the end, things escalated a bit out of control when it was 25 people living in a 4 bedroom house with a load of rabbits and a load of cats. You’d be hanging out and this rabbit would come and spunk on you, we had his balls taken off and he’d still spunk everywhere! I feel bad about that now; you know when people say at it like rabbits? That’s a phrase you don’t understand until you have a rabbit...”
But the idea was so bonding; it was such strength of love and created a bond between everyone, and it definitely brought us together as a band. We practised every day for three years; the living room was a rehearsal room. We were living so simply, taking it in turns to have the bed at night, thinking we were really avant-garde and cool having no Internet or phone. I didn’t have a phone for years and I thought I was just some leader of the free world.
We had no money but we didn’t care and just ate couscous and beans, doing little bits of work to get by. It was around this time I met Peter (Doherty), I was introduced to him at Dublin Castle and he immediately started saying my poems back to me, going “open your mind picture the scenes,” and I was like fucking hell, I think he must have seen me at a tour poet show I’d done.
The next day I was fast asleep and my manager called and said Peter needed a new guitarist and could I go to Argentina in three hours. I ended up trying to learn twenty songs on the plane. And although I did learn them but instead Peter and I spent most of the gig in the audience, my guitar playing for that first gig turned out to not be too important.”
Charming, articulate and a genuinely lovely person, interviewing Jack Jones was an interesting and insightful
experience. Throughout the interview he spoke slowly, carefully thinking through his answers and appearing to use the time to reminisce about how far the band has come.
“Dreams can happen I suppose, if you keep going, that’s all it takes.”
Photos of Jack: EllyBailey.com
Trampoline are on tour NOW.
This Feeling and Metropolis Music present Trampolene April 10 Plymouth The Junction w/ THE HAZE 11 Brighton The Hope & Ruin 12 Bristol Exchange w/ The Malarkey 13 Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach 14 Birmingham Actress and Bishop 18 Liverpool EBGBS w/ The Racket 19 Leeds Brudenell Social Club 20 Glasgow Broadcast 21 Edinburgh Sneaky Pete's' 26 Manchester Night + Day Cafe 27 Blackpool Bootleg Social w/ Nana White Pepper 28 Sheffield The Harley May 09 London Scala https://www.trampolene.co.uk
Get your tickets.