Garry Oliver

During the 1980's I was in a few local bands that put singles out - but just a bit of local success really. I was still drumming up until about 1986 - in a band with Olly called The Railway Children (managed by ex Boomtown Rat - Gerry Cott) but things didn't work out, then I decided to leave to form and front my own band."

THE LOVE HOUNDS

"I'd always wrote songs and I was getting a bit frustrated behind the kit working my back side off - I wanted some of the glory! I got a bit fed up with the 'shoe gazing style' of the indie music scene at the time - it wasn't really for me, I like a bit of heart n' soul in my music."

I started a band called The Love Hounds and we worked anywhere and everywhere for about four years - all over the country.

We were a fish out of water for the period really, we were fusing all the roots of music together - you know - rock n' roll / country / blues etc, only we stuck a stick of dynamite into it. We didn't take prisoners - it was a good band, great laughs, but I needed a break after four years of slog - I was completely out of it, all sung out."

THE MID NINETIES...

Gary O'Dea

"I had a break from music for about five years, but then one day I put my toe back in the water - so to speak - around about 1995 and I've been up to my neck in it again ever since! Keep 'loffin' as we say in Tipton.

I liked the idea of working acoustically - it was really 'do-able' and no hassle. You could rehearse at home in the kitchen etc, no problem, this is what I did.

Then I got some 'muso' friends together to help out with recording and that, we did it on a four track and I put a little cassette tape together of my own songs. This is really what started the ball rolling - and it has more or less continued to roll on ever since."

AMERICA!

"I started to get a lot of work from the cassette - it even got me some little gigs in California in 1996!

I was going out there on holiday to see an old school mate and he'd been taking this cassette around little acoustic bars in the San Jose / San Francisco area. He got me a few gigs to play while I was over there including a spot at the San Jose Arts Festival - it was great."

THE TIPTON GAS FIRE TAPES

"I put the songs from the cassette - which I'd called 'The Tipton Gas Fire Tapes' - (it was a tongue-in-cheek nod towards the stripped down album that Michelle Shocked had released called 'The Texas Campfire Tapes' - a bit of Black Country humour!

Well, I put these acoustic based cassette songs together on a CD with some old Love Hounds band demos that I'd got at home and started flogging them at gigs."

GLASTONBURY - ANEW MUSIC

"Next thing was I was playing Glastonbury in 1998 - with all the mud (laughs). Then, a small little label that had started up in Birmingham called Anew Music released it in 1999 - it was called 'Love Hounds n' Fortune Cookies'.

I then put a four track EP/CD out on this label in 2000 that featured guest spots from Steve Gibbons - who I call 'The Gaffer', well if Springsteen is known as 'The Boss' - then Steve's 'The Gaffer' in my book.

It also featured PJ Wright from Steve's band playing some wicked pedal steel guitar and also my old mucka' from the East End of London Gary Lammin (ex Cocksparrer and The Little Roosters) on slide guitar.

This was a really busy year because I also took part in the recording of an album that Gary was working on with the legendary Punk producer Dave Goodman at this time."

THE ZEN BUDDAH' BOOT BOYS

GOJO' MUSIC

"I took a percussive / harmonica / vocals role in the recordings and also played a few gigs to promote it. The band was called The Zen Buddah' Boot Boys.

I was doing gigs around the country with my own band The Gentlemen Bandits and playing mainly around the London area with The Zen Buddah's.

On top of this I also began presenting a local radio show on WCR 1350 AM in Wolverhampton. Gary folded The Zen Buddah's as a live project towards the end of 2000 - but I was doing okay with my own band up until a bad back injury in 2001 put pay to playing music for quite a while."

THE BOOK!

"It wasn't until 2003 that I returned to playing music really. Gary Lammin put a scaled down version of The Zen Buddah's back together - just an acoustic based three-piece, I joined as drummer/percussionist - so I'd gone full circle really - sitting back on the drum stool after all these years.

I started working on a book about the Black Country Punk / New Wave scene during this time and this is where the idea of GOJO' MUSIC started to come together.

Doing research for the book took me back through my old record collection and also getting interviews from old faces on our local scene and recalling the Soul nights at the youth club and then the outbreak of Punk.

All this glorious music - soul, funk, reggae and punk etc, started to gel with contemporary things I'd been listening to such as The Fun Lovin' Criminals and I absolutely adored Joe Strummers Mescalero's stuff and the way he fused all these glorious grooves and genres of music together.

So at the end of 2003 and after a Christmas gig/bash with Gary Lammin and Max Splodge down in Croyden as The Little Cocksparrers - I left to start GOJO' MUSIC in 2004."

GOJO' MUSIC?

"I wanted the name to reflect my attitude to music, my tastes etc, it also resembles the term MOJO - and this obviously has association and connotations with the history of black music and rock n' roll in general.

GOJO' also tips a cap to Joe Strummers attitude throughout his career of embracing and mixing / blending many styles and genres into one kind of 'organic groove' - you know, like if I was asked 'what kind of music do you like?' I used to say 'Joe music' - so it's kind of 'Go - Jo Music' - but there is also the similarity to my name - so… well, basically it makes sense to me - and even more so now that 'Olly' is on board and his initials are similar as well!

Once you get out there playing then the name takes on the meaning of your music it just gels and everything is progressing together now."

SO FAR SO GOOD...

"With GOJO' MUSIC I wanted the flexibility to switch from a full electric line-up to an acoustic based one, and scale down when required.

I spent the bulk of 2004 demoing songs and doing gigs both with a full electric line-up and working acoustically, the gigs went very well.

Two local music festivals in the summer at Lichfield and Baggeridge were great and the gigs at The MAC in Birmingham have gone well. The last gig at The MAC (Nov 2004) in the main theatre was the first one I'd done with 'Olly' - he was on form - 'magic fingers' a reviewer from the Birmingham Alive web site christened him!

We're still working on demos for the debut CD/Album at the moment, we did plan to have it ready for March 2005 but the time is just flying by at the minute and we've just launched the new web site - so the CD may be a little later than March.

I think it's going to be acoustic based - but it'll still have some clout - the songs are coming together really well."

2005...

"We're just about to take part in the 'Alternative Black Country Night Out' show at The Lamp Tavern in Dudley on Fri 11th Feb (now sold out) - an evening of contemporary Black Country Culture, I'll have you know!

It's a coming together of like-minded people throughout the genres of music, poetry and literature in the area.

The response to the promotion of this gig has been great and the first night is now sold out. We are planning to move the gig around the region throughout the year if we can find the right venues, but we'll be organising another one at The Lamp as soon as possible, because the beer's great as well!

We are doing a few festivals around the country in the summer and will shortly be announcing the full gig listings on our web site.

The main thing is to get the CD/album finished and then released so that we can fully promote it. So stay tuned for further details - visit the web site and get 'dug in'!"

Gary O'Dea - GOJO' MUSIC Feb 2005

http://www.gojo-music.co.uk

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