World music icon Andy Kershaw is bringing his one-man show to Matthew's Yard on July 17. Here he chats to Sarah Milne about avoiding suits, protest records and the symbolism of the moon landings...
S.M. Quite often when I interview people they say, 'My parents loved music so I grew up with it.' From reading your book it seems it wasn't the same in your house?
A.K. Quite the opposite and I think the amateur psychologists amongst us might attribute my obsession with music to a denial of it in early life, so it acquired all the more allure because it was almost forbidden. There's always been a rebellious streak in me .
S.M. Why did music become so important to you?
A.K. I just found it exciting. The whole idea of rock and roll was still relatively new. You could feel the excitement created by people like The Beatles when I was just little more than a toddler. Then as I got a bit older I found groups like The Rolling Stones to be extremely exciting and my tastes became very wide quite early on. I went through the punk years enjoying people like The Clash, Elvis Costello and The Attractions but at the same time still listening to my Joni Mitchell records.
S.M. Was there a particular song or moment when you can think, that's when I fell in love with music?
A.K. There was probably several that contributed to an overall momentum, you know. You've been reading the book?
S.M. Yes. I'm loving it.
A.K. There's the incident when I was three and I'm standing on my Aunty Brenda's kitchen table pretending to play a plastic Beatles guitar she'd given me. Then there was Thunderclap Newman, 'Something In The Air' in 1969. That made a big impact on me and to this day I can't think of a record that better reflected the time in which it was recorded and released. In that period, between 68 and 69, in terms of dramatic world events, it really did feel like there was something in the air. Of course, it climaxed in human kind's greatest adventure, on July 69, when humans left this planet and went to waltz around on another one.
S.M. Your career always looked so perfectly planned but, reading about it, you seem to have just stumbled from one thing to the next.
A.K. It was totally haphazard.
S.M. Which is brilliant. What advice would you have for someone who wants to get into the music industry?
A.K. I think it's been enthusiasm that's put me in the right place in the right time. The second thing really then is I suppose a flare or an energy to make things happen. I think that those are the components of 'making your own luck'. Then there's also a terror of conformity and a terror of ever having a proper job or a sensible job. There's always been this utter dread of wearing a suit. That's driven me in a lot of directions.
S.M. Have you had to wear a suit?
A.K. Only when Leeds University gave me an honorary doctorate in 2005, then it couldn't be avoided.
S.M. You've worked for Billy Bragg who is a great political singer. As a correspondent, you've been to places like Angola, North Korea, Haiti, Rwanda, Iraq... seeing incredible things and disturbing things. Do you think that musicians are doing enough now to highlight and protest about what is going on in the world?
A.K. No and I've said this myself on the radio. I've found myself having to reach for protest records, anti-war anthems made in the late 1960s. I remember saying on the radio at the time of the Iraq war in 2003; What's happened to protest music today? Why is nobody really making it? There are always one or two honourable exceptions, not very many. There is no one to equal the likes of Phil Oakes for instance when it comes to that kind of talent. Music can motivate and unify and mobilise people.
S.M. In the book, you talk about your years working alongside John Peel, which I loved as he was a real hero too, and your groundbreaking world music show on Radio 1. Why did world music become so important to you?
A.K. Because I was bored of what was happening in Anglo-American rock at the time. I'd worked on the front lines of rock music in a particularly imaginative and creative period and I'd suddenly realised, in the late 80s, that we were in a relatively barren period and my own taste just evolved. It was quite natural, there was no plan. I just started to hear things because of the activities and enthusiasms of other people.
S.M. I know you've done Desert Islands Discs on Radio 4, but I like to ask people what one album they would take to a desert island.
A.K. That's a dreadful question, a terrible position to put me in Sarah! Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. I'd never tire of it.
S.M. Very early in the book, you talk of your innate inability to play music yourself. If you could play, what instrument would it be?
A.K. The accordion. When an accordion starts up everyone starts smiling!
S.M. Fantastic! So you're finally coming to Croydon on July 17 for a one-man show in Matthew's Yard. What can we expect?
A.K. We'll have great fun. It's an audio visual presentation, a glorified illustrated talk about 30 years on front line of rock and roll and 20 years at the front line of the world's most extreme countries.
S.M. If it's anything like the book it will be thrilling and very entertaining. I can't wait. What's next for you?
A.K. Implausibly, but I'm very pleased about it, I've become a regular presenter of One Show, the one man shows, working on second book – a collection of foreign travels and I'm doing my DJ nights – you'll have to book me for one of those too!
Andy Kershaw will be bringing his one man show 'The Adventures of Andy Kershaw' to Matthews Yard on July 17. Doors open at 7.15. Tickets on the door are £14 or £12.50 in advance from Matthews Yard or online at http://www.ukulele.magix.net/
public/. Copies of Andy's book 'No Off Switch' will be available to purchase at the event where Andy will be available for personal signings.
