Joe Beckett - Percussionist, Paul Weller Movement 1990

0:00The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Manus is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Zello, the Bleacher Report app today, so you never miss a moment. Hello, and welcome to the world's first Paul Weller fan podcast. I'm Dan Jennings, and on this episode, delighted to be joined by percussionist Joe Beckett. He shares his stories from inside a pivotal, often overlooked chapter in Paul Weller's career, the Paul Weller movement. We're heading right back to 1990, as we talk about the unique circumstances that landed Joe in the band, from Chance Club gigs to a spontaneous audition at Solid Bond, and the creative camaraderie that followed.

1:01He takes us on the road in 1990 from a packed Ding Wars debut surrounded by mods and scooters across Europe and the UK to a triumphant, final night, a London's town and country club later immortalised by the BBC. Along the way, Joe details the evolution of new tracks like Cosmos and New Thing and reflects on the enduring power of Paul Weller's work ethic. We'll also talk about the chaos that defined life as a working musician in a high pressure, high energy band that was finding its feet. This was another lovely little chat that I had for my book, Paul Weller dancing through the fire, the authorised oral history. Let's get into it, Joe Beckett, thanks for joining me. No worries, no worries. Lovely to see you, and I'm really looking forward to hearing your memories of what was such a key part of the Paul Weller's story, because it's his comeback, if you like. The style council were no more, and this is him getting back on the road, right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it was an interesting time, it was a new era, I think, for Paul, and trying to change

2:04his direction as he always was so good at doing, and this was tipping his time to something new. Let's understand your journey to get to this point. So, were you always the bongo man, you're always the percussion man? Oh, yeah, I was playing percussion in clubs. I was doing a lot of that before anyone, you know, you see the house guy playing Tongues and that, that was me, and I was doing it with people like Danny Ramplin and Andy Weatherall, right at the beginning of the house movement, there was a club in Maidenhead called Passion, and I was playing there one day, and the guy that run it was friends with Steve Norman from Spannell Ballet, and at the time they were looking for a percussionist, and then been through all the session guys and all that stuff. So his friend, his name's Duce, said to Steve, coming out to see this young guy playing the club. So he came down, and I was playing the Niggot because he plays as well, he plays percussion as well, and we were having a bit of a battle at the end, he said, oh, do you fancy going on to Spannell, and now you're having me on, he said, no, I mean it, you're like, I said,

3:05well, yeah, of course, so that's the first age. They were still Spannell at that point, as well, isn't it? They were still Spannell, it was Norman and Hadley and whatever, was it? No, they were Spannell, we're Tony singing, and all the guys in the band, so on that tour, we had a sort of a sound crew that would help, I don't know what you call them, tech, I suppose, that's what we call, and one of the guys that was helping do my tech, it was a guy called Russell, Russell Reader, who I don't know if he's still, but he was with Niki at the time. Yeah, he's Niki Weller's partner, yeah, yeah. So I spent that tour with Russell, and we got on, and we had a laugh, and every time I used to walk on stage, I used to go like that, saying that's how much talent I, we've just had a complete, tiny talent, that's nice, because Russell was quite heavily involved in tech, that side of things from the style council then, but, oh, the style council, by this point, this is late 80s, of stop gigging, right, so he's got to move on somewhere else presumably, right? Exactly, exactly, so he was doing that, so I got invited to a party at Solid Bond, the old studio, I was there, and I remember what happened, something happened with the sound

4:09system. I don't know, and then I just started, there was a set of bongos, I was just starting playing them. And then, so that was my audition, and then Paul sort of said, well, actually, after that, I played on a couple of demos, I think, new thing, Cosmos, round around, I think, I played on some of those demos in the studio, and got to know Paul, you know, so I'd walk in there and be on the World Excerter or something like that, we have a chat, and it was a short link, I think, with the sound engineer. Brendan. Brendan, yes, yeah, because he mixed the track for me, actually, after that, and I remember, because it was just off the edge where I rode, so we used to go round the corner and get a, like, these cababs, they were gorgeous, but, yeah, so it was really fun times, and I'd be in the, I remember going into the canteen and making myself a cup of coffee and miktorba walked in, I'm like, all right, I love the fact that it's just that the music

5:13system's gone down at the parking, you're doing a bit of hunger, and then suddenly you're in the band. I know, and it was like, with Spanner, I wasn't really the great of promoting myself and doing all that stuff, I just like playing, you know, so, so when I met Mick, because I love keyboards as well, and I was like, oh, wow, how do you, the Clavinette, how'd you do it? I said, just keep moving, just to just keep moving, so I've always remembered that, so I've ever on playing a bit of Clavinette, and I said, okay, and what foot pedal do you use? You know, I was like, one of those, annoying, wanting to slow everything, and he was lovely, he was lovely, so, yeah, so I've got to play on a few demos and stuff, and then I hang out with poor couple of times, and we'd go for a curry and stuff like that, and have a chat, because he's a real, into his music heavily, as you know, and we kind of had some common things, I liked the funk and the soul, and I was a real vinyl junkie, so I had loads of vinyl, and poor was into certain stuff, and I remember lended in the records, and I

6:14just thought, I'll never see them again, that's it, you know, he gave them all back to me, every single one, he took them, he took them, played them, looked after them, and gave them all back, so we had a sort of common interest in some musical styles, but that place was amazing, because you'd get, there was all sorts of people would go, Dr. Robert would turn up, how, what's the, there was a rapper as well, I can't read, Carly and Anderson. Young disciples were recording their own album, and that's it, because we all used to go and play five side football, Paolo, the Kevpachino kid, and we'd go and play five side football and then go swimming, just down the road, so all of us, you know, it was great, great memories, and then we went out, did the tour, but before that, there was a few auditions, trying different people out, I think on stage, they tried the guy from brand new Hevis bass player, I think that was one of the initials, but he did it, it was Paul Francis that ended

7:17up playing bass on that, yeah, then he got the band together, I met Max as well, he turned up, I thought, got blind, who's this guy, you know, who's larger than life, so, and we got on really well and had a right soul gig on the tour, so it was a great experience, really was, and I remember I was all getting a bollock him for Paul for not doing the backing vocals, he said, I remember that, oh I remember his clear say, you're all in the rehearsal and playing along, and he went, how can you remember him saying, no, he was like, where's that fucking backing vocals, oh shit, but the thing is, so you see your first gig is Dingwals in the November, I think in person November, right, and it sounds like the club was packed, so it was part of a club night anyway, but it sounds like it was heaving that night. Oh, well, it was funny because it was like an underground gig, you know, it's like, okay, it's an underground gig, well, we got there, and it's just like 50s scooters out the front, you know, all parked, all the mod mobiles, all parked up, we're like,

8:20oh, this is really underground, isn't it? Top secret. Yeah, it was a top secret at all. That was a real experience, all the crowd are really close, and I remember that quite clearly. What actually happened is a friend of mine came along, he was a massive Paul Weller fan, and he got me into playing, I always remember saying to him, oh, we're going to pizza, do you want to come? He went, oh yeah, okay, so he came, and he ended up sitting between Paul and John, but he never forgets it, you know, he was like, I was so chuffed for him, because he was a massive fan, and also he had so many stories to talk to about of, because it's in all the gigs, and when they were playing in Mokin and all that before they were famous, so. Oh, amazing. Well, cool. That was really cool, just that, and that was just, and that dinghalls gig when we went to get our food before we played, so. Straight after that, you head off to Europe, so we're off to Italy, we're off to Germany, we're off to Amsterdam, and that, right? That's right. Actually, I've got, actually, I found, yeah, I've got it here, so this, I don't know if this changed, but it was Turin Milan, Cessna, Düsseldorf, Hanover, Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam,

9:28then Chippenham, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, Norwich, Nottingham, Coventry, Bradford, Cardiff, Leicester, London, London. That was the whole tour, and we'll talk about the town and country club, and we're all finishing up in a bit, because that was on the beat, right? So the tour bus to Europe, what are your memories on the trip? It says I could jolly boy out in all these things. Oh, the B.C. I remember is the cards, John and Kenny playing 21's, but it wasn't like a pound in the middle, you know, it was like tenors and stuff like that, and it's over in minutes, isn't it? That game, it's always playing, and we all kind of got into it, you know, sort of playing cards, so it would be, that would be one of the things. Are you losing your wages every week or every day? I don't know, actually, come from what I can remember, I don't know, okay? You know, I didn't actually lose a lot, but I've probably come out even, you know, but there was all fun and games on the, I mean, I would always play tricks on Max, you know, Ty and shoelaces up the summit and say, Max, we're here, you know, that was pretty cool.

10:29And I always remember sort of, it was a stage where Paul was just, it was a vegetarian all the time, and then I think maybe because he needs to eat more protein, he was trying to eat out. We would be driving, all right, stop, burger, man, I think I have a burger, some greasy old burger, you know, I like the luscious steak, so it was good fun. We did have a gigal. At that point, he's, to a certain extent, rediscovering himself, and it was John from my understanding going to him, look, we need to get back out on the road, son, we need to earn some money. And he was really a bit of a loss on, yeah, it had to refine his purpose and his love of the music and stuff. What you end up with is some killer songs in those early sets, that you say, Cosmos and Round and Round and things like that, right? Yeah, really wicked songs that actually went through and then came out on the album. I think it's a hard time for Paul that time, because it's such a, you know, trying to get out and really discover yourself and try new things, that's not easy as an artist, but I think it was definitely a good stepping stone to, you know, where you got to in

11:31the end. But in some ways, it's, you can hear the connections to that acid jazz scene, the types of things that you were kind of playing out as well, the percussion, but you saw those club nights, right? That felt very much like that was the type of music you wanted to create. Yeah, there was a few that were like that, you know, I always thought Cosmos and Round and Round had that kind of feel, you know, and I always loved new things, as well. I remember him playing it to me when he wrote it, you know, in the studio, and I was like, Oh, yeah, this is really good, you know, so yeah, it kind of had that vibe. We had the horn section, Jack Ho, and Chris was Chris Lawrence there, Chris Lawrence on Trombone, Damon Brown, I think on Trumpet, Damon used to make me laugh, because you'd be in the hotel and, you know, we're having a beer afterwards, and then here disappear, it goes up, go up to his room, but he's left his trumpet mouthpiece on the table, you know, it's like, I can just do it again, the most important thing, you know. You also get to play some jam songs, some style cancel, because Paul doesn't have that

12:31collection of solo songs yet, he's having to dip in to the back catalog, but obviously he hadn't done that as part of the style cancel, he hadn't played in the old jam stuff, so you're getting to play right across the whole catalog at that point. Yes, yes, we did, yeah, yeah, I think every change of music, I think we started off with that was good, and then there was, I can't remember it, so he's going back a long time, so I can't remember all the... Well, let me help you, so there were things like a very deep sea, yeah, speak like a child you played, head start for happiness you played, press this from the jam, yeah, that's right, speak like a child, I think they'd done that, as I think we'd go off and they'd do it like a three-piece, with Paul, Paul Paul and Steve on drums, I think they would do that, strange museum, I mean, the thing is I know there's probably some audio around about with that, I've got it on cassette somewhere, but that's like so long ago, and I don't know if that audio is about to listen to it, because I'd love to listen to it back

13:32again, so... Well, the final gig, the TNC gig was recorded for the BBC, it would have been Radio One, and quite interesting really, because Paul hadn't had a chart hit as a solo artist at that point, but they obviously put it out on the evening session or whatever it was at that time, and they recorded the whole of that gig, and it then turns up on Paul Weller at the BBC, so it is out there, you can get that. Oh, really? And it's a really funky sound, but that whole kind of thing coming together with Max and the vibes and you and Paul, and Paul Francis is from that kind of thing as well, so he's a funky guy really as well, right? That's right, that's right, yeah, yeah, Max on the vibe, so I remember that gig as well at the town and country, listening to it, that was great, so listening to it back, so I got a name check, so I was like, yeah, I was on the side of your mates, you know, I'm like, yeah, right, whatever, so when they listen to it, oh yeah, it is, unless there's another Joe Beckett. And how old were you at this point? Because Max was really young, Max was like 1718, I think. I was, God, 90, probably 28.

14:33Okay, Paul would have been what, 33, right, so it's only Max who's the kid. Yeah, Max was like, yeah, he was, and he was, yeah, what character, just this energy, I could remember there was the party, I think after show party, and I ended up staying at Max's house, and he had a drum kit in his bedroom, like you would, he can't have a drum kit, and he was, he was awesome, it's such a, you know, and then get on percussion, and he could play anything, he was so good, I think he went to musical in Manchester, I think that's where he learned his skill, but it's very, very talented, but also a great feel, because you can have all the licks and the technique and stuff, but he had the feel as well, which was superb, a bit like Alan White, because I remember I was talking Steve, and I had put in a band together at the time, I said, I'm looking for a drum, he said, well, what about my brother? I went, yeah, okay, yeah, so he was in a band with me for a loot while, and I could remember his other brother, who was a taxi driver, bringing him to the studio

15:33with all these drums, and I was superb, a lovely, lovely person, and had such great feel as well, and then he obviously went on to do Oasis, didn't he? So I never seen how since he was with Oasis, I mean, sort of, we've kind of lost contact with him and lost touch with him, he was playing with some tree, I was something, then Oasis, but must say Alan, well, what a beautiful person he was, I mean, I don't know how he got affected by Oasis, I don't know, because I never saw him after that point. And the town of country was your final gig with Weller, so how did they all finish up? Yeah, I think it was, that was it, and then I don't know what the plan was after that, he decided that Max would play, because Max would play the Cushion as well, so I think they bought in, for the second port, well, a movement too, Max played the Cushion of vibes, and then they bought in some a backing singer or something, so kind of changed the line up, again, trying to find, you know, which was going to work, which is obviously a lot of musicians would try that, I mean, I would do the same, so yeah, so Paul moved on at that point as well, didn't he, Henry Thomas came in,

16:36so I think you just said, trying to work out and Paul, like you say, trying to find his fee of what is this, what am I doing here? Exactly, and you know, I'm a fair play team to have the, well, he's very strong-minded anyway, you know, he knows, he knows exactly what he wants, he knows what he's trying to achieve, but it's still a hard slog when you've just, you've had, you know, the jam, the style counts, or now you've got to start again, but, you know, he does it, he cracks on and, you know, just does it, you know, it's great. Yeah, I'm really bumped into him once at No Miss, rehearsal, and I, you know, I said, hi, he went, got your congress, I went, oh no, I'm, unfortunately, I didn't, which was a shame, it's an opportunity. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But you have been a, you've been a working musician all your life, haven't you? So I've posted that, there were things that you've got to work with, big audio Dynamite 2, with Mick Jones, X the Clash and all that, right? Well, that I played on some remixes and stuff, so I didn't actually get to meet him as all these things,

17:36that that was, yeah, so actually that was one of the things which was a bit of a struggle, because as a musician, money and stuff like that, it's so difficult, and I remember doing that session, and it took over a year to get paid, you know, it was ridiculous, and then I sort of threw that one out and got some normal work and stuff like that, because I've lost a bit of enthusiasm when it, when you're struggling and you can't get money out of the biggest record company in the world, it was like, but then I got to do loads of stuff that I always forget what I've done. I did a key with Dr Robert with him and a place player, I remember doing that, that was cool, he's a good guy, and then got into doing a lot of jazz gigs, sort of out in Cape Town festival, and went out to LA and done some, some jazz gigs with, like, jazz guitarists and stuff like that, and then more recently there's a ban called Downs of the Bone 8-piece Funk Band, they've been going for years, probably got about ten albums out. They've been nominated for Grammys and stuff, haven't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got down playing this a little, yeah. It's

18:39great, man. I still do gigs with them now, I mean, and played on the last couple of albums, and hopefully play on the new album that's coming up, so I kept myself busy. I'm in my studio at the moment where I'll do all my recording and you know people send me stuff and then I just might myself up and play along and you know send the stuff back you know you don't do it like the old school week going to studio now it's all kind of remote and then all glued together yeah so I've kept playing I have kept playing and oh and I still play Steve Norman from Span now we do quite a few gigs few in Germany he's got a thing called H's Pioneers we've done a couple the first one we did it so I was playing a bit keyboard a bit of a cussion and running bits and pieces and we we did three numbers with Paul Young, Mark Arland, Lamar, what's the name from Tepelle, Carol Decker. Carol Decker, I'll give her a few weeks ago yeah Carol Decker and at the time it's a new guy from Span now so we just done three numbers with each and that was that was quite

19:43quite interesting good to meet all those people as well I'll keep myself busy. And so it's funny because I put I put out as part of this project I put out onto the web but people to share their stories of those initial gigs and the amount of people who like I absolutely loved that kind of yeah those two months really but yeah and people did a lot of those gigs you mentioned like the you know the mods outside Dingles a lot of people did like back-to-back gigs at that time because well of us back yeah yeah that's that's right and like yeah there was a lot a lot of energy obviously a lot of energy from Paul as he always puts in a massive performance yeah he seemed to be well well received but sometimes it's really hard because when you're on stage you've got the lights in your eyes you can't really see what's going on out there you know but it always felt like a good vibe and and Palo would start off DJing you know and get everyone up up and going. Other people have mentioned to me how hard I don't know if it was true at this time but how hard the rehearsals were but Paul was not playing here right this was not this was not a jolly as much as you all loved what you were doing those you know that was they were proper hard

20:47work those. I mean yeah he takes it seriously and and you know he knows he's very strong-minded he knows what he wants and he's not getting it and let you know you know which is which is how it should be you know I must admit I'm the same if I'm doing something with musicians you have to get your point across so it was hard work it was a I remember it was a no miss that's where we rehearsed and it puts through our places to as the song says it it was a new thing and he wanted it to work so he takes it seriously I always loved when we were in like staying in the hotels and stuff like that you go past Paul's room always always playing music always listening to music he loves music and you can hear him listening getting ideas and stuff like that so it was definitely fun times and I was trying to think about it because it was so long ago I'm trying to date thinking actually happened so so a lot of things I'll just just remember now you know we have asked you to remember two months of your life 30 years ago right yeah yeah yeah yeah which

21:52is a musician you kind of just move on well no not everyone is so I'm really terrible memorabilia and everyone's bones at me but I just kind of looked at the next stage what's going to and usually one door closed another door opens you know and that's the way it goes and I'm always active doing something so at the moment I'm doing a lot of keys like doing a little duo but I'm playing more keys and percussion but that was my lockdown project it was um trying to get my keys brushed up so I could do something live so rather than it be a negative I used it as a positive and just practice practice practice keyboards that was that was it because there was no gigs yeah no entire well this has been so lovely Joe I've got one final question for you so you're allowed one poor well a song for the rest of your life it can be the jam the style council or solo what would you go with do you know what I'm gonna have to go for the ones that bring back memories to me and I'm gonna go for cosmos because on the demo it was very I found it like quite Marvin Gaye in soulful and

22:55and even though I like what I played on percussion is quite similar to a bit so I know it's a different one but it's just for me it's not it's my memory and being at solid bond and all that time I spent there which was brilliant you know how many people get to do that one-on-one we mix all but one-on-one with poor well I mean come on best like you know people to pay millions for that so that song reminds me of that brilliant oh man this has been so lovely really thank you for sharing your memories I really appreciate it my thanks once again to Joe Beckett for joining me on the podcast lovely to hear his stories about a really key part I think the return of poor wella off the back of the reject his style council album the poor wella movement I have to say those bootlegs from around that time and the official recording of the TNC gig I know Paul was saying that he was kind of lacking confidence as a band leader he was really struggling to figure out what his role was and how it works and all that kind of stuff but my god they sound great as a band together just

23:55brilliant and the quality of the songs as well that he was coming back with I just love that period love love love that period so thanks to Joe for sharing his stories you can read more poor wella dancing through the fire the authorised oral history is available right now in hardback audiobook and on your ebook for your kendo and so forth the paperback coming out this summer but do grab your copy and if you've enjoyed this episode please make sure to share on your social media channels it all helps to spread the word about the podcast and this little project capturing stories from poor wella's career over the past well 50 plus years I suppose if you're taking it back to the childhood of the jam from 1972 onwards don't forget you can also head into my store poorwellafampodcast.com is the website you can grab yourself a virtual coffee is always really appreciated or get yourself some official podcast merchandise poorwellafampodcast.com on the world wide web thanks so much for listening I'll see you next time

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