Talk it up: Philadelphia Grand Jury

For the past 18 months (yes it really has only been that short a time), Philadelphia Grand Jury have been shaking the foundations of just about every music venue across Australia. Well now it’s England’s turn, as the loveable rock & roll trio are about to up stumps and head over to the UK, where they hope to ‘make it’. Just days out from the big move, guitarist MC Bad Genius (aka Joel Beeson, the hairy one) caught up with Rip It Up for a teary send-off.

Ok, so it wasn’t so much teary as jovial and good-spirited, but it is a little bit sad to see the Philly Jays depart our shores. They’ve been the one band you can rely on, the one band you know will pop up their heads at some point on a festival bill, the one band you know will put on a good show no matter where they play. Jesus Christ, now I am tearing up! Oh well, at least they’re not going for good (or so they say...). So with great sadness, we present you with the last Rip It Up interview with the Philly Jays for quite some time:

So, how have these farewell shows around the country been going?

“Great, we played in Sydney and Brisbane last weekend and it was awesome. They were packed houses and the crowds were just awesome. We thought people really liked us before, but they just wild for every song. It was an amazing experience.

“It’s strange to think that we’re not gonna be playing in Brisbane next week because normally we’re there every second week playing gigs anyway. So it’s gonna be very strange not playing in those cities we’ve been to so much over the past 18 months.”

Are you all packed and ready to go? There’s less than a week before you head off.

“As you called, I was just drying off my hands. I've been cleaning the kitchen like crazy because we’ve got to move out in a few days. So I was just trying to make the oven look presentable to be honest.

What’s prompted the move? I know you’ve been picked up by a label over there but is this something you were always hoping to do, go to another country and have a crack over there?

“Well the plan was always that this was gonna be our last tour for a while and we’d start working on album number two. Then Too Pure, this label in the UK, said they wanted to put out The Good News. We were thinking about it and we thought if they’re gonna put something out on vinyl over there, we should try and see if we can get over there and do some gigs. We looked into it and did some planning and realised that we could send all the recording equipment across to England, record the second album while we’re there and get to play as many gigs as possible. And that’s just an opportunity that we just couldn’t have in Australia because I don’t think enough people would want to see us again, and again, and again over the next six months. So it’ll give everyone a break in Australia and we’ll play to as many people in England as we can.

So it’s not a permanent move then?

“No, we’re planning to come back at the end of the year. But fingers crossed, if everything goes well and we can find a little space to record, hopefully we’ll be coming back with the next album in our carry-on so we can get it released in Australia ASAP.”

Back in October of last year, you guys were already talking about the second Philly Jays album. Will this move put that back a bit?

“No I don’t think so. Once we get over there, all the recording equipment’s gonna arrive a week later. We’re sending it on a ship. All we need to do is find ourselves a small warehouse space or basement or something where we can set up and make a lot of noise and start putting tracks down. You know in all those British movies how all the gangs have their headquarters in those warehouse that are under archways of railways? We’ve seen a lot of them around and we’re thinking if we have to stop every ten minutes for a train to go past, then we can deal with that because they’re actually really cheap spaces. And maybe trains can be featured concept on the album or something.”

Are there any other plans with Too Pure at the moment, or are they just going to put out The Good News 7”?

“Yeah, that’s all we’ve got at the moment, a 7” vinyl release. After that, we’re just gonna play around London and try and get some support shows and basically start the band from scratch and try and build up from being the smallest band in London to maybe the 10th smallest band or something.”

Is that going to be hard, starting again from scratch after you’ve worked so hard to get where you have over here?

“It’s kind of exciting in a way as well though. I'm sure the first shows we’ll play, we’ll be playing to pretty much empty rooms. But those kinds of gigs are quite fun as well. You’ve got five people in there and the goal is to make sure that those five people never forget you. So you’ve still got to really put in and play as good a show as you can, but it’s a different kind of excitement to when you’re playing to a full house. It’s like to the five people in there, you’ve really got to prove yourselves to them.

“I don’t think we’re like a lot English bands so hopefully we’ll stand out and be quite unique. Just having someone like Calvin in the band on drums helps to stand out anyway. I think we’ll stand out but I don’t know how it’ll catch on. I'm not sure if these English people will like us or not.”

I suppose having a single release and an album under your belt means that you won’t really be starting from scratch like most bands.

“Yeah, I think we’ve definitely got a lot more of an idea of what to do as well. When we first started here we were playing shows fairly aimlessly and it wasn’t until we got a bit of radio play on Triple J and a couple of bands decided they wanted to take us on tour that we realised we had to get into gear and start doing things more efficiently, and doing things that made sense not just doing anything. So I think when we get to London, hopefully we’ll have learned a few lessons so that we can make things work a bit better for us.

What does the move mean for National Philly Jays Day? Will you be celebrating it in London like you did over here, playing six shows in the one day?

“We haven’t really given much thought to that. I think it was a bit of faux arrogance to name it National Philly Jays Day and expect it to happen every year. But we’ve got a reputation to live up to. At the time when we did it last year, I wanted to do the next one playing six shows in a day but in every state in Australia, starting in Tasmania at six in the morning, then flying to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. And we worked out that with daylight savings, it’s actually possible. But that’s gonna be even harder if we’re doing it from London. I'm not sure what the plan is at the moment, we might have to do something crazy over there instead.”

Philadelphia Grand Jury play two farewell shows at Jive on Thu Apr 22 with The John Steel Singers and The Shiny Brights, and on Fri Apr 23 with The John Steel Singers and The Salvadors.

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