Keyboard player extrodanaire, STEVE JONES, one of the stars of the excellent 'SNAKEBITE' album chats with STUART TURNER on the internet about his days with Dawn label buddies HERON in the early 70's, and also of his time in the MUNGO JERRY band.

WHO ARE YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCES?

As a piano player, all sorts of boogie players inspired me in my teens - MEADE LUX LEWIS, ‘CRIPPLE’ CLARENCE LOFTON, JELLY ROLL MORTON and LEROY CARR were some of the players I listened to, from a friends collection of blues records. At another level, I always loved THELONIOUS MONK and was overawed by ART TATUM. All the players from the early 60’s R & B era (MUDDY WATERS, HOWLING WOLF, SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON - there’s too many to name) had a big effect on me. Band-wise, THE BAND did it for me. And people like DR JOHN and RAMSEY LEWIS. I always go for that loose feel - with a bit of quirky thrown in.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MUNGO JERRY SONG?

When you perform songs very regularly over a number of years, favourites change a lot. Songs can get tired with too much playing and Ray’s approach to gigging is to do what he feels is right at any given moment. This means that he might decide to perform a song differently from time to time, as the mood may take him and predictably, ‘IN THE SUMMERTIME’ has taken many forms. But it’s one song that always has the desired effect. It’s amazing how it’s survived so much exposure and still feels good to play.

DO YOU WRITE YOUR OWN MATERIAL?

Yes I do but it’s been mainly instrumental and more on the meditative/relaxation side of music, oddly enough. I work with my partner Lyn at producing relaxation CD’s for our company Joliko. Also I work a lot arranging songs with writers who use my recording facilities.

TELL ME A BIT ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS BANDS, ESPECIALLY HERON?

HERON was the first recording band I worked with. We were on the Dawn label and released a single in 1970 called, ‘ONLY A HOBO’ - a cover of a Dylan song. We went on to record a further two albums, both recorded out of doors using the Pye Mobile recording studio. We were dogged with some bad timing concerning the release of the single - there was a delivery van strike during the time we got most plays on the radio, so there were no records in the shops. TONY BLACKBURN made us his ‘Chartbound Sound’ but nobody could buy it - a recipe for disappointment. However, to bring you up to date, we recently recorded two new albums (32 songs in 5 days would you believe) and they are available on the Relaxx label.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST MEET RAY DORSET?

I first met Ray through the Dawn label connection. HERON’s producer mentioned to me ’72 I think, that Mungo was looking for a keyboard player. I went to an audition, got the gig as far as I know but didn’t actually play with them until 1989…..LES CALVERT worked with me in various bands from 1967 but I lost touch with him some time in the late 70’s/early 80’s. We passed each other in the street one day in ’89 and shortly after he rang me to see if I was free to work with Mungo. I was, so with no rehearsal, I did my first Mungo Jerry gig at The Cartoon Club within a couple of weeks. The line-up was Ray, Jamei Roberts, Les, Al Johnson and myself and soon I was gigging quite regularly.

ANY FUNNY STORIES ABOUT RECORDING, TOURING, ETC?

The only funny stories I can think of at the moment would get me into a lot of trouble so I think I’ll pass on them.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW?

My old band HERON is on the road again. As I mentioned before, we’ve recorded two new albums. We returned to Black Dog in Devon, where we recorded the second album, ‘TWICE AS NICE AND HALF THE PRICE’ and in a week put together a nostalgia ‘hippie’ album called, ‘RIVER OF FORTUNE’ and an album of more recent material called, ‘BLACK DOG’. ‘RIVER OF FORTUNE’ is already released and ‘BLACK DOG’ will be released at the end of the year. It was an ideal opportunity to do a documentary about the band and this is at the moment in production with a company called Hippocampus - hopefully to be screened later in the year.

ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO SAY THROUGH THE FANZINE?

I’ve always enjoyed the recognition I’ve received from the Mungo fans and I had a lot of fun in the band (most of the time) so I was sorry when I had to leave the band. It was for purely personal reasons but recently it’s become possible to gig with them again, as indeed I did at Alveston Hall on March 6th (Plato was away in South Africa, I believe - Al ), so who knows what may happen…?