Tim Aves

Barry Middleton (BM) Interview with Tim Aves (Tim) - May 2010

BM: What were your first experiences of the Blues?

 
Tim: Discovering Dr Feelgood in the mid-Seventies. I remember coming home from school, turning on the TV and seeing this incredible band playing on a Tyne Tees TV programme called "The Geordie Scene". They did "Roxette" and "Route 66" and it totally blew me away! They were just such an incredible, exciting band - and so different from anything I'd ever seen.
 
That was Thursday. I went to school the next day and it seemed as if everyone was talking about them... we found out they were playing our local venue (Cambridge Corn Exchange) that Friday night, so we went down there mob-handed and totally loved it. The next day, I went out and bought "Down By The Jetty" and their brand new album, "Malpractice”. A week later, I bought a harmonica (in the wrong key to play along with anything, as it happened - took me ages to figure that out!)
 
Dr Feelgood were an incredible band and they were playing all these amazing songs. It actually took me some time before I discovered most of the songs were actually covers of old blues tunes and that got me delving back into the whole back-catalogue in the time-honoured fashion that everyone seems to do. 
 
Then somebody lent me "The Howlin' Wolf London Sessions" and after discovering Wolf I was totally hooked. I've been nuts about Mr Burnett's music ever since... hence the new band, Wolfpack.
 
Fast-forward to the mid-Eighties, I was playing in Automatic Slim, doing the high-energy r'n'b thing and I was fortunate enough to tour with the Feelgoods and get to know Lee Brilleaux a little. I know

everyone says it, but Lee really an, a riveting performer, a genuinely nice guy, totally passionate about the good things in life - music, food, beer and fine wine, in particular.
 
He used to talk quite a lot about his love of Wolf's music. I remember him telling me about seeing Wolf (which I was never lucky enough to do) at an old cinema in somewhere like Dagenham, or Romford and being totally enthralled and amazed to watch this elderly giant climb up the stage curtains, while blowing the harp!

BM: Who were the biggest influences on your musical career?

Tim: Lee Brilleaux and Wolf, first last and always!
 
Muddy (the light to Wolf's shade); Little Walter, Sonny Boy II; Elmore James (for his voice and vocal phrasing rather than his slide work); Kim Wilson, Bonnie Raitt, Dr John.
 
In terms of guitar playing, Gypie Mayo (the brilliant guitarist who followed Wilko in the Feelgoods); Stevie Ray Vaughan (in a world of clones, there's never, every quite been another like him - he really made me think about tone big-time); T-Bone Walker, Albert King and Jimmie Vaughan, all for teaching me one well placed note (usually WAY behind the beat!) is often worth more than a million; Sonny Landreth, for totally blowing my mind and especially for introducing me the scary and magical world of open minor-key tunings.

BM: Which young act on the British scene impresses you most?

 
Tim: Tough one that, as there are so many to choose from - some more interesting than others, but all of them pretty impressive.
 
If push came to shove, I would probably say Dani Wilde, because she's a true original. She has a great voice, is developing very nicely as a songwriter and has a guitar style that’s very much her own - she really doesn't quite sound like anybody else.
 
Having said that... I've been very impressed by young Oli Brown's latest album (I thought his first one was pretty indifferent!) and also by Marcus Bonfanti, who seems to be finding his feet as an artist and branching out in a really promising way. And of course, Hokie Joint, who may not be a "young act" in the strictest sense, but whose creative heart is an incredibly gifted pair of 22/23-year-olds, Joel Fisk and JoJo Burgess. Those two are writing some of the most interesting and challenging blues-based material out there at the moment - their next album is going to be gobsmacking!
 
BM: If you had the opportunity to play with any blues artist, dead or alive, live on stage who would it be?

Tim: An even tougher one! There are so many people I'd love simply to have seen play, but who died before I had the chance to do so.
 
 Wolf is top of the pile, of course, but also  Muddy, Sonny Boy, the Alberts, Little Walter, Stevie Ray, Lester Butler's Red Devils in their prime, for starters. However, it would be

EXTREMELY presumptuous ever to begin to imagine myself on the same stage as any of those great artists. Mind you, if they invited me, I guess it'd be hard to say no!

BM: What can be done to keep the blues music fresh and modern or do you think it should stay in the past?
 
Tim: There will always be a place for really good retro blues acts, but no, the music DEFINITELY mustn't be allowed to stay rooted solely in the past! Otherwise, rather like Dixieland jazz, it's going to end up as the exclusive preserve of a  rapidly-declining constituency of old men!
 
So what can we do about it? Well, I think the key is for musicians to stay true to the essence of the blues, but to ensure the music stays interesting, fresh and relevant to the times...
 
That doesn't necessarily mean bringing in "modern" elements such as rap, or  even making it more rocky (far too much dumb-ass rock-blues out there already IMHO!) but simply concentrating on the elements which have always allowed blues to speak so strongly to people in their hearts and souls. Blues music works best and is at its most timeless when it is simple, unpretentious, honest and direct - look at the way Seasick Steve managed to strike a chord with an audience of all ages by doing all of the above...
Hokie Joint are writing some great blues songs at the moment that are actually a bit more than just blues songs... then there are bands like the North Miss Allstars. I love what they've done with the blues in the recent past.

BM: What do you do to relax when you have some spare time away from music?

Tim: Walking by the wonderful River Crouch, in the Essex Delta, usually with Radio Four - my other passion - in my ears! I like to walk 3-4 miles day, partly for health reasons, but also because it's just a marvellous escape.
 
Reading - almost exclusively crime fiction. I'm a thriller nut! 
 
Writing - I'm trying to write a novel at the moment (not crime and not about blues music, either!) and getting a huge amount of pleasure from the creative process itself. I never imagined it could be so much fun!

BM: How and when did you get into Radio?
 
Tim: They first put something called Saint FM on the air here in Burnham in 2000 as a Millennium project, using some grant money to set up a studio in our local school. I was invited to get involved, partly as a fairly notorious local musician and partly because at the time, I had also been involved in the organisation our local music festival, RIVERfest, for many years.
 
It was a 28-day licence deal and they asked me to put together a blues show, which went out for four weeks on a Sunday night. It was great fun... a really interesting thing to do. Apart from anything else, it makes you look at your record collection in a TOTALLY different light, seeking out links, connections, synergies between songs, artists, albums and different types of blues. Fascinating

After that, I was hooked and although we did one 28-day stint each year for many years and each time, I used to start the show by telling listeners "The Blues Is Back!" - hence the slightly eccentric name of the show! four weeks a year  was never enough, so I jumped at the chance to present a weekly show when Saint went full-time in 2008.
 
As I say, it's tremendous fun to do - especially since we have a brilliant, master-quality recording studio right next to the broadcast suite with a great engineer, Pete Crisp. It means we can broadcast entire bands live on the air. I've had some really great people in for sessions over the past three years - Hamilton Loomis, Eugene Bridges, The SPIKEdrivers, the Papa George Band, Earl Green, Bex Marshall, Big Pete and the Backbones (with Matt Schofield on bass!!!) to name a few. We have some really good people booked in for the next few months, too, so stay tuned!!!
 
It's also great to be sent so much good music through the post . I love the random nature of it - I never quite know what exciting stuff is going to be inside those padded envelopes lurking in my in-tray at the station! Sometimes it's pretty indifferent, but occasionally, I get a real gem, which I probably would never had heard otherwise.
 
The downside is that it's a BIG commitment every week.  It takes a minimum of three hours to research, plan and compile a two-hour show - that's a total of at least five hours out of my week! - so I'm glad to have a couple of really good "deps" to help me out from time to time when I'm gigging, notably my dear old chum, Fergie Fulton (of Hokie Joint/Groove Doctors fame.)