Who the...?

Dan Whaley aka Evil Jack McDeath, aka Big Ron Turner aka Mrs Edna Watley, etc, etc...    From l-r: Playing bass with The Shockwaves at the George Robey, August 1987 Playing guitar with The Diaboliks in Kaiserslautern, Sept 1995 Playing ukulele with The Richwoods at the Old Explorer June 2008 Currently I play electric guitar in The McDeath Trio, who sound like this Acoustic guitar in The Flaming Czars, who sound like this Ukulele in The Richwoods, who sound like this                            Acoustic guitar, ukulele & anything else I can wring a tune out of in the Waterfield/Whaley folk duo, who sound like this Bass in Dr Feelgood tribute band "The Brilleaux Pads", who sound exactly like Dr Feelgood I co-curate Scaledown with Mark Braby & Andy Coules   Over the past 20 years or so I've played guitar and/or bass in a whole host of bands (see links on the right hand side of the page) I also do assorted solo bits and pieces under a variety of pseudonyms (see below) If you wish to contact me, write to eviljackmcdeath [at] yahoo.co.uk

Jack, Ron & Edna

Evil Jack McDeath aka Big Ron Turner aka Mrs Edna Watley (depending on what mood I'm in) Upside Down Guitar & Bass, Stripped Down Drums, Assorted Other Bits'n'Pieces, Poor Quality Warbling Player of gramophone records (I detest the term 'DJ' - it conjures up images of either the Hairy Cornflake or that tosser out of The Housemartins) Occasional scribe for the likes of Pipeline, New Gandy Dancer, Shindig, etc Co-curator & Artistic Director of Scaledown

April 08

Blimey, it's all go... I've just been informed that Interference off of Godspunk 6 was played on the wireless this weekend, on Radio Lancashire no less. Ooh, the big time beckons... Tomorrow (23rd April) sees the Waterfield/Whaley folk duo peddling their 1930s Union Songs at the Crown & Anchor in Preston Park. Friday (25th April) sees my latest combo, The Flying Saucers (see here) belting out a short, furious set of shitkickin' chickenpluckin' cousinlovin' authentic 50s Rock'n'Goddamn Roll. Not unsurprisingly, although I have played individually with all the other members of this band, they have never played together (in the case of Tim & Geoff have not ever even met each other, nor will do until about half an hour before we hit the stage) so it promises to be shitkickin', chickenpluckin', etc, etc... Plus there are plans afoot for a Dr Feelgood tribute band, with me in the John B Sparks role... And finally, over 7 years after they ceased to exist, there is a possibiliy that a final Diaboliks ep may be released featuring 4 unreleased tracks from the blinding 1998 Pathway session at which the I Love Johnny Bravo 7" tracks were recorded. And I've grown a beard.

Godspunk Volume 6

I know you'll barely be able to contain your excitement, but Godspunk Vol 6 has just been released, and amongst fine contributions from Howl In The Typewriter, The Style Pigs, UNIT, Bartles and a whole host of other very diverse talents, there are three Evil Jack McDeath numbers, to whit: Interference (click to hear it) I'm particularly pleased with this one, It was improvised in my kitchen in Aug 2007 with me playing drums, bass and all the forwards guitars and Clive adding a fantastic backwards guitar line in the last verse. ¡Miercoles! "Where you would say 'Fuck', we would say 'Miercoles'" said an Argentinian friend of mine. Literally it means "Wednesday". The song was pieced together from odds and sods I've recorded over the last couple of years, including the howling wind from the Napiers' Faceful of Pasta, the drums from Interference, a single note taken from the bassline to The Garden and some backwards feedback from an as yet unreleased but very Wednesday-ed Up version of the theme tune to The Return of The Saint. Hijo de Puta This one was improvised in my kitchen in Aug 2005, with Clive (as Vance Palmier) playing banjo & guitar and me playing bass & drums. Initial copies of Godspunk 6 come with a natty postcard featuring a photo of my battered ol' Fender Twin. Why not send it to your nan?   And here is the first review, courtesy of Andy out of Unit: Interference: A bizarre instrumental that threatens to break into something interesting but never quite manages it. If it was a little longer perhaps I'd prefer it more. Still, it's worth 7/10. Hijo de Puta: Again, it's too short - just when I start to enjoy it, it fades out. You tight fisted buggers! Come back here an' play dat banjo, boy. 6/10. ¡Miercoles!: You see? A big professional sound with people who actually sound like they can play their instruments and enjoy doing so. Oh, that's it, finished - another one that's at least a minute shorter than it should be. 7/10.

2008 so far...

13th Feb. CZARS Only 6 weeks in and 2008 is already turning out to be filled with a variety of bizarre musical projects. The year started with a fantastic night down at the Round Georges in Brighton where The Flaming Czars bashed out 2 full sets of hi-octane East European folk. Seeing as we've only played for a maximum of 15 minutes before, we ended up playing everything we know and a few things we don't. BAND ADE The very next night an impromptu supergroup consisting of half of The Zoltan Kodaly School For Girls, 2/3rds of The McDeath Trio, 3/4 of Hicks Milligan-Prophecy, SR Meixner, Steve "Spoons" Welch & Kat "Shaky Egg" Carter got together to record a couple of tunes to celebrate good pal Vic Twenty's Fortieth birthday. In less than 2 1/2 hours, under the skilful eye of recording engineer Pascale Giovetto, this bizarre combo managed to commit to tape (well, hard disk anyway) a reworking of Vic's Ibiza Mon Amour (retitled Sock Drawer Mon Amour) and an original (Bad Lord Brockley) all about the great man. This latter track was penned by Paul & Brian of HM-P, and mauled beyond recognition by, err, me. If you don't know Vic/Ade/Don Tempi's assistant, this will mean nothing to you, but then if you've read this far, you might as well click on the links and listen to the songs, eh? Which by the way were mixed on the train on the way home from the recording session. The look on the birthday boy's mush when he received the CD was a joy to behold. WATERFIELD/WHALEY At the end of January Mark Waterfield & I followed up our Nov 07 union AGM performance of Seeger/Guthrie union songs by performing them at the Fireman's Arms in Uckfield. The set went down a storm, with the audience singing along, an experience I'm not generally used to (although I do recall an early Napiers gig in 1993 when a bloke in the audience sang along merrily as we did an instrumental version of Johnny Cash's The Singer). We enjoyed it so much, we hopped up again last night (12th Feb) at the excellent Dartford Folk Club (BBC Folk Club of the Year 2008) and were again warmly received. One odd quirk of this combo is that we find ourselves rehearsing in the strangest of places (my car, the gents' bogs at the Dartford Folk Club - great natural reverb, awful stench of piss). UKULELES Since buying my uke in mid-January I find I can't put the thing down. They are incredibly addictive instruments, and a joy to play. I think this quote from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's website sums it up "Some people go so far as to say that playing a tune on a ukulele is a way of identifying good music; if the composition is good, it sounds good on a ukulele; the very limitations of the instrument encourage thinking creatively about music." Anyway, it looks like a ukulele supergroup will be coming together in the next couple of months ready for a performance at Scaledown...

Ukulele

21st Dec 2007: I taught myself how to play the ukulele this week, having borrowed Tracey Zoltan's delightful Ashbury AU 60. Once you get your head round the fact that it's just like the top 4/6ths of a tiny guitar with a capo on the 5th fret it's surprisingly easy, yet immensely satisfying to play. In fact, I enjoyed playing it so much, I recorded a little ditty this morning, which you can hear here (backed in your right speaker by some incredibly hamfisted fuzz guitar - actually a kid's 3/4 size acoustic jammed through some effects and in your left speaker a spot of percussion - fingers drumming on the back of said 3/4 size git) EDIT: Feb 2008: And sure enough, it didn't take long for me to buy my own uke, a rather splendid RW Richwood Concert Ukulele FURTHER EDIT: The ukulele revolution starts here! Following a splendid evening down at Ukulele Wednesdays, there are rumblings of a ukulele supergroup being put together. Watch this space...

Power in a union!

Although not hugely political, I am very supportive of the union I belong to (Amicus). For the most recent union AGM, my good friend and fiercely passionate union rep Mark Waterfield asked if I was up for finishing the meeting by performing some Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger numbers with him, as he had recently discovered these two great artistes and was astounded at how so many of the lyrics they wrote 60 odd years ago are still relevant today. So, we got together 15 minutes before the meeting was due to start with nothing more than my travel guitar and his tonsils, and worked out simple arrangements to three great union songs (Worried Man Blues, Talkin' Union & Pay Me My Money Down), and an hour later reeled them out to an appreciative, if slightly bemused, AGM audience. Needless to say we enjoyed it so much, we'll soon be doing the rounds of folk club open mic nights spreading the word and fighting the good fight. Or something like that. EDIT: ...and sure enough, on Tues 29th January, 2008 we entertained the good people at the Fireman's Arms, Five Ash Down with renditions of Pay Me My Money Down (played on my new rather splendid Richwood ukulele) and Which Side Are You On?, preceded by an in-depth telling of the story behind the song courtesy of Mark.   Pete Seeger (left), looking very much like Clive from the Surfin' Lungs (right) will in about 40 years time

Upside Down Guitars, Backwards Harmoniums, Swirling Drums & Miked Up Creaky Doors

The Godspunk Volume 5 launch night took place at the Greenhouse Effect, Hove, East Sussex on Fri 5th October and featured The Las Vegas Mermaids, Unit and my set split into two halves: Evil Jack McDeath (solo set) & The Flaming Czars. And it was a right hoot.   Hurrah, those fine chaps at Pumf Records have just released 'Godspunk Volume 5' including not one but FOUR of my tracks. If you buy a copy off me, you can a) name your price and b) you will receive a free exclusive limited edition Evil Jack fridge magnet. What a bargain.   The tracks are as follows: 'Things've Change Round Here' by The Charles Napiers. Recorded at Toe Rag back in 1995. This was in fact the last song ever recorded by the original line-up and was improvised on the spot because we had about 90 seconds worth of tape to fill. The track features Clive Pearman on Guitar & Piano, Johnny Johnson on Jew's Harp, John Skittles on Bass, Danny O'Brien on cymbals and me on guitar & miked up creaky door. Originally released on the First Plane ep, subsequently re-released on the 'This Is Mondo Wray' CD, and now available to, oh I don't know, at least 6 or 7 new pairs of ears. As far as I recall we only ever played it live once, to an audience of bemused Germans in Berlin. 'Harmonium In My Head' by Evil Jack McDeath. Recorded in my kitchen in Aug 2005. If you've got your speakers on, it's what you're hearing right now. It's played on a rather splendid electric reed organ (Excelsior by Chordette) which I refer to as a harmonium, incorrectly I imagine. 'Oh Kerim Bey' by Big Ron Turner. Also recorded in my kitchen in Aug 2005, using the good ol' harmonium again and Ed Williamson's 12 string Eko. It's basically Misirlou backwards. 'The Fifth Letter' by Mrs Edna Watley. Again recorded in the kitchen, sometime in 2006. This is the cut down version, as I only have 3 mins allotted time on Godspunk 5, so alas it misses out on the washing machine's mental spin cycle I accidentally recorded at the beginning of the full version.   If you know any interesting facts about the number seven, you might like to share them with Pumf Records' head honcho, Mr Stan Batcow stan@pumf.net And the first review, courtesy of Phil Beard includes the following splendid words: "Finally, there are a number of tracks under various names including Mrs Edna Whatley (sic - it's Watley), which I haven't truly got my head round yet but which all come from the same source. John Fahey pops into my head once or twice, but doesn't really sum it up. Blues fed through a teastrainer & an old tape-deck." To be compared to John Fahey & described as Blues through a teastrainer & an old tape-deck - Frankly, I couldn't be more chuffed.

Scaledown

In association with Messrs Mark Braby & Andy Coules, I occasionally co-curate the excellent monthly Scaledown club, upstairs at the King & Queen in Foley St, London W1. For full details of Scaledown and its accompanying wireless transmissions click here And here's a snap of former Scaledown co-curator Richard Sanderson, Mark & I belting out the Copper Family number Babes In The Wood at the November  2006 Scaledown

Questionnaire Here's a recent questionnaire I filled out for my good friend Richard Sanderson's blog, accompanied by (for no particular reason) a picture of Tura Satana answering the phone