Bullish McClure delivers Mongrel message
AS invitations go, you have to admit it’s a pretty impressive one. Just prior to CityLife’s chat with Jon McClure, the Reverend and the Makers frontman and bullish thorn in the establishment’s side had been chewing the cud with one Noel Gallagher.
The reason? The small matter of a request to support the Burnage Britpop survivors Oasis at Wembley Stadium this summer.
Hand firmly snapped off, McClure is happy to reveal his delight.
“They had such a big impact on my life. It’s a big thing for me to be playing with them as I have a theory about Oasis...”
CityLife’s now intrigued and not for the last time in our 30-minute chat, McClure doesn’t need prompting.
“…the reason they were so big, is because they wanted to be and didn’t shun it, and secondly, their songs mean something in people’s hearts.”
Not the most insightful theory, I think you’d agree, but the Steel City singer is quick to add credence to it.
“You’re constantly told by the music press that this band are really good or that band are really good, when in reality these acts pushed forward by the media mean nothing.
“I think it stinks of an oligarchy – as these acts are obviously a journalist friend from Hoxton or whatever.
“Where as Oasis are a people’s band man, they’re not a critic’s band – they only got on board, when they had to.”
Plight
Seeing a kinship with the Gallaghers and Co, McClure, now busy promoting his latest incarnation, Mongrel – an aptly-titled collective featuring ex-Arctic Monkeys drummer Andy Nicholson, Babyshambles Drew McConnell and rising UK hip-hop artist Lowkey – highlights his own plight.
“Until recently, none of the critics in the British press had anything good to say about me, but now they want to claim me as a visionary or something.
“The difference is, when I right a song I don’t write for a critic – who for all due to respect, is often a bitter, failed musician.
“Now if I’d of failed as a musician, I may well of become a journalist, but one thing I would not have done is deny the reality or try and warp things.”
One band in particular in recent times who have benefited from unwarranted media support according to McClure are the Klaxons.
“The British public have been had by the Klaxons. We’re made to believe they’re innovators the likes of which we’ve never seen before – now that’s just a falsehood.”
Despite this CityLifer being in agreement with such anti-Klaxons diatribe - with just one question asked, it’s time to stoically divert the Sheffield totem down another avenue for fear of hearing about nothing else.
He's right though, since his support of such worthy causes as Rock Against Racism, the music media does seem to have taken the self-billed Reverend more seriously.
CityLife wonders what the turning point was for him politically.
“I went out with an Iraqi girl for about five years and the night of Bush’s ‘shock and awe’ campaign, we watch together as America dropped bombs on her homeland, which was just terrifying.
Anger
“Up until then, I was a bit lost really – I tried to channel that anger through my songs.”
Their debut offering, The State Of Things, was largely well-received and his manager was pushing for them to tour America.
“I had David Letterman lined-up and the Coachella festival – I’ve probably done myself out of £1.3m during the course of my career through certain decisions, but I realised I didn’t want the same things, so I sacked him.”
In a typically idiosyncratic career move, McClure booked a date in Lebanon instead before threatening to quit.
“It was more important for me to mean something than to earn money. The industry’s run by white, male public school guys – it’s not a fair reflection of society and that’s why I said I was quitting, because every decision was about money.”
As a riposte to the suits McClure slams as “racist capitalists”, McClure formed Mongrel – a musical melange of hip-hop, rock, reggae and dance, which he believes to be a truer reflection of our multi-cultural society.
Their debut LP, Better Than Heavy, will be given away with the Independent on March 7 and with Public Enemy as a benchmark, McClure has taken a few people to task.
“Nobody is really out there speaking out against the establishment, so I’ve put this band together so we can go out and do that.”
His inspiration doesn’t stop at Oasis or the seminal New York hip-hoppers though, McClure also has Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez in his sights.
“In March I'm going to see Chavez. He’s a visionary, we’re in a recession and not only are were financially bankrupt, but we’re morally bankrupt – he's one of the very few people who has an alternative.
“He’s portrayed as dictator or a human rights abuser, but he’s none of those things – so I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s doing over there for myself.”
With a second Reverend and the Makers album to come, 2009 is shaping up to be another hectic year for McClure – to those future interviewers/failed musicians set to cross his path, brace yourselves.
Published: Mon, 11 February, 2008
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