‘I want to make one more great album’: John Power
Liverpool music legends Cast visit Hull in the new year as part of a nationwide tour reliving their Britpop glory years. But fans will be delighted to learn they are also working on a ‘seminal’ new album that could be the best they have made. Simon Bristow spoke to frontman John Power
In a basement studio in London, singer-songwriter John Power has just been putting the finishing touches to the demos that will soon be developed into the next Cast album.
It is a body of work that has taken him back to his roots as he reimagines what it is to be a songwriter, and taps into the excitement he felt when he first picked up a guitar.
It will be a coherent whole, not just a collection of songs. And tantalisingly, he has as reference points “a couple” of classic albums whose names he is not willing to reveal.
“It’s like if Cast were doing a debut album now, what would I want it to sound like?” he said. “I want to make one more seminal album. A beat band, pop record.
“There are fourteen songs that all follow each other; they all sound like they’re from the same thing. The idea is to record one more seminal record and see what happens.
“The songs are in the primary colour state, and then the band will put their own energy on it.
“The most important thing is when I play these songs they are a real group of songs. There are three or four that are really good [on their own] but when putting them alongside the demo they don’t sound the same as the others.
“I want to make a record where the songs are connected to each other, not just a group of songs that are not really related.
“They’re very up, not just tempo, but bouncy in how they are and how they play – they are keen and eager to say something, quickly going through the gears – verse to chorus to bridge, lifting and changing as they go.
“I’ve got a record I want to make. I just want them to go bang and say something and then stop. Some are just two-and-a-half minutes, they just come in – wallop, and go out. It will be wonderful to get it recorded next year.”
He added: “I’ve got a couple of albums for reference – if I was going to make a record, what would I want it to sound like? I’m going to keep them to myself because otherwise you’re putting yourself under extreme pressure. But I’ve got those in mind just to think of when I listen to the songs.
“It’s right back to the space I sat in between The La’s and Cast. I’m trying to get back to that place so when I record it it feels fresh and sparkles and has got something to say.”
First, though, there is the small matter of the 25th anniversary tour of Cast’s groundbreaking debut album All Change, which through Covid-related delays will actually be happening a little later than the 25 years since its 1995 release.
“The All Change album will always be special to me and the band; it was our debut album, it captured all the energy and all our hopes and it was packed to the hilt with great songs,” John said. “We’ll be playing it in its entirety on the All Change tour.”
The 16-date tour starts in Oxford on January 13 and has its penultimate date on Sunday, February 6, at Hull University’s Asylum venue.
Hull has been a key destination in John’s career, with the Adelphi being the first out of town gig for both Cast and his former band The La’s.
He said: “Adelphi was a great place, a great venue. I’ve played there so many times. Even with The La’s it was the first gig out of Liverpool. That first gig I borrowed a [Fender] Mustang bass, a three-quarter length bass, and there was only three of us; we had no drummer.
“We were supporting a local band; they’d played with us in Liverpool and we played with them in Hull.
“It was the same with Cast [first gig]. I’ve played it solo, with Cast and with The John Power Band. It was brilliant, like a terraced house, independent, that’s what it was, it was the post-punk indie scene.
“Who was the owner? [Paul Jackson, ‘Jacko’] That’s right! Every time we played he’s like, ‘Do you fancy a curry?’ He’s been a champion of independent music for so long, everybody knows it [Adelphi]. It’s brilliant it’s still going.”
All Change was the highest selling debut album in the history of Polydor, which is some achievement on a label that has also been home to The Who, The Jam, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The album produced two top ten singles in Sandstorm and Walkaway, with Finetime and Alright reaching the top 20.
With John on vocals and guitar, the line-up also features Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson on guitar, Keith O’Neill on drums, and Jay Lewis on bass.
John said: “All that was written by a young fella with a young band because of all the energy, like a speedball. I was whacked out [playing it]. I’ll be on my toes playing it.
“We are more mature musicians now so we can gather breath. In those days you kept your foot to the accelerator, now you can drive as fast but you’re changing through the gears with the whole body of those songs. It was the debut album so it had that intensity.”
The name Cast was notably taken from the final word on The La’s eponymous album, in the lyric “The change is cast” from the song Looking Glass.
John’s time with The La’s, one of the best and most influential bands of the period, is something he remembers fondly.
He describes La’s frontman Lee Mavers - author of one of the greatest pop songs ever written in There She Goes - as his “mentor”, and someone who was always striving to write the perfect song.
John said: “The La’s are a very magical time to me and shaped a lot of things, sometimes that’s the way life is. I have only got good things to say about Lee as a songwriter.
“People maybe didn’t understand certain issues at the time but as a rock ‘n’ roll music combo it was something else.
“My life and my journey, my musical journey is The La’s and Cast. It’s the same water that’s flowed through the different parts. It’s still all close to me. It’s difficult to differentiate. The La’s was something wonderful but it’s the same journey as Cast – I don’t think I’d have had one without the other.”
As someone who went to the same school as John Lennon and has also played the great man on stage, John is perhaps as well placed as anyone to give an informed view of the recent Beatles TV documentary Get Back, directed by Peter Jackson and based on previously unseen footage from the making of their 1970 album Let It Be.
John said: “How beautiful and candid and free and independent. They set up and just sat there with their guitars having tea and toast. I was struck by that because I know what it’s like to sit in a rehearsal room having a fag and a cup of tea; that was inspiring.
“But also that myth that they never got on – that’s been blown out. They were so close emotionally when they were playing music together.
“McCartney comes across as an absolute musical genius. And all the c**p that McCartney was this ogre, and I think even he had started to believe that myth. He must have felt totally vindicated because he comes across as a really lovely fella, talking about John and Yoko and saying ‘they just want to be together’ – he was the pacifier and the peace-keeper.
“It was an amazing documentary. They were four great musicians and songwriters and a brilliant band who were very, very close and intimate and loved each other. It was a joy to behold.
“We are talking about The Beatles – nobody has ever written songs like that had that effect on popular culture – getting it wrong and then getting it right, being insecure and then being completely confident, sitting around having tea and toast.
“Can you imagine one of the big bands today having a documentary – it would be inside some amazing rehearsal room, all with earplugs and a massive PA. I just thought it was brilliant – they just sat on their amps chatting; no big deal.
“You see they are very human and fallible and sensitive and just as vulnerable as everyone else, but just so musically talented. And what a f*****g drummer Ringo is; he’s one of the most unique musicians in the world.”
All Change 25th Anniversary Tour
JANUARY
Thursday 13th - Oxford, O2 Academy
Friday 14th - Liverpool, O2 Academy
Saturday 15th - Birmingham, O2 Institute
Sunday 16th - Leicester, O2 Academy
Wednesday 19th - Big Burns supper, Dumfries
Thursday 20th - Sheffield, Foundry
Friday 21st - Manchester, O2 Ritz
Saturday 22nd - Leeds, O2 Academy
Sunday 23rd - Newcastle, O2 City Hall
Thursday 27th - Cardiff, Tramshed
Friday 28th - Southampton, Engine Rooms
Saturday 29th - London, SBE
Sunday 30th - Norwich, The Waterfront
FEBRUARY
Friday 4th - Glasgow, SWG3
Saturday 5th - Edinburgh, Liquid Rooms
Sunday 6th - Hull, Asylum
Saturday 12th - Liverpool, O2 Academy
Cast links