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Jools Holland

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Jools Holland

Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader and television presenter. His work has involved him with many of the biggest names in the contemporary rock and popular music industry.

Biography

Born in Blackheath, London, Holland was a founding member of the band Squeeze which formed in March 1974. Holland played the keyboard with the group until after the band produced its third album in 1980 when Holland left to forge a solo career.

Holland had begun issuing solo records in 1978, his first EP being Boogie Woogie '78. He continued his solo career through the early 1980s, releasing an album and several singles between 1981 and 1984. He branched out into TV, co-presenting the Newcastle-based TV music show The Tube with Paula Yates. Holland achieved notoriety by inadvertently using the phrase "groovy fuckers" in a live, early evening TV trailer for the show, causing it to be suspended for three weeks. He later referred back to this in his sitcom "The Groovy Fellers" with Rowland Rivron.

In 1985, Squeeze (which had continued in Holland's absence through to 1982) unexpectedly re-grouped. Holland was once again the keyboard player for the band until 1990. At that point, he again departed Squeeze on amicable terms to resume his solo career as both a musician and a TV host.

In 1987, Holland formed The Jools Holland Big Band which consisted of himself and Gilson Lavis from Squeeze. This gradually became his 18-piece Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.[1]

Between 1988 and 1990 he performed and co-hosted along with David Sanborn during the two seasons of the acclaimed music performance program Sunday Night on NBC late-night television. [2]

Jools plays a sit-in session with The The on a track called "Uncertain Smile".

Since 1992 he has presented the eclectic music programme Later with Jools Holland, plus an annual New Year's Eve "Hootenanny", and has shaken off his "bad boy" image to become a respected musician.

In 1996 Holland signed a record deal with Warners.[1]

Singers Sam Brown and Ruby Turner often join his touring band, The Rhythm And Blues Orchestra.

Holland is a fan of the cult 1960s TV series The Prisoner owning some of the costumes and props from the series and occasionally appears wearing the trademark brown-with-white-pipe blazer featured in the series. Holland lives in the Westcombe Park area of Blackheath in south-east London, where he has had his studio built to his own design, heavily inspired by Portmeirion, the setting for The Prisoner.

In 1993 Jools Holland demonstrated his love of the series and starred in a spoof documentary, The Laughing Prisoner, with Stephen Fry, Terence Alexander and Hugh Laurie. Much of it was shot on location in Portmeirion, with archive footage of Patrick McGoohan, and featuring musical numbers from Siouxsie & the Banshees, Magnum and XTC. Holland himself also performed a number towards the end of the programme. Also appearing was Stanley Unwin.

He was also one of the interviewers for The Beatles Anthology TV project. Although he wasn't supposed to be seen or heard during the programme, on a couple of occasions his presence is detectable. For example, he is in the boat that Paul McCartney was steering.

Holland appeared in the 1997 film Spiceworld as a musical director.

He received an OBE in 2003 in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, for services to the British music industry as a television presenter and musician. He is also a published author and appears regularly on television shows besides his own and contributes to radio shows. In 2004, he collaborated with Tom Jones on an album of traditional R&B music. In January 2005 Jools and his band performed with Eric Clapton as the headline act of the Tsunami relief concert in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

On 29 August 2005 Holland married his girlfriend of fifteen years, Christabel McEwen, the former wife of Edward Lambton, 7th Earl of Durham. The wedding at St James's Church, Cooling near Rochester, was attended by stars including Ringo Starr, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry and Dawn French. Other guests included comedian Lenny Henry, film director Tim Pope with girlfriend and actress Victoria Scarborough, singer Lulu, actress Jennifer Saunders and her husband Adrian Edmondson.

In September 2006 he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent.

In December 2006, Jools appeared at Capital Gold Legends Live, a series of up-close-and-personal gigs hosted by the national radio station Capital Gold.

Holland is also a Hammond organ player, and was seen demonstrating his skills to Jo Brand in the BBC documentary series Play It Again.

He is also well known for his charity work.[citation needed] For example in June 2006 he performed in Southend for HIV / AIDS charity Mildmay[3] and in early 2007 he performed at Wells and Rochester Cathedrals to raise money for maintaining cathedral buildings.[4]

He is also patron of the Drake Music Project[5] - and has raised many thousands for the charity.

Writing

His autobiography, Barefaced Lies and Boogie Woogie Boasts (Michael Joseph Ltd, October 2007) was BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week in the week beginning 8 October 2007 and was read by Holland himself. He is the author or joint author of four other books.

Discography

  • 1978 "Boogie Woogie '78" (EP)
  • 1981 Jools Holland and His Millionaires
  • 1984 Jools Holland Meets Rock 'A' Boogie Billy (U.S. release only)
  • 1990 World Of His Own
  • 1991 The Full Complement
  • 1992 "Together Again" (single with Sam Brown)
  • 1992 The A-Z Geographer's Guide To The Piano
  • 1994 Solo Piano
  • 1994 Live Performance
  • 1996 Sex & Jazz & Rock & Roll
  • 1997 Lift The Lid
  • 1998 Best Of
  • 1999 Sunset Over London
  • 2000 Hop The Wag
  • 2001 Small World Big Band
  • 2002 SWBB Volume Two: More Friends
  • 2003 Jack O The Green (SWBB Friends 3)
  • 2004 Tom Jones & Jools Holland
  • 2005 Beatroute
  • 2005 Swinging the Blues, Dancing the Ska
  • 2006 Moving Out To The Country
  • 2007 Best of Friends

Film and television

  • 1981 Urgh! A Music War
  • 1982 Police: Around the World
  • 1982 The Tube (Episodes 1.5-1.9)
  • 1983 Rebellious Jukebox: Compere
  • 1984 The Young Ones: Punk (Episode entitled "Summer Holiday")
  • 1987 Eat the Rich: Sun Reporter
  • 1987 Filthy Rich & Catflap: Strip Show Pianist (Episode #1.3)
  • 1987 The Laughing Prisoner: No. 7
  • 1987 French and Saunders (Episode 1.5)
  • 1988 Sunday Night: Host (unknown episodes)
  • 1989 Juke Box Jury: Host (unknown episodes)
  • 1994 There's No Business: Pianist
  • 1997 Spice World: Musical Director

Books

  • "Rolling Stones": A Life on the Road, (with Dora Loewenstein), Viking/Allen Lane (1998), (ISBN 0670880515)
  • Beat Route: Journeys Through Six Counties, Weidenfeld & Nicholson (1998), (ISBN 0575067004)
  • Ray Charles: Man and Music, (with Michael Lydon), Payback Press (1999), (ISBN 0862419298)
  • Hand That Changed Its Mind , International Music Publications (2007), (ISBN 1843286459)
  • Barefaced Lies and Boogie-woogie Boasts , Michael Joseph Ltd (2007), (ISBN 0718149157)

References

  1. ^ a b "About Jools - Official site". Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  2. ^ "Sunday Night" episodes #104 (1988), #113 (1989), #114 (1989), #121 (1989)
  3. ^ "Jools Holland rocks the Park for Charity". Retrieved 2007-12-05.
  4. ^ "Jools Holland To Play UK Charity Concerts". 2007-01-25. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
  5. ^ http://www.drakemusicproject.org/makepage.asp?page=3b


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