Here Come The JAMs

I'll skip over the boring coach journey on the 22nd August, but the excitement was overwhelming on the way there.  As was the trepidation.  All we knew was what was in that email.  It told us very little, but I was sure that things would become clearer as time went on.

I dropped off my stuff at Hatters hostel, my base for the rest of the week.  It's pretty basic, but cheap, and that was the main thing for me.  My credit card has already been hammered to get here!   I headed off down the side street nearby, which Google Maps assured me would take me straight to the cobbled Roscoe Lane, the home of the Static art space, renamed the Dead Perch Lounge for the duration of  the event. I exchanged my ticket for an itinerary for the week and a yellow paper wristband, which slightly disappointed me, being very fond of my fabric festival wristbands.  I was shown a document asking me if I had any skills, including swimming, singing, playing bass or guitar and a few other things.  I chose singing, although I've never sung in public and have no idea if I'm any good at it.  I was gripped by star struck-ness as I passed Bill Drummond on the stairs.  My brain melted and my face lit up with the biggest grin.  He just looked at me and carried on his way, while I had to suppress the urge to jump around squealing that I had just seen one of my greatest heroes, someone I have been admiring from afar since 1990.  This feeling hardly abated all week, he and Jimmy Cauty were around constantly, but even after the event, I can't believe I had the opportunity to spend so much time with them.

I got chatting to some other Volunteers at the Dead Perch Lounge and ended up going for dinner with Becci, who had a fabulous top she had designed herself with rainbow buttons  On return to the hostel, I discovered that two of my room mates were also involved, so I ended up going for drinks with one of them, Seb, and some other guys from the group, who we found in the Kazimier Gardens bar on Seel Street.

News From Nowhere is an independent bookshop with activism at their hearts.  This was to be the first shop to sell the JAMs new book, 2023, a trilogy by the Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu.  The queue was already pretty long, so we headed to the back and waited, excitedly chatting with each other like we had been friends for years.  The entire street was full of people, not just the JAMs people, but random folks who were around the area, all curious to see what was going on.  The excitement started to peak as we heard a familiar siren, a fan produced replica of Ford Timelord, the star of the JAMs first major hit 'Doctorin' The Tardis'.  We cheered, and hundreds of phones and cameras emerged, desperate to get a photo of the fabulous Ford Galaxie.

But this was nothing compared to what happened next.  At just after midnight (around 00:00:23), an Ice Kream Van chimed, a strange, jangly mix of O Sole Mio, Justified and Ancient and What Time Is Love?  The place erupted with shouts, screams and cheers.  I nearly got run over by the Ice Kream Van while attempting to take this photo, then returned to the queue, giggling and jumping around in childlike excitement.  It had begun!

Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond in the Ice Kream Van

Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty dashed into the bookshop and the queue started to move.  They were not going to sign books, they were going to stamp them.  There was a list of instructions on the door about what was expected of us and what the JAMs would and would not do.  These lists are typical of Bill Drummond's work in general, so it wasn't a surprise to see it.  I did cheekily ask whether I could have a photo anyway, but Bill told me a very firm No.  I tried to take one after I'd left the table, only for a security guy to also tell me no.  I hid behind a bookcase and took a very fuzzy effort of a photo.  Still, my book was personally stamped by the JAMs, an absolute treasure.

After taking some more photos of the Ice Kream Van, I headed back to the Dead Perch Lounge and had a couple of drinks with some equally excited folks, chatting incessantly about what we had just seen and asking the eternal JAMs question - What the Fuuk is going on????