THIS INTERVIEW WAS AN ABSOLUTE BLAST, PHIL JAMIESON IS ONE OF THE MOST DOWN TO EARTH, FRIENDLY AND TALENTED PEOPLE I HAVE EVER MET. HE HAS A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOUR AND WAS VERY EASY TO INTERVIEW, I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!
Phil Jamieson: Hi
Cherrie Wilson Hello, how are you?
Phil Jamieson: I’m good, it’s been a funny day, but it’s been good.
Cherrie Wilson: I can imagine it has been a busy morning for you. You would have probably been getting pretty tired of doing this.
Phil Jamieson: No, I’m actually fine with talking to people, it’s just how different sometimes people are! It’s like when I got up today, ready to do some breakfast TV and then go over to some radio. But I didn’t realize that the radio now is full TV. So I was getting on a zoom call and they’re like, you know this isn’t just radio, you’re going to be filmed for this as well for our content for Facebook. I’m like, Oh God, I’m dressed in my pyjamas, now I’ve got to change. And then, this is funny, one guy in Darwin had no idea about what I was talking about. He’s started with, “ok, what is this all about?” I said, “Well I’m doing a festival.” And he said, “What’s it called, who’s on the bill?” I’m like, mmm okay. So it was just one of those funny days. But yeah, it’s all been good, I mean people are excited. I’m excited about talking about it. So that’s all fine.
Cherrie Wilson That’s so magical for you to get back on the stage. You must have gone crazy last year!
Phil Jamieson I went crazy. I think I sent my family crazier. I’ve never spent this much time at home in my life. So, you know, I’ve always travelled and the kids are like, “Dad, when are you going?” I’m saying, “I can’t go anywhere, you’ve got me.” So yeah, I did go a little bit crazy and then I ended up doing a bit of like what I could do, which is a bunch of solo stuff. So I could travel up and down the East coast in a car. And, you know, I was able to play maybe a handful of shows in a COVID safe environment which was just me and a guitar, which was good. And it kept me sane. But it also kept my kids sane, because I’d left, you know, for some period of time.
Cherrie Wilson: I totally understand about the kids, the home-schooling, that did it for me.
Phil Jamieson: It was a good time, but also, because, I’ve always been so transient as well with work. So I think for my kids, they like, it’s weird for me to spend six months in a row at home.
you know? But look, it’s been good. And this is such a number one tour. I’m really excited about this line-up because it’s mad! There are a lot of my favourite bands, you know, so for me, {like 15 year old me} loves this line-up. So I can’t wait because there were a lot of my peers and contemporaries are on this bill. So I love this.
Cherrie Wilson: Definitely, well we can’t wait to welcome you to Queensland and beautiful Bribie Island. So are you going to be having much time up here while you’re at Bribe?
Phil Jamieson: Yeah. That’s the idea because obviously, as you know, we haven’t been able to travel at all, so this tour we’re going to Cairns and Darwin and all these places, and Bribie which I don’t get to go to that often, you know? So yeah, that’s definitely on the cards to get up there and spend as much time as I can, just, you know, on Sunday the 19th of June, hanging out. But I’ve never been to Sandstone Point either. I’ve heard it’s really great venue that hosts lots of great stuff. So from my perspective, I’m so excited just to be able to play again, but also the people I get to see, what I reckon is a really great line-up, but a great show.
Cherrie Wilson: It’s an absolutely fantastic line-up. I was telling my partner last night about this interview and he was just over the moon, he said that’s it, straight up, we are going on. He’s a massive fan. So he tells me, I have to tell you that. And he told me to also invite you over for a beer. I said, “It doesn’t work like that, honey, but I will tell Phil what you said and that you’re a mad keen fan.” So if you see this crazy redhead in the crowd waving, you’ll know who it is. So what are your plans for the year? Are you going to be doing more solo tours or will you be doing more with Grinspoon?
Phil Jamieson: Yeah, so basically at this stage, I’m actually going to Tasmania to do some Grinspoon stuff. We go to the Botanic gardens in Hobart Sunday, the 20th, then I’m going to Sydney to do a solo show for a corporate, the Australian Whiskey Awards of all things. Then I’m going to Melbourne to do some recording solo and I’m doing some shows in Victoria solo. I’m coming back and doing a little bit more solid stuff like Brisbane and Sydney. Then I’m starting this tour called the” The Stones’ Sticky Fingers,” which I’m touring with Adalita Tex Perkins and Tim Rogers, we’re doing Rolling Stones through April And then that goes through to May. I start the spring-loaded Tour in May, back with Grinspoon, so if you’d asked me this question at this time last year, there would be nothing. I would have said I had all this stuff happening, but nothing is actually ended up happening. So for me to be able to reel off a bunch of dates for me personally, it’s so exciting because I get to do what I love to do and hopefully people come and watch.
Cherrie Wilson: I have no doubts that they will come and watch you. On another note, I see you have done some work in the theatre. Phil Jamieson: Like a few years ago, I did a great production tour of the country, it was 2018, I think, maybe 2017, 2018, I did about a hundred shows of theatre, which was really fun. It’s a different beast though, to rock and roll because as you spend, you know, four weeks in the one city and you’re doing eight shows a week. So, you know, you’re doing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So there’s like, a lot is going on with theatre. But I learned incredible amounts weirdly at my age. To learn discipline at that age. Because I was like, you know, rock and roll is all about rebellion and whatnot, but to be able to do that amount of shows every week for that amount of time was, you know, was challenging.
Cherrie Wilson: I would imagine you would have to be incredibly fit for that too, to keep up that type of routine as well.
Phil Jamieson: You do. At the time I was also still touring with Grinspoon in Brisbane. I was going here and there, coming back and then, yeah, so a lot was going on, with that, you know, I didn’t even think about it because, in this industry, you just take the work. That was also incredibly challenging for me to step into a theatrical role as well. And fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, it’s translated over to Grinspoon so now I’ve got costumes and all this stuff. I’m like, that’s my costume, don’t even look at it and needs dry cleaning before I walk on stage. No, I’m not that difficult, but it is. I think there’s a lot of lessons to be learned from the discipline of theatre and how to bring a show every night. Sometimes twice in one day, that is on the same standard and have the same, you know, intensity. So yeah, I loved my time in theatre. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, so much fun.
Cherrie Wilson: Not a fan of the headshots I have heard?
Phil Jamieson: Pretty funny, right? Everyone that I was in that production with their headshots look, nothing like them as people, I was like, this looks nothing like it really, you know, the soft-focus, the makeup, I was like, this looks nothing like you do in real life, but I get it. That’s part of the game, you know, and that’s part of trying to audition for stuff and doing what you need to do. But, yeah, the theatre thing was a hell of a lot.
Cherrie Wilson: And as I said, I did a bit of stalking and I do have to say, I loved your Darth Vader Puppet you put up for competition as a kid in Oakey.
Phil Jamieson: Well, they disqualified me from their Oakey show. I’m from Sydney originally. My parents moved to the back of Burke when I was five. Then from Burke, we moved to Oakey. That was when my Dad was a farmhand on the Darling Downs there for a couple of years. Then I moved back. So I only lived in Oakey for two years. During that time I discovered my love of breakdancing. The disqualification from the Oakey show was for allegedly getting help with my papier-Mache Darth Vader puppet, which was obvious that I did at all. It was looking completely terrible, but they thought I had help from my parents. So anyway, I mean, Oakey show organisers, if you reading this, I want to be reinstated as the winner for my papier-Mache Darth Vader puppet, thank you very much.
Cherrie Wilson: We’ll see what we can do there. I come from Warwick originally, so I know the area quite well.
Phil Jamieson: The biggest thing that happened, I remember this is a kid, the biggest thing that happened in Oakey was AG-Quick. It was the big weekend festival of agricultural equipment that everyone went to and I thought it was like Disney land. I was so excited to go there with my dad, I said “Dad I’m going to AGQuick, it’s going to be sick”, but no disrespect to AG-Quick, it’s not for a five-year-old kid. It’s all about agricultural equipment, I’m like, this is not fun. But yeah, also I remember the Oakey show with the clowns and that kind of stuff. There were fond memories about Oakey, but yeah, only a short period of time when I was there with my dad as he was farming there.
Cherrie Wilson: So we could only claim you as a Queensland for two years?
Phil Jamieson: Yeah. So I’m fully blue and will be forever. And that’s the way it is, but Queensland has been amazing. My wife’s from Queensland and also, Queenslanders have been incredibly kind to the band. We started touring there in the midnineties up and down the coast. We supported the band called the Screaming Jets and would go up and down that coast, we’d drive from Cairns to Brisbane and back. And we played Bundaberg and Rockhampton and everywhere along there. The support we got really early on from your state was just tremendous and it’s continued to this day. It is 25 years down the track, so to come back and play and you know, there are a few wrinkles, there’s a couple of grey hairs, but I’m so excited. I love playing music. And especially with this incredible line-up of such great acts and really the point I want to make about Spring-Loaded is that these acts wouldn’t be around if they weren’t good. Like these guys have got game and they’re really good live and there’s no way they’re not gonna deliver, there are so many great songs, You Am I alone, then add that with Regurgitator and Jebediah, there are so many great songs, it’s just going to be amazing.
Cherrie Wilson: I swear it’s like my playlist from my life before kids when I wasn’t listening to the Wiggles and the shows the kids liked. It’s really funny because my kids, now that they’re older, they listening to the music that I grew up with. They really have embraced it because to be quite honest, the music that’s coming out now for their generation has doesn’t have the depth, ballads and beats that we had. Especially, my son, he’s right back into the eighties and nineties, that sort of thing. Then my oldest daughter loves grunge and was trying to tell me all about Nirvana, I had to have a bit of a laugh, but yes, good music, it doesn’t age.
Phil Jamieson: Yeah. I think that’s my point. So these bands wouldn’t be around playing if they didn’t stand the test of time. I love these acts myself personally so I’m just over the moon about playing and, you know, number one, like just being able to travel again and being onstage with fans. It’s very, very exciting.
Cherrie Wilson: So when you guys all play together, do you all have an after-concert party? Between yourselves where you sit down and have a bit of a jam?
Phil Jamieson: I’m a bit of Batman. These shows I usually bounce pretty quickly after I play. There’s usually some shenanigans and hi-jinx after the gig, which I don’t really get into. So I often will leave pretty much straight away and go and find something delicious to eat late at night. Because I’m starving after being on stage where we run around for an hour and a half. So, you know, we’ve done over a thousand shows as a band. So we’ve been through, a fair bit of ups and downs over the years, but now it’s a lot more balanced these days and all I know is that I’ve got to get bloody fit for them with so much running around to do. I enjoy the challenge, but yeah, a lot is happening.
Cherrie Wilson: Well, I can certainly say that you will most definitely be more than welcomed up here and we all cannot wait to see you play, I have no doubts that it will be completely packed and we will all be looking forward to a fantastic show.
Phil Jamieson: Thank you so much and thanks for your time. And yeah, I can’t wait to get back. Have a great weekend and I’ll look forward to getting out to Bribie Island real soon.
