HI IAN, how does it feel to finally be coming back to Ireland to finish the Jollification 25th anniversary tour?
It's just nice to be playing again. We were two gigs into the tour [last year] when everything got cancelled, and the Irish shows are the last ones to be put back in. So they are now the last remaining Jollification gigs.
But it's just so weird. I mean, we were playing through the summer and it's like, over here [England], I dunno why, but they've just decided to just ignore Covid, really. It's crazy. Compared to everywhere in Europe and America and [Ireland], it's mad.
They've sort of decided if you're not in hospital, then f*** you, really. They don't really care everyone is getting Covid and is ill. So long as the hospitals aren't over-run, they don't care. They reckon they've got the vaccine and there's this pill coming out too, so... maybe they're right, I dunno.
Although, so long as kids aren't vaccinated, they'll keep spreading it to their parents. I can kind of understand, if you've got a six-year-old, why you might not want them to get vaccinated. But I read a thing today where they are expecting another massive wave [of infection] in England the same as last year. It's mad.
I just got my third vaccination yesterday, so I'm a bit under the weather today. I can't move my arm and I'm kind of aching all over.
The shows are billed as 'Jollification plus greatest hits', so how do you structure the set?
We do Jollification in full, then we have a 15 minute break when everyone can go to the bar, and then we do about an hour of 'greatest hits' and stuff. That's actually longer than the Jollification set, because it's not really that long of an album.
Have you enjoyed revisiting the album? It must be satisfying to realise that songs you wrote over a quarter of a century ago have such longevity and still resonate so intensely with fans?
I think it's worked really well. The title 'Jollification' actually belies it a little bit, because isn't all 'up' songs, actually. Bits of it are quite intense and quite subtle. It's very 'musical', really I think, and then the 'greatest hits' is when it all kicks off a bit more.
It's weird, I still hear songs like [1989 hit single] Pure, on the radio all the time, even though it's over 30 years old now. And it's still great when we play it live. And it's funny, this tour has been so delayed now that it's actually now 27 years since Jollification came out.
What do you think has been the secret to Jollification's enduring appeal?
A lot of the albums from that time, they just sound like they're 'of that time' – very guitary, or whatever. Jollification doesn't, really. It doesn't sound like much else.
I think we somehow got wrapped up in the Britpop thing – we kind of fitted in, but really Pure and Life of Riley and Sense were all before that. I was big into using loops, so [Jollification] was just a continuation really. There are quite a few guitars on it, but there's no live [drums] on it at all actually. It's all loops.
It's kind of a quirk of fate that the way that I made that album, five years afterwards it became the blueprint for the way that everyone made records. But at the time, it was just that thing of trying to get loops to work on songs. I thought I was a producer [Ian previously helmed records by Echo & The Bunnymen, The Fall, The Primitives, The Frank & Walters and The Wedding Present prior to Jollification] and I'd heard Del La Soul, so I had that advantage.
Now, everyone's got that advantage because they've all got a computer that will everything we did. But at the time you had to have a sampler and some records to sample from, big tape machines and getting it all in time – it was a bit of a black art really. But now it's a really easy thing to do.
Are there any plans for a new Lightning Seeds album?
Yeah, half of it's nearly finished, actually. I'm just taking longer than I should really, but I I've got to keep at it. I have to deliver it in the next couple of months in order for them to get it out, otherwise they won't be able to press up any vinyl – they have such long lead-in times these days since they shut all the record plants.
Jollification marked the point where the Lightning Seeds finally became a live band rather than just a studio project. What do you recall about making the transition from studio to stage?
I had to find a band, because there was no 'band' before that. It was quite a leap for me to actually get on stage – it was almost like in those films where someone steps out of the telly and gets real, d'ya know what I mean? I was a novice at it really [Ian had previously played live with his group Big In Japan and with Echo & The Bunnymen] and it took a long time for me to get comfy with it.
Your son, Riley plays guitar in the current line-up. What's it been like playing your 1992 single Life of Riley with its original inspiration?
The words are about Riley being a bit late to be born and me anxiously waiting and wondering what it would be like. When it came out, obviously, he was too young to know really, but now, I dunno – it must be quite hard for him to hear that song when we're playing live. You'd have to ask him. But it's always a nice moment for me.
I love being on stage with Riley, we play guitar really well together – I think it's much the same thing as you always get with brothers, really, where they're always really tight when they're playing. I think we're a bit like that too.
We've had a great time doing these Jollification gigs, I've really really loved it, actually. So I just hope it'll be the same in Ireland, because we've hardly played over there.
Irish superstars Zig & Zag have performed with the band on TV in the past, have you checked their availability for the Irish dates?
No, we fell out a long time ago – musical differences, you know? They're very intense and have very high standards of musicianship. I just couldn't keep up with that, sadly.
:: The Lightning Seeds, Wednesday November 3, Dublin Academy / Thursday November 4, The Limelight, Belfast. Tickets via Ticketmaster.ie and Limelightbelfast.com
