“The Ballad Of Johnny Eye” taken from the double single ‘John Peel session 17/02/86’ (Precious PRE 001) March 2021
The Jasmine Minks | The Ballad Of Johnny Eye | (John Peel session) 1986 | The Jasmine Minks were the first real Creation band — their single `Think!’ was the fourth single we put out. An amazing unknown gem of a band. Working-class heroes — to me, anyway (Alan McGee)
A ‘mink’ in Aberdeen is a derogatory term for someone poor who dresses in ragged clothes — and boy did we live up to that name! I used to live on a street called Jasmine Terrace in Aberdeen and we grew up on the punk scene.
I was just 18 when we moved to London and lived in squats —empty, grand houses in Camden Town. We couldn’t afford many records and late at night on the radio was when it all got interesting.
For us John Peel was God. To get a record out was the holy grail and to get it played on the radio was another world. Our single ‘What’s Happening’ would later be played on Radio 1’s Peter Powell show but he dismissed it as a jingle because it dared to be under two minutes long.
I had spoken to Peel when our first single, `Think!’, came out. I phoned up the BBC and asked to be put through to him and a few clicks later I was talking to him. He said he had already planned to play our record on that night’s show — now that was a BIG THING to me.
To be invited to record a session for him was another step altogether but we were ready — tight as hell with the hours and hours of rehearsing every week in Alaska Studios in Waterloo.
The Jasmine Minks | The Ballad Of Johnny Eye | (John Peel session) 1986
We arrived at Maida Vale in the morning, guns cocked, ready to breach the walls of the chattering classes with our own revolution. All Power to the Minks!
In truth, it was rather sedate. After the grand entrance, the rest of the building seemed like a big warehouse. Tom very quickly got the lay of the land and found out the most important things, the locations of the toilet and the canteen (in that order).
We settled into our studio and found out that Elton John songs were being mixed in the studio next to ours. It felt distinctly homely. We recorded our backing tracks fairly painlessly but my big takeaway was The Microphone.
It was one of those old radio mics, a big silver condenser microphone, which was plugged into a metal box that contained the valves that powered it. It was like nothing I’d ever used before.
Bunch of cons
For the first time ever I felt like my vocals sounded good and Adam’s singing on the amazing ‘Ballad Of Johnny Eye’ has a genuine warmth to it.
The valves must have added that magic touch. Jeff Barrett was sent by Alan McGee to look after us and to make sure that we didn’t destroy the place; he had experience of us destroying places. But he needn’t have worried.
The only contention of the day came from one of my lyrics, the final line on ‘You Take My Freedom’: ‘They’re all a bunch of cunts’. It didn’t occur to me that there might be a problem, it was just the way we talked, so I sang it too.
After some discussion I changed it to ‘bunch of cons’. It was either that or it wouldn’t get played on the radio. I mean it wasn’t live, we weren’t on the Bill Grundy show and, anyway, our parents were going to be listening when it was broadcast.
To be frank, it was all very English tea and biscuits. We fitted in quite well, considering. (Jim Shepherd)
Line-up
Jim Shepherd (vocals / guitar)
Adam Sanderson (guitar / vocals)
Martin Keena (bass)
Tom Reid (drums / backing vocals)
Derek Christie (trumpet)
Other details
Produced for the BBC by Mick Wilkojc
Recorded 04/02/86 at Maida Vale Studio 5
First broadcast 17/02/86
Released on Precious Recordings of London
Leave a Reply