At school, I always wanted to be part of a gang. For some reason, the school I went to was big on re-enactments. Not the English Civil War kind you see on banners as you drive through the countryside, but a sort of Quadraphenia Mods v Rockers sort of world. And when I say re-enactments, I mean running around in gangs throwing stones at each other and trying to beat each other up. Until the bell went, and we traipsed back in together, all friends again. It was, I grant you, rather bizarre. But that was the Midlands or 25 years ago I suppose. Me, I was with the rockers – I had AC/DC cassettes, and a copy of Kiss- Destroyer and an Iron Maiden Patch and everything (my mum wouldn’t let me grow my hair long though, so I had a slightly grown out ‘smart’ haircut done by the lady in the next street). But the thing was, I liked the Who, and I really liked Motown, so albeit secretly I didn’t fit in. Its was just that, frankly, all the hard kids were rockers so I was siding with the winners, or at least a group I was less scared of.
As I got older I also tried to fit in gangs, usually loosely based around music, but whichever one I affiliated myself with, they’d be sneering, or suprised that I’d been to watch Public Enemy, or The Pixies, or the Halle Orchestra, or The Six Blind Boys of Alabama, or Suicidal Tendencies or The Durutti Column, or Graham Park DJ somewhere or the Rose of Avalanche or whatever. So I stopped being part of a gang, and just went with what I wanted. I found it fitted best. And even now, when people find out my favourite song is Someday we’ll all be free by Donny Hathaway (really, I’m going to mention it in so many posts, eventually everyone in the world will know I’m right) they’re surprised.
Of course that was all a Star Wars type prequel to the introduction of Los Angeles RnB singer Jarell Perry. He’s worked with Diplo, Rusko, Thurz to mention just a few, and is clearly a man on the up. His album Simple Things is out next month, and this single ‘Getaway’ is available on free download. It’s a polished piece of emotional R’n’B, complete with slick production, and it showcases Perry’s outstanding voice. It’s emotional backdrop seems to be one of coping with rejection, or maybe the end of a relationship. Whatever, it’s the sort of thing that whips you up into an emotional frenzy, the sort of thing where us slightly more mature Englishmen stare wistfully out of the kitchen window, momentarily stopping the washing up. And believe me, at my age thats a compliment.
Jarell Perry – GetawayNow of course I have this blog. And I was thinking maybe it should fit nicely into a niche of indie blogs, or sheffield-related bands blogs, or something. And then I remembered. I’ve stopped being part of a gang, we’re just going to write about whatever we like. It fits best.
http://JarellPerry.com.
http://twitter.com/Jarellperry
http://facebook.com/jarellperrymusic
