When do you start? Are you going on the 15th or something?
Adam: I fly out on the 15th, rehearse on the 16th and we've got a gig on the 17th.
And you're all pretty much ready to go aren't you?
Adam: Well we've got a new guy, because Gene and Betty aren't coming. They've got this new guy in who plays mandolin and sax and trumpet everything. And Richard's still playing.
I hear Richard Shindell's been trying to contact Anthony Minghella?
Adam: Where did you hear that?
I was just speaking to Paul Armfield.
Adam: Did he speak to my mum then?
Yeah he came up last night with a tape for you.
Adam: I'll see Paul tonight because he's playing at the Anchor with the Booga Losers.
I've not heard them yet I'm told they're really good?
Adam: Haven't you? Their excellent.
Vic (King) and I were talking, after seeing Richard Shindell play, that he would be perfect for Minghella's film. We hadn't spoken to Minghella for ages and then Paul told me Shindell is actually involved in the soundtrack which will be great.
Adam: Like Nick Lowe, you know that story about Peace Love and Understanding.
Yeah it's gone on the soundtrack of the Bodyguard, Curtis Steigers. It's only about a two second bit of it?
Adam: Yes he said he just watched the film and hardly heard it . . .
He's a great guy Nick Lowe.
Adam: Yeah great.
We used to watch him with the Brinslies back in the 70s. He was brilliant. He's well respected in Austin and Nashville now.
Adam: Have you heard that album he did with John Hiatt and Ry Cooder?
No we were out of the game doing the book. Have you got Slug Line? (John Hiatt)
Adam: No, but I've got most of his albums.
I think Slug Line is great.
So what do you prefer to do work in the studio or play live?
Adam: I like working in the studio on my own stuff when I'm not under any pressure only the pressure I put myself under. Live, I just enjoy playing, especially with Joan.
That must be quite a kick. That band is something.
Adam: Absolutely. Good people that's the most important thing. Really nice people.
So you haven't worked with this new guy yet then?
Adam: No I think Joan did a gig with him, just before Christmas a charity thing.
So what's his name?
Adam: Josh someone? I spoke to the sound guy the other day and he said he's really cool.
It's interesting when you listen to the album Gone From Danger it's not the sound you hear on stage. It's totally different.
Adam: There's not enough people in the band to make it sound like that.
Although I don't like to hear things exactly like the records. It makes it good and fresh.
Adam: I've heard a few of the desk tapes there alright. That last tour we had two days rehearsal personally I'd like to have a week or something . Joan is just not into long rehearsals, she's too experienced for that.
Yes I guess she just wants to get up and get on with it. I saw Chip Taylor last night at the Borderline and the guitar player, and Chip was starting a song and the guitar player was just laconically plugging in his Fender and wasn't really bothered whether he came in at the start of the song or the middle of it. And he was brilliant.
Adam: My girlfriend's producing a TV thing next week, Chip Taylor's on it with Nick Lowe and Jimmy Webb.
So what's your girlfriend do?
Adam: She's a TV producer. She works with the Julles Holland team that do Later.
You went up to the New Year's Eve show didn't you?
Adam: Yeah it was brilliant. BBC have got a cable channel called UK arena. They've got another programme on it called Later on UK Arena. It's like a forty five minute show and it hasn't got different bands on it. It just has one theme. So they did a programme on like guitar heroes. They did one on Jimmy Webb, they did one on Barry White, they've done loads. And she produces that. She did an acoustic concert with Gretschen Peters . . .
That's the girl from Texas?
Adam: Yes, and Matricia Berg and Joan did it as well. An acoustic in the round. It was brilliant. And their doing this thing on Thursday with Nick Lowe and Jimmy Webb and Chip Taylor. You went to see him last night?
Yeah, he's brilliant, Chip Taylor, he's excellent, absolutely spot on. One of those Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt characters.
So what have you been doing? Just working towards this tour?
Adam: Yes just getting everything up together really. I haven't done any playing since I came back, a little bit of practice, a bit of recording.
It's a bit like snooker playing. A couple of hours practice every day?
Adam: Yeah, I've just got it all set up now. It will be alright when I get there.
(We are sat in Adam's bedroom studio surrounded by a rack of acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, mixing desk and recording equipment. On a music stand is the set list for the American tour and some notes on chord changes.)
The last time I spoke to you (before the European tour) you said there were a couple of tricky ones?
Adam: Yes. Joan is cool she doesn't put me under any pressure. If I was under pressure I might buckle but their really cool people.
Yeah, they seem pretty laid back characters. Good people.
Adam: I saw Vic the other day actually. He was at Zara's.
Vic said. I think he was organising the Summer in the Square gig with Zara. We got £500 from the council. Which was pretty good going.
Adam: Definitely.
Where are you going to be in the summer?
Adam: I don't know I think they want to concentrate on the States.
You've played the States before?
Adam: I went over with Tanita (Tikaram). We did a weeks promotional stuff and we were meant to go over for two or three weeks stint but it got cancelled.
What happened to Tanita Tikaram. Did she just come off the road, get married or something?
Adam: No, no, I bumped into her at Christmas time she was in London she's just done an album and that should be coming out sometime in the Spring or the Summer.
Is she still working regularly or not?
Adam: She doesn't do many gigs. We'll have to see what this new album does. I think she's really good. Pretty talented. I think you need people standing over you saying no that's crap, when its crap. And be able to take it. It's important to be able to take it.
Because it's meant honestly. So where do you see your career going?
Adam: Oh yes just playing with Joan and doing my own bits of recording and see what happens. I'm not worried about anything to be honest. I never have been.
Things just seem to come along, Tanita Tikaram, Sinead Loahan, Joan Baez.
Adam: I'm lucky enough to be able to do it because I haven't got kids or a mortgage.
This is the age to do it when you are relatively unattached.
Adam: It puts such huge strains on relationships being a working musician on any level whether it is playing in a pub or playing live on stage.
Relationships don't change do they and you're going to be away from your girlfriend for a couple of months.
Adam: I think she's coming over for the last week of the tour. And we're going to be driving around.
Does it get boring on tours during the day?
Adam: No there's always something to see, always something going on whether its hanging out with the band because they are well funny. And you're always in a different country or something so there's always something to do.
So you don't get this sort of boredom point then?
Adam: No you get a bit lonely sometimes.
Yeah that's what I meant. You get to 5.00 o'clock in the evening and you're still hanging around for a soundcheck or something.
Adam: I don't mind that. I always get down to the venue really early. Get the sounds together check the monitors.
You always go to suss them out and check out how the sounds going to be then?
Adam: I'm really into interested in all that. See what they are going to do with you.
Your sound guy is bloody excellent isn't he?
Adam: Yeah he's alright. Cool. Great cat.
That's one hell of a bass player there? (Mark Peterson)
Adam: He's amazing.
I thought his vocals were brilliant. Looked like he had a lot of humility. Not big headed or anything.
Adam: No, no, he's very very mellow and very calm and controlled and completely reliable. Never ever makes mistakes.
I was going to ask, you went to Leeds University you learnt jazz and all that. And you've got this mixture of playing in pubs, playing at the Colston Hall, Festival Hall. Do you find its a balance of playing between those things.
Adam: To me a gigs a gig really.
But how important were the Leeds University studies?
Adam: To a point it was important. It took that pressure of me from eighteen to twenty two of looking for a job and getting to meet people and learning a lot. You know you're just in a complete musical environment. I wish I could go back and do it again because I think I would get alot more out of it. Before I went to college I was listening to pop music and stuff and then when I got to college I suddenly started getting into jazz.
That's what I meant about it. Was it the opening of doors?
Adam: Yes. Which was fair enough. I don't play jazz but I still listen to jazz. No one ever said pop music was not as good as jazz but I think there is a bit of snobbery.
Yeah I think there is. I think if you look at someone like Sting, the reason he's so bloody classy he's simply because of that jazz background.
Adam: Yeah possibly.
I'm just interested that some of the great musicians, you can't define that they are jazz or whatever they've just got a background across a broad spectrum. I just wondered how much that was important. Did it open a few more doors to you?
Adam: I think it opens your ears. It opens up your horizons. It's ideas mainly.
So what sort of stuff are you playing for yourself then?
Adam: What making or playing?
Well both.
Adam: I've just got this new album by Mark Hollis, the guy that used to be in Talk Talk. That's amazing.
I wouldn't know who Talk Talk was.
Adam: They're an English band. They were around early 80s until the late 80s.
Dominic Miller's the bass player on this CD?
Adam: No he's the guitar player with Sting. That's a beautiful album. I've been listening to a guy called Ron Sexsmith.
The guy from Canada? What kind of stuff does he do?
Adam: Plays folk music but very contemporary, very witty and weird.
Have you picked up on all the Americans?
Adam: American singer songwriters?
Fred Eaglesmith, John Gorka?
Adam: No I've always liked John Hiatt and Joni Mitchell but I just find that there is so many singer-songwriters that you have to be selective. There is so many people doing it some of it just goes over my head a bit.
That's it, we've all got different tastes. It's always going to be a personal thing. Certain people you are going to pick up on. I see you have Miles Davis Kind of Blue here?
Adam: Oh definitely.
Superb stuff. You wouldn't have been around when he played the Isle of Wight would you?
Adam: No I was born in 1970.
(Adam has a billboard poster for the 1970 festival on his wall. Joan Baez played and brought her young son Gabe to that one.)
So you listen to a cross section of stuff then really?
Adam: Since being playing with Joan I've been listening to more guitar stuff. I've had to put my guitar head back on. So I've been playing with lots of keyboards here. I've been playing guitar but not as the main thing.
Does she suggest people to listen to or do you just do it off your own back?
Adam: Off my own back.
So what is the stuff that you have been doing up here then? Have you been working with Roland (Jones, Duncan's brother)?
Adam: No I haven't done any work with Roland for ages. I just recorded on Island Sessions that he did (Hallelujah Blue).
Have you heard the new Island sessions?
Adam: No, any good?
There's some good moments in it, but I mean my theory on it is that it really is young bands and there isn't that kind of Paul Armfield, decade in music, sort of stoke to the songs. I've been listening to Now Is The Silence and Trigonometry (Paul Armfield singer-songwriter demos featuring Adam on guitar) and he's got some lovely stuff on there. To see him play double bass and sing Chet Baker songs at Summer in the Square. Lovely.
Adam: Brilliant bass player. He's on some stuff I've recorded with Duncan.
He said to ask you to play me some. Bobby I Can Fly were quite an eye opening band weren't they?
Adam: Did you ever see them?
No we've got one of the tracks So Much For Hollywood for the CD.
Adam: Oh they were amazing. Never seen a band like it since. And the Waltons were really good as well.
I heard a lovely tape of the Waltons but they haven't got a decent DAT of it but the tape they gave us, the studio tape sounds quite ordinary against it. Sounds almost hackneyed against it while the stuff I heard was wow, Dead Above The Neck.
Adam: Wage Slaves?
Yeah and one about cement, can't remember. It sounds so ordinary, the studio tape sounds like a seventies band whereas the rough tape they don't sound like you could define them. That was your era wasn't it?
Adam: I started playing just at the end. 18 months of Bobby I Can Fly, The Chuff Train Stompers and the Waltons.
Was that with Public Convenience? Was that the first band?
Adam: Yeah, Dave Pontin on drums and couple of school friends.
You did originals?
Adam: Yes started off fifty fifty then we did more. It was alright you know.
Well you've got to start somewhere haven't you. Then you were in CRAP (Chris, Roland, Adam, Paul in case you're wondering)?
Adam: No before that it was Hallelujah Blue which was the first incarnation of that with Chris Philips, Roland Jones, me and Mark Wozencroft. Mark played drums, Chris played bass. Then Mark moved away. During this time I was at college so we'd do gigs when I came back. Then there was this guy called Chris Clarke who played bass, Chris Philips moved to drums. Then Chris Clarke went off to the London to join The Rockingbirds.
So when I finished college I came back for six months and played with John (Wroath) and Duncan (Jones). We used to play at the Jolly Chinaman down by the police station. There used to be a little wine bar down there. Then I joined the Bronte Brothers. I met Mark, the guy who started the band while I was at college. He got a deal.
Who did you sign to?
Adam: A company which was part of Island Records. It was alright, we got an album out but they never pushed it. A bit of a shame.
Where did you tour?
Adam: All over England. Never went to Europe. Did a couple of gigs in Ireland. There was talk of going to America but it never happened.
Typical thing where the band's ready but there isn't any promotional push behind it. What was the music like then?
Adam: Sort of African r'n'b. American singer-songwriter sort of stuff, similar to John Hiatt. Big sound. There was only four of us, it was amazing.
Standard four piece?
Adam: Two guitars, bass and drums. We supported the Hothouse Flowers, Indigo Girls, Jerry Rafferty, Nanci Griffiths.
So that's when you started being a professional?
Adam: Well, of sorts, I don't like that term at all. But that's what you get called.
Well, yeah, as opposed to working in a day job and playing in your spare time.
Adam: We played at Glastonbury, did the main stage.
(I am looking at a picture on Adam's wall of the Bronte Brothers playing to the Glastonbury crowd.)
So when you stepped out on the Glastonbury stage with Tanita Takarim you had already done it before?
Adam: Yeah its alright. I mean it looks really intimidating but it's about a twenty foot gap between you and the audience and you're twenty foot above them. The sound is usually crap on those stages but the acoustic stage is absolutely fantastic. We played that a couple of times and it was brilliant. In a huge marquee and the sound is really good.
Because it's covered over?
Adam: Yeah it's covered over and everyone sits down on the floor. Best festival is Cambridge.
For sound?
Adam: Yeah.
When you played with Sinead?
Adam: Yeah but we did it with the Bronte's as well. We played Friday in the main tent and absolutely blew everyone away. They made two extra gigs for us on the Saturday. Then with Sinead we did the three stages.
That's when we came up. The club tent was my favourite and the set on Stage Two is more my favourite than the big stage set was because the sound was tighter and closed in.
Adam: The people who run it are so excellent. The whole thing. It's big but it's still intimate. I wouldn't be worried about taking children. I would at Glastonbury.
I've never been to Glastonbury, it's a bit too big for me.
Adam: You've got to go. It's just incredible but I wouldn't just go to see music though because it's just too big, the acoustic tent is different, you can enjoy a gig but in front of the main stage you get pushed about, you can't enjoy the music.
It's probably too big for me. I've now got into this habit of wanting to be in small bars, like last night. I was about two foot from Chip Taylor's guitarist and he was like steaming it against the walls. It's like being in Calverts when Wroathy starts going for it or Duncan sings. I like that sort of closeness. I can't handle these big things. Vic went to see James Taylor at the Barbican.
Adam: Was it good?
Yeah very laid back according to Vic, but I just can't handle that.
Adam: Well you're not going to get someone like that in a smaller place.
No but he's playing Portsmouth isn't he?
Adam: What James Taylor? Your joking?
Yeah Wroathy and his girlfriend, Hanna, are going.
Adam: Not the James Taylor Quartet?
No, not the jazz one.
So after Tanita Tikaram you had another break?
Adam: I moved back here. I got burgled in Leeds, had some stuff knicked so I moved back here so I started doing some music with Chris Philips and John Madden. Do you know John Madden?
No but you mentioned him to me at the Bristol gig.
Adam: Brilliant guy. It was going really well and there was quite a bit of interest in it. I heard the Sinead Lohan album. Somebody sent it to me. I really liked it. So I wrote her a letter saying if she ever needed a guitarist to contact me. Then I got a call from her manager saying her guitarist had left and would I like to audition? So I went over on a Saturday, auditioned on the Sunday, got the gig, then flew back to England and then I was out there on the Friday as support to Paul Brady. Personally I think that is the best thing I've done. Brilliant music. Brilliant.
Because you loved the style?
Adam: Absolutely. I just fitted in. Did what was needed. It was a bit of acoustic, and a bit electric, just what I want.
And it fitted your style?
Adam: Yes. Sinead has an album coming out soon.
She's not touring is she?
Adam: Not at the moment.
Will you work with her again?
Adam: If she asks me. I love it. I haven't spoken to her for a while. Then this gig came up with Joan and I wasn't going to turn that down.
I think its good actually to move on and just change all the time because it keeps you fresh.
Adam: I think so and ultimately I don't want to be working for someone forever I want to do my own thing.
That's what I meant when I asked where you see yourself going?
Adam: Well utimately I want get some sort of publishing deal, hopefully with the stuff I've done with Duncan (Jones) it's really good.
I'd love to hear some.
Adam: I'll play you some.
First thing Paul (Armfield) said to me when I said I was coming up to see you was: "Get him to play you the stuff with Duncan".
Adam: That's a big thing for Paul to say you know because he's got a problem with Duncan (breakup of Bobby I Can Fly).
But that's life isn't it, like playing in a football team and not liking the centre forward. That's the way it is. You've just got to big enough to put those things aside because the music is far more important isn't it?
Adam: Yeah well the music's going to last forever. I mean it was completely intentional thing to get Paul to play bass. He's too good a bass player not to ask.
He's absolute dynamite isn't he?
Adam: Yeah he's fantastic. I've never heard anyone play bass like him. He's got such great feel.
Whether he plays stand up bass or I've seen him play electric bass with the Dance Preachers it's been absolutely brilliant.
Adam: If you're after a specific thing there are better players who could adapt but his feel is beautiful.
I just think he is very intuitive in what he plays. He plays what's needed. He's not flash is he? And neither are you. Your style is not 'I'm the guitar player, look at me' it just fits. This guy last night with Chip Taylor, Bruce Koplow, he didn't play one note that wasn't needed. It was just so bloody beautiful.
Adam: I just think guitar solos are a way to get back from the chorus to the verse really. If want to be a maniac soloist then get yourself a solo record.
Or put on a headband and go to Donnington. After Zappa, have you seen Zappa live?
Adam: Oh yes.
He would eat most of those guitarists alive anyway.
So what was the material you did with Duncan then? Was it stuff you had written or what?
Adam: What would happen is that I would do all the music or get an idea together and get him up for an afternoon. I'd set up the microphone and he'd sing along, get some ideas then he'd go away again. Then I'd get him up a couple of days later and we'd have another go. So I'd always start with the music. It's all about timing really, I'm not rushing it.
(We are listening to the unmistakable Duncan 'the voice' Jones returning to the majesty he might well have taken all the way with Bobby I Can Fly. The first track I will call Let It Rain. It is cinematic stuff to match that great Bobby I Can Fly classic So Much For Hollywood.)
That's pretty smooth.
Adam: You haven't heard Duncan like that before have you?
Well I get that sort of feeling from Dunc when I see him in the pub. He's got that soul laden voice, beautiful. So who wrote the words to that?
Adam: He did. What happens is I get everything going round, just try to build up a canvas.
It's just like a painting isn't it?
Adam: Yeah and he gets a vibe off of it and he just starts writing. Then we'll go for a walk, talk about it, come back. It's all been the summer, it all took place in the summer. I can't do anything when the weather's like this. (Wind blowing, rain swept afternoon looking from Adam's window down over Carisbrooke)
(We are listening to a track which I'll call My Door Is Always Open To You, Dave Pontin plays this little sax quirk, there is Paul Armfield on bass, and a knock you dead keyboard line that swells and rolls in and over the song like a wave breaking on Compton beach and there is Duncan Jones soul drenched larynx and all kinds of classy little touches, Stax guitar snatches, keyboard note droplets. Words Duncan Jones, Music Adam Kirk.)
Classy stuff, what is that a keyboard bass in their?
Adam: Yes.
(A blinder follows it. A symphonic keyboard wash as a canvas for a funky laid back diamond which I guess Duncan might be calling Holding On Tightly To The Tail Of A Shooting Star with Paul Armfield pulling bass lines like gear changes. Words Duncan Jones, Music Adam Kirk.)
That would make a great live show.
Adam: That's something I have always kept in mind with it. It will happen you know, it's timing. I've played to quite a few people and they really, really like it.
Oh that is classy. Dunc's voice is just perfect for that, just absolutely spot on. Is that just a drum machine then?
Adam: No I programmed it. I wanted to make it sound like a real kit.
Do you think Rupert (Brown) would fit this?
Adam: No I want Chris Philips to do it. I'm just right in there with Chris you know, it's about relationships. Rupert is a brilliant player (Cher, Robbie Robertson etc. etc.) and he's probably better than Chris but it's not really about that.
No, it's about finding a blend of people that work together.
Adam: Good bass line from Paul there (Armfield steps up the beat with Adam's programed drum beat right behind him)
Reminds me alot of Sade. Kind of jazzy.
Adam: Yeah Simply Red, bit of the Lighthouse Family, I don't know, Lisa Stansfield.
Just classy. That would be great live.
Adam: It takes so much energy to get a band going down here, people are just too laid back and I have not got the time to do it. It's important to get it right. I've got in my head who I want to be involved.
It's so different from what you are doing with Joan Baez.
Adam: Its different but then, like, I mean everything is from the heart, it's sincere and it's good.
I think of you as a guitar player and you're not just a guitar player.
Adam: I've played this stuff to a few friends and some have said 'God it doesn't sound like your guitar playing on that . . .'
That's not the point is it?
Adam: You've got to look at things a bit bigger than that.
You did the arrangements on that?
Adam: Yeah, It's pretty easy the set up I've got, it's all very flexible, you can change things around really quickly, it's all digital, you can lift out chords, you can put them there or shuffle them around, it's really easy.
You've got to have the basics to start with. You've got Duncan's voice which is absolutely perfect, it's like a horn, he sings like a saxophone, he's lovely. You got to have those little touches.
Do you see yourself having a time limit? Or do you see yourself just carrying on?
Adam: Absolutely.
Mike Plumbley chatted with Adam Kirk in Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight on March 6th, 1998.
Who is Adam Kirk? A profile
Adam Kirk playing with Joan Baez A review of the Bristol gig.