Radio Interview with Jeremy Dry
Good morning
Good morning, Jeremy
Are you well sir?
It’s a beautiful day, I feel great, I’ve had nine hours sleep.
You’re a Lancashire lad, are you still living in Wigan or have you moved?
Oh, Crikey! I’m more of a Londoner than a Wiganer really because I’ve been down here now for 25 years.
You can take the lad out of Wigan but you can’t take Wigan out of the lad. Do you go back, is your mum there?, or...
I have two brothers in Wigan and their families of course, and my mum’s still there.
You go back very often now or do you stay in the south all the time?
When I’m passing, obviously I always stop by, but the nice thing that happened for me is that my sister came down to visit me when she was getting over a boyfriend in about 1982 and she only came for 2 weeks and she never went back and she met a drummer they fell in love, so I’ve got some of my family down here, my sister and her family are down here, which is nice.
She could of fallen in love with a lead singer nobody falls in love with a drummer, what’s going on there, didn’t you advise her?
She told me that she met Sting once and they flirted.
Really
Yeah, but I think that’s as far as it went.
Now that was credibility..... if she comes back to her big brother, or whatever and says my boyfriend Sting.
Imagine!
Was he a good drummer this guy?
They’re not together anymore.
Ah... who cares , forget it, it’s history. So tell me about yourself, were you always destined to be a pop star, what was your ambition as a kid?
That was it and it didn’t seem very real, not a pop star, just wanted to be involved in music some way. Actually I thought I would be a DJ, at first cause I thought what a great job playing music that you like.
Hey, there’s no money in this mate, you stick to singing. There’s more money in singing.
I just bought every record I could, when I went to the local record shop it was like the most exciting trip for me and we didn’t have a lot of money you know, my family were poor, if I somehow managed to save 50p to get a 7" vinyl it was a big deal.
If we were at like 15 or 16 were thumbing through your album collection, give us a flavor of stuff you were buying at that period then.
Well I tell you straight off it was motown.
Was it?
Yeah, I mean motown was everywhere and I just loved that. Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves. I knew every word, every song writing credit, every producer. I loved motown, I mean later there were other influences. When I was 17 I went to Spain for one of those years where you hand out flyers on the beach. I had a carpenters album, the Three Degrees, Barry White maybe one other, but you get the jest.
Your music taste is eclectic.
It is very eclectic.
It is very eclectic, so I gather though you were talking about wanting to be a DJ, I gather it was a DJ who really helped you Gambaccini, Paul Gambaccini really helped you get going didn’t he?
Yeah, I met Paul. I enthused about this new band I as in Kajagoogoo and he came along to see us and amazingly he was making a new program for channel 4 and the first program was going to be dedicated to... 3/4 of the program was dedicated to very established, very successful artist Phil Collins at the time, who was huge at the time. He thought in contrast to that, it would be nice to show the viewers what it’s like when you’re first starting out, it was just a coo for us, because it was national tv on Saturday night, the Saturday night before the weekend release.
So what happened to record sales, did you go through the roof?
Well Too Shy when it was #1 they couldn’t actually press them quick enough, it was selling 30000 copies a day and that’s in the UK, and now here eventually we sold nearly a million copies, in France it was over a million copies and we got discs for that, in America it was the same, in Germany it was just under a million, I mean it was just #1 everywhere.
How many countries can you remember that being #1 in?
Everyone that I went to.
Seriously?
It was just a whirlwind.
Did you write that one? Or who wrote that?
I co-wrote that with the band.
Right,were the other 4 all from Wigan as well? Or where were they from?
They were from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
Oh, right so how did you all get thrown together then?
I put an add in the Melody Maker. Which was the musician’s Bible then, looking for a band. I had actually been in 3 bands we had no success just done a few gigs I’d been in another band with Mike Nolan who later went on to join Buck Fizz.
You were with Mike before Buck Fizz then?
Yeah
So then were you the driving force, sounds like you were the driving force behind bringing this whole nucleus together.
I can’t take the whole credit for it, I mean when I met them they had some equipment, they had been gigging, they had a single out, they were called Art Nouveau. They were very driven too, if I’m looking in Melody Maker they are too, they are doing something about it.
Right, so one minute you’re there and you’re looking at Wigan Pier the next minute you’re looking at Elton John and Phil Collins, what’s going on there? How did your life change?
Oh, it was huge. It didn’t just change it then it’s changed for the whole of my life. I just came back from Warsaw in Poland last nigh where I performed Too Shy and The Neverending Story on a launch of a massive TV program.
Just clarify this point, you are now a solo artist?
Yup
There is still though some remnants of the band together is that correct or have I got that wrong?
Well we got together for a special for the music cable channel MTV/VH1 called Bands Reunited. It was a series they featured Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Haircut 100, ABC a few other, we were in there. Some reunions were successful and others were not, ours was.
Was yours successful?
We got together we did a one off show in London which was filmed, 2 weeks after all the cameras had left, we.....
You knocked the hell out of each other...
Almost!
Really?
We just met for dinners no one around, we couldn’t come to an agreement on certain things and we called it a day.
So you did the gig was the gig successful?
The gig was great it was a freebee for the audience, a big radio station in London was involved and we just invited a lot of people down and said that you’re going to be filmed as part of this program and it was a really emotional evening for me to be back together with the guys after 20 years.
How much thinking, you know, when they do that because after when bands bust up there’s a lot of bad blood, there’s lawyers, and there are hassles and everybody hates everybody else, artistic differences. How much pressure did they put on you to try and get you and the band together there, what swung it for you?
Oh, it was a complete surprise, they just caught me in the right mood. They were very clever because they didn’t actually tell me what they were going to do, they just said that we’re doing a sort of where are they now interview, will you come down to this place in West Bourne Park, Notting Hill and I was really busy that week and I was almost saying no almost , anyway, I just went down and I thought go on and before I went down I thought oh I’d have a shave, really not there. When I arrived I walked inti this very trendy bar/café and there were like a hundred people, you know I was expecting like a camera guy, a lighting guy, and a sound guy, you know and I thought this is a bit of a big do what’s going on? Anyway so we’re going along in the interview and they just dropped right in. Actually were not here for an interview Limahl we’re here to surprise you. We’re a tv reality show, we want you to get back together with Kajagoogoo for one show can film or all the fans in America, bla, bla, bla...
And when they dropped that bombshell what was the first thought that went through your mind?
I just thought oh, I’ve been duped. Oh really, did you think of walking out at that point or thinking I don’t want to do it, I hate their guts or anything like that or...?
I thought I’m being filmed I’d better not swear.
Right.
And I just said: What with the original members? I was like is this happening? Yes it is with the original members, just one show I went oh... I said I suppose I could which wasn’t a yes you see I was a bit reluctant.
Do they get you up there just to sing, do they grab you right then and there?
Oh no no then there was some planning involved. Alright ok ok, so what about now? You’re a solo artist, you’re coming back from abroad are you enjoying this part of your career as much as you enjoyed the other part of your career?
It’s lovely, it’s very manageable, yeah I mean there are hectic moments but over all it’s got a nice taste. How’s your great mane of hair?
Oh it’s shorter. I was hoping you were going to say: I’ve gone bald now, yeah that takes it that takes the buscuit.
No no, I’ve got blonde spikey hair did you not see me on Hit me Baby One More Time the ITV thing about 2 months ago? I’ve got a nice mop of hair, but I’ve lost the mullet.
You have?
Yeah!
Well what’s your web address?
Oh yeah, www.limahl.com, stop by.
Well Limahl it’s been lovely to talk to you.
Yeah you too Jeremy.
Thank you very much for coming on the show.
No problem.
And giving us a little update do you get down to Oxford at all do you get to our area at all.
Oxford, Oxford, Oxford... I may do a theatre show next year so I’ll be back again. Last time I was there was indeed a theatre show in 2002, oh I love Oxford it’s very nice and it’s cycle friendly which I like as well.
Very very cycle friendly, in fact we’re very eco friendly in general friendly in general. Limahl thank you for coming on.
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