The New Cue #552 December 1: Sleaford Mods' Jason Williamson
"It’s OK to be mad at people"
Good morning,
It’s Monday morning, it’s the first of December and what better way to kick off the festive season than a Life & Times chat with Christmas tree lightbulb thief Jason Williamson. Ahead of his band’s excellent new record The Demise Of Planet X, which is due out in January, the Sleaford Mods frontman hopped on Zoom with me, Niall, last week. They’ve already released three very good cuts from it, why not have a listen whilst you read?:
This edition, like every Monday TNC delivery, is free for all to read, goodwill to all mankind and all that, but better will to those who are paying subscribers to The New Cue whose £5 a month subscription means we can keep this whole fandango rolling. Join them here:
Enjoy the edition, see you on Friday
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of… Jason Williamson
What was the first record you loved?
Either Milk And Alcohol by Dr. Feelgood or Heart Of Glass by Blondie. Those consecutively were my two favourite songs. I remember really being taken by Heart Of Glass. Milk And Alcohol, there’s a real hook to it.
And the last?
Me And My Woman by Roy Harper, it’s a record I’ve come back to recently. It’s the last tune on the album Stormcock, my wife introduced me to it years ago and that’s the standout track and I’ve been really listening to that recently.
What’s your earliest memory?
Getting a cap gun on my sixth birthday and my mate coming round to call for me to go to school and I was like, ‘Look at this’, and there we were, walking to school with it.
What’s your daily domestic routine?
I get up, I have some kefir, I unload the dishwasher, then I have a coffee, then I have another, I have four coffees. I load the dishwasher with the previous day’s dirty pots because there’s always excess pots and then I make porridge. Then I try to get my kids to school. Even though they walk to school themselves, these days you always have to get their shit together for them. That’s it in the morning. Then throughout the day it’s a case of whatever needs doing in the house, really.
Who or what is the love of your life?
My wife Claire and my kids, Beau and Flora.
What’s your worst habit?
Self-doubt. I’ve got quite a low opinion of myself, so that kind of gets in the way of what are otherwise healthy relationships. It gets in the way of the truth of the matter a lot of the time, because what I’m thinking just doesn’t exist. I can have really quite serious bouts of it. These days I’m more conscious of it but that doesn’t matter, it can come on and I can lose control of all reality and concoct an environment that just doesn’t exist. Therefore, this can stump good working relationships, it can stump my relationship with my wife and to a certain degree my kids and people outside.
What’s your pet peeve?
Small talk on the street, especially if I need a piss. Or if I just don’t want to talk to you. The thing is with middle class neighbourhoods is people tend to talk to each other more because life is slightly more enjoyable. Working class neighbourhoods, nobody talks to each other. Well, actually, they do, but you could get away with not talking to anyone. Now, because I have a relationship with my neighbours and everybody else and I’m quite active in the local community, you tend to get stopped on the street more just for small talk.
What was your first job?
It was in a scrapyard, pulling copper out of motors. It was an eye-opener. Fucking horrible. I got £50 and back in 1986, that was a lot of money but I had to go through hell for it. I saw grown men ridiculed and completely and utterly bullied to fuck by other grown men. It was my first taste into the working world.
Has anyone you’ve ever met made you feel starstruck?
Yeah. Gwendoline Christie. There’s been a few. Liam Howlett, Keith Flint, Maxim. Who else? Loads of people. Jeremy Irons, I met him briefly, I was quite starstruck, I couldn’t believe it. But Gwendoline Christie is at the top of that list. She’s lovely, she really is, and completely and utterly the idea of what a classic star should be.
What was the home you grew up in like?
It was a council house on a council estate that was built, I think, in the mid-fifties. We’d moved from a posher estate, which was called the Earlsfield Estate in Grantham, which now isn’t posh. But at the time, that was a modern estate but we moved from there. It was a really small house, typical of that period of a council house where they were quite roomy but not. I had some good memories there, few and far between but the good memories I did have I’ve clung onto.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
That I’m alright. I think this is the self-doubt, self-depreciating thing coming in again. I think generally I get on with people, people know I’m alright. But you’d be led to believe otherwise on social media, wouldn’t you? So to anyone that thinks I’m an utter cunt on social media for whatever reason, I’m actually alright.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
Don’t do cocaine.
What’s the worst thing anyone’s ever said to you?
You’ve got a little penis.
When were you at your most creatively satisfied?
I’m at my most creatively satisfied when the songs are done and they’re mixed and ready to be mastered.
Do you mind getting older?
No. It gets better, doesn’t it? Everything gets better. Your intelligence gets better, sex gets better, your confidence grows, you feel more comfortable, you lose that constant companion of fear, slowly, it’s still with you but it slowly dissipates as you get older. I love getting older.
What’s the bravest decision you’ve ever made?
Stop drinking. I always thought it was OK to drink constantly because we’ve been brought up in a culture of alcohol. I see it now, everyone is battling with it but can’t let it go. We’re told to do it so I didn’t think if I gave that up it would make everything else go away and it did. I stopped cocaine, I stopped cigarettes, I stopped lots of dark habits. All of those got released and I was able to objectify them and talk about them and understand them and see them as things I could overcome.
Can you cook? What’s your signature dish?
I can cook but I’m not too experimental. My best dish is spaghetti bolognese but I can do everything else so long as I don’t have to think about a recipe or make a recipe up. I haven’t got any flair.
What book would you recommend we read?
American Psycho. It’s a staple, a good slice of critical thinking.
What’s your favourite film and why?
I always keep going back to it, it’s Hostel by Eli Roth. It’s political, it’s really scary, it kicked off a whole new genre of horror film. It’s brilliant, by far one of the most powerful films I’ve seen.
Have you ever been arrested?
Yeah, for pinching lightbulbs off a Christmas tree when I was about 14. I got breathalysed one night but luckily I hadn’t been drinking, or hadn’t had enough to drink. That’s it.
Do you have a temper? How does it manifest?
My temper now is very rare. It usually internally manifests and I hate people for a long time, silently hate them, I can’t stand them even though publicly I might be nice to them. Also, what I’m learning is that it’s OK to dislike someone, it’s OK to be mad at people and so therefore it may internally manifest but also these days it externally manifests, perhaps I’m not as nice to these people anymore.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Sobriety.