Mojo - The Music Magazine

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The (Small) Faces’ keyboard king went modern and classic in 2008.

“I’m loving Vampire Weekend’s Vampire Weekend. When I first heard them on the radio I didn’t know what it was I was hearing. It was a bit like when I first heard The Police’s Roxanne. It completely knocked me out and foxed me too. I just didn’t know where it was coming from, whether it was British, African, if it was rock or reggae or pop, whether they were young or old. I thought in the end, they must be this great African band and somehow I had missed out on them. And then I found out they were young and from New York and wow! The album, it is fantastic, just the different influences and the way they mix it all up, tracks like Oxford Comma with that great organ, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, M79, their songs are just so different. Then there’s Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode: His Complete ’50s Chess Recordings. It contains five versions of Sweet Little Sixteen, three of Almost Grown, three of Around And Around. Mindboggling and heaven too. I discovered Chuck back in 1962, ’63. I was listening to the blues, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters and it was a natural progression. They shared musicians, studios, a piano player in Otis Spann. He was a huge influence on what I was doing, in the Small Faces and The Faces and I got to play with him and his guitarist Johnnie Johnson. Magic!”

Check out this month’s MOJO for more Best Things from Billy Connolly, U2 Oasis and more.