Always a highlight at Shiiine On, the effervescent Jim Bob will return to the Skyline this November for A Friday night sing along. We caught up with him to get the latest…

Hi Jim! First things first, are you looking forward to playing Shiiine again in November?

Yeah, massively. It will be my, I think about fifth one? So I feel, you know, I feel like I’m accepted there now!

Yeah, you’re part of the furniture. You’ve done it all for us. The cruise, solo sets, full band.

I think I’ve done it six times with the cruise!

Have you got any memories of any of your previous sets, any highlights of playing?

They’re all quite different. The first time I did it I didn’t know what to expect. It was just me and a guitar.  I think I did a whole set of Carter songs. I had no idea of how it would go down, on that big stage. But it was a brilliant, amazing crowd. And then the next time I decided to do the whole of ‘30 Something’ or I was asked, I think, on an acoustic guitar, which was possibly a foolish idea, but again, that was great. And then I did it twice with the band, so again, it was different every time, but just always a really good crowd.

Do you know what’s in store for us this year yet, or is it a bit far out to know?

Yeah, it is different again so it won’t be with the band. On the Saturday I’m doing like a talk with Steve Lamacq about a book coming out about lyrics. So I reckon on the Friday evening I’m going to do songs that are in the book.  But I think, the way it’s looking, it’s probably just going to be me and Chris playing the piano. So again, it’s sort of slightly scary, a bit to make it different, but I think it’ll be a sing along kind of event.

Brilliant. Another one to look forward to. I’m not sure how you will make the next one different but I’m sure you’ll think of something!

Orchestra, or something like a choir!

Have you got a particular festival highlight from your career that stands out as one that was the best  set you ever played?

I would say, it’s hard to top when Carter played at Reading in 1991. We went on second from top, so went on before James. And even though we became more commercially popular, it was just peak of our powers. It felt like we couldn’t do anything wrong. It was just such a perfect gig. The sun set during the gig. Everything about it was just so perfect, so it’s hard to top that. I’ve done things recently that have been pretty amazing. I did Bearded Theory this year, it was really good with the band and then Les came on and played guitar, on one of my songs. I like those special moments you get at festivals that you don’t necessarily get at normal gig.

Les is playing at Shiiine as well this year. On that subject I suppose I need to ask the question! You’ve done your farewell gigs and all that but is there any niggling sort of itches to be scratched about, one more Carter tour, or not?

It’s still nice to be asked. Every now and again someone offers something, but neither of us really want to at the moment, just because we’re busy doing our own stuff.  I mean, I enjoyed doing it, I enjoyed getting back together and doing those gigs and being able to play bigger gigs and that, but it’s hard to go back to your other stuff after you’ve done that, you know what I mean?  That’s the danger, if you do that and then it kills everything else.

Well if you ever do decide, you know where we are, give us a shout!

Well, yeah, if we were going to do that’s where we’d come.

We’ve talked about like your best festival moment. What about your worst?

Probably quite a few. I mean I’ve done two awful ones on my own. I done one when it really rained and I think there was one when I played and just before I went on, because everything was over running, I was asked if I could just play 15 minutes! But years ago I think the first festival I ever did was in Cornwall and it was a crazy, it wasn’t organized and it terrifying, a gang came in the festival and stole all the money. And there were people running around attacking each other with axes! We were stuck in the middle in it because our tent was right in the middle so we couldn’t get out.

That does sound pretty hectic!

I think they’re a lot more organized nowadays!

I’d like to think so. If you could curate your own festival, who would you put on the lineup?

Let me see.  Now, I’d definitely have Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds on there. Bright Eyes also. Who else? Black Country New Road. Elvis Costello. Just all my favorites from now and the past, and probably get Tom Waits do a gig. He could headline. And I’ll go on first.

Sounds brilliant! So, what’s coming next for yourself? Is there any more new music in the pipeline?

I mean, I’ve been writing songs still, so I think I definitely want to do something new. I presume that would be next year.  So, definitely a plan is to carry on doing music

Cheers Jim, before we go is there any message for the punters coming down to Shiiine?

Just bring your singing voices!

Jim Bob plays Shiiine On Weekender in Minehead Friday 15th November 2024. Final packages on sale HERE