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27 May 2024

Every Monday I will be bringing you an interview with an independent band, duo or music artist. This week, I caught up with Greater Manchester band Jack’s Saving Grace to find out more…

Who is in the band, how did you meet, where are you from and how did you come up with the name?
We met after lockdown, we’ve all been in bands before but some of us had taken a break from it. Lockdown got me (Adam, Lead Guitarist) writing music again and I set up a little home recording studio to get me through being stuck at home. When we were all allowed out again I put some adverts up online. Martyn was the first to join (Bass) along with some others who are no longer with us. Eventually we found Fran (Vocals and Guitar) and Jordan (Drums) and we had the perfect line up.

We’re from Manchester, well technically Greater Manchester as one of us is in Salford, another in Stretford as well as Stockport and Oldham. We rehearse out of Brunswick Mill Studios though which is an iconic studios in Manchester.

I don’t know if we should talk about our name and what it means. We usually let people work it out for themselves. Let’s just say the first rule is we don’t talk about it, and the second rule is we don’t talk about it!

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
This is always a long one as we all like different things.

I (Adam) was brought up in a very musical family, up until the age of 90 my grandad was singing Bing Crosby at Butlin’s holiday camps, my old man was a Motown and northern soul DJ in the 70’s, I had an uncle get to the finals of the t.v singing contest Stars In Their Eyes and my cousin’s band Brownlow were played by John Peel. But it was Britpop and the emergence of cool Britannia in the 90’s when I started to really get and understand music for myself. I was a kid and this Blur album called Parklife came out and then Definitely Maybe by Oasis and I was mesmerised by it all. My first gig was Blur at the Sheffield arena on November the 27th 1995. I heard the Super Furry Animals for the first time at that gig as well and I went straight out and bought their album Radiator the next day. If you pushed me for an all-time favourite though it would have to be The Kinks, the guitar sounds, the melancholy, the quintessentially brashness.

Outside of music I’m influenced by the world around me, politics and the plight of the everyday person.

Fran – As a child I would raid my parent’s record collection which was mainly the Beatles and Queen, I had a heavy obsession for Queen listening to them on repeat all day. It wasn’t till Britpop when I heard Pulp with Common People and Mis‐Shapes that I really began to explore music for myself. I went on to discover Blur, Oasis, Radiohead, Cast, Ash, Supergrass, The Manic Street Preachers and James. Later on I discovered old school hip hop particularly Jurassic 5 which has been a big influence along with Flight of the Conchords who made me realise you could make music funny and it still sound good. Comedy and British television of the 90’s was also an influence, Reeves and Mortimer, Red Dwarf, and The Fast Show.

Martyn – I was brought up on northern soul music and Motown by my parents which lead me into disco and funk. Again Britpop and Oasis were massive for me along with The Stone Roses, it was my older sister who influenced me with Manchester music, the Madchester scene and The Hacienda. I’m a big punk fan too, the Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash really spoke to me with their rawness and energy and then there is the classics too like The Who and Thin Lizzy.

Jordan – I like loads of stuff really, ranging from American punk like blink-182 and Green Day to the solo projects of the Gallagher brothers and their time in Oasis. I can listen to anything, I even have the country singer Jordan Davis on my playlist. Foo Fighters would be in my top 3, both Dave Grohl’s song writing and all round musicianship have been a big influence on me especially as he’s a fellow drummer.

How would you describe your sound?
At heart we’re an Indie Rock band but we like all kinds of different music which seems to work its way in. We’ve been compared to bands such as The Kinks, Squeeze, Echo and the Bunnymen, Manson and even REM.

What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our latest release is called ‘Unsigned’ it was written by Fran, ultimately it’s about being an unsigned musician. It pulls on his experiences as a solo artist before he joined us and the frustrations of playing open mic nights. Hearing the audience talk about what they’ve been up to whilst your playing. People requesting you to play other artists’ songs that’s nothing like your own stuff that you’ve been playing and promoters getting your name wrong. It’s quite a funny song which we like to do with our lyrics.

What’s your local music scene like?
It’s really good, we’re quite lucky we’re based in such an important city for music like Manchester. There’s gigs on every night of the week and are loads of venues, not as many as there has been in the past but there’s enough for there still to be a scene. The variety of music on offer in the city is great too, you could be into any genre of music and find gigs playing that sort of music. Manchester truly is a sound city.

What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We’ve got loads of things planned, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster already so far. We only played our first gig in September 23. Since then we’ve done loads, we released our first single ‘You Really Do It For Me’ at the end of February. That’s was picked up by a film director and has been used in the opening scene and over the end credits of an independent film called ‘Casting Call’. It’s directed and produced by the awesome Roger Hayhurst and was released on the 18th of May, you can check it out on YouTube. By the time this comes out we will have played our first festival at Party in the Pews in Macclesfield and we will be busy promoting our new single ‘Unsigned’. We’ve got gigs booked in for June, July and August including a headline show at the Manchester Academy. Our 3rd single ‘Sleeping Next To Fireworks’ is recorded and being mixed so were hoping to release that in the summer. After that we want to try and get a few more gigs outside of Manchester, get back in the studio and get the first album done and then try and get a few more festivals next summer.

Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
There’s loads of people we would love to work with, we could fill this page there’s that many. We would love to do an album with Stephen Street though, given he worked with The Smiths and the Manchester connection and we’re all big Blur fans then that would be pretty cool if we got to do an album with him.

Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
All our live performances are fun, we like to put on a show as well as play our music. We’re entertainers as well as musicians so there’s always banter on stage and with the audience. There is a backstage story though that is pretty fun. You can always find a block of nice cheese wrapped up in tin foil in the fridge of our dressing room. I’m sure some of the other bands we’ve shared dressing rooms with think we bring a load of illegal substances with us but it’s not, it’s cheese. There’s a guy that comes to watch us, he’s been to most of our gigs and he always brings us some nice cheese, how rock n roll is that.

What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
We love doing what we do and if your readers enjoy listening to our music then tell your friends, tell your Nan, tell the milkman. We’d love to give up the 9 to 5’s and do this full time and the more people know about us the more chance we have to do that. We’re lucky as it is that people are already listening to us and coming to our shows but we want everyone to know about Jack’s Saving Grace so we can carry on making music for everyone to enjoy.

Upcoming live dates and performances
We’re playing our first festival on the 25th of May, we’re on the Red Lantern stage at the Party in the Pews festival in Macclesfield. We’re also headlining the Manchester Academy for the first time on the 20th of July and we’re in the process of booking something for June with Scruff of the Neck promotions in Manchester.

You can find out more about Jack’s Saving Grace on their website or via Apple Music, Facebook, Instagram, Linktree, Spotify, TikTok, X (Twitter) or YouTube.