The Coal Porters Spring Tour
The Coal Porters play London’s Green Note on March 8th ️🎶 (This show is now Sold Out but contact the venue for any returns)
Follwing this they will visit Ulverston, Cumbria on March 16th, Thornton Hough, Wirral on March 17th and end March with three dates in Spain playing Madrid, Cádiz and Tomelloso.
Those dates are…
8th March (Thursday) – The Green Note (Now Sold Out!)
Tickets – greennote.co.uk/production/the-coal-porters/
16th March (Friday) – The Bowler Bar at The Laurel & Hardy Museum – Ulverston
Tickets – ticketsource.co.uk/date/455903
17th March (Saturday) – Thornton Hough Village Club & Bar – Wirral
Tickets – wegottickets.com/event/420228
22nd March (Thursday) – Fun House Music Bar – Madrid
facebook.com/funhousemusicbarmadrid/
Tickets – wegow.com/conciertos/the-coal-porters-en-fun-house-madrid/
23rd March (Friday) – Universidad – Cádiz
extension.uca.es
24th March (Saturday) – Sala BEAT – Tomelloso
facebook.com/salabeattomelloso/
Sid has also recently been interviewed by two Spanish publications following his Solo Tour their back in Feburuary and ahead of The Coal Porters Shows this month. He spoke to Maricarmen Moratalla for Tutores del Rock and also for Ruta 66 – Tiempos de Rock & Roll. Check out the transcript, in English, below…
After The Long Ryders broke up you started the Coal Porters as an electric band with Greg Sowders and other L.A. musicians. Later, you moved to London with the band eventually evolving into Bluegrass or Alt- Bluegrass as you call it. Could you tell me about this genre, please?
We were an electric band. I moved to London to be with a woman who was later unfaithful to me. The electric Coal Porters evolved into a band called Western Electric, a band whose one album I am very proud of. But the drummer was hit by a car while walking in a crosswalk and he was in great pain for two years. So in the meantime we started doing acoustic shows to wait for his recovery. We had no idea it would take two years for him to recover.
Doing acoustic shows we felt the name Western Electric was silly. We were not using electric instruments. So we used the Coal Porters name again, hoping people would not confuse us with Western Electric. The drummer recovered but had changed, not wanting to tour anymore and we were not a nice acoustic music band. So we parted ways and remain the Coal Porters but now using banjo, mandolin, fiddle, double bass and acoustic guitar.
The acoustic Coal Porters began to make a name for ourselves. Not bad as England is like Spain, they do not really know what bluegrass is! In Spain you have a TERRIFIC band called The Barcelona Bluegrass Band, led by my man, the great banjo player Lluis Gomez. But do people know who The Barcelona Bluegrass Band are? Their records are FANTASTIC!
So the Coal Porters now played bluegrass, the music of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, but we did not play it like them, we played it like younger people who had heard the Ramones and the Clash. So we need a name for it. Paul Sandy and I were joking around one day and we talked about there was alt-country as a genre so why not Alt-Bluegrass as a musical genre?
Your last album is called No. 6. This is because it is the sixth acoustic album of the band. The Coal Porters had already recorded an acoustic tribute to Chris Hillman and another to Gram Parsons before, your musical heroes and a big influence in your music. Did these acoustic recordings change the evolution of the band? Or how was that?
We started with the Chris Hillman Tribute Concert album as we needed to get going somehow and that was the simplest way. The band knew a lot of those Byrds and Burritos songs. Our next album was How Dark This Earth Will Shine and it has good songs on it, very good songs, but I am not happy with our sound, we play much better now. We still end the show with a song from that album.
Then we did Turn The Water On, Boy! in 2005 and this was the first album of ours to really show we can play! By then we had been doing this for four years so we could kick some ass. We play a heritage genre of music, it is never going to be as popular as Snoop or Katy Perry or Taylor Swift. But it was great fun to play acoustically and not rely on electricity and volume to get a crowd excited. We only use electricity so you can hear all the instruments through a P.A. And of course now we mainly do our own songs like The Day The Last Ramone Died.
Also, Chris Hillman has been your mandolin instructor and a good advisor. What have you learned from him? And how has been this experience to you? I think that people dream about this kind of privilege but they do not believe it can come true.
Chris Hillman has given me two of the best mandolin lessons I have ever had. One on one, just him and me. Actually three people were there as a camera man filmed two of the lessons. He is a great man in my eyes and this last solo album of his from last year, the one produced by Tom Petty, is and was my favourite record of 2017.
Chris always treats me like an equal and that is very kind of him because I most certainly am not. He also lets me play his 100-year old Gibson F-5 mandolin, the one given to him by Stephen Stills in 1972 and it is worth a fortune now. I am surprised Chris lets me touch it. (That is a new mandolin of his in the photo, not the one Stills gave him.)
Both the name of the band and the music you play is a clear reference to Kentucky traditions. Is this band a gesture to your state and a back to your roots?
I suppose so. I saw the Ramones’ documentary End Of The Century and when Johnny Ramone said playing rock and roll was foolish past 45 years of age, especially if you had no hits, I felt he was right. Plus roots music is like bluegrass or jazz or blues, music you can grow old playing. No one cares who you are or what you look like, it is all based on “can you deliver musically or not”. Period. I am comfortable with this.
Bluegrass is a kind of music that you have always loved. In fact, another of your musical heroes is the Kentuckian musician Bill Monroe. How has his music influenced to you?
Yes. I love the music of Bill Monroe in the way the guys in Oasis loved the music of The Beatles and you can still hear it in their new bands today. Monroe is in the Country Music Hall Of Fame, the Bluegrass Hall Of Fame, the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, and the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Not many people can say that. He practically invented this music by himself. His banjo players deserved credit too but other than them it was all his idea.
Punk spirit is behind all your projects. Actually, the album No. 6 of the Coal Porters has a beautiful homage to the Ramones with the song “The Day Last Ramone Died”. In this one you tell how your life changed after seeing them playing at Starwood in 1976 and the trip you did with your friends through the country to go there.
True, seeing the Ramones at the Starwood in Hollywood in August 1976 was a life-changing moment. They were inventive, fun, powerful, accessible, hilarious…in fact everything I like about Life much less music. My Kentucky friends did not get it. They might deny this but they did not get it. One guy asked me why I liked the Ramones if I did not like bands like ZZ Top as they were similar! Now of course this very show is on the reissue of the first Ramones album and I am too scared to hear it, to listen to it. I might hear myself cheering, you never know.
In my opinion, life would not be the same without Ramones, Do you agree?
Yes, they are way more important than the Sex Pistols or the Clash. The Ramones are almost as important as The Beatles were even though they did not sell many records. Bizarrely they are more popular now than they ever were, they sell more t-shirts today than ever. The producer of some of my work, the guy who mixes a lot of my music, is Ed Stasium and he of course worked with the Ramones on about eight albums.
Gabba Gabba Hey are magic words to many people. Do you think so?
Yes, there is no question about this. None.
The Long Ryders had already worked with Ed Stasium in the 80’s, producer of some Ramones’ albums and in their last recording the band has worked with him again. Also, The Coal Porters did, what does it means his contribution to you and your bands?
Ed Stasium got his break in about 1972 when he was a tape operator on sessions. He took the chance to mix Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight & the Pips while the producer and engineer went home for the evening and when they came in that morning he had done the hit mix you hear on the radio today all by himself. They were very impressed and Ed has not looked back since.
He is the fifth Long Ryder, no question. He produced a Coal Porters album called Durango and it is our guitarist Neil Bob Herd’s favourite Coal Porters album. I love the album but I am not sure it is my favourite one we have done. He is a brilliant engineer and gets a good sound and his ideas for arrangements are really special. I would recommend him to anyone and listen to his work with The Smithereens or Belinda Carlisle, he had hits with them. Not with me!
Last November The Long Ryders have recorded a new album after 30 years. Could we say out loud that The Long Ryders are back at this moment? In the 21st Century, Is the band still writing about politics and social issues? Or have you changed your interests?
No. There are no Long Ryders gigs in 2018 so you can hardly say the band is back. And there is no record coming out in 2018 either. With luck there might be in 2019 but I cannot say. There are two songs from 2016 on iTunes, the Long Ryders website and on YouTube, does that count as new songs now, a year later? One is called Bear In The Woods and the other is called Down To The Well.
The Coal Porters usually play some covers of classic hits. In this album is the track “Another Girl, Another Planet” by The Only Ones? If I am not wrong, it was a Neil Robert Herd idea, is that right? Why did he choose that?
He choose it as he liked the song, as I suppose anyone would who heard it, and he did it in the arrangement and tempo of Wagon Wheel by the Old Crow Medicine Show, a band he tour-managed and did sound for. Wagon Wheel was a huge hit in the USA, I do not know if was a hit at all in Spain, but they are a fine band. They too play acoustic music like the Coal Porters. In the USA this is the hip music of young people now, not hip-hop as you might suppose. Beards and banjos are everywhere.
One of the covers I like most is Teenage Kicks by The Undertones. I must confess that you have always reminded me of Fergal Sharkey in the way you sing. Do you like this comparison? I hope so. (This is only my personal opinion and I think you should sing it).
I have never been compared to Fergal Sharkey before so I don’t know how to reply. Certainly I can say I do not hear much of his voice in my voice but he had hits and I never have, only chart records, so maybe I should try to sound like him more. I actually do not sing the song in the band when we do this cover, Neil Bob Herd sings it.
You have also written several books, do you have any in mind as a writer. Having written books about Bob Dylan, What do you think about his winning the Nobel Prize? If I am not wrong, you have never met him yet. If this is right, would you like to meet him one day? Is that unfinished business?
I have never met Dylan. I think he deserved the Noble Prize for literature. He is a brilliant poet and he has touched many hearts. No, I do not particularly want to meet him. What is the point? I have met many famous people and they are usually quite tired of people telling them how great they are or that their such-and-such touched your heart. They usually would rather talk about something normal like you would do with a friend you bumped into on the street unexpectedly.
Currently, you are involved in several projects. Could you tell me about these, please?
I have gotten work mixing albums for reissue and of the back catalogs of old bands who are being reissued. John Wood, the guy who produced Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, John Cale, and Squeeze are doing this with me. And I am doing lots of Solo Sid Concerts in between waiting for the Coal Porters to do this or that. Maybe some Long Ryders work in 2019, we shall see.
Are you looking forward to touring Spain and especially playing in Cádiz? And what are the Coal Porters going to bring the audience in these shows?
I like Spain a great deal. I have only been in Cadiz twice and it was for a gig and then hurry up to go to the next town so I can hardly tell you much about it. That is touring, you hardly see the city you are in! The last time there I think it was The Long Ryders playing a festival and that was fun, I never thought we would fill the outdoor amphitheatre and we pretty much did.
The Coal Porters will play some covers of things like Teenage Kicks so people will have heard some of the set before, it sounds wonderful with banjo and fiddle! The last time we played Spain was Madrid in December 2017 at a festival and the crowd …and this really happened… would not let us off the stage. They were pushing us back onto the stage at the end of the show, it was a wonderful, wonderful moment in my life!
Finally, you also enjoy so much your solo shows. In fact, you have just finished a Spanish tour. Would you like to come to Cádiz with it too? Maybe you don’t know, but Sid Griffin has many fans in Cádiz. That’s TRUE.
I like playing live a great deal. My only request is it is a small venue where people will listen. If I get that for my solo show I am unstoppable. And it becomes really great fun, a warm and wonderful evening. You do not want to be like Lucinda Williams when, as a young lady with only a guitar and no band, she had to open in a basketball arena for Ted Nugent! That is my idea of Hell. I want a small venue where everyone can see me and hear me… and if people are quiet it becomes magical.
And yes, I take requests!
Adios, Sid
Catch The Coal Porters in Ulverston, Cumbria on March 16th, Thornton Hough, Wirral on March 17th and in Spain playing Madrid, Cádiz and Tomelloso. Full details of all these and further shows in April and May can be found on the Tour Dates page.
