Screaming J. Rule - from the Beginning...

The Story of Screaming J. Rule

[as told by Grim Outlook]

Ten years ago, in a pub car park (of all places), I was unceremoniously booted out of a band that had been my full-time life for five years, by friends I would have defended in conversation until that moment. I didn’t take it well. Worse things happened since, though and, as I approached 30, I was once again itching to form a band. Despite having written a bunch of songs in the intervening years, I had never had the confidence to get others to perform with me and was at a loss as how to get a band started.

Like a lot of people, I suffer from depression (bear with me, this isn’t about to get heavy) and for a while I only left the house when I needed another bottle of rum (bad idea) or to see friends (good idea). One fine day, I was having breakfast with two friends. My friend Jan Rule was telling us about how if anyone ever searched for her online they’d just get a load of results for the American rapper Ja Rule. ‘Screamin’ Ja Rule,’ said my other friend, quite out of the blue. ‘Fuck!’ I thought, joining the dots, ‘That’s so cool! That should be a band - Screaming J. Rule!’ They agreed and we talked about how good it would be, especially with Jan (Screaming J.) as the lead singer. We decided then and there to go to my studio across town and write some songs.

One thing I had noticed was the proliferation of sanitized, acoustic drivel spilling out of venues that once hosted unpredictable live jazz or wild punk bands blasting through songs, as they dodged the flying glass bottles. My only desire for starting a band was that it would make noise – to counteract the boys in Aran sweaters with engineered, rough voices and girls with thick-rimmed glasses and contrived regional singing accents. So it was that, with simplicity in mind, we wrote eight songs in five hours. We kept six of those songs and two weeks later we were playing our first gig.

 

In The Beginning... [04-08-2012]

It was my 30^th birthday and I’d arranged a night of live performances. The night was mostly attended by our friends, most of whom knew we’d put together Screaming J. Rule. The theme of the night was rebirth. I had planned a performance that involved leaving behind any kind of life other than an artistic one – being reborn – part of which involved stripping entirely and appearing a little later ‘reborn’. Following this, I invited Screaming J. and the now self-titled F. King Kaos to join me and we played through our six songs.

That first gig was generally described as ‘exciting’. People could see we had something right away. At the risk of sounding like a twat, I already knew it would work. Screaming J. in a kilt and loud songs about simple themes – it was just right. Screaming J. told me afterwards that she’d been incredibly nervous, but I’d not doubted how the band would come across for a second - perhaps because I don’t really believe anything can really go wrong on stage, so long as you set things up honestly and correctly.

AffRonT! [16-11-13]

After this debut, we played four more times as a three-piece. Once, at a local performance night, with all kinds of acts who were trying out new material (we weren’t trying anything out though, we were just being us). The next gig was a spontaneous thing in someone’s back garden, on their 30^th birthday. ‘You’ve made my guitar very happy,’ said its owner, after I’d beaten its strings to within an inch of their lives. Next, we played at another performance night I had arranged. It was part of a local queer arts festival. The other members of the band and I were all doing separate performances [on the theme of labelling] before we played as Screaming J. Rule. In the weeks leading up to it I’d been so focused on producing the night that my head was in totally the wrong space to perform - one night I had even collapsed in the street and King Kaos had to pick me up and help me back home. You can see, if you watch the video of it, my brain was so fried by the end of the night that I just stopped playing halfway through Nazi Smasher, I hardly knew where I was. It was an odd night that never really fulfilled its potential but, in a way, our set was still pretty cool. Finally, we played at a friend's 40^th birthday (we’re a good party band). We were well-received as a kind of cabaret act and, although there’s an element of that to us, that’s not what I really see us as. I thought it was about time we played with a full line-up and decided not to perform again until we had one. 


To be continued...