A couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to catch up with the lead vocalist of the Stone Foundation (SF) Neil Jones. It was the night of the 17th October 2015 they were to play a sell-out gig at the Jazz Café, the home of real live music where some of the best to have ever do it has done it.
I mentioned the word real earlier and it’s what really sums up the SF. You hear there sounds and you just feel it in your soul. That’s what soul music is supposed to do, make you feel it in your gut. A style that’s a blend of early R’n’B, blues, new wave and ska with a modern edge. When you put all those ingredients in a blender you get a quite wonderful result.
Neil explained how he has been a singer for over 12 years and met base Guitarist Neil Sheasby around that time. They soon worked together to form a band wanting that funk soul element to be big within the sound. So a section was sought to produce that sound they wanted to generate.
I explained that in this current time mainstream music is missing that soulful element and how I thought how relevant the Stone Foundation feel and sound, not to mention the nostalgic feeling your hit with when listen to the music. Neil told me how SF first started out they were placed within the modernist crowd and that perhaps that crowd can have the tendency to look to far back. That the term modernism should mean that the music is pushing the barriers and not going for the obvious.
Neil talked of his Love for Otis Reading’s ‘Tell the Truth’ as the main piece of music that ignited his passion to sing. He talked of the influence of the sound that was coming from across the Atlantic and how he and Neil Sheasby were down with the Hip Hop sound coming from America because of its heavy jazz and Funk elements the clever intricate samples that were used. In fact it was the samples Neil explained that really caught his attention and he began to hunt to find out who what artists were behind them.
On their newest record ‘A Life Unlimited’ Neil explained that Rob Newton on Congo’s has given the band a new element entirely and has added that extra bit of funk in the percussion. On the brass section Adam Stephens and Gareth John have augmented the section with Gary Rollins in situ the Jazz feel has gone up a few notches. With Stone Foundation on the up and up musicians are almost queuing up to play in the band. Neil glows as he talks of Stone Foundations collaboration with Carleen Anderson and Graham Parker another measure of the bands now massive pull.
It’s not the first time the band have played at the Jazz Café and Neil talked in excited terms of the sheer electricity the place has. The eager crowd waiting for the night’s headliners are not disappointed as the band romp through all their material old to new. Did I mention it was a sell-out crowd who end up swaying and jiving to the very solid Stone Foundation.
A record deal in Japan playing at Fuji Rock Festival in front of 4000 people ‘absolutely mental’ was how Neil described it. They’ve been plugging away for years so everything there achieving now has been nothing but hard work that old fashioned British grafting spirit. Stone Foundation go from strength to strength.
A Life Unlimited is available to purchase from all outlets you’d expect to buy music from. Hurry up and buy I say.
A Life Unlimited by Stone Foundation on iTunes
Cheers Neil Jones you’re a diamond Bloke we could have talked music all night.
Editor : Adrian T
