JEALOUS GUY

From Salford to Japan, from Funkadelic to The Stones, here’s a band that’s going places. Dave McManus gets Jealous…. Photo by Lyndsey Winnington

Another swagger, another attitude, another group who embody the soul of our city in their easy arrogance…`I’m from Salford’ worn as a badge and almost a challenge…

I meet Jason Edge, lead singer of Jealous, on a fine Saturday afternoon in Man United’s Red Café. This is a man who had a ball placed at his feet by his dad as a child and wanted nothing more than to play for ‘Salford Rovers’ - sorry Manchester United. Being sensible he realised he wasn’t good enough and took up his other love, the guitar…Now his band are looking to take on the world.

“All through my life I’ve always been lucky enough to have two things to rely on” says Jason “my team and my music.”

Jason and his band - Andy B (lead Guitar), Keith Whitehead (bass) and Craig Barry (drums) – have just finished making their new album, Sonic Candy, at HQ Studios near Strangeways. On it, there’s no long intricate lyrics, just truth and honest guitar/vocals, red hot rhythm section, bass and drums. Listen to ’Lover’ and you hear your mates rocking out somewhere. But it’s rock raked through with the fertilizer of a zillion music genres…

“If you’re going to get to grips with rock and roll you have to get to grips with its rootsiest past, so my head is influenced by black music like Curtis Mayfield, Parliament and Funkadelic, as well as T-Rex, The Stones and The Who” says Jason “We might be four white blokes standing on stage but we don’t sound like some Hard-Fi type indie band. We’re not of that breed.”

As if to prove the point, Jason and Keith lived in Japan for a while, took on more inspiration, did some acoustic gigs and brought out a white label of the ballad, Isolation, featured on the new album.

“We got a wonderful reaction, learned a lot and now we’ve got our own market in Japan which we can re-visit when the time is right” says Jason “We’re ambitious. Very ambitious.”

Wherever Jealous travel the only two things in life you never need a translator for is kicking a football and getting out your guitar. If the former love didn’t work out to the max, the latter is looking well promising…

Sonic Candy by Jealous is out in September on Manchester Records and will be available in CD and downloadable formats. Check the website for further details of the album and a series of acoustic gigs
www.jealousworld.com and www.myspace.com/jealousworld