Issue 041
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Hey Egebamyasi, well it’s an honor to<br />
speak to you. Please tell us about the<br />
young Jimmy before the DJ and<br />
music. Who was he?<br />
The young Jimmy was jist an ordinary wee guy with<br />
no brothers or sisters growin up in Stirling, Scotland, with no<br />
ambitions ti be anything other than play fitba pure and<br />
simple/ He was into art at the school, liked to draw, paint and<br />
did pottery as a craft, got classical music at the high school,<br />
so probably where the lovegg for it started but never really<br />
hit me till years later. Did plumbing after I left the school<br />
although I wanted ti be a joiner, I got into trouble as you do<br />
when ye were young bein a dafty and a bam was the thing.<br />
As time moved on got stoned for the 1st time and the sport<br />
went out the window and music was starting to take over as<br />
other sounds and eggsperiences appeared.<br />
Tell us about the music Jimmy. How<br />
did it start, and what was it about<br />
music that grabbed your attention in<br />
the first place?<br />
Glam rock in the early 70's, 1st record ever bought<br />
was T Rex "Ride a white swan". Had all the David Bowie<br />
records up to Aladdin Sane after as he gave up Ziggy<br />
Stardust that was the end for me after that he got lost up his<br />
own arsegg. Slade, Mud, The Sweet, Gary Glitter and the<br />
Glitter band at that timegg were unique. 2 drummers and a<br />
guitar sound way beyond its time. Unfortunately as we all<br />
know G.G. was not the person we thought he was.<br />
The old grey whistle test was on BBC2 thru that time<br />
and was an ear opener to bands, watchin and listening<br />
probably got me into wanting ti get playin, wanted ti be a<br />
guitarist but could not get my fingers to play bar chords or<br />
move fast eggnough for solos. Then was givin a bass. We<br />
only have 4 fingers and the bass has 4 stings, so everything<br />
fitted great. By then Punk came along and it was learning as<br />
ye went. Got together with other like minded people some<br />
worked out and others did not, but by 78/79 it kicked off<br />
proper with The Cunts. Rehearsed in schools, community<br />
centers anywhere we could get a practise but could not get<br />
any gigs because we were called The Cunts. So the name got<br />
changed to The Fakes, so we ended up getting booked as The<br />
Fakes but playing as The Cunts. The Fakes had one 7" single<br />
called "Production", which was reviewd in the sounds as one<br />
of the worst song ever written..Faketastic ad say. It was<br />
recorded at Cargo studios Rochdale in 79 and engineer by<br />
John Brierley. Joy divison, The Fall, Teardrop Explodes, Echo<br />
and the Bunny Men, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the dark ti<br />
name a few all recorded theregg, and I think the sound of<br />
Production makes it stand out. Aye it is dull, boring,<br />
repetitive, a grind, monotone,t edious but its a classic and no<br />
jist because I wrote it and play bass on it. It's still relevant<br />
today, as it was 45 years ago. It's a working persons anthem<br />
and it's what people go thru everyday all over the world.<br />
Unfortunately the drummer was killed in a motorbike accident<br />
later in 79 and The Fakes never looked for another drummer<br />
so that was the end. Until The Fakes reformed in 2020 with<br />
same singer and new drummer and guitarist. Did another<br />
single called "Black Apple" n'was like motorhead without<br />
lemmy. But I left them couple o' years later as they never<br />
wanted to get better or be different and I carried on with<br />
EBY.<br />
Tell us about the days of 1984.<br />
After The Fakes I drifted in and out of various bands<br />
in the Stirling area, but 1 day while rehearsing with the<br />
Mississippi Groovers, in a complex of cottages near Dunblane,<br />
I went ti see another band who were also rehearsing in the<br />
same complex this would havegg been 1983ish and then<br />
everything changed for the future. They had a silver box not<br />
being used and it was the Roland TB303. I heard the sound<br />
asked ti borrow as they were not using it and then the rest is<br />
history as they say. Likegg the Punk days it was a learning<br />
curve jist likegg the bass playing. Pressing buttons and<br />
turning knobs no having a clue how to work the machine but<br />
getting new sounds out of it eggnough ti fall in lovegg with it.<br />
I got a 606 ti sync up with the 303 and then ended up<br />
playing what went on ti be know as Acid House, but in<br />
Scotland then I new nothing about any scene or any Acid<br />
House movement. I listend to John Peel thru the late 80's and<br />
he would play the odd Ccid track, but I had no clue the<br />
sounds was coming from the machine I had. I got the chance<br />
of doing a gig in Stirling in 84. So a name was needed and at<br />
that time I was heavly into Can (German band) and took the<br />
name of their 3rd LP called "Ege Bamyasi" and although I had<br />
no clue what I was going to do, took the gig in the Gates<br />
Disco club in Stirling now known as the Fubar, but got thru it.<br />
But other gigs dried up. Then I met up with other musicians<br />
on the way played bit 303 bit bass as getting electronic gigs<br />
in Scotland in late 80's was jist not happening, and was<br />
unusual to folk ti be at gigs with macchines or backing tapes<br />
and no drums and guitars, it took folk a bit of getting used to<br />
not having the usual set up. Things drifted with various line<br />
ups but after hearing more John Peel late 80's things changed<br />
with Maurice "This is acid". Things with the 303 fell into place<br />
regarding the sound. I did lose plenty patterns when the<br />
batterys ran out thru ineggsperience of use. Another tune<br />
that changed the lifegg was Sleezy D " I've lost control". I<br />
bought a TR909 in 1990 for 500£ then an 808 no idea where<br />
form, then another couple of tb303's. Shortly after that got<br />
some gigs in Netherlands and Germany in 1991. I was selling<br />
merchandising for the Finitribe, another band from<br />
Edinburgh, I was also the support act. Played at the Loft in<br />
Berlin at the time the wall was coming down the place was<br />
nuts at that timegg. Played at the Milky Way in Amsterdam<br />
as part of the same tour and was noticed by the label<br />
"Groove kissing" part of Play it again Sam, in Belgium.<br />
Recorded the Acid indigestion parts 1 and 2 along with the<br />
EBY EP, and that really was the start of thing takin off. By<br />
then I had ditched other members and went solo as I had<br />
found the calling. The mcacid egg.<br />
How did your parent feel about their<br />
son DJ and wanting a music career?<br />
As far as I know they were never into me doing<br />
music, never spoke to them about what I was up to even<br />
from when it started. Of course they new about something<br />
but no detail, I had guitars and played music in my room but<br />
thats as far as it got, I never saw eye to eye with them on<br />
music and many things.<br />
48 ZONE-MAGAZINE.EU