How did you get the Jools Holland gig?

DS Around that time Jools was out gigging with a very small band, he’d been using Pino (Palladino) and Keith Wilkinson, the bass player with Squeeze. He then hired some horn players to fill out the sound. I knew one of these guys (Phil, a tenor sax player) from doing jazz gigs with him. Phil came up to me one day and told me that Jools was looking for a new bass player, but unlike Pino and Keith, he really wanted someone who played double Bass. Phil asked me if I fancied going for it, and I said sure, why not.

Did you have to audition for the gig?

DS Yeah, I went to Jools’ recording studio in Blackheath where I met him and Mark the guitarist. The three of us just jammed.

Did you get the gig there and then?

DS Actually when we finished jamming, Jools said “that sounds great, but we still have some other bass players to see” and I thought ‘there’s a brush off if ever I’ve heard one.’ Then as I packed my bass away, he and the guitarist went outside. About five minutes later, they came back, and Jools said “you’ve got the gig, the tour starts in just over a month, we’d better get a tape to you of some songs to learn!”

So there were no written charts?

DS No, only myself and the horn section read written notation and they all take it in turns to do the band’s arrangements, but unlike the rhythm section, they all read charts on the gig. On rare occasions I’ll be given a bass part, or a chord sheet, but as Jools, the drummer, guitarist and organist don’t read, we learn the songs from a CD, or Jools will play it on piano and we’ll just pick it up. I prefer to learn the songs by ear; because if you start using a chart, it’s possible you can become dependant on it.

Did joining Jools Holland’s band take some getting used to with it being such a high profile gig?

DS The biggest challenge joining Jools’ band was not about coping with the high profile nature of it, I was never phased by playing with a famous or prestigious artist, the first and biggest problem I faced was trying to amplify the double bass at high volumes on stage. Whatever pickup or outboard gear I used, it would feedback. I spent a lot of time, money and energy looking for an answer to this. So I had someone mount an EMG Fender Precision pickup on to the end of the fingerboard. It was a revelation! I now had plenty of volume with no feedback. The only downside was, the bass now sounded like a giant fretless bass guitar, but at least I could hear the damn thing, and my fingers didn’t bleed anymore!