Intervista a Jon Hiseman
Colosseum was the since the very first days a perfect mix of different influences. What you where looking for?
I was brought up enjoying the great jazz groups like those of Art Blakey and John Coltrane
but I realised that for me to play Jazz would always make me secondhand – it is an American art form. I found a way to be original with the Mike Taylor Quartet but to earn a living I had to play many times a week so I found myself in Rhythm and Blues bands being secondhand again. I formed Colosseum to be original and have the space to develop something of my own. Yes, all our influences are there but we found an original way to pay tribute to them.
In a short period of time the band with an early changing of line up grew up solidly. Was it the result of the surrounding scene?
The Band changed because people who were unhappy in the environment left and each time that happened we were clearer about what we were looking for as replacement. With the new people our confidence grew.
You were the first to be published on new Phonogram’s subsidiary, “Vertigo”. Did you notice a change of scene?
The big thing we noticed was that we started out with everybody dancing to our music and after the first 9 months people were sitting on the floor and listening – we had become a concert band without realising it.
It looks like the band split too early with a lot of potential not fully expressed. Which were the motivation?
We split when we had travelled so far that it took 20 years for us to catch up again. We toured every day for 3 years often recording in the day and gigging at night – we packed 10 years into that short 3 years – we had to stop.
Latins said “nemo profeta in patria” (nobody’s a prophet in its own land). It was true for Colosseum recalling the great impact on countries as Germany and Italia?
Well, we were very successful in the UK too but the UK forgets much quicker than other places – the UK is always moving on which is how it produces so much new music and ideas – its a small price to pay for living here.
Any Italian anedoctes?
Barbara and I spent many months in Italy staying with relatives in Frascati when we were kids and we were in Rome in the summer of ‘68 when I made the decision to leave John Mayall and go back to England and form Colosseum. Dick Heckstall-Smith was the first musician I called.
Barbara and I were also in Rome from the 16th of December 2004 for a few days, and of course we walked down to the Colosseum. It was 4pm, raining hard and had just closed. As we walked away the phone rang .....it was the news that Dick Heckstall-Smith had died. Strange but true!
Can you please mention the lowest and highest points in the band’s life, 1968-1971?
Can’t remember much – it was all an adventure.
Reunion came from the same motivation which moved the band at the beginning?
Well it was the right time and all the original players from the Colosseum Live album were available – it was easy easy easy and we were much better players in 1994 than in 1968 – the music is demanding and actually we had learned how to play it by the 90’s
Many praised for the reunion, did you receive offers earlier than 1994?
Yes - but it never felt right.
I would like for you to write few words about the late great Dick Heckstall-Smith. From any biography i read ( Bond, Mayall, English Blues ) he outshone the others for class and elegance…
No, he was not elegant at all – he was a rough tough tenor sax player, driven by demons, jealous of blues guitarist who did not have to take breaths when they phrased and always in search of the ultimate mouthpiece. He never played the way you expected and often he went down a tunnel of his own at the expense of the show – but at his best he was a unique and recognisable voice and that the best kind of musician you can be.
Dick Heckstall-Smith’s replacement is your wife Barbara Thompson, perfect logical and logical choice. She’s always been in involved in a slightly more experimental scene than Colosseum. is she bringing that research in the band?
No, she has emphasised the beauty and magical side of the band – we got that on record more than we did live with the original line up – now the band has more light and shade……. and women like it much more!
Can you point any contemporary band prosecuting Colosseum’s crusade?
None - we were and are, unique
Future projects?
Staying alive long enought to do it all over again!
