Jiving with Gaz’s Rockin Blues
Legendary DJ on bi-planes, C390 and ending prohibition
25th of August, 2010. Only four days till carnival. Gaz Mayall is mixing up a bright yellow ready to paint onto a canvass of New York City, “always best to start with the lightest colours first.” He’s in-between having just come back from Japan and Europe’s biggest festival extravaganza. Only one man can claim to change his sound system’s theme every year, bringing out his earliest vinyl to play for the crowd “because that’s what they’re for.” Mid track with mike in one hand, finger on the deck “yeah, I say, here we go and I let it go and everyone joins in.”
How come you’ve chosen the roaring 1920s as this years theme for carnival?
It’s because crime is the world’s biggest industry since American prohibition began in 1920s. Franklin Roosevelt got into power because he promised to get rid of prohibition. Can you imagine the Prime Minister of England getting in by promising to get rid of the prohibition on drugs in this country? I’m not saying legalize all drugs but if marijuana was made even semi legal you’d kick thousands of criminals out of business overnight.
We still have prohibition today and it’s funding private armies around the world. Every day on every council estate it’s creating problems. Anyway in another twenty years they’ll wonder which roaring twenties you’re talking about. It was also a wonderful time, air travel was still in its infancy and they still had bi-planes, speaking of which we’ve got a genuine bi-plane for this year’s carnival.
Where did you get that from?
A guy called Sam Haggerty, One Eye Sam. The bi-planes are going to be crashed into a wall and we’ve got the Hand of Kong. The movie was in 1933 and the Empire State Building went up in the thirties. But the movie and the building were created during the twenties. Cars breaking the speed limit every week, Style Moderne taking over everything from architecture, it was really exciting.
Are you expecting gangster style?
There’s no dress code it’s about turning up and having a good time. People hear what we’re doing and they go ‘ah, yeah I’m coming in a tux’. I’m coming to carnival in spats, top hat and a white scarf and a bow tie. I’m hoping a few people turn up with fake Tommy guns and completely screw up the bad boys attitude, spread a little bit of confusion. It’s about modernity but set back then. Like the robotisation of society. So we might get some robots turning up. You know little R2-D2, but what was the name of the big one?
C3PO?
That was an actual complete carbon copy of the robot in Metropolis, which was made in the 1920s by Fritz Lang; someone could turn up as the first world’s robot.
What will you do if it rains?
We’ll play the iconic tracks. Pretty girls will get up on stage, dance away and give it some stick, encourage the sun to shine. If it doesn’t shine we’ll shine so much people will think it’s shining anyway and if that doesn’t work we’ll just get them fucking pissed. Then it will defiantly shine.
Or wear a trilby hat?
Well I used to run a clothes store and I’m a great believer that everyone suits a hat. The thing is most of that style pervaded most of the 20th century. It was only after the war things by the mid-60s it had changed so dramatically people stopped wearing hats. By the end of the 70s everyone was growing their hair out. Hat shops went into decline, which is a shame. I’ve always felt comfortable in a hat and un-comfortable without one unless I’m swimming.
Apart from the Trojans who will be playing this year?
Monday, I’ve got The Jolly Boys. They were from the 1940s before Ska. They’re playing their older set with modern covers like Amy Winehouse’s Rehab but in a mento style. It’s a very traditional local calypso style from around Port Antonio. The only place you can get really good jerk pork as opposed to chicken. They were named by Errol Flynn a big movie actor who washed up there after he got shipwrecked. A real ladies man that didn’t waste time. It’s where the expression ‘in like Flynn’ comes from. They all said yes, skipped the foreplay, you know. After the Jamaican’s rescued him he fell in love with the place and bought a house hosting huge parties with people like Elizabeth Taylor. They partied hard then and they’ve never stopped playing over the years.
Who else can we expect?
Also, local band Rotten Hill Gang with Mick Jones who used to be in The Clash. This year their drummer is Paul Cook from The Sex Pistols who’s another entertaining and iconic local guy.
Is Portobello still the best place to collect early reggae records?
For the original 7” records one of the best places to get it is Japan. They’ve got loads of shops and they buy it up from England. They pay top dollar, they buy it direct from Jamaica, they buy it on the internet and they want all the top quality stuff no matter what the fuck it is. Some of the DJs there, they’d rather have ten tunes that are worth a grand each then spend ten grand on 20,000 shit singles that no-one wants’ to listen to.
Is that why you’re going back to Japan each year?
No I got there because I’m popular there. It’s my own fault for introducing them to Ska music 25 years ago selling those records back-stage after my DJ shows. All the DJs used to come to see me for tunes but after a while they used to think, ‘he’s not coming back enough and we want more tunes’. So they started to fly over to Jamaica, making friends with everyone. Before you know it Jamaica’s run out of records. So it’s come full circle. They’re back to London because there’s a big Jamaican population that released on English labels. They’re looking to meet any old family who’s got a sound system pioneer who’s just died or has just got poor and will want to sell their collection for a ridiculous amount of money. Now that’s a good cash introduction to the family.
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