Festival No.6: Five minutes with Jo Wallace
Jo Wallace describes her music as 'proper good stuff'
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Your support makes all the difference.Describe your music in three words
Proper good stuff
If you owned a festival, what would you call it and why?
Ramrock - it's the name of my label and Ramsgate is my favourite place - there's plenty of scope to put on a festival down here. Small and perfectly formed....
Who from the Festival No. 6 line-up is your must see act?
Awesome Tapes from Africa - I like the idea of someone DJing off old cassettes that are sourced in markets in Africa and putting a set together. Sounds brilliant....
Name five people (dead and alive) you would like to go to a festival with
Bootsy Collins
Snoop Dogg
Jimi Hendrix
Keith Moon
Little Richard
What’s your best festival moment?
Playing the Queen's Head stage at Glastonbury with Eddie Piller. We were playing Motown and 'Superstition' was blasting out of the speakers when suddenly there was this 'wave' of energy that hit us.....we both looked at each other and said 'What was that?' - that was several thousand people simultaneously enjoying themselves!
What record changed your life?
Earth Wind and Fire's 'That's The Way Of The World' album.....still sounds as fresh today as it did....39 years ago!!!
If you ruled the world what would your first rule be?
Every town would have to have a giant communal allotment and everyone had to do so many hours on it a week. But you'd get free fruit and veg :).
Who would be your ideal headlining act at a festival?
The original line-up of Earth Wind and Fire.
Who were your biggest influences?
There weren't many female DJs around in my formative years in the 1960's so it would have to be Tony Blackburn and pirate radio djs such as Dave Cash who I worked with on commercial radio. Rod Lucas was also had a massive impact on me by teaching me about being professional on the air as well as Nicky Peck....top bloke.
What inspires you?
Listening to a new piece of music every day - that's been my rule of thumb since I can remember. Aim to hear something new everyday - with a 'wow' factor. My latest 'finds' are the Isley Brothers 'Sure is a Lotta Woman' from '64 and the Dramatics 'A Thousand Shades of Blue' from 1975....fabulous tracks.
What’s coming up for you in the next year?
More of the same hopefully - festivals, gigs - spreading the musical love, releasing tracks on my Ramrock reggae label and compiling for Motown.....
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