An interview with Ian Prowse
NSG’s David Lancaster caught up with the former Pele and Amsterdam frontman to talk about growing up in Ellesmere Port, watching The Jam at the Liverpool Empire, touring with Elvis Costello, and his ongoing work hosting Monday Club at The Cavern.
DL: Hi Ian, thanks again for the interview. You grew up here in around Merseyside, whereabouts exactly and how did it all start for you? Were you into music from a young age??
IP: No I had no specific interest in it outside of whatever was on TOTP or the radio. There were no visible musicians on our council estate, or instruments lying around the house. There were no family members to inspire you. That all changed on November 1st, 1978 when I went to see The Jam at the Liverpool Empire, everything was different after that, and it’s still the fuel I’m running on.
DL: School must have been easy for you with your uncle being Darth Vader?
IP: If I had a pound for everyone who thinks they are the first to crack that joke I’d be living in Heswall.
DL: What music were you listening to when you were aged 15, who were you into when you were 35, and who are you listening to now?
IP: I was lucky, very lucky. My musical coming of age was The Clash, The Stranglers, The Jam, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Blondie, The Sex Pistols, The Pretenders, The Undertones, Buzzcocks, Talking Heads, who wouldn’t be inspired by that musical big bang? At 35 I’d finally crossed over into the realm of my greatest hero and spirit guide, Bruce Springsteen. I’m still there now, add to this my Celtic awakening with The Waterboys and Christy Moore, my songwriting finally came into focus. Nowadays, I find myself liking odd songs all over the place, but no specific artist that I can love in the way I love my older bands, apart from Damien Dempsey of course, he’s a constant inspiration.
(Ian Prowse)Credit: John Johnson
DL: How have you been coping with everything over the last year? I know you did all those online virtual shows, they looked like a blast?
IP: We came off the road from supporting Elvis Costello having completed 2/3 of the tour, I still had loads of merch left so decided to do an online FB show. It became one of the greatest things I’ve ever done just in terms of connecting with people. A community was formed, The Good Ship Prowsey, which saved all our arses back in the early days of the pandemic.
DL: So, let’s jump in the time machine again then, let’s go back to the late ’80s, you form Pele, you guys released 2 albums and a handful of singles. I remember you guys being huge around Liverpool, you made a big impact … How did Pele start, and what was your motivation?
IP: I’d had a school band and we almost got somewhere, when that fell apart it coincided with my discovering the Celtic soul, I started writing properly good songs. I took it all very seriously, planned my next move all out. I’d been surrounded in Ellesmere Port by musicians who treated it all like a hobby they might get lucky at, crabs in the bucket, scared you might get out. So I looked outside of that gene pool and quickly discovered what I needed.
DL: Why the name Pele?
IP: After the greatest footballer of my early childhood.
DL: You were maybe more successful overseas with Pele, hits wise anyway, what were the high points for you from that period?
IP: I enjoyed making the 2 LP’s a lot, especially the first one because the producer and I, Gary Langan, became great friends (we still are). I learned so much from him and his enthusiasm. Hearing the Kick Horns or the London String Orchestra go on a song you’ve written was a serious buzz. The songs still stand up to this day and I play a lot of them. I can always say we never went to apartheid South Africa when we had our number 1 there, too many others broke that cultural boycott and massively play it down now.
DL: Ok, let’s move forward a bit Ian, late 90’s you form your 2nd band, Amsterdam. Did you feel it was time for a change of direction?
IP: Absolutely yes, the fiddles went and we became a guitar/keyboard band. I wanted to put a lot of distance between how Pele sounded and how this new band would be. But in reality, it’s just how a 3rd or 4th Pele LP would have sounded, we were changing anyway. The music industry basically forbids you from getting another record deal with a band name they considered finished.
(Ian Prowse)Credit: John Johnson
DL: Does This Train Stop on Merseyside?.. an ode to these parts, it’s a cool song, I read that John Peel was a big fan of that one?
IP: John reopened the door for me to get back inside the industry. We’d been struggling along getting pretty much ignored everywhere, ‘that guy from Pele is having another go’ (sigh), but he didn’t know all that, he just heard the song and had a profound emotional reaction to it, live on air, more than once. We were signed shortly after.
DL: Amsterdam did a lot of work with Elvis Costello, acting as his backing band, what’s Elvis like to work with?
IP: Elvis is boss, a mentor, a mate, and the teller of a cracking yarn. His generosity to me down the years has been outrageous. More importantly, though, the music he’s made, fearless as hell, that’s the way you do it.
DL: Into the 2000s now and you get your solo thing going, so far you’ve put out a couple of albums and some great singles. One of my favourite songs is Home, it has a lovely Celtic feel to it, can ya tell us how you wrote that and what it’s about?
IP: That was actually an Amsterdam single from Christmas 2007, from the 2008 Arm In Arm LP, it changed us again, we went zooming back to the source of my first LP but better, more assured, deeper. ‘Home’ is a big song for me.
DL: You’ve also put out some anniversary releases over the last few years and a couple of compilation albums too, what new projects are you working on, what are you up to now Ian?
IP: The 40 Friday night FB live shows over Lockdown led to a big interest in my 2 unreleased 2001 Amsterdam albums. So we’ve recently reissued Attitudes and will release The Curse at some point. The most important thing right now though is finishing off the brand new LP and follow up to 2019’s Here I Lie. It’s going to be called ‘One Hand on the Starry Plough’ and will be out in February 2022.
DL: If you could travel back in time to any period, any decade, and do a gig, anywhere in the world, where would you visit?
IP: I’d go back to the Cavern and enjoy banging out rock and roll in all that sweat and noise and excitement of Liverpool being about to take over the whole world.
DL: If you could pick anyone to collaborate with on a fantasy project, any artist, dead or alive, who would you choose and why?
IP: I’d choose Damien Dempsey, I know him so I think I’ll ask.
DL: What’s the best thing about being a musician mate?
IP: Never ever having to answer to anyone but yourself, never having to do what my mum & dad did, 40 years each on a production line in a factory in Ellesmere Port, never being part of the system, being as free as it’s possible to be, even if there have been huge sacrifices, they’ve all been worth it. But mostly, the idea that maybe one or two of your songs will live on after you have gone, granting you some kind of immortality.
(Ian Prowse)Credit: Redtop Images
DL: For years now you’ve run the Monday Night Club at The Cavern, a kind of open mic night, you also run some songwriting workshops, what advice would you give to bands or musicians who are just starting out?
IP: Monday Club is back! We’ve set sail into our 11th year now. My advice is this, no one is going to give you anything, you have to put up your own posters, send your own emails & politely pester those who can help, always look to improve, keep your antenna up, study your art, dedicate your entire life to music, make people notice your silent determination, dream every day in your head, construct your own world, don’t be walking around thinking your cool, that’s not what it’s about, there’s plenty of fools doing that.
DL: So, depressing I know, but with the lockdowns, it’s been really crap for everyone having to re-arrange shows and tours and stuff. Amazingly, you’ve got the Continuing Story Tour all in place, you just did 2 shows here in Liverpool last month, and now you’re all over the UK and Ireland, finishing off with your Xmas extravaganza show, each year you put that on here in Liverpool with a 14 piece band, it’s an amazing show. It must have been a logistical nightmare to arrange all those shows with the lockdowns and all the other covid worries, how did you get the tour together Ian? Have you got anything else on the agenda??
IP: I just kept rearranging my dates, luckily they’re all sold out so I knew we had an audience waiting. Plus I’m the eternal optimist, defeat isn’t on the agenda.
DL: Once again thanks for giving us the chance to interview you Ian, good luck with any new music and the tour. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
IP: Just to say that I now have a brick on the Cavern Wall Of Fame, as far as I’m concerned it belongs to my 9 year old, she can look after it when I’m gone.
To follow Ian Prowse on social media click on the links in pink below.
