Chaz Jankel (Ian Dury & The Blockheads) Interview June 2025 – John Wisniewski

1. Could you tell us about working with Long John Baldry in your early years?

Long John Baldry was managed by the same organization as Byzantium, the band I was in at that time. The offices were situated above the original Marquee club in Wardour St, Soho London. John heard my song Lets Go and kept my lyric but changed my “I jumped into my Mini to I jumped into my Chevy”…..which I suppose makes sense as he was about 6ft 7in tall. The song featured on his album “Good To Be Alive.” We never talked or even met. I think I saw him once in the offices.

2. How did you meet Ian Dury?

I met Ian after the Kilburns played a gig in the Greyhound on the Fulham Rd. The following day I went to an audition/rehearsal and got the gig as keyboard player.

3. How did The Blockheads get together?

Ian and myself were demoing material in Alvic studios, Wimbledon. We were introduced to Charlie Charles, drums. and Norman Watt Roy Bass who helped us out. On playback Charlie on reading Ian’s lyric for Blockheads exclaims “That’s me Ian” at which point Norman says “Yes! We’re The Blockheads!“ and the name for the band jumped off the lyric page and became the name of the band.

After we recorded New Boots And Panties, which was credited to Ian Dury, Ians management and Stiff Records wanted us to go on tour. Ian asked Charlie and Norman would they join us, and they said yes as long as their other band mates in their own band Loving Awareness could also come along. Ian agreed and with the addition of Davey Payne sax player old friend and former band mate of Ians that line-up became Ian Dury and The Blockheads for the next twenty years or so.

4. Tell us about writing “Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick” and “Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll”. Did you expect them to be punk classics?

Hit Me was written after I jammed with Ian. I later spotted a little accent at the beginning of my piano outro solo on Wake Up and Make Love….a song we had recorded a few months earlier. I tagged that accent onto the riff I had been jamming on the previous day with Ian and bingo, we had the rhythmic pulse for the whole song …the rest of the band joined us once we had the lyric and music sorted.

5. What was it like recording and playing in Ian Dury and the Blockheads?

Writing and recording with The Blockheads has also been an amazing experience particularly watching how the songs unfold and develop over the years of live performance.

6. What was it like becoming a solo artist and releasing your first solo album?

My first solo album on A&M titled Chas Jankel opened with the track Ai No Corrida which Quincy Jones covered. I think I had a wonderful opportunity to make all the music I wanted to express  in my early thirties at that point.

7. You were to work with Ian Drury again on a solo album. Could you tell us about this. Did you write together on this one?

I made the album Lord Upminster with Ian Dury in Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare providing the rhythm section. When we arrived there Ian only had literally the two words Spasticus Autisticus. We had to work  very, very quickly as we only had two weeks to make the whole album. How we pulled it off is a miracle.

8. What is like still playing with The Blockheads after Ian’s death? Are the fans still coming to the shows?

To this day, I love playing every gig with The Blockheads. How could you not? When we get the sort of reactions we hear from our growing  supportive audience. Our merchandise people are amazing, our front of house mixing is phenomenal and the band themselves are always  uber cohesive. Over the years we’ve built up a very strong set of songs and we have three generations of fans who listen to everything from soulful funk, to music hall ditties, to steaming angry punk rock without any problem. But it’s all played with gusto and is naturally Blockhead idiosyncratic.

Ian’s been gone twenty five years physically but spiritually, he sits on our shoulders every performance, watching over us and loving the Spirit. At the last gig at the 229 Club, the audience sang Sweet Gene Vincent with The Blockheads backing them. It was a hoot. (note to myself – to be remembered and repeated. Ian would have loved this.

9. Any future plans and projects for you?

I have future plans. I’m writing and recording with Blues Slide Guitar player Michael Messer. We’ve already made one album “Mostly We Drive” and it’s up online and now we’ve started writing our second album. I’ve also made an instrumental album with cellist Frank Schaefer called Notes Of Bergamot which I’m going to get up online soon. Added to this, I’ve been writing and continue to write piano compositions where I lose myself and eventually find myself. Then again who knows what’s round the corner? Sometimes there’s a flurry of ideas and sometimes not. Some days I just walk barefoot to the back of the garden and back again!

Such is the life of Chaz Jankel X – June 2025

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