Utah Saints plan to bring something good to Woodzstock's Black Isle festival in the forest
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Pioneers of rave who have gone on to have a full career in music on their own terms, that is what to expect when Utah Saints appear as headliners at this year’s Woodzstock on Saturday.
They had just been taking part in a podcast on how to DJ with 6 Music’s Chris Hawkins when Jez Willis – half of the Saints with longtime friend and colleague Tim Garbutt – spoke from their North of England base about the life of the act.
He made it sound as if the duo’s initial encounter was just a matter of time, as two young DJs met as dance music became a scene as well as the sound of the 1990s.
Jez said: “Tim was DJing in Harrogate and I was DJing in Leeds. Tim had started a night with his friend in Harrogate and I had already been promoting nights in Leeds for three or four years.
“The club in Harrogate wanted DJs for their Saturday and a completely different type of night from Tim’s on the Friday.
“At the time I was DJing disco and funk, so they said come across and look at the club on Friday which was his night – and that’s how we met!”.
Was it an instant friendship?
Jez laughed: “That’s interesting – we were discussing it this morning.
“I went to see his night and we were interested in each other’s music.
“Both of us were already making music independently and I had got a sampler at the record shop.”
Famously, Utah Saints had an almost instant hit, going to number 10 in the singles chart with their first release in 1991.
“I had got bargain CDs and among them I got Eurythmics’ There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) and I had sampled that.and I put it onto cassette and took it across to Tim’s club and said ‘Listen to this!’ and he played it straight away. He said he thought I should work on it a bit more and then we went into the studio together where his influence and my influence worked together and we finished What Can You Do For Me.”
They pressed up a small number, then a bigger number that sold in its thousands.
“From us meeting to being on Top Of The Pops was about eight months!”Jez still marvels.
“We were best mates but maintain a professional relationship, so we don’t really argue – I don’t want to tempt fate – but we delegate into different things and split up tasks because we know our strengths,” he said.
Jez had always wanted to be in bands and had been from around 14 or 15.
“I had been in bands before and had been DJing at school from 14 or 15. I had started with mobile weddings and discos and kids’ parties. I was up in Carlisle, then moved to Leeds, got into bands, dropped out of uni pretty quickly and I started working at night. Rave had taken off and I was promoting four or five nights and Tim was promoting nights and everything was completely bonkers. Then Utah Saints went off doing raves, touring all over the country -–particularly Scotland.
“We’ve always had an affinity with Scotland, not just because I grew up 10 miles south of the border, but because apart from Laos, Scotland is still the only place we’ve had a number one!
“At the beginning, pretty much weekends we were out at different raves and a lot of them were in Scotland.
“It had a huge part to play in rave culture, though when it’s written about, it’s often seen as being based round the M25 and Manchester areas, but Scotland was a real energy place for us.”
What tempted Jez and Tim to come and appear at Woodzstock this year?
“We’ve promoted things ourselves and we know what it is like to be an independent promoter, so we will always try to work with independent promoters,” Jez said. “It’s this idea of soul.
“Independent festivals are often run by a few individuals and their personality tends to run right through the festival. Everyone has the same ethos and is going in the same direction.
“We are involved down here in the Beta festival, we curate a stage now and the audience is 15,000 – we saw it when it started as 1500!
“We have seen a lot of grassroots festivals grow and we see it as a privilege to be involved with something like that.
“When there is a real community feel to it, it feels like a proper event.”
And if the feel, heart and soul of an event is important to the Utah Saints, there’s an element of science and research goes into working out the perfect soundtrack!
Jez said: “We do our research of what an event has been like in the past, what sort of people might be going – and we bring a huge amount of music and test it out as we go through!
“We like to do a lot of preparation but we don’t do a lot of planning, if that makes sense!”
“We have our own edits and new versions of old things and we try and make it exciting for whoever is in the audience.
“Do you want it all on one level?
“We try and keep real energy in our sets, so nobody is standing still – even if they’re just walking from side to side.
“And we’ve got a couple of things to set us off!”
As ever, the Woodzstock bill is a careful mix, this year including Inverness musician James Mackenzie who has been living in Germany for the past few years but is now back, and fellow Inverness line-up, The Dihydro, as well as the popular Tom McGuire & The Brassholes, McFleetwood, the return of local metal rockers Bad Actress with their new singer and many more local acts including Karawane, Chancers, Palemoon, The Black Isle Peas, Dylan James Tierney, Paul John Maciver, talented young singer songwriter Rhoehaisse Clark, Sarah Gallagher, Susanna Wolfe and Wee James.
One change this year is that there is space for 10 pitches for small campervans. But a familiar trademark – as in previous years – is the festival has its special bus services from and to Inverness and Rosemarkie. Tickets available on the website booking page.
For the full line-up, info and to buy tickets: www.Woodzstock.co.uk
