My 2020, my 2021, by Jim Bob

December 21, 2020

Jim Bob released a new book, A Godwaful Small Affair, and a new album, Pop Up Jim Bob, this year, both to great acclaim. We asked him to tell us his thoughts on 2020, and about his hopes for 2021:

Hi Jim. 2020 has been a tough old year, hasn’t it? To what extent did the virus impact your plans? You had a tour booked, didn’t you?

Lockdown number 1 happened just after I’d mastered Pop Up Jim Bob and just before A Godawful Small Affair was published. It felt like I’d done one thing (the album) just in time, and the other thing (the book) about a week too late. I cancelled the real world book launch and held it online via Facebook Live instead. That sort of set off a series of Facebook performances. Starting with readings from the novel(s) and a few songs and then it merged into me playing pretty much everything I’ve ever written and eventually live solo versions of songs from the new album. It filled some of my time and gave me something to focus on every week.

We did have a few gigs planned for August and then some more for November and December. We moved them around about ten times and eventually shifted them to next November, when hopefully all this nonsense will be over. If it had been a bigger tour it would have been devastating.

How did you find the original lockdown, and indeed the subsequent lockdown and restrictions?

I went through a whole range of emotions. First I feared for my own safety – I was convinced I was going to get ill and die – and I had a terrible feeling of doom, of being a prisoner and never being allowed out of the house again. Then I settled into a guilty routine of watching television and eating and not really doing anything other than feeling bad about how I should be writing a novel or some new songs instead. If I knew how to drive I would have volunteered to drive people to the hospital or something. I felt pretty useless. But once I’d started doing the regular Facebook live things it occurred to me that maybe entertaining was not only my job but my duty. If there was a war that’s what I’d be doing. Entertaining the troops. What did you do in the war, Daddy? I sang Sheriff Fatman on the internet.

Were you able to get creative during these difficult times and, if so, what have you been working on?

Once I got over the not able to do anything hump I got stuck into making videos for Pop Up Jim Bob and thinking of ways to promote the album, making images to post on social media etc. I did a two hour radio show as part of Cherry Red’s takeover of Soho Radio. I enjoyed that. And I recorded some cover versions for people who bought both the CD and the vinyl versions of the album. Around August I wrote some more songs and recorded a new album’s worth of demos. The past year has actually probably been my most prolific in years. Two albums. Plus the two novels. They were published in March but it feels like about five years ago. This year has made no sense. Is it still April? Time has become even more of an abstract concept.

Did you learn anything new about yourself in 2020?

I wish I could say yes. I’m incredibly intolerant of my neighbours and their dogs and their noise. I want to live in a detached house near a beach. But maybe I knew that already.

Has life thrown you any highlights since COVID happened? Any surprising moments of levity and enjoyment?

There was an unexpected effect that COVID had on Pop Up Jim Bob. It made me appear like some sort of seer, predicting what a crappy year it was going to be. Ironically I think it might have helped make the album more successful. I’m not saying that COVID was good for marketing purposes but it did seem to make the record more pertinent. 2020 WTF! should have been the first ever 26-second number one single. It should have been played on the news. Unfortunately it turned out to be 26 seconds too long for certain radio stations to play. Unfortunately that made me feel a little bitter. I don’t want to be like Cliff or Status Quo, moaning because they won’t play my records on the radio anymore.

And what has been the toughest thing about this year for you?

The occasional frustration of feeling stuck where I am.

Really, I’ve been lucky. I haven’t lost my job or my house or any of my loved ones. All I can do is whinge about the smaller stuff. And I do let the smallest things get to me. This really annoying yapping neighbourhood dog and one of our neighbours who smokes outside and coughs up phlegm twenty times a day. Normally when these things irritate me I go to Devon or Center Parcs or even just to Caffè Nero for forty five minutes. Not being able to do that because of lockdown has made me more irritable. I’m sounding like a right old Victor Meldrew.

Tell us about the music you have been listening to in 2020…

New music wise I’ve listened a lot to Phoebe Bridges – Punisher, Bright Eyes – Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was, Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Laura Marling – Song for my Daughter, Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface, Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You (I found the documentary film about the making of the album quite inspiring. For a moment I saw myself as Bruce Springsteen, and The Hoodrats as the E Street Band). I also liked Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump…On a Wooden Piano and the Father John Misty – Off-Key in Hamburg live album. And Nick Cave and his piano at Alexandra Palace.

And what have you been watching/reading?

I’ve just compiled my top tens to post on my website, so I can tell you I’ve watched a hell of a lot of TV. I mean I always do, but this year the telly has rarely been off long enough to cool down. My favourite TV shows were Ghosts, Get Shorty, The Queen’s Gambit, The Good Lord Bird, Taskmaster (the most consistently funny TV programme ever made), Trial 4, Grayson’s Art Club, What We Do in the Shadows, Breeders, Better Call Saul. I don’t know how I would have coped without Netflix and Now TV. Back to back repeats of Mrs Brown’s Boys and 40 Greatest Albert Square Arguments would have finished me off.

I read some great books. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, The Blind Light by Stuart Evers, Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather, The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, I Wanna be Yours by John Cooper Clarke, The Captain and the Glory by Dave Eggers, A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry, Death in her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegth.

Thinking about 2021, what are you most looking forward to doing once we’ve fully come out the other side of this pandemic?

I’m going to start recording a new album in January. I think it’s going to be a massive loud bombastic pop record. People will listen to it and reflect on the year that lead to it being made and they’ll sing along and dance and hug and kiss. It’s going to be my first number one album since 1992. I don’t want to wish next year away before it’s begun but I’m also looking forward to playing live in November. And the vaccine of course. I’m swabbed up and ready to receive.

What do you personally hope to achieve by this time next year?

A knighthood. Which I’ll turn down in a tsunami of publicity.

And, more broadly, what would you like to see happen in the world in 2021, either nationally or globally?

I wish everyone could just get on a bit more. A global pandemic should have been like that storm in The Day After Tomorrow that united Mexico and the USA, or an alien attack that brings all the humans together. But sadly I don’t think it’s done that. If anything, the opposite is the case. People are even more angry than they were before. It’s an occupation for some people now. All these furious people on twitter with strong opinions on absolutely everything. Laurence Fox and Right Said Fred for God’s sake. Why can’t they shut up for five minutes. It must be exhausting.

Thanks for chatting to us Jim! Is there anything else you want to tell our readers before you go?

Keep your friends close and your enemies on Twitter.