1) When did DC FONTANA form up as a group, and was it decided that you were going to be more or less a Soul/Motown cover band.#

ANSWER: The band's name has been around for quite a while, since the mid 1990s in fact though the current line up is relatively "young."

What's tended to happen is that the group has evolved continually with different people being involved.

Over the years people have come and gone but we have gradually distilled the line up and sound, finding the right heads and hearts to propel us in an upwardly direction.

It's not always been easy I have to tell you but this is an adventure and a vocation, a labour of love if you will, and so if something's worth doing right then it's definitely worth spending the time to get on the right track.

After all Rome wasn't built in a day you know!

I guess I am the only person to remain in the group without a break since it was formed and so I've become thought of as being the catalyst behind it all but it is very much a democratic group with loads of input from everyone.

It's true that I was a founding member of the DCs along with our guitarist Neil Jones who has recently rejoined the group, having been away from it for a couple of years.

As for us being a "soul/Motown cover band" as you put it, I would massively disagree with that statement. Massively.

I don't go for labels and "bags" and it is quite counter-productive & irritating to most bands to be conveniently slotted into a genre bag. It's a very British thing to do but we don't dig it.

But I have to stress 'til the cows come home that we are not a covers band!

What is far far more important is that we passionately write and perform our own songs....we would be horrified if people thought of us as merely a covers band!

In fact we are very lucky to have several song-writers in the band.

As well as myself our Hammond player Scott is a prolific composer as is our guitarist Neil and singer Karla and trumpet player Steve.

Most groups have maybe one or two people who can write songs but we are lucky & blessed with a plethora of writers.

We either write as a team or individually and all have our own ways of coming up with tunes......what works well for one of us may not be so good for someone else but it's refreshing to have so many creative minds working in the band and it keeps our material exciting and often eclectic.

Getting back to the sticky subject of covers though it'd be true to say that people on the scooter scene would certainly recognise us for doing our own bespoke versions of some classic old soul tunes but it's our own songs that are where we are heading and the covers thing is only part of our make-up.

At scooter rallies and other scooter or mod-related events we mix our own songs with some obscure covers that we like and it's fair to say those kind of tunes will always be well received by a scooterist audience for obvious reasons.

You got to say that at scooterist gigs in particular we notice they love the northern soul stuff in particular so we will tend to play more material like that than normal but if people think that we're just a covers band they'd be massively mistaken.

At all gigs we put in our own songs.

That said, we're also not precious about the "covers" thing - I don't actually believe there is anything wrong with performing covers so long as you do it with some respect and love and maybe inject something fresh into them.

All the greatest groups have interpreted songs written by people they've admired and loved.

You only have to look at groups like the Beatles doing all that R&B and early soul stuff by people like Smokey Robinson, the Cookies, The Shirelles etc. Or of course the Who doing their James Brown covers or The Jam playing Who, Kinks and soul tunes.

All bands pay homage to the people who make them tick by interpreting songs.
It doesn't have to be uncool and karaoke-esque and we are no covers band or tribute band!

I am convinced you can only learn to write better original songs yourself by interpreting and re-moulding other people's songs -it's a path of discovery.

And I must stress that we never replicate the original versions of any cover we do play - that would be so lame and uncool and we are not a human xerox machine.

If we play a cover version then we re-sculpt it, add our own slant and vibe & be creative while also treating it with the respect it deserves.

We play a cover with love & understanding of a fan who adores the music while at the same time trying to always add a bit of ourselves into it via some kind of sonic osmosis.

You don't get that humdrum mentality with us that most so called covers bands seem to possess. It's not that uncool!

2) Who make up DC FONTANA as a band.

ANSWER: The group's current line up is:

Karla Milton: Lead vocals & guitar
Scott Riley: Hammond organ / Fender Rhodes electric piano / guitar / vocals
Mark Mortimer (me): Bass guitar
Neil Jones: Guitars / vocals
Ben Jones: Drums
Steve Trigg: Trumpet / flugelhorn
Tim Nightingale: Alto saxophone / flute
Jamie Ryder: Tenor & baritone saxophones
Josh Large: Trombone
Mike Holden: Trumpet

We sometimes have a few guest musicians who play with us including a baritone sax player called Nick Smith and an Italian jazz singer called Chicca Andriollo along with her partner Oscar Marchioni, a virtuoso jazz organist who both live in Paris.

When we play in France sometimes Chicca and Oscar play with us and we are inviting them to record with us on a couple of tunes for our first album later this year.

Karla is our current lead singer and she originally comes from the south west but has lived in Wolverhampton for a while. We came across her on My Space of all places - I noticed her as she looked totally cool and the more I investigated I found out she was a very talented singer-song-writer playing acoustic guitar and singing these cool jazz and folk influenced tunes.

She looked great and shared very similar influences as us and so it was a great meeting of minds. She originally joined us to sing a few lead vocals and plenty of backing vocals but within a few months we installed her as the lead singer and we haven't looked back to be fair.

Karla has a craking voice, sort of jazzy but very passionate and soulful. Her background is definitely from the whole so-called mod and 60s scene and she loves R&B, soul, jazz, psychedelia and Latin grooves.

Scott is the John Steed of the band, a dapper well dressed and fiercely quiet bloke with great taste and talent. Before joining us he'd been involved with Pete Kember (also known as Sonic Boom) of the Spacemen 3 and had played and recorded with his groups Spectrum and E.A.R. as a guitarist.

He has an eye and ear for the bigger picture and when he writes songs he tends to have a complete idea of what he wants the finished thing to sound like before he brings it the band so he has a very focussed vibe.

The rest of us tend to be much more collaborative when we write songs.

When Scott joined DC Fontana he was at the very early stages of learning to play organ as inherently he's a guitarist but he's developed faster than concorde and is a fine player.

His background is very much from the R&B, jazz and 60s funk end of the mod spectrum and that coupled with his love of bands like Spiritualized, Spacemen 3 etc gives him a very definite angle aon what he wants and how to achieve it.

Neil, as I've explained, was a founding member of the group and spent a couple of years away from the DCs in the mid 00s when he was in a band called the Glory.

He loves a wide range of music including rare soul and funk but also is massively into 60s garage and psychedelic sounds, especially the Velvet Underground plus bands like the Byrds and pleanty of post-punk sounds but his biggest influence of all would be Elvis Costello.

Drummer Ben is the most recent addition to the band & he is a very talented all-round musician who is also a superb guitar player and keyboard player & who has been involved in composing soundtrack music for TV.

He doesn't speak much which is the total opposite of our horn section who are pretty noisy and in your face.

Steve - or "Trigger" as we call him - is a really experienced trumpet player from Gloucester & he's played with all kinds of big names like Stevie Winwood, Mick Jagger, Bad Manners and all sorts of people. He was on the Mod Aid record a few years back as well.

He's been involved with the scooter and mod scenes for a long time and has had many scooters in the past.

Jamie is a jazz head from Derbyshire who joined the band after he finished university - we're always ribbinbg him about his jazz degree. He really likes a lot of the cool 60s jazz stuff which inspires us inluding people like Cannonball Adderley and he is also really into funk and soul.

Tim is a good friend of Jamie's and lives in Bedford. They went to university together and stayed in contact ever since.

Last year he did a couple of gigs for us where he stood in for our then sax player when she was ill but when we parted company with her at Christmas Tim jumped at the chance of joining us and he's been great to have around.

Josh is the youngest in the band (16!!!) and is from Birmingham.

He is still at school, believe it or not, but he's a great talent, a real good kid and he has got bags of potential and he's great to have in the group.

Mike is a northern lad living down in Warwickshire and he hadn't played trumpet for a long, long time before he met up with us. Due to his other commitments he is not always able to play with the band and often shares the gigs with Trigger.

And as for Me, well I have a very long and all-encompassing story I guess! In the mid 80s i was in a band called The Dream Factory who had a big following of scooter boys and mods and we released a couple of singles on the northern soul label Inferno which dented the charts.

Around that time I was very close with Julian Cope who was living in Tamworth at the same period and one of my best friends Donald (Skinner) left the Dream Factory to join his band.

It's cool and ironic that Donald is our producer at the moment!

In the early to mid 90s I worked for an indie dance record label called Network which was run by the well-known northern soul DJ and afficiando Neil Rushton (who had also run Inferno) and it was during that time that DC Fontana started.

During my time at Network I had the pleasure of briefly playing bass with The Trammps (or as I prefer to think of them, The Volcanoes!).

3) Do you enjoy playing the gigs on the scootering circuit.

ANSWER: Yes very much so. I've grown up involved with the scootering and mod scenes so it's been a big part of my life and although we do loads of gigs that are not directly scooter rallies or whatever we do have a great time playing in front of the scooter & mod set.

The enthusiasm and energy at those gigs is great and we feel an empathy and shared love of the music with them so it's all great.

We've had some great times and been treated really well by the scene which has supported us a long time, it's something we'd never ever forget.

4) Where in the world have you played, and have you ever played as a backing band to so called professional groups.

ANSWER: We have played all over the place really and as we keep progressing and getting our sound spread then the gigs seem to be further afield which is wonderful.

We love to travel and see new places and faces. Bring it on!

In recent times we have played a lot in France and we have quite a buzz in Europe generally.

In April this year we enjoyed a short tour which included Paris and Lyon in France and then we headlined the annual scooter rally of Tuscany in Italy which was held on the beautiful Isle of Elba - a great place.

Met loads of new scootering friends there. If anyone is looking to go on a scooter rally with a difference then I'd suggest that one - it's just fantastic and in beautiful settings.

As well as this we've played the amazing Purple Weekend 60s festival in Leon, Spain alongside Kula Shaker, the Electric Prunes, Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers etc. That was amazing.

We also headlined the Beat The Clock Mod Weekender in Cologne in Germany last year as well as the Athenaeum Cave Mod event in Athens, Greece last November which was an incredible trip.

We've headlined the Paris Rare Groove Day twice in France and also the Paris Mod Weekender three times as well as playing a scooter rally in Ireland and we've also done the National Scottish rally several years ago. There are undoubtedly other gigs we've done that I've temporarily forgotten but we do get around!

I am fairly sure we will be off to play Greece later this year again and we have loads of interest over in the States and even as far away in Australia where various 60s scene and scooter promoters have approached us to play.

So I guess we will be spreading our wings ever wider in the coming months and years. We are hoping that our new album will help us get to newer places too.

5) Are any members of the band into the scootering scene, and do any of the members own scooters, if so what are they and how long have they owned them.

ANSWER: Scott has a classy & classic white Lambretta SX200 and has had it for quite a while. He has always loved and collected classic scooters and cars.

I personally don't have a scooter at this second but I've had quite a lot in my time. Over the years I've had Vespas and Lambrettas, even had one of those Spanish Servettas in the mid 80s.

My very first scooter was a blue Vespa (Douglas) 100 which my mum and dad bought me from a shop in Measham which is a small town close to where I live in Tamworth.

I used to love my old red Vespa 150 Super but my favourite scooter was the last one I owned which was a great 1966 Li125 that had been restored and customised.

Sadly on the day my insurance ran out it was stolen from my back garden while I was in the bath! It was used by a local youth who rode around the town stealing women's knickers off washing lines!

He was eventually caught but by that time the scooter was wrecked and I got it back in boxes destroyed.

I think it's fair to say it broke my heart and I've not had one since though it's inevitable I will want another Lambretta in the future!

Trigger (Steve) has also had a number of scooters over the years, both Lambrettas and Vespas; in fact I reckon he's probably had more scooters than the rest of us.


6) Have you ever heard any one pay you compliments on the sound of the band,(i.e.) the music you play and tell you that you sound just like the original groups

ANSWER: It's always great to get compliments because it means you're doing something right for somebody.

We know and accept that we won't be to everyone's tastes but that's fine and dandy and it's the beauty of music isn't it. But in all honesty we get far more compliments than good slag offs so we are heading in the right direction!

To be honest it's the kind words that mean much more than anything else really....it's what makes everything worthwhile including the blood, sweat and tears.

It's not about having your ego massaged or being anal about being in a group but it's great if you're getting people hooked into your own little trip and it's that more than money or any other reason that I do this for.

7) Have you ever met any of the Motown or soul legends, and if so, have any of the original members commented on your sound?

ANSWER: I knew Edwin Starr very well. When he moved to the UK in the early 80s he ended up living in a castleated mansion house called Pooley Hall in the village of Polesworth which is 3 miles from Tamworth.

Around 1983 I was a journalist in the town and got to meet Edwin to interview him for the local paper (and a few scootering publications) and it was really cool.

We got on very well and stayed in touch for quite a while afterwards. He was always VERY supportive of me as a musician and would give me plenty of advice which was always great to get.

At the same time I was hanging round with Copey and so I was getting loads of good ideas and advice from both of them and both were very inspirational to me.

Sadly Edwin passed away before the current DC Fontana line up came into existence.

As I've already mentioned I also played a few gigs with The Trammps and even played bass for them when their re-make of "Hold Back The Night" came out in 1993 and got featured in the video for that which was fun.

We've occasionally played the soul weekenders at various Butlins resorts and have come across other "name" soul acts during those shows, far too many to mention actually.

Oh and I once stood next to Geno Washington in a urinal at a gig in Coventry if that counts!

8) Where do you see yourself going in the future as a band, where would you like to be in a year or so time

ANSWER: We are growing and evolving all the time and who knows what the future holds but we are hopeful it will include loads more gigging all over the world and loads of recording, maybe more success?

We work very hard and spend an enormous amount of time, effort in trying to get our sonic vision heard and seen and it's definitely a labour of love as I said earlier so we see this as an on-going thing. I couldn't imagine NOT playing.

Obviously, as I've said, we've just started work in the studio on what will become (eventually!) our first album and that's all about our own original songs and not a covers thing. That's where our destiny lies, for sure.

We are recording at the Parr Street studios in Liverpool which is owned by the management people behind Echo & The Bunnymen. My close friend Donald Ross Skinner is producing us right now in between still doing gigs for Julian Cope and writing and recording his own songs.

It's a great environment to work in and we are on a steep learning curve.

So far we are in the very early stages of the project and at the time of writing this we've started work on just five tunes but we are aiming to get about 20 songs or so recorded to be used on an album and also to have other tracks for other projects like maybe an EP here or a single there.

The five tunes we've begun work on include "Sleeping With X" written by Neil, "Benny" written by Karla, "Switchblade Love" written by yours truly, "You Are" written by Scott and also we're doing our own interpretation of a mod-jazz classic called "Listen Here" which was originally by Eddie Harris and will feature guest appearances by Chicca & Oscar.

It's a very exciting and creative time to be in the band and we are definitely learning and growing as a group of people.

The studio itself is great and a lot of big names have worked there including Coldplay, The Verve, Pulp, Inspiral Carpets, New Order, The Charlatans & even people like Diana Ross.

Donald is, I feel sure, helping to bring the best out of us and we feel the recording process is also making us a better live band.

It's also got a real good mythical rock & roll vibe about the process. Obviously there are the strong connections with the Bunnymen, a band I really love, and also on our very first trip to the studio a couple of weeks back we had to change rooms as Oasis decided to book in to use the bigger room for a rehearsal as they wanted to work in their new drummer.

We were recording some vocal overdubs in Studio 2 upstairs but Oasis were so loud rehearsing down below that you could actually hear them on our tracks in the background which gives you an idea of how loud they were! It was really funny but our engineer had to go downstairs and tell Noel and co to turn down or shut up for a short while so we could get the vocals finished!

We thought that was great fun!

Anyway, getting back to your question I am hoping that in a year's time we will be playing gigs in the States and or Australia and that we are moving forwards in which ever way we can.

I am hoping our album would have been received well and that we'd be starting work on the second one!

9) What is the longest tour you've done as a group on the road.

ANSWER: Being in DC Fontana is like being on a constant, never-ending tour. We don't really have many breaks from gigging if honest, it's a big part of us.

We haven't done a big 30-date tour or whatever but we do play all the time so we are a very busy live band.

10) Do you cover a lot of your own sounds, and if so who writes the lyrics and where does the inspiration come from, is it mainly Northern Soul/ Motown or Jazz or even R&B.

ANSWER: We have plenty of influences and sources of inspiration for our own songs and like most song-writers I guess they are pretty eclectic.

I'd definitely agree that there is very much an R&B and jazz inspiration to our original tunes and you will definitely hear and feel among the grooves some soul references as well as some psychedelic undertones.

Someone once told me that we produce, and I quote, "soulful psychedelic jazz with an indie attitude" and I thought was a great description of how our own songs sound!

It definitely has groove and feel, it definitely references soul and jazz vibes but it is also -I hope - contemporary in attitude and there is definitely an edgier indie-rock sheen to it as well.

As previously explained we have several song-writers among our ranks and we all contribute in a musical sense. Neil, Scott, Karla and myself are all lyricists too.

The inspiration comes from a whole pot pourri of places. Lyrically I think our songs tend to be either based on very personal experiences or can be character pieces so that keeps the subject matter very fresh and variable.

The "personal experience" are written and sung from the heart, as they should be!

11) I know a lot of people reading this might be asking themselves are these guys into the Northern Soul /Motown Scene themselves or do they just knock out the sounds, I mean to say do you guys when you've got spare time to yourselves, go out to other events that are say a Northern Soul and Motown night, or do you prefer some other sounds, not everyone can say whole heartedly that they are just into one particular sound/scene

ANSWER: First and foremost we are fans of good music.

The best groups and singers from the past 40 years of pop music or rock music or whatever you want to call it, are also huge fans of the people who inspired them and that's exactly how you become inspired.

If you're a bona fide fan then it gives you a much more natural empathy and you can be better placed to use your own music as a vehicle to drive and express your own feelings.

As you can probably guess from what I've been saying earlier we do love the whole rare soul, R&B, jazz and 60s psychedelic music thing and though we hardly get any free time we have been out to clubs and nights when we can.

Last couple of years we've managed to go to the New Untouchables mod rally in Birmingham which is great as they always have a room for pure R&B and soul sounds and that's always a great DC social event!

We've also been to scooter rallies and events when we've not been playing.

And of course you're absolutely right to say that we are not just into on particular sound or scene; how boring that would be!

Both the scooter scene and the so-called "mod" scene are large cathedrals full of eclectic sounds....and we love diversity, shade and colour.

Again, I am not a big fan of defining sounds and "scenes" with labels because it's a bit lame and does more harm than good.

But we are not like a tribute band who plays one kind of sound or music to make money and yet has no real connection or interest to the music that they play.

Since I first sneaked into see "Quadrophenia" underage at the local Palace Cinema in Tamworth back in '79 I have been massively involved with the scooter and mod movements; it's been a really big part of my life.

I've ridden scooters to rallies & events, I've played gigs at them, I have danced at them and I have DJd too so I have a very deep connection. It's not a fleeting thing, what's the old cliche....it's a "way of life!"

Which doesn't mean to say I close off my mind to other musical styles as I don't. My home collection is both enormous and extremely varied.

To me good music is good music, whatever bag or label people want to give it.

I can say, hand on heart, that someone like, let's say by way of example, Joy Division could be described as "soul music" in that it's music that is heartfelt and made from the soul.

It may not be soul music in the same way that Marvin Gaye is or Major Lance or whoever but it's good music and I love good, heartfelt music. Keep your mind open!