Thanks so much to Jimmy Cousins for the interview! I wrote about the Newcastle band The Dakota Plains some time ago and Jimmy was kind enough to get in touch and answer a bunch of my questions! Hope you all enjoy!
++ Hi Jimmy! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?
Hi it’s great to be talking to you about my old band. The guys are all still involved in music and I’m currently putting a new band together with three brilliant musicians a couple of which I have worked with previously in a couple of other bands and a bass player who is absolutely brilliant Steve is also totally blind I’m very excited about this project
++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?
My earliest musical memory was seeing The Beatles on tv in the early 60s watching Ringo playing I think she loves you I was mesmerised and hooked on the drums from that moment. I pestered my parents for a drum kit but money was scarce so an old Banjo with the strings removed was my first instrument. My brother started taking lessons and I was learning rudiments and a bit of reading from him I was seven years old eventually he gave me his little drum set up. I started playing percussion at school and was absolutely committed to music playing school concerts plays and musical musicals I was totally addicted. When I started in high school there was no school band so I drifted in to playing soccer and didn’t play music again until I was passing a by a garden and a band were jamming old rock n roll songs and a few 70s covers I watched through the fence as they played all right now by Free I cheekily told the drummer he was playing it wrong he asked me in to show him how to play it which I did in a few weeks he sold me his drums. I then practiced for a couple of years and got reasonably good. I left home after my mum passed away and moved from my home town of Jarrow and spent nearly two years homeless sofa surfing and living rough in Newcastle. I was drinking was drinking in a bar with a friend when I was asked by some people if I new any drummers so I told them that I was and as it transpired they had a big house they were sharing I was in a band and had a place to live I set about finding a day job and then quickly bought a new set of drums eventually after a few months and a few gigs I stole the bass player and guitars and formed a three piece band kind of Zappa kind of Police like. That band almost got signed by Miles Copeland but due to personal issues I left and drifted in and out of various projects.
++ How was your town at the time of The Dakota Plains? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
The city of Newcastle was bustling with great venues and great bands at this time and I was buzzing to be playing in a band that were gigging up and down England and Scotland we were going great and our following was growing we were Interviewed by the local press lots of times and we were in a fair few Fanzines. Local press really backed us and we were soon recording our debut single She don’t understand me like you that was very well received and got local and national AirPlay we sold every copy and played loads of great gigs the highlight being a support slot for a great band called The Men They Couldn’t Hang a big band who were wonderful to us. We supported Wilko Johnson with Norman Watt Roy from Ian Dury and The Blockheads that was amazing. We recorded 7 words our follow up single and that was played on local and national radio we got a lot of press coverage and were playing great. We played the Cookson Festival at the Ampitheatre in South Shields a wonderful open air venue we recorded our mini album At The Seaside it was a very limited edition and it sold out in a couple of hours we were flying.
++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?
As a boy and still to this day my musical heroes are Led Zeppelin I love the Bonham groove and they way he locked in with Jimmy Page as opposed to the bassist a thing I still do to this day. I played many gigs and recorded demos with various bands and artists until I was approached by Jevvy Maroney who along with the brilliant Colin Stephenson had played in a poppy Costello type band called Head Office he asked if I was available to try out for their new band The Dakota Plains I was curious but not overly keen to play in a country band. A few days later a cassette tape was dropped through my letter box I just put on a shelf and sort of ignored it my brother who was staying with us told me to play it and said it was an opportunity and it might be good so I reluctantly put in my player and was actually very impressed they weren’t a straight country band at all so I rang them and went to jam with them and within a week or two we debuted at A very hip bar in Newcastle the place was rammed you couldn’t move we played and played a half a dozen encores a big success and I was in.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
The band were evolving and getting better both live and in our songwriting less Thrash country as Jess Cox former singer of Newcastle rock icons The Tigers Of Pantang coined us in a review he did when he was a musical promoter and journalist we became a bit more like an REM type band.
++ The 7″ was recorded at Lynx Studio. How was this experience? Any anecdotes you remember from the recording sessions?
We had such a laugh when recording Charlie in particular cracked me up when we recorded our second single and Mond Cowie guitarist with the legendary punk band The Angelic Upstarts co produced our fist single I had done my drum track and my tambourine overdub I said okay I’m making coffee any takers we all agreed on coffee except for the punk legend who asked for a cup of Earl Grey tea I exclaimed that I was flabbergasted that a man who had been banned fro every major venue in Britain and Europe wanted a cup of scented tea! Charlie hires a beautiful black brand new Rickenbacker 12 string guitar to play the solo on 7 words he played it in one take and beaming at me bragged hey there you go one take Barlow to which I replied okay maestro look behind you to which he did and the look of sheer horror on his face was fantastic as he watched the 12 string fall out of the guitar stand and onto the studio floor it was absolutely hilarious and thankfully the Rick was unmarked
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
We were often asked about the name of the band my answer was always that it was a play on words.
++ And how come there were no more releases? Why no album?
Apart from the two singles and the mini album there are a fair few excellent bootlegs kicking about
++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “She Don’t Understand Me Like You”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
My memories of the band are all good and even though we don’t see each other very much our friendships remain strong. You asked about the she don’t understand me like you single and it’s meaning. The song was written at the time when I was going through a very difficult and bitter divorce and my new lady who is now my wife Julie was the influence for the words of that song it pretty much summed up our life together at that difficult time
++ Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?
We were formed in Newcastle a party city a very vibrant and multi cultured city the great venues are still there but many have closed our changed however the local scene is still very cool with some excellent bands Stan the band are very cool and amongst some of the really cool bands are Big Ray and the Hipthrusters they are absolutely brilliant. My other bands did okay especially The Last Souls who became Spin Machine a funky groove rock band we split up last year and now I’m playing in a brand new group called Dead Sea Divers with Gary Lindley ain’t guitars Tony “Mez” Mason who sang in Starfish a really cool band I was in and Steve Dryden on bass we are currently rehearsing and writing some absolutely amazing songs I’m very hopeful and totally absorbed with the new band it is very groove laden with a lot of different influences I think people will like it.
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
In closing let me thank you very much for your questions and your interest in my old band. It’s been nice to talk about a very special band it’s still very dear to me and I hope my answers are okay. Please keep on doing what you do it’s great! many thanks and best regards to you Jimmy Cousins
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