Jools Holland, presenter
We started with nothing. No sets, no audience, no budget. “Why don’t we put the camera in the middle,” said our director Janet Fraser-Crook, “then you can just walk around all the artists?” I’m comfortable moving about and making things up as I go. I’m a professional arser-about. At one point they were going to call it Jools Holland’s Circus but we thought artists might feel like performing seals or clowns.
I made a point of welcoming everyone and checking they were comfortable, like a hotel manager. Jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams says you’ve got to love what you’re playing, love who you’re playing with, and love who you’re playing to. We try to show that. When bands finish, there’s always a stony silence, which is why we got an audience in. Other shows tried to be clever, funny or controversial but we played it straight. Later was just music. For us, that was enough.
Alongside established names, we’d get challenging newer acts, ones that didn’t have a home anywhere else – stars of folk and world music as well as the pop bands of the day. The strength of Later was to have one of each. It’s not just about new bands or old legends. An ideal show is both. A commercial channel would say: “Why not have lots of famous people every week instead of Baaba Maal?” That misses the point. Robbie Williams called the show “Top of the Pops with pubes”. Nowadays it’s probably “tattooed with a hairy chest as well”. Sometimes we’ve had such a late slot that only ghosts and my mum were watching. The show now has what’s called “a long tail”, with performances gradually notching up millions of views on YouTube.
It’s magical when artists spontaneously start playing together. On an early show, John Cale started a riff. Television and Basehead joined in. It doesn’t matter what you have planned. If something better happens, you go with it. Mark E Smith said the Fall would only come on if I didn’t play piano, which was funny. Dear fellow.
I’ve been hosting Later since 1992. That’s 31 years, almost half my life. You don’t get that for armed robbery. The music is why it’s endured. I’m just the glue that holds it together and it’s allowed me to see the greats closeup. They all share a powerful, decisive way of playing. Even Paul Simon, who you wouldn’t consider noisy, gets a huge sound when he strums his guitar. The show’s a snapshot of the past century – and has always been full of surprises. Liza Minnelli, for example, was more rock’n’roll than anyone.
I had a drink with the singer Gregory Porter last week and he said: “The best thing is having everyone in a circle. It puts you all on a level footing.” Artists befriend each other. If they were coming on and off a stage, they might not even see one another. Musicians who you imagine are diametric opposites end up engaging. Seeing Eliza Carthy grooving to Mary J Blige will broaden your horizons. Music used to be tribal. I hope we’ve changed that. You should just like whatever gets your spirit moving.
Alison Howe, executive producer
The beautifully simple idea – musicians in a room with cameras in the middle – hasn’t changed through thick and thin. Jools is crucial. You can’t imagine Later without him. And he’s never been ill, touch wood, so we’ve never had to find out. Every episode, every Hootenanny, he’s done them all. Artists of all generations know him. He speaks their language. Big stars are surprised by the modest setting but everyone’s treated equally. They get the same space, same rehearsal time, same soundcheck time.
We’ve seen the musical landscape evolve. Britpop was a great time. In the 00s, we had Amy Winehouse and Adele. During Covid, we reinvented the show to keep it on air. That meant going back to basics, with a guest sitting at the piano in Jools’s studio in Blackheath, London, picking from our archive. That’s no chore because it’s three decades of great music. Our booking policy is simple – it just has to be good. We champion people we believe in, then decide who’d work well together. Certain moments stand out. Portishead in 1994. Radiohead performing Paranoid Android in 1997. Arctic Monkeys not going on Top of the Pops when they were No 1 but coming to Later instead. Stormzy and Skepta came on before they were mainstream. We’ve had Harry Styles too. There aren’t many artists still on our wishlist, though Bob Dylan and Neil Young definitely are. We’ve never had Beyoncé or Madonna – and I dream of Jools sitting at the piano with Lady Gaga.
My two hairiest moments were both on live shows. I had to run out to the car park and plead with Lana Del Rey to come back in and perform Video Games again. Another time, Smokey Robinson went away to have dinner after rehearsal and didn’t come back. The show started, his band and gear were there, but no Smokey. Then he strolled in 60 seconds before he was due on air and said: “Hi everyone!” Unlike us, he wasn’t stressed at all.
• The latest series of Later … with Jools Holland begins Saturday 14 October at 10.30pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer
