I am absolutely delighted to be nominated fan of the month, looking back on some of the other recipients makes writing this a daunting task. I have had an incredible Jukes year and have already written about Jukestock and singing the Fever on stage with the Band. I have seen the Band many times on the two UK tours this year and met lots of really cool Jukes fans. I wanted to write a piece that was a little different, although it will be hard to avoid the usual themes like "how I found the band". This piece will be about playing the Jukes songs and at the end a quick profile of a Jukes fan, me.

I am a frustrated singer, writer and musician who loves good music and in particular live shows. I have done the best I can with my talents and the highlight of my career (If you can call it that) has been playing Jukes songs myself. I learned guitar at school, played in several rock covers bands and in the late 70's played in a number of Punk/New wave groups. Loud thrashy guitars with a hint of melody, but try as I might I could never get very far. I learned to play the Harmonica Bob Dylan style and met a blues fan that wanted a singer/Harp/guitar player. We formed our band Blues Cruise in 82 and played on and off for four years. I think we all got bored playing Chicago blues and in late 85 discovered the Blues Brothers. We were perfect for the roles, me the tall slim harp player with the deep voice and Little Pete the short fat one. We recruited two Sax players and began to remodel the band, but we needed more songs and that's where the Jukes came in.

I had got into Bruce after the River single and loved the harmony vocals so much that on discovering they were by Little Steven bought Men Without Women and played it to death. We tried Tenth Avenue Feaze Out and Lying In a Bed of Fire, but we just could not get them to sound right. I was gutted and discovering the connection to the Jukes rushed out and bought Reach Up and Touch The Sky.

It was an interesting album; some of the tracks were so very good and others far less appealing. My immediate favourite was Trapped Again (The version on this Album is the best I have heard) quickly followed up by the Fever. We chose to cover I Don't Wanna Go Home, as it was simpler for us to learn. Little Pete loved Talk To Me and so we did that too. They both worked well and went into the set with great success. I was desperate to do Trapped Again and worked out the chords and all the horn parts, only to discover that at that time I could not sing it in the key required ! It took me another couple of weeks to work it out in a more suitable key and immediately on playing it the band they agreed to put it in the set.

This tactic succeeded, bring the song to practice all worked out, play it to the band and sulk if they didn't like it. So I worked out the Fever however the band objected; "we are doing three Jukes songs already we don't want any more in the set". Oh don't worry this is a Bruce Springsteen song, great it was in. We did demo's of both at a local studio and the Fever quickly became a firm favourite. After one gig a chap came over to Little Pete, oh The Fever that's a Southside Johnny song isn't it. A heated debate quickly got started and I eventually I had to come clean, yes the Boss wrote it but the Jukes have made it their own.

After that we added more Jukes songs, we could play them and the crowds liked them. There were ten of us in the band and we all went up to the town and country club in London 86 to see the Jukes. We were gutted; they were just so damn good. The singer stayed in key, the guitarist didn't drown out the rest of the band, the horn section all played in tune together and the drummer actually kept time. The truth was out we were not exactly superstars, but we all enjoyed playing and pulled good crowds, and I got to sing the songs of my favourite band.

In 1989 we got to play at the radio one Xmas party, our payment was a day at the Maida Vale studios where we recorded the Fever (For the second time) a couple of other covers and one of my own tunes Sun City Blues. At the end of the session we recorded our whole set live including Trapped again, Restless Heart, Talk to Me, Vertigo and Without Love.

The release of Better Days was the final turning point for me.  I had Greatest Hits, which I loved, but I don't wanna go home had only a few tracks I really liked. The first few notes of the new Album were amazing the sound was a little harder and modern recording techniques produced a great album. I love Better Days and it is still my most played Jukes recording.

Spittin Fire was a real shock, I bought it without knowing it was an acoustic show, despite the absence of the horns I quickly got into the album and started to surf the net to catch up with the band again. The digest and web site got me hooked and as a result I managed to get myself to Jukestock, truly the best ever Jukes event for fans.

Jukestock also got me into playing again; I met Dave Percival who is a long-term Jukes fan and lyric writer. He gave me a book of his work and I am currently trying to do justice to his words with my own music. The danger is trying to write like Little Steven and sing like Southside, It just does not work!!!!!

So I am a Jukes fan, I have many recordings and videos due to the help of other followers of the band. I don't listen to them all day every day, I don't go to every gig and I do have many other interests in life. The Jukes are however my favourite band by some distance. I listen to lots of music and some of my favourites are The Pixies, Social Distortion, Echobelly, The Doors, Stevie Ray Vaughn and of course The Boss and my favourite writer Little Steven.

Not only have I enjoyed the Jukes music for many years but also meeting up with and corresponding with many other like-minded people. For the future I would love the band to record some more Little Steven songs, another UK tour next year and one day soon another Jukestock.

Raise a Glass

Southside Neil (The Fake Juke)