BELLADRUM: Colonel keen as Mustard ahead of Garden Stage debut
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It was no surprise to anybody when Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5 were one of the first bands announced for this year’s Belladrum – their packed out set in the Hothouse tent last year was one of the highlights of the whole festival. This year, they’re hitting the main stage and they’re ready to bring the fun. We caught up with Colonel Mustard himself – John McAlinden – to talk all things yellow.
Alright Colonel, thanks for doing these for me! Second year in a row at Belladrum – and this time you’re on the Garden Stage! Are you looking forward to coming back up north? Any good memories from your time in the Highlands?
Yeah, we love it in the Highlands! The scenery is beautiful, the crowds are real, there’s not as much litter as the lowlands. Last year was a festival highlight. A couple getting engaged at the start of our set, the Dijancer climbing up the rigging and the crowd of all ages just going for it in wild abandonment were gig highlights. Meeting Danny MacAskill and Sanjeev Kholi (Navid from Still Game) was great and just soaking up the atmosphere. It’s always good to catch up with our pals Spring Break and it’s very much a festival you get talking to people and meet new friends as well.
Last year you completely rammed out the Hothouse Tent, and this year you’re hitting the main stage after being basically one of the first bands announced for the line-up. That’s a hell of a vote of confidence, right? Any nerves about taking the big stage?
The Hothouse stage was the best atmosphere of all the festivals we played last year and it was a genuine surprise how rammed the place was, with queues out each entrance – so to get the opportunity to step it up on the main stage, getting announced along with Sister Sledge and KT Tunstall was a big deal for us.
There will probably be some nerves on the day, but I’ll just walk around the band and do some unicorn whispering, calm the jets, steady the nerves and we’ll all go out and give the people the tunes and good times they seek. We’ll give it our all to give the crowd the best experience they possibly can. That’s all you can do.
Since last year’s Bella, it’s been a hell of a busy year for the Dijon 5 – I think the best place to start would probably be the Cross the Road/Freedom for the Children single launch, complete with music video. How did the launch night at the Academy go? Can you talk us through the songs and the videos for folk? And what’s the Colonel’s most important tip for road safety?
Cross the Road has been a fan favourite for a while. It started as a song I sang to my children to teach them to cross the road safely. So to now have thousands of people going from one side of a field to another is heart warming and hilarious. Crowd interaction is what we love and this song seems to connect with people of all ages.
Our friend and collaborator Martin J Windebank directed both videos. Our pal Gav Mitchell (Bobby from Still Game) features in Cross the Road. It’s just a fun happy tune with a message of road safety. It’s grown arms and legs because we’ve been invited to come in and play Road Safety week in five different schools now.
Kids give you the truth, if you’re rubbish they’ll let you know, luckily it’s went down a storm at each school, hitting fever pitch with teachers having to go into some hyperactive classrooms full of joyful kids.
Freedom for the Children is a song I’d written with my daughter Evie for her nursery about Children’s Rights. I decided to do a version inspired by Lee Dorsey and the Staple Singers with the band.
Focusing on the importance of having a fair equal society for all our children is something we shouldn’t need to discuss in the modern world, unfortunately greed and inequality are still rife, so keeping it positive and remembering what’s important in a funny way that engages with kids in some of their language is our small way of trying to redress the balance. They’ve been playing the video in the cinema tent at a lot of festivals and will be at Belladrum, the feedbacks been really positive.
The launch at the Glasgow O2 Academy was great. More than 1000 people there giving it laldy. For Cross the Road Gav Mitchell dressed up as the Green Cross Code Man and on a very beery slippery floor, I wore a wee car suit and zoomed about on a hover board. We put a lot into the production on that. Every big gig we need to try and top the last.
You were over in South Korea back in October for Zandari Festival and MU:CON – how did that go? I understand you ended up getting a band from South Korea back over – Wasted Johnny’s – did they have a blast visiting Scotland?
Yeah, South Korea was outstanding – we even made a wee mini documentary about it that’s on our YouTube channel. Before we went people kept asking, “do you think they’ll Cross the Road or get involved in a Dance Off?” The first gig we played once we’d played Dance Off that was it – the place just erupted and somehow they understood my broad North Lanarkshire accent and Crossed the Road. By the time we played the closing gig at the festival the crowd had doubled through word of mouth and Angie our new pal from awesome rock ‘n’ roll band Wasted Johnnys came up for Cross The Road.
The atmosphere was at fever pitch, not dissimilar to our Hothouse performance at Belladrum last year – folk were just losing their minds to the music. It made us realise our music can connect with people anywhere.
We were interviewed by the Korean Times and had made friends and had a 5am jam session in a nightclub with bands from all over the world including Russia, Madagascar, Korea, Sweden and Japan.
We also made friends with one of the UK’s best bands She Drew The Gun and the organiser Dalse said we were the band of the festival and invited us back on the spot. Seoul is a truly modern forward thinking 24-hour city. We absolutely loved it. I recommend it to anyone.
We run our own Yellow Movement nights in Glasgow and Edinburgh which we’re talking about extending to the Highlands and we’ve already had 2 Korean bands over to play as part of their wider tours , including Wasted Johnnys and the 54’s, a Biffy Clyro-inspired band from Korea. Relationships and links are being forged and it’s exciting being a part of that.
If you were to summarise Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5’s message/ethos/however you’d like to describe it, how would you do so?
Make yourself and other people happy as much as you possibly can. We want to entertain and hit as many of your senses as we possibly can, but there has to be some humour to make it palatable for everyone.
The power of laughter is so important, but giving people something to think about through a little bit of social commentary and thought provoking in the midst of all that is a nice subtext.
I studied a bit of Group Dynamics and for me connecting with people and doing something positive in a large group can be a life changing experience for the better and an antidote to negative large groups.
I like the fact that Belladrum has a Summer of Love theme this year, because we share a lot of hippy ideals, but we’re maybe not as naive. We’re not as fixed in our ideas and ideals. We call that the “evolution revolution”, ideas and political points of view can change. Life isn’t black and white so don’t be afraid to change your mind.
There’s a Glaswegian rapper, Loki, who’s been quite an inspiration on keeping an open mind and the importance of criticising the establishment on the left and right. Not being complacent.
Ultimately though we’re a good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, song and dance band, so if you’re not dancing, we’re not doing our job.
The Dijon 5 are also the standard bearers for the Yellow Movement – can you explain what that is to Highlanders who maybe haven’t heard of it? How are you going to be bringing those Yellow Movement values to Bella this year? And, while it’s largely a Glasgow-focused, how can said Highlanders get involved?
Although the idea started in Glasgow it’s really an international concept, we’ve quashed old rivalries and have bands from all over world involved in it. It’s a very loose, fluid thing, that’s more about the fans and people that come and watch the bands than it is about us now. Spring Break are from the Highlands and they’re amazing and very much a big part of the Yellow Movement.
Documentary maker Chris McGill followed us and some of the other bands involved last year and had made a mini documentary entitled What Is The Yellow Movement. It maybe asks more questions than it answers but that’s kind of what it’s all about.
I do a wee speech at the start that goes like this: “It’s the first musical revolution for all ages, all generations, all people, all places, all colours all races. Any and no religion, every and all origin, for those that hate their day job, for those without a voice, for those that lack freedom of choice.
“It’s an uprising of ideas and colours, of making good memories and respecting one another. Being non judgmental with a social conscience and respect for science, individual creativity and freedom of thought and a love for being alive. We are all equal and together we have a voice.”
Wearing yellow is optional, but preferred.
For people who weren’t at last year’s Belladrum, can you give folk an idea of what to expect from the SAMA-winning Dijon live experience?
Chaos, crowd participation, massive inflatable crowd surfing, us and the crowd becoming one.
What’s next on the horizon for Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5? What are the plans for the future?
Loads of festivals still to play, then a double header for Halloween up in Inverness and Aberdeen on October 27 and 28. It’ll be Yelloween, come dressed as a yellow character of your choice.
We’re also going to have a big happening down in Liverpool linked in with the Yellow House, an amazing charity that helps under privileged kids. We’re playing Rock Against Racism in Glasgow supporting our heroes Black Grape on Monday 28th August. We want to go another big international adventure so we’re weighing up options on that.
Musically we’re three quarters of the way towards having our second album, working title “The Diffficult Number 2”, completed – we just need to find some time to record it.
We’re flat out until winter, but wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s great being in this band. The people we meet and the experiences we get to share are life changing. Not bad for a “joke band”!
