MOBILE RED HEDGEHOG - Flipbook - Page 38
Interview with Jon Banks
Visited Hungary?
Yes, I’ve done concerts in Budapest and Esterházy
and, via the internet, had great conversations with
Hungarian archivists and record collectors for my
book The Csárdás Craze.
Favourite Brahms?
It has to be the Clarinet Quintet, although I also fell in
love with the Geistliches Lied when I was a choir boy.
Favourite venue?
Tough one! There’s the Registan Square in Samarqand;
the dry dock actually underneath the Cutty Sark in
Greenwich; the Lion Hotel in Shrewsbury, where
Paganini once played; the Nigel Mansell motor racing
museum in Jersey…
Best concert you’ve been too?
Impossible to answer! Most recently, Julie Fowlis in my
home town of Hertford.
Your most memorable gig?
Our first ZRI concert, in the amazing atmosphere of
the old Dalston boxing club. A complete blast.
Best advice?
Don’t read the books, just listen to the music (thank
you Dr Fred Sternfeld, Oxford, 1980!).
In five years’ time?
Touring with this group so fast you won’t see me for
dust.
Desert Island disc?
Think it would have to be Workin’ with the Miles Davis
Quintet—I can remember hearing it for the first time as
a teenager.
