Playing to the Last

By Tony Watts - Editor - 14/01/2008

 The expression “phenomenon” must be one of the most overused hyperboles in the music publicity canon. But if anyone has earned the right to wear the accolade it is Hans Last. Or, to the vast majority of his millions of fans around the world, “James Last”.

Since his recording career really went stratospheric in 1965, with the first of his “Non Stop Dancing” albums, James has pumped out several hundred albums, sold 100 million of them and toured almost constantly to sell out audiences right around the world.

 

And yet…

 

The thing with James Last is that you either love his brand of music or
you don’t. And while millions of his fans have stayed loyal over 40
years, he has often had less success with promoters, record companies
and radio stations. As mainstream pop music metamorphosed through
flower power, punk, glam rock, modern romanticism, hip hop, R&B and
rap, James has always been seen as the unfashionable end of modern
music. It’s a fascinating fact that he has only had two hit singles -
with “The Seduction,” and “Biscaya”. One radio station stopped playing
one of his singles when they discovered that James Last was the artist,
not a new, unknown name.

 

His new autobiography charts the many problems he has endured over the
years in pursuing what has been a unique and very individualistic career: while, for instance, his records sold in their millions in his native Germany, promoters would not back a tour – even while he was packing out the Albert Hall in London.

 

But what is slightly ironic is that James, single handedly (if you don’t include his 40-piece orchestra!) has introduced different styles of music and the work of many new artists to audiences. “When I created arrangements using music from this exciting new band called The Beatles, it introduced their songs to an audience that would not have dreamt of listening to them,” he says.

 

All through the years he has worked with a succession of leading artists in a variety of fields and melded their music in with his. “Music is music,” he tells me. “I have always taken influences from what is happening ‘today’ and each year that has allowed me to move my music forward. I found that young people making hop hop music were ‘sampling’ my music [incorporating his music into their songs] and they contacted me asking to work with me – I found that enormously enjoyable.”

 

Still enjoyable, he finds, despite all the rigours, is touring – especially in England. We talk the morning after he has filled the Albert Hall with his fans and his music. “It’s always very special coming here,” he says. “I’ve performed 85 concerts there now – it’s crazy, unbelievable.”

But while he still fills seats, he has found it increasingly difficult to get his records produced: his last release was several years ago which is patently upsetting to a man who was almost addictively recording albums at the rate of one a month in the late 60s and early 70s. Like any artist, he still has what he describes to me as “the need to make music to show people what I feel”.

 

His new autobiography charts that desire through a lifetime where making music, as he says, is the only way in which he has made his living. It’s a passion that started, literally, on his father’s knee.

 

His whole family, inspired by their father who drummed in his spare time, turned to music as a career; James himself, by virtue of being born several weeks “too late” missed being conscripted into the German army and – as post-war Germany slowly recovered – he found a ready audience for the jazz music he had listened to and practised secretly during the war years, amongst the American GIs.

 

A long apprenticeship playing in a variety of bands and orchestras
during the 40s and 50s, especially as a session musician, schooled his
style and, even more importantly, led to him developing arrangements.
That, ultimately, has been the overriding skill that propelled him to
fame and led to his creation of what he describes to me as the “segue
sound” – seamlessly joining a succession of tracks together into a
non-stop album.

 

His autobiography, which will be compulsory reading for all those who
love his music, lays bare not only 60 years of performing and
recording, but also the personal rollercoaster that his life has taken
him on: the adulation, the endless parties, his marriage and
infidelities, his bankruptcy and recovery, the tragic death of his wife
after the two had re-established their relationship, his second
marriage, the deaths of his brothers and also the sometimes turbulent
relationship with his son, Ronnie, who is also now his foremost musical
collaborator.

 

James Last has also had to look his own cancer in the face – literally
– as a series of malignant melanomas have required major surgery.

As he concludes in his book, “I have come to terms with my life. I know
what I have done wrong and what I have done right. When ‘Him up there’
says it’s time, then I will go – without sadness or regret. I consider
myself one of the lucky ones who can say, ‘That was it’. There is no
panic that I might have missed out on anything, no urge to catch up on
missed opportunities. I feel quite free, without the slightest degree
of fear. What could happen anyway? Everything has already happened…”

 

But still, as we talk, I sense a man who will keep on doing what he
loves doing as long as he is able. He still feels a strong sense of
purpose – and almost duty to his fans. “I’m 78,” he says, “but it’s not
hard work, not if you enjoy what you do. Is this my farewell tour?
Musicians never say ‘never’.”