Post by Kam Gill on Sept 29, 2004 22:04:16 GMT
(Read 1523 times to add to current read times ) - as at 9.45am 9/10/2004 - Punjab2000 admin
Bally Jagpal. What can you say about him? Part of the biggest band to have come out of the UK in the 1990s, he has made a big name for himself releasing monster hit albums such as ‘Live and Direct’ and ‘Dark And Dangerous’. It’s Albums of these pedigree that supports the argument that Bally Jagpal has played a major role in revitalising bhangra music and has been one of the most prominent figures driving it towards goals that were once deemed out of reach. However there seems to be more questions than answers when his name is mentioned in public debates. So in search of some of those answers, I recently caught up the man himself, Bally Jagpal.
(Kam) Right Bally, lets get straight down to it. B21.…..
(Bally) Ha-ha! Yeah? I’ve heard of them…<br>
(Kam) What went wrong?
(Bally) Er….truthfully?
(Kam) Yes Please.
(Bally) Truthfully…….the band yeah? I’m not being big headed or anything but I was the main person in the band. People didn’t like that. They wanted the same sort of respect that I got. When we used to come off the stage at gigs people used to come up to the lead singer , give him a camera and say “Can you take a photo of me and Bally Jagpal?”. Also, hand on heart, we were not working as a band. It was more like Bally gets a song, produces it, then the singer comes in and puts his two pence into it. In the past when people used to ask me what it was like doing solo projects compared to albums for B21, I obviously at the time used to just say , “Yeah B21 was a three man thing” just to keep it sweet, but in reality it never was like that.
(Kam) Come on then Bally, what was it like then?
(Bally) The complete opposite. On ‘By Public Demand’ I produced four of the tracks that featured on the album. I chose the songs, produced them, then passed them over to whatever his name was, the singer. I don’t want to mention his name here at all.
(Kam) Did you feel you were carrying the band in some sense?
(Bally) No it wasn’t like that. I don’t mean I was carrying the band or anything because my brother was there too, I mean he is really talented. He did tracks like ‘Dharsan’. He produced that. If the truth be told, ‘The Sound Of B21’ was produced mainly by Bhoota and Jassi. What I did on the album was brought in a couple of samples and helped out on the first track and the last track. Again truthfully, when that album came out there wasn’t that much of an outcry about it. There was more of a thing about Bally Jagpal when I released ‘Live and Direct’. That’s what made me release ‘Live and Direct’. I didn’t have much say on ‘The Sound Of B21’. Because it didn’t do something major, I couldn’t blame myself. If I had done something on it other than what I did, I would have said “yeah , I produced it and it didn’t work so let’s get another job”. But because I didn’t produce that album I couldn’t say that. That’s the reason behind ‘Live and Direct’ and me trying something on the solo side. After that album, that’s when I felt, to a certain extent, some success. It was like, overnight more people knew about Bally Jagpal. When we did ‘By Public Demand’, like I said I produced four tracks. ‘Chandigarh’, ‘Put Sardara Da’, ‘Chitia Kapha Dia and ‘Din Raat’ were the four tracks that were done straight by me. My brother produced the other two tracks. Same with ‘Long Overdue’
(Kam) What problems were you, as a band, coming across that led to the split?
(Bally) For any band to work there has to be communication. It’s just like a marriage in some sense. If there’s no communication you got nothing. You start to bottle up things inside you. If you got a problem with something you should be able to tell the other people and get it off your chest. But it wasn’t like that. I’m not boasting but everybody wanted to know me. Like, there was three of us in the band yeah? But only two used to get acknowledged. This is not like a conspiracy by the ‘Jagpal Brothers’ or anything. I mean I’ll tell you straight no one knew my brother boota. They knew who he was but because there was only two of us on stage no one really knew him.
(Kam) Yeah I don’t think I ever saw the three of you sharing a stage. Was there a reason he didn’t want to go on stage?
(Bally) It wasn’t that he didn’t want to , it was more of the fact that we didn’t trust anyone enough to do our sound at gigs. He used to do that for us. What me and Jassi were doing on stage was working well at the time. It was good on stage. You know, we had a few other problems too that didn’t help.
(Kam) And these were?
(Bally) Well one of the major things was videos. I mean we were one of the most successful outfits out there at the time and we were being promised videos by the record company but it never happened. ‘Dharsan’ was released purely as a single to get a video for it but the record company never actually went ahead with it despite what we were told. That was a huge track for us. It deserved a video. We were the first act to perform that in the U.K. But before we released it , there were two or three different releases of that ‘Dharsan’ track, which I will be honest were S**T. Lets call a spade a spade. They were S**t.
(Kam) Ok, Be honest. Did those releases Piss you off?
(Bally) No, they didn’t really piss me off I just thought…... I mean I’m not saying I wouldn’t do that, but the difference is that if I was to do a song that I’m hearing out there, that hasn’t been released., I’m only going to do it if I can beat it otherwise there is no point in trying. And a lot of these people like D.I.P, Amar Arshi,, I don’t understand why they tried to do it. For Gods sake, I just don’t know why because they didn’t even come close to our version.
(Kam) Coming back to the videos, You did have one for ‘Untruly Yours’ didn’t you?
(Bally) Yeah I did. But that didn’t help matters. It was like “Oh Bally Jagpal’s got a video, Where’s B21? Why didn’t we get a video for ‘Dharsan?” You know what I mean? It just totally divided the band up. A lot of it was because of the record label who had no say in how we did things. We did it our way. We were not a band that went to a record label and asked for a deal . What you need to remember was we did the production first , our way, Then went to the record label and said ‘We have a product here, Do you want to take it?”. I mean a lot of people nowadays just go up to a label begging for a deal. In my personal opinion, anyone can be a music producer these days. My four year old niece could be a music producer; if she wanted to. All she has to do is go to a record label, they will play her 20 songs, she will say yes to about 5 of them, take them into a studio where you got people doing your S**t for you and all you got to do is put your name on it. Produced by so-and-so. No. That’s not a Producer. That’s just like…what can I say…A half hearted person. Achieving success is great. But it seems to be an Asian mentality that if something works, then everyone wants to jump on that bandwagon. For example you got people using the ‘Ooop Ooop’ thing that we used on ‘Chandigargh’ thinking that will make it the new ‘Chandigargh’ or ‘Dharsan’, you know what I mean? That isn’t going to work man. You know what I mean? It’s as simple as that.
(Kam) It doesn’t stop them though does it? After ‘Made In England’, We were promised an album. But instead, after what seem like forever, we were given ‘Long Overdue’. Where did the album go?
(Bally) ‘Long Overdue’? Well basically, when that was released….it was unbelievable. I mean I still cant believe how that came out because, again , I can say I produced the majority of that album .I can say that. If I’m lying about something, its god that can judge me , you know what I mean? And if there’s three people in the band, you can’t say something like that if it’s not true. My brother is there with me and if I’m lying I have got to answer to him. Hands down, I produced ‘Jawani’ and the majority of the other tracks. We were, at the time, having problems with the record company. And what I’m going to tell you now is the gods honest truth. The record label went to the studio where we were working on the album, and actually took the product from there.
(Kam) Without you knowing?
(Bally) Without us knowing. They are the ones who then told the media “B21 have spilt up and this is the last album from them.” They stuck some crappy mixes on it too. Not only did they do that, which is bad enough, but there was a track on that album ‘Pheli War’. On the song itself it says B21 on there. That was again produced by me. I also did the vocals for that song, that was supposed to be on the B21 album. But what did they do? They just Cashed in. They put that on a ‘Remix’ album by ‘Bally Jagpal’, called it some S**t, S**t F**king name.
(Kam) ‘Dark and Direct?’<br>
(Bally) ‘Dark and Direct’, I cant believe that name. it’s a mixture of ‘Dark and Dangerous’ and ‘Live and Direct’. I mean if your going to do something like that the least you can F**king do is give it a name that’s original. And they cashed in. Either way.
Interview By Kam Gill
Coming up in part two: (Bally Jagpal) Envy approached me to get involved with Dr. Zeus and General Levy’s ‘Shake What ya momma Giv ya’ and there was only one word I was going to say……..I said No. I turned them down.
Find out why he changed his mind in part two.
Bally Jagpal. What can you say about him? Part of the biggest band to have come out of the UK in the 1990s, he has made a big name for himself releasing monster hit albums such as ‘Live and Direct’ and ‘Dark And Dangerous’. It’s Albums of these pedigree that supports the argument that Bally Jagpal has played a major role in revitalising bhangra music and has been one of the most prominent figures driving it towards goals that were once deemed out of reach. However there seems to be more questions than answers when his name is mentioned in public debates. So in search of some of those answers, I recently caught up the man himself, Bally Jagpal.
(Kam) Right Bally, lets get straight down to it. B21.…..
(Bally) Ha-ha! Yeah? I’ve heard of them…<br>
(Kam) What went wrong?
(Bally) Er….truthfully?
(Kam) Yes Please.
(Bally) Truthfully…….the band yeah? I’m not being big headed or anything but I was the main person in the band. People didn’t like that. They wanted the same sort of respect that I got. When we used to come off the stage at gigs people used to come up to the lead singer , give him a camera and say “Can you take a photo of me and Bally Jagpal?”. Also, hand on heart, we were not working as a band. It was more like Bally gets a song, produces it, then the singer comes in and puts his two pence into it. In the past when people used to ask me what it was like doing solo projects compared to albums for B21, I obviously at the time used to just say , “Yeah B21 was a three man thing” just to keep it sweet, but in reality it never was like that.
(Kam) Come on then Bally, what was it like then?
(Bally) The complete opposite. On ‘By Public Demand’ I produced four of the tracks that featured on the album. I chose the songs, produced them, then passed them over to whatever his name was, the singer. I don’t want to mention his name here at all.
(Kam) Did you feel you were carrying the band in some sense?
(Bally) No it wasn’t like that. I don’t mean I was carrying the band or anything because my brother was there too, I mean he is really talented. He did tracks like ‘Dharsan’. He produced that. If the truth be told, ‘The Sound Of B21’ was produced mainly by Bhoota and Jassi. What I did on the album was brought in a couple of samples and helped out on the first track and the last track. Again truthfully, when that album came out there wasn’t that much of an outcry about it. There was more of a thing about Bally Jagpal when I released ‘Live and Direct’. That’s what made me release ‘Live and Direct’. I didn’t have much say on ‘The Sound Of B21’. Because it didn’t do something major, I couldn’t blame myself. If I had done something on it other than what I did, I would have said “yeah , I produced it and it didn’t work so let’s get another job”. But because I didn’t produce that album I couldn’t say that. That’s the reason behind ‘Live and Direct’ and me trying something on the solo side. After that album, that’s when I felt, to a certain extent, some success. It was like, overnight more people knew about Bally Jagpal. When we did ‘By Public Demand’, like I said I produced four tracks. ‘Chandigarh’, ‘Put Sardara Da’, ‘Chitia Kapha Dia and ‘Din Raat’ were the four tracks that were done straight by me. My brother produced the other two tracks. Same with ‘Long Overdue’
(Kam) What problems were you, as a band, coming across that led to the split?
(Bally) For any band to work there has to be communication. It’s just like a marriage in some sense. If there’s no communication you got nothing. You start to bottle up things inside you. If you got a problem with something you should be able to tell the other people and get it off your chest. But it wasn’t like that. I’m not boasting but everybody wanted to know me. Like, there was three of us in the band yeah? But only two used to get acknowledged. This is not like a conspiracy by the ‘Jagpal Brothers’ or anything. I mean I’ll tell you straight no one knew my brother boota. They knew who he was but because there was only two of us on stage no one really knew him.
(Kam) Yeah I don’t think I ever saw the three of you sharing a stage. Was there a reason he didn’t want to go on stage?
(Bally) It wasn’t that he didn’t want to , it was more of the fact that we didn’t trust anyone enough to do our sound at gigs. He used to do that for us. What me and Jassi were doing on stage was working well at the time. It was good on stage. You know, we had a few other problems too that didn’t help.
(Kam) And these were?
(Bally) Well one of the major things was videos. I mean we were one of the most successful outfits out there at the time and we were being promised videos by the record company but it never happened. ‘Dharsan’ was released purely as a single to get a video for it but the record company never actually went ahead with it despite what we were told. That was a huge track for us. It deserved a video. We were the first act to perform that in the U.K. But before we released it , there were two or three different releases of that ‘Dharsan’ track, which I will be honest were S**T. Lets call a spade a spade. They were S**t.
(Kam) Ok, Be honest. Did those releases Piss you off?
(Bally) No, they didn’t really piss me off I just thought…... I mean I’m not saying I wouldn’t do that, but the difference is that if I was to do a song that I’m hearing out there, that hasn’t been released., I’m only going to do it if I can beat it otherwise there is no point in trying. And a lot of these people like D.I.P, Amar Arshi,, I don’t understand why they tried to do it. For Gods sake, I just don’t know why because they didn’t even come close to our version.
(Kam) Coming back to the videos, You did have one for ‘Untruly Yours’ didn’t you?
(Bally) Yeah I did. But that didn’t help matters. It was like “Oh Bally Jagpal’s got a video, Where’s B21? Why didn’t we get a video for ‘Dharsan?” You know what I mean? It just totally divided the band up. A lot of it was because of the record label who had no say in how we did things. We did it our way. We were not a band that went to a record label and asked for a deal . What you need to remember was we did the production first , our way, Then went to the record label and said ‘We have a product here, Do you want to take it?”. I mean a lot of people nowadays just go up to a label begging for a deal. In my personal opinion, anyone can be a music producer these days. My four year old niece could be a music producer; if she wanted to. All she has to do is go to a record label, they will play her 20 songs, she will say yes to about 5 of them, take them into a studio where you got people doing your S**t for you and all you got to do is put your name on it. Produced by so-and-so. No. That’s not a Producer. That’s just like…what can I say…A half hearted person. Achieving success is great. But it seems to be an Asian mentality that if something works, then everyone wants to jump on that bandwagon. For example you got people using the ‘Ooop Ooop’ thing that we used on ‘Chandigargh’ thinking that will make it the new ‘Chandigargh’ or ‘Dharsan’, you know what I mean? That isn’t going to work man. You know what I mean? It’s as simple as that.
(Kam) It doesn’t stop them though does it? After ‘Made In England’, We were promised an album. But instead, after what seem like forever, we were given ‘Long Overdue’. Where did the album go?
(Bally) ‘Long Overdue’? Well basically, when that was released….it was unbelievable. I mean I still cant believe how that came out because, again , I can say I produced the majority of that album .I can say that. If I’m lying about something, its god that can judge me , you know what I mean? And if there’s three people in the band, you can’t say something like that if it’s not true. My brother is there with me and if I’m lying I have got to answer to him. Hands down, I produced ‘Jawani’ and the majority of the other tracks. We were, at the time, having problems with the record company. And what I’m going to tell you now is the gods honest truth. The record label went to the studio where we were working on the album, and actually took the product from there.
(Kam) Without you knowing?
(Bally) Without us knowing. They are the ones who then told the media “B21 have spilt up and this is the last album from them.” They stuck some crappy mixes on it too. Not only did they do that, which is bad enough, but there was a track on that album ‘Pheli War’. On the song itself it says B21 on there. That was again produced by me. I also did the vocals for that song, that was supposed to be on the B21 album. But what did they do? They just Cashed in. They put that on a ‘Remix’ album by ‘Bally Jagpal’, called it some S**t, S**t F**king name.
(Kam) ‘Dark and Direct?’<br>
(Bally) ‘Dark and Direct’, I cant believe that name. it’s a mixture of ‘Dark and Dangerous’ and ‘Live and Direct’. I mean if your going to do something like that the least you can F**king do is give it a name that’s original. And they cashed in. Either way.
Interview By Kam Gill
Coming up in part two: (Bally Jagpal) Envy approached me to get involved with Dr. Zeus and General Levy’s ‘Shake What ya momma Giv ya’ and there was only one word I was going to say……..I said No. I turned them down.
Find out why he changed his mind in part two.
