Ask Jimmy Pou - Page 2

TERESA'S QUESTION: "I'm wondering where all the equipment and
instruments are stored when 1964 aren't performing. Do you have a special
place that you keep everything?"
JIMMY: "All of our equipment is stored at the road manager's warehouse
during the week in Akron, Ohio. John Dobbertin is always left in charge of
our equipment, and he is always very reliable."

J & S'S QUESTION: "This is not to be silly, but do you really have brown hair,
Jimmy?"
JIMMY: "I don't think it's that funny of a question, but yes, I really do have
brown hair. My family is originally from Havana, Cuba, and everyone in my
family,mom,dad sis, and 2 bros, we all have brown hair."
LISA: "Jimmy's real hair appears with him onstage almost every night! ;-)"

MARIS' QUESTION: "We've noticed that you and Mark are the only two guys
who come to Penny Lane Pub after the Innsbrook shows. Do you two hang
together much off stage?"
JIMMY: "Actually the whole band was there, the whole band goes every
time we play in town, we don't all look like we do on stage. We go there
because Terry the owner invites us over for fish and chips."
LISA: "Maris next time you go to Penny Lane Pub, see if you can identify
Gary by his bright blue eyes and Greg by his Ringo nose. I intentionally don't
tell my friends what the 1964 guys really look like. I just bring them to sound
check and let them be surprised!"

TERESA'S QUESTION: "Any plans for another 1964 CD in the future?"
JIMMY: "Yes, we are working on one from the Cavern show we did in
Liddypool, England, watch for it on our web site."

TERESA'S QUESTION: "When you recorded "Nine Hours in November", did
you (and the others) find yourselves going into "performance mode"?For
example: standing the way you stand on stage, moving like you do when on
stage, even though you were in a studio and not performing live. Just
curious if doing those Beatles songs makes you automatically go into
character."
JIMMY: "No, in a short answer, we do not go into any mode while recording
in the studio, the only time that happens is when we are performing on
stage, while portraying a character much like an actor in a play or an actor in
a movie role would do. When you're in the studio, you concentrating on
playing and singing the parts right and don't have to worry about how or
what you look like."

DON'S QUESTION: "What version/year is your VOX AC-30 amp? Have you
altered it in any way? What settings do you use on it. Do you use anything
on it like a THD Hot Plate, to play at full power, but to keep the total volume
down, for stage purposes??"
JIMMY: "Our VOX AC30 amps had to be redone. We had our former sound
man Mike Purkhiser design them for us. His web site address is
http://www.purktone.com and his e-mail address is :info@purktone.com , if
you want to find out more about his amps. We had him build exact replicas
of our VOX AC30 amps because of a weight issue, The airlines charge us a
lot of money if the gear is over 70 pounds. So, to get around having to pay
some much extra money to the airlines, Mike built these amps for us with
the same brains, as the originals, and with much lighter wood, and also, with
only one Cellistian Bulldog speaker in them. We run a compressor through
them in order to get that same Beatle sound."

DON'S QUESTION: "On Nowhere Man, how do you get that 'Strat' sound out
of your Gretsch C.G. ??"
JIMMY: "On Nowhere Man I use the compressor and the equalizer pedals to
get that Strat sound, thanks for noticing the closeness of the sound to the
original sound."

DON'S QUESTION: "What guitar picks do you use (plectra)? Are they custom
made, and if so, where can they be bought and what guage are they?"
JIMMMY: "We have custom made picks so that we can have the band name
on them to hand out to little kids once in a while, and mine are heavy,
whereas I believe Mark (John) uses medium gauge ones."

ROCCO'S QUESTION: "What gauge/type of strings do you use on the Les
Paul?"
JIMMY: "I use heavy gauge Pyramid strings from Germany I use 52 gauge on
the low E string all the way up to a 12 gauge on the high E string. You can
go to their web site which ishttp://www.pyramidstrings.com . By the way, I do
not use a Gibson Les Paul. I use a Gretsch Country Gentleman, Chet Atkins
model, and I use a Gretsch Tennessean, and also A 12 string Rickenbacker
360."

STEVE'S QUESTION: "Are the accoustic guitars you guys use Gibsons and
are they vintage or reissue?"
JIMMY: "The guitars we use are Gibsons. They are vintage ones from the
60's. I think that the one Mark Benson uses is a 1965 Gibson. Come to think
of it Steve, we only use one acoustic, which is that Gibson."

REX'S QUESTION: "I'm the guy in Fresno who told you he's working on And
Your Bird Can Sing and you said 'So am I!' But I forgot to ask you when you
started playing the Gretsch Tennesean you played that night [1-28-02]. I [and
my daughter] have seen 1964 the last three years in a row and I never
noticed the Tennesean before."
JIMMY: "I have been playing the Gretsch Country gentleman, and the
Gretsch Tennessean the same amount of time. I have been in the group
since 1993, and I have always played the two guitars. I used to not play the
Tennessean as much as the the Country Gent, but I have always played it at
least once during each show. I use the Tennessean alot more now, for some
certain songs because I feel that it sounds more like the guitar that was
used on the recordings of certain songs."

HOMER'S QUESTION: "My brother says he saw one of your shows where you
did a 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' set, dressed like they were on
the cover of the album. I've seen you twice and you haven't done this. I'm
thinking he saw a different Beatles cover band called 'Yesterday', or did you
use to do a Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band set and it wasn't as
popular as the younger Beatles set?"
JIMMY: "Yes, your brother is probably right. The guys did at one time do a
Sgt. Pepper's show, but that was way before I was ever in the band. I have
been in the band since 1993, I have never done a Sgt. Pepper's type show
with these guys, but I myself was in the Broadway show 'Beatlemania' but I
was in the LA cast. I started doing that show back in 1978, and I performed
that type of show until I joined 1964, like I said, in 1993. However, there are
other groups out there that do that show, like Yesterday, Rain, Magical
Mystery Tour, and the list goes on. The fact that 1964 does just the early
songs is the reason that I joined up with them, the early music was always
my favorite."
LISA: "Check out the 'list' link on the Beatles Tribute Band Sitering logo on
the home page for www.jimmypou.com. You'd be surprised how many
Beatles Tribute bands are out there and the variety of shows offered."

A. WYCOFF'S QUESTION: "You mentioned custom tailoring for a vintage
beatlesque suit. Do you have any recommendations? How pricey can it get?"
JIMMY: "The suits we had made were custom made in Cleveland, Ohio from
a regular custom tailor shop, they were almost $1,000.00 each, but we have
paid less before also. We used to go into tuxedo shops, and get regular
tuxedos which have the felt around the collars, and had the pants altered,
but we soon realized we were buying suits that were already old, so we
sprung for the real thing ,and they just last longer, because they are new
and they use nicer material."

TRACY'S QUESTION: "My friend Heather played on your CD for the song
"Grace and Michael" but I did not see her name anywhere on this website.
Just curious."
JIMMY: "You are right and I apologize. I will send that info to Lisa and she
will put Heather's name on there as well as other friends of mine I for got to
put on, please forgive me."
LISA: "Actually, it's my fault. The names were a little blurry on my copy and I
didn't want to mispell them. I know Greg and Dave, so I knew I was spelling
their names right. All of the musician's names have now been added to the
main Scrambled Daze page.

LAURA'S QUESTION: "Has Liverpool England changed much since 1997?
And how was the weather there?"
JIMMY: "Liverpool , like most European cities do not change that much, not
like American cities whose landscapes change constantly. Over there, they
like to keep the original settings, buildings, and such. Luckily for us, the
weather was absolutely beautiful, about 70 to 75 degrees. We had a
wonderful time, I would suggest you try to make it there next year, lots of
Beatles tribute bands, and really good ones too."

JIMMY'S QUESTION : "What type of pedal do you use live to get that fuzz
sound? Also do you use the same pedal for the Abby Road set?"
JIMMY: "I use a Boss distortion pedal along, with a Boss Equalizer pedal to
get that trebley sound. We don't do the Abbey Road songs. Are you sure you
don't have us confused with another group that
does Beatle songs? Anyway, the only other pedal I use is a compressor."

SONNY'S QUESTION : "What kind of strings do you use? And What Gauge?"
JIMMY: "The kind of strings I use on my
Gretsch Country Gentleman, and my Gretsch Tennessean are Pyramid
strings from Germany, they are 52 gauge strings on the Low "E" string and
13 gauge on my high "E" string. I hope that answers your questions."

LINDSAY'S QUESTION : "Here's yet another question about And Your Bird
Can Sing . I was focused mainly on your playing at the time and did not
notice, does the guy who plays John ( Mark?) give you any help with it?"
JIMMY: "I play the And Your Bird Can Sing lead parts by myself. What I do to
play it at the fast speed that it is, is that I slide the parts as I am playing
them. If you were to play them like they are played on the record, you would
never be able to play them fast enough. On the record, Paul and George
played each part separately, which can be done without having to slide up
and down the neck of the guitar, but in order to play both parts , you have to
slide some of the parts together, so in answer to your question, 'No', the
guy that plays 'John', Mark, does not play with me on the solos, he plays the
rhythm guitar parts on the song."

LINDSAY'S QUESTION : "Do you play a vintage 360 or a reissue?"
JIMMY: "The Rickenbacker 12 string is a re-issue that the factory gave us,
the Gretsch Country Gent is from 1967, and the Tennessean is a vintage
1964 model."

TERESA'S QUESTION : "Could you possibly have a page on your web site
with the lyrics from your "Four Little Ditties" listed? There are some parts I
just can't make out, and I figure if I'm going to inflict my singing on others,
at least I should know all the words! "
JIMMY: "Your wish is my command, actually I had the same idea in mind, as
a matter of fact, my new CD "A DOZEN SCARMBLED DAZE" has the lyrics to
all 12 songs printed inside the inside sleeve of the CD package, and after
doing that I thought it would be a good idea to print out the lyrics for "FOUR
LITTLE DITTIES" from now on, so for the people like yourself that have
already purchased the first CD, I will print the lyrics on my web site, give me
a few weeks and it will be done."
LISA: "I was about to add lyric pages to the 'old' site when Invite lost their
creation tool. They didn't allow direct access to change HTML, because they
perceived that as insecure. We have changed hosting companies and I
have redone the entire site from scratch. You will notice that there are now
wavs and lyrics for every song on both of Jimmy's CDs on the site. I hope
you enjoy that! I was unable to get into the 'old' site since May 2001. The
new site was built October 2001. It's nice to be able to update the site
again!"

BOB'S QUESTION : "Is is okay to bring a video camera to your concerts? I've
never seen your show but hope to next time you get close to Iowa."
JIMMY: "By all means, yes it is ok to bring a camera to shoot us live, it would
be fun to sit and watch it with you , I hope you enjoy the show in Iowa."

BECCA'S QUESTION : "What's the other 3 guys' fave song that ya'll perform?
I love In My Life, Yes It Is, and several others."
JIMMY: "What a coincidence Becca, those are exactly our fav songs too, In
My life and Yes it is."

BECCA'S QUESTION : "Why did you all stop doing the fan club? I don't get it.
I liked that. I liked getting the Tribune newsletters and things."
JIMMY: "We stopped doing the fan club newsletter because the web site
basically took over everything, so we just didn't see a need for a fan club
anymore, you see the fan club is now on the web site."

BECCA'S QUESTION : "Do you all spend time with family on holidays, etc?
JIMMY: "Yes, we do spend time with our families on holidays. My ideal
holiday is to stay at home since I am always traveling."

If you have Questions for Jimmy Pou, please email them to:
webmaster@jimmypou.com with "Questions" in your subject line