People / Bristol Breakfasts
Breakfast With Bristol24/7: Jeffrey Johns
Bristol’s most famous gig goer Jeffrey Johns, better known as Big Jeff, meets Martin Booth for a veggie breakfast at Windmill Hill City Farm. Illustration by Harry Morgan
When the producers of Bristol-set feature film 8 Minutes Idle were looking to add extra authenticity to a scene at the Thekla, there was only one person who they needed to find. Any regular gig-goer in Bristol will recognise his mop of blond hair and curls that normally bounce away at the front of the crowd. If the film was going to represent a night out in Bristol featuring music, they needed Big Jeff.
He’s a difficult character to miss and a difficult character to pin down, but on a recent sunny weekday morning I finally manage to arrange a time to meet Jeffrey Johns for breakfast. He sits opposite me at Windmill Hill City Farm occasionally drumming away with the fingers of one hand in a sort of low-key version of his usual gig-going routine.
is needed now More than ever
It’s a routine that sees him out and about in Bristol most nights of the week, although unusually the evening before he wasn’t watching live music but being bamboozled by Derren Brown at the Hippodrome.
There are Facebook groups dedicated to spotting him at gigs and a campaign was started earlier this year to get him a pass to the 6 Music Festival. He was recently invited by New York band Augustines to star in their new video which saw him filmed walking from his house in Totterdown to their gig at the Louisiana – which Jeff names without skipping a beat as his favourite Bristol venue: “It’s small, intimate, really good sound in there. And the staff are really friendly.”
As Beans on Toast sang in a song entitled Big Jeff: “He likes music more than anyone you know, he’s out every night in Bristol town dancing to the best new bands around… He’s something of a legend on the music scene, if Big Jeff’s on the guestlist then you’re gonna be pleased.”
Before even sitting down on one of the picnic tables outside the cafe at Windmill Hill City Farm, Jeff is greeted by name by two of the staff. He has spent many hours here volunteering, mostly gardening and also what he calls “pet-a-pig therapy” – one of the reasons that he orders a veggie breakfast which he swiftly gobbles down.
It’s an escape from city life for a man who was brought up in the middle of the countryside in the village of Horsley in Gloucestershire. His dad was a heating engineer and his mum was a chiropractor, trained in alternative medicine. Between mouthfuls of his breakfast, Jeff fondly remembers watching the village panto and growing up wanting to be a rock star, comedian or chef.
He is now a multimedia artist by day with his kitchen table doubling up as a painting area. He also enjoys going to drawing drop-in sessions. When not painting, he is planning his nocturnal excursions to gigs, organising what shows to go to by listening to new music on the internet and normally knowing after less than half a song that he will like the band.
“Live music for me is about being there in the moment,” he says, old festival wristbands some more than a decade old flapping on both wrists as he talks. “It’s kind of breaking down the social barriers. I was brought up quite socially isolated. Music for me is a way to be in a room with other people, we’re all here for the same reason.
“If I connect with the music, there’s a lot of emotional issues going on because a lot of it is very emotionally interconnected for me. It’s hard to explain and hard to sometimes process for myself, really. It’s the release of being able to express myself.”
Jeff’s favourite ever gig was Les Savy Fav – another band from New York – in the bar at the Anson Rooms. The day we meet, he was due to see The Fall at the Marble Factory. His sheer love of live music is not likely to end any time soon.