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Cleve Freckleton: Meet Leeds’s own minister of music
Cleve Freckleton.
CLEVE Freckleton, 48, from east Leeds, was weaned on gospel music as a child and went on to form his own band, Chunky Butt Funky, amongst other things.
The father-of-seven, who has three grandchildren, was also ordained ‘Minister of Music’ in America, and helped conduct the wedding of Leeds singer Corinne Bailey Rae and also helps to organise Yorkshire’s newest old-fashioned music festival, The Lime Tree. These days, he plays piano every week in Leeds. Interview by Neil Hudson.
“I grew up in a family of five, we were from a traditional Gospel background of Pentecostal Christians. I was always around the church. When my parents came here in the 1950s, there was a lot of isolation among our community and church was one of the few ways we could bond together. That and cricket. You cannot be from a West Indian background and not understand the cricket and the church.
“I grew up around music, two of my older brothers had piano lessons but the condition was they would teach the rest of us. I also learned the guitar, I learned music before I discovered TV. My first memory of watching TV was seeing Crossroads when I was eight. I was part of a band, which played in the church, called The Ambassadors. There were also grey areas, like Elvis, who sang gospel and rock’n’roll. So, he would take you to hell on a Saturday night and take you to heaven on a Sunday morning.
“I moved to Jamaica when I was nine and came to live in Leeds aged 14. I went from living outdoors, no TV, fruit falling off trees to living in the inner city Chapeltown, it was a stark contrast. I remember how I lost my Jamaican accent pretty quick.
“My philosophy on life is to enjoy it, there are so many restrictions on what we can do these days, especially for kids, that you almost miss the point of living. When we were kids, there were no mobile phones, if I told my mum I was somewhere for the day and she didn’t see me, all she had was my word.
“If I want to relax, one of two things will happen: I will either play Mario Kart with my wife, which is a bit of escapism, or we will go out into the countryside.
Kids get a lot of criticism these days for playing too many computer games but what we have to remember is, they didn’t invent those things, we did and if they had been around when we were kids, we would have played them too.
“I would love to meet Nelson Mandela. I have been to South Africa three times, I believe in his ethos of love and forgiveness, he saw the greater good.
The best piece of advice I have ever received was about when men and women fall out, a woman once told me – and she did this with a West Indian accent – ‘teet and tongue must meet’. She meant that men and women are totally different, like teeth and tongue, although they depend on each other, they work in such close proximity that occasionally, they are going to meet – you are going to bite your tongue sometimes and it is going to hurt.
“I went to America for four years and was ordained a minister of music, I went from Augusta, Georgia all the way across the country to Medera, California. A better way of reaching people is through music, now my piano is my pulpit. In my heart I would like to get involved with my local council in later life.
“My first job was when I was nine and I worked for a friend of my father, who was a watchmaker. I learned how to take some watches apart, to take certain components out and clean them in solution. I loved it.
“I play at the Living Room on Wednesdays, 8pm-10pm and at Park Row Brasserie, Thursdays 5pm-8pm. I also run a choir, Voices of the Day, on Tuesdays from 7pm-8.30pm, at Ironwood View in Seacroft. My next big event is the Lime Tree Festival (August 26-28) at Limetree Farm, Grewelthorpe, North Yorkshire, It’s our fourth year, it’s a chilled out festival, the way they used to be, with hundreds of acts.
“I could not live without love, it’s the one thing we are all dependent on from birth to death and it’s the thing we need most throughout the most difficult periods of our life.
“I am most proud of my last gig at The Wardrobe, all my family and friends were there and some of my children even performed with me.
“The last time I cried was when my close friend Jason Rae died. I officiated at his wedding to Corinne, I also officiated at his funeral.
“My two jokes are: what is a dangerous insect? Hepatitis bee. What is a dangerous place to go on holiday? Hepatitis sea.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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