Phil Jamieson"So I was having, like, a butter chicken at QPAC and I had a beer, for dinner," Phil Jamieson, who's reprising St Jimmy for an Australia-wide American Idiot tour, recalls of his debut performance in Brisbane, "and the stage manager literally almost leapt across the table, and grabbed the beer from me, and said, 'You can't have any alcohol in your system while you're on that stage'."
Perhaps said stage manager should also have grabbed the butter chicken, which may not sit well in a pre-show nervous tummy? Jamieson guffaws before countering, "No... Because there's all these OHS legalities, if I fall off one of the props and I have alcohol in my system they may not cover your insurance.
"And I'm like, 'Oh, okay, well just tell me, you don't have to wrestle it out of my hands!' And so, from then, I've been pretty dry, like, I didn't drink during the Grinspoon tour at all, really, because it kinda just became, 'That's what I do now,' because you're so used to it. Mind you, after the show..." the 40-year-old trails off laughing. "But, yeah! I just kinda got it and it made my performances way better, way more sincere."
Jamieson points out he had to adapt to performing musical theatre as opposed to Grinspoon gigs, particularly "the rules and discipline, and the warming up and warming down, and just figuring out each cast member's little nuances".
So was he approached to play the role of St Jimmy? After admitting he'd be "terrified at an audition", theatre novice says, "I got an email in January, my management were like, 'This is a bit weird,' like, 'Whaddaya think of this?' I'm like, 'I would love to do this! I think it'd be a great challenge for me,' and I was just kind of flattered to be asked - even thought about," he laughs. "So I was like, 'Okay, well let's do it'. Then I said yes immediately. And then I got to rehearsals in Brisbane and I just immediately was like [shudders]. I was terrified! I had a fair amount of anxiety." When asked whether his anxiety was choreography-related, Jamieson points out, "I don't have any choreography, luckily, 'cause my character is just this villain that floats about; the looser he is [demonstrates zombie-style movements while seated in his chair] the better. So I can kind of just prance and pose."
We can see why the casting director thought of Grinspoon frontman then. He laughs, before repeating and acknowledging, "Prance and pose about, which I can kinda do! But I have props and stuff, and marks that I need to hit. But just going into rehearsals and being surrounded by 15 of Australia's most talented triple-threats is intimidating. And while they were all pretty scared of me [laughs], I was scared of them, like, 'Oh, you guys can sing five-part harmonies,' and stuff that I couldn't do."
When asked whether it was a challenge to memorise the blocking for his character throughout American Idiot, Jamieson admits, "Yeah, rock'n'roll's about mistakes and improvisation and, you know, making the most of that. And learning [the blocking] was challenging, yeah. But just learning parts and harmonies, and singing the right notes - and I should be good at that, haha. So, um, just being surrounded by these really young, talented, beautiful cast members." The inaugural triple j Unearthed winner noticed he developed a particularly strong bond with his American Idiot cast, which he explains is typically "what happens in theatre". "We all became, like, really lovely best friends and pulled in for each other when stuff might've gone wrong and, yeah! It was a really great effort and so that's why I said yes to this, immediately again.
"I thought when I did the role, in Brisbane, it'd be three weeks and it'd be done," he adds, "so I told my parents, told my daughters, 'Come and see Dad in a musical!' And I thought that would be it. Then the offer came through to tour it and I was over the moon about it! It's a really, really good show." So what did his kids think of American Idiot? "Oh, they liked it!" he enthuses. How old are they? "They're 12 and 10 - maybe 11 and 9 when they saw it," the alternative music figure corrects, before adding, "I guess it's got some mild themes, but it's still a great show no matter what. They loved it - they knew all the words to these songs - and it's done in a way that I think is; you know, it's not 1984 let's put it that way [laughs]. I saw that production in Brisbane actually this year and that was fairly intense - the British/English production I think it was but, yeah! My kids loved it, yeah. My mum and dad loved it, too, yeah, it was cool. It was really lovely - the opportunity has now arisen, you know, that I'm doing it nationally. I mean, maybe they can come to the [Sydney] Opera House, who knows?"
For the upcoming Australian production of American Idiot, which will tour nationally, Jamieson will share the role of St Jimmy with Adalita and Sarah McLeod (The Superjesus). On this genius casting, the '90s music alumni gushes, "I am tremendously excited that Adalita and Sarah are on board for the St Jimmy role. Both are incredible in their own way and will bring a special type of venom to this character. I have been a fan of Adalita since Signs Of Satanic Youth when I bought the EP in a Port Macquarie record store when I was a grunge-obsessed 16-year-old. We have all toured on and off in various guises together over the last 20 years, and these two amazing females are going to bring a whole other dimension to this production."
During the show's Queensland run, Jamieson shared the role of St Jimmy with Chris Cheney of The Living End. "We shared notes 'cause we were there both together, both fairly terrified, 'Oh my god, these guys are all really good!'" he recalls with a laugh. He was given the opportunity of watching Cheney as St Jimmy during a tech run of American Idiot and recalls, "Seeing it just with no props, no lighting - it was really quite raw and, yeah! Quite an emotional piece; it's a moving piece of theatre, definitely... It's funny, it'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry."
Jamieson admits that when people first hear about the musical-theatre production of American Idiot they tend to find it "a little bit confusing". "People are like, 'It's Green Day, it's American Idiot,' and I'm like, 'Yeah, but it's not about Green Day, number one'. So people think, 'Oh, who plays Billy Joe [Armstrong]?' No one plays Billie Joe, he just wrote the music," he laughs. "So it's kind of getting that across to people." He then stresses, "Everything's played live. There's no orchestra pit, all the band are onstage. So it's different, but what's normal in musicals nowadays, you know? Everything's kind of changed. But, um, I get to play this really fun villain role, which is great. And the cast are amazing, so..."
Sitting inside Comedy Theatre in the upstairs bar, Jamieson looks smart dressed in 'rock formal' - a crisp, black collared shirt and jeans - and we wonder whether his costume is similar to what he'd wear when fronting Grinspoon. "It's a tuxedo," he shares of St Jimmy's threads. "I got in costume yesterday for the first time since March and I'm like, 'Oh, right, yes! I remember this'." The Grinspoon singer then admits, "I even think my stage outfit for Grinspoon's a costume now - I called it a costume [laughs]."
On whether his first musical theatre experience informed the Grinspoon tour that followed, the frontman offers, "Short answer, yes". He then elaborates: "In the theatre world I learnt how to warm up my voice, which I'd never done before. We were doing so many shows in [American Idiot], so I started doing that. 'Cause in rock'n'roll there's no real dignified way to warm up your voice, hahaha, and being from the punk-rock world we're like, 'Fuck that, we're not doing that!'
"So it's kinda embarrassing in rock'n'roll, but in the end I just did it in my hotel room - for Grinspoon - and then didn't have to do it at the venue. But I felt that protected my voice and I was able to do these shows for Grinspoon, 'cause they were long - they were 90-minute shows as well - so I was able to sing as well as I possibly could. And it was really important to me to have the same amount of respect and pride that I showed in maybe the St Jimmy role... [I] really took it quite seriously and in this day and age - obviously, now, it's not 20 years ago. If you do a bad show you're gonna know about it," he chortles. "It's immediate! So I was fearful, but I was confident as well... That's what I took over was the sense of discipline in musical theatre. Still having heaps of fun, don't get me wrong," Jamieson quickly adds.
On whether he was a Green Day fan, the Port Macquarie-based muso says, "I was massively into grunge. So, '94, I was in my last year of high school and I guess Dookie came around and kind of killed grunge, put a big watering can on the misery and kind of the self-loathing that was grunge... I was loving it 'cause it was like this antithesis of what grunge was, it was these kind of happy, really well-written songs with this fast, attitude - I didn't realise [Green Day] had this songwriting in them! I was like, 'Okay, cool, I like it,' and it was cool. And then American Idiot came out, and obviously the first single was American Idiot, I was like, 'Yeah, that's cool'. And then Boulevard [Of Broken Dreams] came out, I was like, 'Ooh,' that really piqued my interest a lot, that song, and I was like, 'Well this is a real stretch in terms of songwriting for them,' and then I listened to the whole record and the nine-minute Jesus Of Suburbia."
When he initially found out he got the role, Jamieson says he listened to Green Day's American Idiot record before rehearsals as part of his preparation only to get up there and discover the Broadway version is different. "I'm like, 'Oh, god, fuck! I've done all this preparation'," he chuckles.
Back when Grinspoon were coming up on the scene, we're curious to know what the then-young singer would have thought if someone told him he'd be cast in a musical. Would he have laughed in the face of whoever suggested it? "Yes," he confesses, before adding, "I did musicals in high school and my family are from - my mum and dad really encouraged art in a lot of ways, all my sisters are dancers, and I saw Phantom... down here, actually, as a young kid." He gestures toward Exhibition Street, one of Melbourne's theatre precincts. "And I saw, I think, 42nd Street and The Buddy Holly Story in my teens, during high school. So I guess I was kind of involved. And I was Joseph in the high school musical of that production [Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat]." But once Grinspoon started, Jamieson "never thought of" pursuing professional musical theatre roles. "That's why when I got the email and received the communication, I was like, 'Oh, this is really flattering, number one, and number two: I definitely wanna do this,' 'cause these opportunities don't come up - they just don't, you know? Unless you make them happen. And I've been playing myself my whole life. I get to play someone else [in American Idiot], so it'll be great."
Given that his "kid sisters dance", he was also taken along to dance classes. "I did ballet and contemporary and jazz and all that kinda stuff," he reveals, "but I only did it for a very short amount of time... I can't kick a ball, can't swim," he laughs. "I can kind of run, but that's about it. It just was a different type of upbringing, in a way, to maybe sports families; we were just all about doing arty shit, really. So I did a bit of dance, I'm by no means a great dancer, but I reckon I could get some chorey if I needed to but, I dunno, this opportunity presented itself as far as musicals go and at my age, and where I'm at in my life, I think it was just a great opportunity - it would be stupid to say no to something like this. So if it opens more doors and I have to learn more - 'cause I learnt a whole bunch of shit this year from just doing this - so much about performance - so if I could learn more, then great! So I'll say yes to stuff that I can learn more [from]. I don't think I could do Aladdin, for example, but yeah! I know that Jon English did some great musicals. He was incredible."
When asked whether he had an understudy during his first stint as St Jimmy, Jamieson enlightens, "No!" Would Cheney have been able to cover for him if the need arose? "I think it was good for publicity, sharing [the role], but Chris could do some bits and he couldn't so other bits, and I could do some bits and I couldn't do other bits, so there was just no way we could do the whole season. So we ended up - I did about 16 shows he did four or five or something, so I did the majority of them. And then this time around I got the role. I don't know what happened, I think he must be unavailable 'cause I would've loved to share it with him again." Or maybe Jamieson just aced it? He winks and then guffaws.
