Paolo
Hewitt’s Heaven’s Promise
Remember that scene in Taxi Driver when the older
driver preaches his philosophy ?
A man does a job. He becomes that job.
Imagine your work becoming your life. A DJ would want the days and
the streets to melt into one another like the two tracks he’s
just mixed. He’d want the beat to be smooth, the fusion seamless
and unnoticeable. Disc-to-Disc: street-to-street. He’s that
kind of guy. Nothing troubles him. But then all of a sudden something
makes him stop short. The woman he’s been seeing is pregnant,
she’s in trouble and he’s the father. It’s time
to make some choices. It’s time to fulfil Heaven’s Promise.
Heaven’s Promise is the first novel by Paolo Hewitt, ex NME
and Solid Bond and the second book to be published by Heavenly.
One sunny afternoon, mid August, I went up to the Heavenly HQ in
Wardour Street to rap with Paolo about writing, music, film and
anything else we could squeeze into a C90, and half a bottle of
rum. Now I know I’m setting this up so it feels like it’s
going to flow into a straight question/answer session, but there’s
an acoustic jam going on in the background, the Etienne boys going
out for more beer and rum and the incessant phone, the sun never
seeming to set and all that is the Heavenly office these days; it
seems more appropriate to let the author speak and not quote from
the open discussion from the room. And so here’s Paolo Hewitt
on…
LONDON
When you come from the suburbs to London, as I did from Woking,
the size of the city and what’s available is truly invigorating.
One of the most striking things for me when I set up shop here is
the huge mix of cultures that live side by side, especially where
I reside and it’s cool. That’s really inspiring because
it directly runs against the line given out by right wingers that
such a mix is impossible. Round my way, everybody’s just getting
on with their thing and no one hassles anyone with any stupidness.
That said, there’s a load of trouble going down round the
Somers Town area (Camden) with that 15-year-old kid being murdered
by some youths. It’s a problem that we are going to have to
deal with swiftly. In times of harsh economies, it’s so easy
to whip up ideas about nationalism based round jobs and money. Tell
people that the Pakistan or the Indian community, despite the fact
that a large proportion of those communities are British themselves,
have taken their jobs, housing, culture, etc. it’s that kind
of thinking which serves to mask the dying world economy, that is
affecting everyone, which we will have to fight tooth and nail in
coming years.
THE GOVERNMENT
People in power have always gotten away with murder. But at least
ten years ago when they got caught with their hands in the till
they would go quietly. Now even that has gone. It’s just brazen
robbery. The rich sucking the poor and then spitting into their
faces with laws about poll taxes and restriction of movement. But
it can’t last long. A change always comes.
ON THE DJ (THE NARRATOR OF HEAVEN’S PROMISE)
I wanted a character that wasn’t tied down to a nine to five
job and could go off and engage in all things I wanted to talk about
from music and clothes to race riots and Ecstasy, and everything
would be credible. I also thought a DJ would be a good vehicle for
one of the book’s themes which is irresponsibility of men.
I’ve known a lot of DJ’s and they’re all trying
to do the others by discovering new tunes. They are wrapped up in
their worlds, as a lot of men are in whatever they’re doing,
so when real life intrudes on that world there is always a fight.
That was the reason for the character’s job.
ON WRITING
When I was writing the book it often felt like I was shooting in
the dark. I used to read back what I had written that day and think,
well I like it but what will the rest of the world think? Luckily,
the rest of the world has been very kind about the book. People
whose opinions I really respect have given it a real thumbs up so
all the hardships and heartaches were more than worth it in the
end. I really agree with what both John Lennon and the writer Irving
Welsh have said about “art”. Lennon said, “ Genius
is 95% sweat and 5% inspiration”. Irving Welsh said that writing
is really about application most of the time. The ideas about writers
being “inspired” or being born “artists”(have
you checked out how many people think they are “artist”
at the moment) is just a way to stop people joining the cosy writers
club. It’s really true. Writing is hard but once you get into
it , discipline yourself to sit down and put words to paper, then
believe it, it’s a great feeling. It’s just getting
to the type writer that’s the hard bit.
CULTURES
I want to talk more about this in the next book so I’ll keep
it brief. But in “Heaven’s Promise” I realised
at the end of it that a lot of the characters, the young Italian
and the Indian woman who organises against the BNP, for example
were breaking away from the dominant cultures to try and make something
else. I think culture is really important for humans because it
gives us a sense of identity and belonging in a vast world that
is frightening for most of its inhabitants. But, for me, culture
has to be flexible. It has to adapt. It can’t stand still
otherwise it will perish.
ON OTHER WRITERS
Best British writer I’ve come across recently is Irving Welsh.
He’s put out two books, Trainspotting and The Acid House.
Both came out before mine so when I heard about them I got really
worried that he was covering the same ground. I bought them up in
Scotland and within a week I had devoured both of them. They’re
great books, full of compassion, anger, telling details and great
story telling. You get lost in them. Other writers would include
Sam Selvon, Hubert Selby jnr. Jess Mowry and Richard Allen (only
joking)
ON HIS SMALL FACES BIOG (RELEASED IN OCTOBER 1994)
If Steve Marriott was 16 today he would be checking out contemporary
r’n’ b and adapting the form to The Small faces. Marriott
was a pop artist of the highest kind and so was his sidekick Ronnie
Lane. They always wanted the new. Dylan said, “don’t
look back” and that was the best Mod quote, the one The Small
Faces lived by. All I hope is that when people read this biog they
either go to their collections and pull out some Marriott/Lane music
or they go out and discover them for the first time. That will be
enough for me.
ON HIGHLIGHTS AND HANG-UPS
HIS WELLER DOCUMENTARY
Basically, apart from making the first ever documentary about this
country’s most senior musicians (and I mean that in terms
of art not age) who has been working at his craft for 17 years now
and who was recently approached by The South Bank show for a special
(what does that tell about the class system in this country and
how it operates) we (meaning myself and director Pedro Roymanhi)
also wanted to make a film about a man who’s got an idea about
what he wants to do and how he goes about doing that, what happens
to him along the way and what lessons are learnt. See, as with “Heaven’s
Promise” it’s vital to cover the things that are normally
ignored by the mainstream but you have to have a human story so
that people get interested. This what we tired to do with this film
as well as celebrate and examine some great music. All I’ll
say about it now is that I have see it seen it a hundred times and
it stills grips me and that if I had not been involved in any way
with the film I would still dig it. And that’s the truth Ruth.
By the way it’s released on video in November. Now pass the
rum!
Matteo Sedazzari
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