What Gives The Mekons Their Kick? Jon Langford’s Dark & Stormy!
The Mekons have been rocking stages, smashing the State and kicking against the pricks since the late 1970s, when they formed as an art collective at the University of Leeds. Part of the first wave of British punk band to hit the American shores, the band has remained vital over the years, thanks to its firery brand of rock & roll and heart-on-their-sleeves left wing politics. At some point in the 1990s, the majority of the band relocated to Chicago, Illinois.
Co-founder and most of the time frontman Jon Langford is the hardest working man in the business, with multiple bands (The Mekons, Waco Brothers, The Three Johns, Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Skull Orchard) playing and recording at any one time. And his paintings of country music icons are in high demand as well.
Favorite Summer Drink:
Jon’s Uncle (aka The Dark & Stormy)
1 part Goslings Black Seal overproof rum
2 parts Spicy Ginger Beer – not Ginger Ale! (Goslings now make their own but I like Bundarberg too)
1 part ice
Garnish with a quarter lime crushed in your palm and tossed in
Musical Accompaniment: Sometime I Feel Like Fletcher Christian by Mekons, of course!
Why is it your favorite drink?
When I went to visit my uncle, who lives on Bermuda, in the 1990s, every night we’d watch the sunset with a Dark & Stormy. This is a longish, tallish tropical drink but no other fruit or umbrella is required.
On the left in this photograph is my Uncle Don Jolliffe, formerly of Pontypool South Wales performing in the Bermuda Xmas Panto. When I returned to Chicago, I introduced the Dark & Stormy at a Touch & GO Records drinks party and years later I discovered it had become a fixture of these events, but nobody could remember what it was called so they referred to it as the Jon’s Uncle.
