The Jim Jones All Stars prepare to bring the raw power of rock'n'roll back to The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea

From Thee Hypnotics through Black Moses, his own self-named Revue and The Righteous Mind, as well as appearances with numerous others, Jones has always cut an ultra-cool figure.

The All Stars released their debut Ain’t No Peril last year, and are in the process of putting together album two. They return to The Wedgewood Rooms this Saturday.

“We're including half a dozen new songs that haven't been recorded yet as part of the set that we've been road-testing,” says Jim. “They're going down really well so far. Portsmouth is the second from last show, so you know we're going to be firing on all cylinders, well-drilled by the time we get to you.”

Jones has known Chris Robinson, frontman of the Black Crowes since Thee Hypnotics supported them in the early ’90s and Robinson went on to produce their final album, 1994’s The Very Crystal Speed Machine.

The reformed Atlanta rockers took the All Stars out as the support on their recent UK and Europe tour, and it was while on the tour that Robinson suggested he could put out their next album on his own label, Silver Arrow.

“He'll be involved to some degree, whether it's production or guesting or an A&R type thing. We're kind of figuring that out as we go along. But it's exciting and I'm in talks with him at the moment and hoping that that's going to help us leapfrog into the States with some touring out there.

"You've got to be in it to win it. You've got to just keep pushing and keep pushing.”

Getting and keeping an eight-piece band together is not an easy trick to pull off, and looking back at the All Stars’ origins, Jim recalls: “It was just something thrown together for fun more than anything else. A friend of mine was booking for Wilderness Festival, and he was like, ‘Just get something together where you can play an hour set’.

“I had it in my mind that as soon as this became a headache, I'd just blow it off, you know, not bother. But ever since the beginning of me emailing people and saying: ‘Look, Are you up for this?’ it's all fallen into place really smoothly.

"It feels like one of those things where the planets are aligned with it. It reminds me a lot of The Jim Jones Revue where it started out as a short project, and it’s just grown and grown and snowballed.

“Before we knew it, we'd been flown out to Memphis to record out there (what became their debut Ain't No Peril) and going on tour with the Black Crowes and now doing our next album, and our tour dates are getting stronger and in bigger rooms and they keep selling out. It just keeps going from strength to strength.

“It's a lot of fun and everyone in the band is super cool. It's really easy, and everyone brings something great to the project. It's one of those things where it's almost like the less you force it, the more it falls into place.

“That's been a kind of a joy – we just see if it's cool, and as soon as it's a headache, we just don't do it. But at the moment we keep moving forward!”

The title of the current tour is We're All Billionaires Now – as Jim explains, it’s not necessarily an ironic name as a tongue-in-cheek attempt to manifest something positive.

“I've had friends that have had horrible disasters. The Urban Voodoo Machine had a tour called Love, Drink and Death, and two of the members of the band died.

“Then a good friend of mine, Little Barrie, he had an album coming out and the title of the album and the tour was Death Express. Then the day the tour started, the drummer, Virgil, died.

“So I'm like, screw it, I'm calling my tour We're All Billionaires Now. If that's the way it works, whatever your title is, it's like manifesting it. So yeah, I'm avoiding that. Basically it's my extreme way of avoiding death!”

The eight-piece band, which includes two saxophonists and backing vocalist in the lineup, have built a justified reputation as a formidable live act.

As Jim relates: “We played in Cambridge the other night and this guy grabbed me as I was packing my stuff up. He was like: ‘Listen to me now, listen, listen’,” says Jim, his voice becoming more emphatic in imitation of the chap, “’I've seen Led Zep, I've seen The Who...’ He listed off all this stuff and then he said: ‘Tonight you pissed over everything’,” he laughs.

“But it's fantastic. That's why you do it. One of the main reasons you do it is just to hear that people get that much out of it and really feel something.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"​​​​​​​But the proof is in the pudding, come down and check it out. The planets are aligning around you, be part of something cool!”

They play The Wedge in Southsea on Saturday, November 9, with support from The Dives and Witchdoktors, doors 7.30pm. Tickets £18. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.