[image]
[title]Comedian, documentarian, storied pubsman: Jamali Maddix is the perfect person to launch Time Out’s fastidiously-researched new list of the 50 best pubs in London. (Yes, we did quite a lot of drinking for this.) Who better for the job than a man who spent the formative years of his career clawing up the slippery ladder of stand-up, telling jokes in the back rooms of boozers across the capital? ‘I grew up in pubs,’ he explains. ‘From the age of 18 I was working in pubs every night. Not pulling pints though – I probably would have made more money doing that…’
The early afternoon sesh is already in full flow when Jamali arrives at our freshly anointed Number One pub, the Army & Navy. If you haven’t had a pint at the Army & Navy over the past six months, are you even really a Londoner? A grand 1930s-built red-brick beauty that sits in the Islington hinterlands somewhere between Dalston and Newington Green, it’s a proper boozer for proper locals with everything that makes a London pub special. From swirly red carpets and chaotic karaoke sessions to rowdy match days (Arsenal, of course), and a clientele that vacillates between John Smith’s-sipping old boys, your favourite pickle-plate chefs, grown-up indie sleaze icons and longstanding regulars who’ve seen everything. All of human life is here.
The regulars are steadfastly nonplussed by the presence of one of the UK’s greatest comic talents in their midst. Maybe they missed Maddix’s fantastic but unsettling new series, Follow The Leader, which saw him reporting on everything from paedo hunters to passport bros, or his slot on the rebooted Never Mind the Buzzcocks, or his turn on Taskmaster – all of them fitting outlets for his unique brand of deadpan sass. Such starryness isn’t new to the Army & Navy, which recently hit the heady heights of Netflix fame, with a lead role in Baby Reindeer, as the venue where Richard Gadd’s Donny does his run of Edinburgh gigs. Even when Jamali tries on the increasingly dapper selection of suits our stylist has bought along, none of the gathered pintsmen blink an eye.
Born and raised in Ilford, and now living in east London, this is the kind of pub that Jamali vibes with. ‘I don’t like pubs that have been taken over too much by people who aren’t from the area,’ he explains. ‘I was never into a gastropub, or a hipster pub. I like an old-school aesthetic with good music.’
Out in the Army & Navy’s sprawling beer garden, we sat down with Jamali Maddix to talk pubs, comedy, Carnival and why he’ll never, ever do karaoke.
What are your earliest pub memories?
Jamali: ‘The pubs I grew up going to were the pubs my dad took me to. They weren’t nice pubs. There was the Joker in Ilford and that was a rough pub. You’d hear stories about it – it was the kind of place a man would come in, selling meat he’d stolen out of his jacket. Or the Green Gate up in Forest Gate, that was rough too. I’d go there with my dad when I was about 14.’
What did you make of these places when you were a kid?
‘I always like nightlife, where night things happen – that’s what I like, when the sun goes down. Some pubs, they do nightlife shit in the day – guys are banging grams in the day. That is definitely a nighttime activity. As I get older, I like a quiet pub’.
So you're already in your old-man pub era?
‘Well, I want people with old-men mentalities. Like, I enjoy a nice roast every now and again. There’s a spot in Brixton that does a good one. The Cannon? Something with a gun name. I also like the Crooked Billet by Clapton station. The food ain’t the best, but it’s close to my house.’
The Army & Navy is known for its karaoke…
‘I remember my first time seeing karaoke was at the Green Gate. I never knew that people took it so seriously. There were full blown arguments. People get so territorial, but they get to be a superstar for that moment.’
Have you ever been tempted to do karaoke?
‘No. Never, ever.’
Not even at Rowan’s on a Friday night?
‘Especially not at Rowan’s on a Friday night. There’s certain activities where I want to participate, and there’s certain times I like watching. And that for me is one of them, it’s like a nature documentary.’
West London has good shit, but no-one’s going from east to west
What pub would you like to add to our Top 50?
‘Wetherspoons in Stoke Newington; The Rochester Castle. I like the old Jamaican man vibe to it. I’m half Jamaican and I like that pub a lot. Obviously it’s got Wetherspoons prices, but it doesn’t really feel like a ’Spoons. Sometimes when I go to a ’Spoons I feel a bit dirty, like ‘‘there’s so many good pubs and I’m in a ’Spoons’’, but that pub – except for, obviously, the ’Spoons food, which is some of the worst food in the world – that pub, I rate’.
Do you think Hackney has the best pubs in London?
‘The thing about east London is that people from other areas travel there to go out. West London has good shit, but no-one’s going from east to west. I’ve got to give love to The Falcon that was in Kensal Rise. My uncle used to run jungle raves there and my dad would take me when I was younger. My dad was a young dad, he had me in his early 20s. When I was a teenager, he was my age [now]. My dad showed me adult shit. My uncle used to run it the days there when it was Carnival too and hosted the afterparties’.
Are you still a regular Carnival goer?
‘Not now. Because now I go to Edinburgh [Fringe]. I haven’t been to Carnival since I was about 16, but we used to go to Rampage. I remember one year when they played Pow by Lethal Bizzle and it nearly caused a riot. When I was young I’d go with my dad, but that first Carnival with your friends is a real coming of age moment, going Carnival with your boys. I remember getting the Central line there and people were smoking weed on the train. It was mad. I think they’re gonna try and stop it.’
The rumour that’s been going around for years is that they’ll put it in Hyde Park.
‘Yeah, that’d be terrible. They don’t want that festival to exist. The people who live there don’t want it. I don’t understand the people who come to London and don’t want what London is. This is what London is, this is what we do.’
Have you ever worked in a pub?
‘I did one trial shift at a pub in west London. I was there for maybe an hour and a half, and the lady in charge was like, “he’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing”. I’d never worked in a pub before, and it showed. I had a couple of jobs before comedy. I did cold calling and double glazing. I was a paintball referee in Essex. I was there for two shifts and I never quit, so I still work there. Basically you just have to shout at people to put their masks on, and I got shot in my mouth and my inner thigh.’
Do you still do gigs in the smaller London pubs?
‘I’m getting ready to tour, so I play everything. And I like the graft. I love doing comedy. So I’ll go to a small room. You know what’s a good club? Moth Club. I like working men’s clubs too, because they were built for performance. The Mildmay Club, [Newington Green] where Stewart Lee performs, is a great room. I like that they preserved it. And the Bill Murray’s great, too.’
What’s your go-to pub order?
‘When I’m drinking, I like a beer. My favourite though – they don’t really sell here because it’s an American beer – is a Miller High Life. Beautiful. It’s one of the few beers I’ll drink and think ‘‘this is refreshing’’. I prefer a bottle to a pint. I drink half pints, because I’m not a fast drinker.’
You talk openly about having periods of not drinking. How regularly do you do that?
‘I’m not drinking now. Honestly, if they said I can’t drink for the rest of my life, I’d be fine. Like, I might drink a little bit on tour in America or Asia, but on the whole, you’ve got to be conscious of your drinking if you’re around alcohol every night and it’s free beer. Because I just put on so much weight. If I drink three pints a night, four times a week, I’ll put on a stone. When I stopped drinking, I lost weight.’
Your latest series Follow The Leader sees you looking at quite odd, fringe groups. What fascinates you so much about these kinds of people?
‘It goes back to the pub shit, you know? You see the mad guy at the pub, and I always want to know ‘‘why is he mad?’’ I feel like it’s easy just to go through life wearing a mask and it’s sort of refreshing to see people not with a mask on – people saying ’this is what I am’’.’
You see the mad guy at the pub, and I always want to know ‘why is he mad?’
Do you ever hit the pub with guests on Never Mind The Buzzcocks?
‘We do drinks after in the green room.’
Courtney Love’s on the new series – did she come for drinks?
‘No. Man, she’s interesting. Think of a beautiful painting. Think of a Picasso. Now think of a Picasso that’s been ripped into small pieces and scattered. It doesn’t stop the painting being beautiful and brilliant, but it’s everywhere.’
RECOMMENDED: Time Out’s best pubs in London for 2024.
All episodes of Jamali Maddix: Follow The Leader are available to stream free on U now.
Photographer: Jess Hand @jesshandphotography
Design Director: Bryan Mayes @bryanmayesdotcom
Senior Designer: Jamie Inglis @818fpv
Photo Editor: Laura Gallant @lauramgallant
Video: Mashana Malowa
Stylist: Zoe Kozlik @zoekozlik
Grooming: Min Sandhu @minnie_mua
BTS Video: Dan Eglinton
Location: The Army & Navy
In look one Jamali Maddix wears @percival_menswear suit and @ghbass. In look two Jamali wears @percival_menswear suit and @ghbass. In look three Jamali wears @marksandspencer suit, shirt by @percival_menswear and loafers by @ghbass