Lee Jackson explains to Tony Cummings why he's been getting all nostalgic about H.O.G.

H.O.G

Tony: Give me a potted biography of HOG.

Lee: Me, Justin Thomas and Nick Mawby met at our youth group in 1988, I was a hip hop fanatic and DJ - they weren't! I persuaded them to do a rap for me at a comic relief event at church And from then we started writing and eventually gigging. This was a time when there simply weren't any Christians doing hip hop! We were a bit of a novelty act really, but it think we were on a mission to educate Christians that we can do real quality hip hop. We travelled a lot and we became the support act for a group of nutters from Manchester known as WWMT and by accident we wrote a song called "Jumping In The House Of God" while in the studio to write the song "Holy" on 'Jumping 2' album and that meant we went around with them quite a bit, including Flevo, etc. We recorded the 'Booitz' EP for ICC in 1996 which was our coming of age. ICC were great and offered us several more EPs but we both decided that we were moving onto other things and if we weren't going to go full time then we should stop in our prime - we finished at the event for revival in 1997. I have continued to DJ since then developing the worship side of deejaying and now running www.2turntables.co.uk with Steve Jeffrey, a website, network and resource to DJs who want to be the best and impact the club scene, etc.

Tony: Looking back what are your fondest memories of your years with the band?

Lee: Just being with my friends and being paid for the pleasure! We loved to travel and our trip to Switzerland was great when we performed with the Christian rappers from Europe, and doing Flevo with WWMT was amazing - I led worship for 15,000 people on my own and then HOG did our thing - mainland Europe loved hip hop so much. We were the first hip hop group to play on Guernsey! Something to tell my children!!

Tony: I see you called the albums 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly'. What do you reckon is the best "Good" track and why? And what's an "Ugly" one?

Lee: Musically I think the best track is "Catch My Drift" but I also love the various versions of the "Mellow" track as well. I am afraid we never really liked "Jumping In The House Of God" but it is still the ultimate crowd song (still being performed now by The Tribe). I have done a couple of remixes of "Jumping" as well as Zarc Porter to keep it alive (The Tribe still find it hard to drop from their set as it is what the people want. "Fig Rolls" was the pain of our life, but I quite like it really. I loved to experiment with different styles and even though it sounds dated - songs like "Chuck The Cheese" and "Bardic Bandits" (where I sampled Eden Burning) I still like to hear, we were quite eclectic really. The ugly referred to us! The bad referred to some songs like "Driftin'" which were a bit too left field and hardcore, even for me.

Tony: What are the members of HOG doing now?

Lee: Nick left the band in the early '90s - we still see him every now and then - he is a business big shot now for a food company. Justin is a church leader at a 20s church in Leeds called Revive (their album, called 'Neither Work Nor Pleasure', features him). He still writes lyrics for people including The Tribe ("Generation Rising") and others. I am still a schools worker in Leeds and lead a team of 10 school workers for Leeds Faith In Schools (www.LFIS.org) which is going well. I am happily married to Clare (who I met at Greenbelt while doing HOG) and have three year old twins called Rhea and Lauren. 2turntables is going from strength to strength and I am really excited about it - we had a DJ training day in Leeds on 22nd June and we are releasing an album in the autumn. We have already released the 24-7 prayer vision on vinyl which has been played on Vibe FM among others. I will be deejaying again over the summer at Soul Survivor and Greenbelt, etc. So I am still around, just with a lower profile and slightly greying hair!

Tony: Who's your favourite current hip hop act and why?

Lee: One of the best hip hop acts around at the moment are Joel and the boys from Birmingham - Michealis Constant. They are Christians that are doing the business in the real hip hop world, Hip Hop Connection loved their new album and they are amazing lyricists. As far as production goes that Bubba Sparks track "Ugly" produced by Timbaland was the bomb! It took me back because when I heard it I wanted to dance - it is amazing production.