Who are the souls behind all this jazz? And whose souls are they? Are they their souls or are they our souls? Tim Glynne-Jones tackles the Working Week.

What do we know about Working Week? Well, there are three of them, their names are Juliet (or is that Julie?) Brown, Larry Stabbins and Simon Booth. Juliet is a presenter on Channel 4's Solid Soul. Larry is a seasoned jazz man. They contributed to the soundtrack of Absolute Beginners, they recently toured Japan, released a version of Captain Beefheart's 'Too Much Time' and now they've brought out a new album, 'Companeros,' which is so dry and technically refined that the potential rough 'soul' edge of the subject matter is filed down to a smooth finish which slides past the ear like a well-oiled banana skin. What do they think?

Juliet: "I like it a lot but, then again, I'd be stupid if I didn't because it's a reflection of us".

What about the single? Do you think you've done justice to the original?

Juliet: "Oh yes, I think so. We've done a very nice version."

Larry: "I prefer the album mix myself because it's drier, not so much reverb on it. I think the other mix is probably better for a single."

Looking at the songs that sell well in this lay-by on the A road of time, do you feel that your music is too sophisticated for the record buying public?

Juliet: "No, because Anita Baker's selling well at the moment; I think she's very sophisticated."

One audience that has shown enthusiasm for their brand of jazz, as well as Newcastle's brand of brown ale, is the Japanese who were "far better than any British audiences we've had."

So you've had a rather cool response from the British audiences have you?

"Who doesn't?"

The Smiths, Prince, Big Audio Dynamite... OK. OK. Let's not press the point. Tell me how you managed to get onto the Absolute Beginners soundtrack?

Simon: "Well, I was involved early on. I was going up the Electric Ballroom in London and I happened to meet by chance a guy called Don McPherson who ended up helping to write the script and he came up the Electric Ballroom and saw all these kids jazz dancing. Then Julien Temple came up and he told me about this film he wanted to make which was a jazz dance musical.

"People said that if Absolute Beginners was a flop then Working Week would get pulled down with it. That's not true at all. It's fuelled a certain degree of British cynicism, you know, journalistic cynicism but that was there anyway. British journalists are very cynical anyway so it's not as if they needed prompting."

Yeah, right on. Bloody journalists. Bastards the lot of 'em. The kind of scum that raise questions about daft things like jazz revivals. Are you part of a jazz revival?

"Everybody asks us that. It's a very boring question. We see ourselves as part of a traditional music in Europe which we're very proud of. It's not a jazz revival, it's so much broader. Larry comes from a background of European improvising jazz, I started playing in punk bands and Juliet comes from very much a soul background but is considered one of Britain's up and coming Jazz singers."

It is true that Juliet's voice is the highlight of the band's sound and she claims that she is, up until now, untrained, she has, however, recently started taking lessons in opera although she doesn't intend to perform La Traviata at Covent Garden so, pardon me if I sound ignorant, but what, therefore is the point in taking opera lessons?

"Because I think it is the best vocalist thing anybody can do," she informs me in school mistress tones. "Anybody who sings opera, their technique has to be almost perfect and for a vocalist that is like the creme de la creme. I just want to do it for myself so that I know I am able to do it. I don't want to perform it. It's just something to do. Why does somebody go and learn needlework in an afternoon course?"

Usually because they want to make things, Miss.

"Well I want to do opera because um... I want to..."

"It's vocal training," ventures Simon.

"It's the training, it's an understanding. It's like knowing more about what I have been doing naturally over all these years."

"It strengthens your voice," adds Simon hopefully. Hopeful, I imagine, that he can round of this topic of conversation and get on to something more interesting like journalistic cynicism. But for the time being he'll have to wait; Juliet is still trying to get her point across.

"Well it strengthens your voice but it's also a different type of confidence that you have and it's knowing everything about the vocals and it's starting to learn about your body. You can learn about your posture, the way you present yourself and it actually helps indirectly to when I'm performing either on stage or in the show."

What, psychologically or physically?

"Physically because I now know that I speak incorrectly. I lose my voice not through singing but by talking because I speak incorrectly."

Well it sounds very proper to me. How are you supposed to speak?

"More with my throat open and relaxed."

Throat open, subject closed. Simon and Larry breath an almost audible sigh of relief and the tape machine clicks to a stop in sympathy.

Side B and Juliet's telling me that when Soul Train came on last year they had at least ten soul songs in the top 10 of the national chart. When it came off there were hardly any soul bands in the charts because by then the pirates had been closed down as well and there was no other soul program "because Tony Blackburn is not really classed as a soul program to soulers. It's classed as a pop program."

So you feel soul gets a bit of a raw deal on radio do you?

"Don't you?"

Proportionally no.

"I think so. There still isn't a program that is legal that plays things other than what is in the top 200."

"Not even the top 200." Simon reinforces the argument." At the moment Radio 1 have got an A list and it's just a rotation of the safest stuff around.

"It makes me laugh because you get an act like Eighth Wonder who are just a pop band and the record company ploughs so much money into that band to try and break it into the charts and do everything possible and the band basically get nowhere and then they'll plough more money into their second album and yet when it comes to a soul band they'll have one hit and people say, 'Oh it's just a fluke.' They won't back the album."

Juliet: "They'll keep the album back and wait until they have a second hit so they can release the album but if they don't have a second hit they can shelve the album."

Simon: "We're exceptional because we've had very good album sales in Europe. In Britain we sold 50,000 albums although no one would know it by journalistic response. It's more than Echo And The Bunnymen sold and they were on the cover of all the magazines. We're lucky because we've done that with our own impetus and we've also done it because we've approached it as a pop band; we've made videos, we've kept a very high profile. Loose Ends are another band who've been around for ages and deserve to have a very long term career."

"If only people would play them" concludes Juliet. "I mean, when you think of it, what was that track? Big guy. 'Take a piece of Me'. It got to number 11 in the national charts and they never played it once on Radio 1. Number 11! Radio 1 never played it once and they still had the cheek to put out an investigation on the track, not realising that people don't necessarily listen to Radio 1. They've got to realise that Radio 1 is not the in radio station for what's happening, for what the kids are listening to."

This is probably true but Working Week must also realise that not everybody is into soul/jazz, not all journalists are cynical bastards and not all groups deserve to be thrust upon the vulnerable public with the full force of national radio. Until they do I'm afraid they'll go on being tortured artistes trying to peddle their fruits from the most wretched stall in the market.