Author: Gary Ryan

NME

Can you remember either of the chart positions Fun Lovin’ Criminals’ ‘Scooby Snacks’ reached in the UK Top 40?

“No, I don’t care about that stuff.”

WRONG. Upon its original release in 1996, it peaked at Number 22, but after being reissued in 1997 with a cover of 10cc’s ‘I’m Not in Love’, it reached Number 12.

“Isn’t that nice?! [Laughs]”

When you first wrote it, did you feel it was a hit?

“Not really. I was just telling stories and I suppose it caught on because we made an attempt to let people in on the joke using Quentin Tarantino samples [from Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs], so we worked extra-hard to make that song accessible.”

Tarantino demanded, and received, 37 per cent of the royalties and a co-writing credit…

“He had to start a musical publishing company to get paid! [Laughs] I’ve spoken to him since then and he’s really flattered by it and told me being immortalised in music was cool for him.”

Which two bands did Fun Lovin’ Criminals perform between at Glastonbury in 1999?

“I know this because there’s a great story behind it! It was Lenny Kravitz, us, and then Skunk Anansie, right?”

CORRECT.

“During the day, [Glasto founder] Michael Eavis comes by on his little golf cart and says: ‘We’re getting pushback from Lenny Kravitz saying his spot is not where it should be and he would prefer to play your spot.’ We replied: ‘We don’t care! We’ll play now if you want! We’re here to have fun’. Eventually, he came back and said: ‘We’re going to keep the running order as it is’, explaining that Lenny thought he was bigger than us and wanted to go on after us.”

“Two weeks later, I’m back in New York City in a nightclub where I know the owner, and Lenny Kravitz comes in. I gave a waitress $100 and asked her: ‘Can you get a champagne bucket, fill it with ice and put one Heineken beer into it. Then give it to Lenny and say: ‘This is from Huey and the Fun Lovin’ Criminals saying thanks for opening up for us at Glastonbury’? The beer got delivered and Lenny looked up like someone had slapped him in the face! [Laughs]”

An easy one: which singer/songwriter used to play Fun Lovin’ Criminals ‘Love Unlimited’ before he went onstage?

“Wow, that was pretty cool. The legendary Barry White.”

CORRECT. In his autobiography, he raved of FLC’s ode to him: ‘A great sound, a very funky beat. I love it to death. Thank you, boys.’

“Barry White was such a huge part of my life and I felt I was repaying him with that homage-song, so for him to use it as his entrance music and praise it in his memoir felt amazing. He created such a lane for himself. No-one can do The Walrus of Love anymore, bro!”

Which two movies do you play drug dealers in?

“I’m being typecast, huh! The first one was the Laurence Fishburne movie Once in the Life – he’s a friend and he flew me out by Concorde to do a day’s work on it. And I played a transvestite dealer in Headrush.”

CORRECT.

“My character in Headrush had lots of backstory that didn’t make it into the film. I was taught how to run in heels by a bunch of drag performers in New York. I had my legs shaved even though I eventually was wearing trousers. Man there was so much training! [Laughs] Just reminiscing about it making me giggle and blush at the same time.”

With all the preparation you put in for the role, do you think you could win RuPaul’s Drag Race now?

“Well, you know what, I probably could dude! [Laughs] Just imagine a Rocky montage with Huey with a bunch of drag performers in Manhattan where the whistle goes and I run in five-inch platforms!”

Talking of acting, apparently you once turned down a role on The Sopranos?

“At that point I wasn’t interested in acting, so it wasn’t something I pursued, but also there’s some people that come from my background that aren’t fans of The Sopranos because it was a little hokey, and I sit in that camp. Like for instance, I owned a garbage company [like gangster characters in the show did], so a lot of things they were doing were cringey and corny and that’s one of the reasons I didn’t do that show.”

Which 2011 Plan B video do you cameo in?

“This was another of those one-day things! I don’t remember the name of the song, but B’s cool and asked me to be in the video and the drummer in my old band [Fun Lovin’ Criminals’ Frank Benbini] tagged along because he was desperate to be in it. He was hamming it up the whole time and Plan B told him to calm down [Laughs].”

WRONG. It was called ‘Prayin’’

“That’s right, ‘he was prayin’ to get out of jail – because we were all in prison. Whatever happened to that kid? He was really good. Did he just fall off because he didn’t want to join the Illuminati in their sex sessions? I’m joking of course!”

Talking of prison, notorious gangster Reggie Kray was a fan of yours…

Yeah, I visited him in jail because he wanted to be a songwriter. He had some interesting lyrics to say the least! He’d seen what Fun Lovin’ Criminals were doing and realised we had authenticity and asked for a meet. He said something right off the bat which made me realise he wasn’t as one-dimensional as people made him out to be. At that point, I was 30 years old, and he had been in jail at that point for 30 years, so he said: ‘Look, you know everything I don’t know about the world and I know everything you don’t know about the world’. He was letting me in on the fact we could maybe complement each other and do something together.”

“He was nice enough when I met him, but obviously he has a reputation. His songs were what you would imagine, but actually a lot better than you would have thought – though it wasn’t something I ended up doing because I wasn’t super-comfortable with the people around him, who I didn’t think had his best interests 100 per cent at heart.”

Which icon once told you at the 2008 BRIT Awards: “I used to have a picture of you on my wall and oh, the things I used to do to that picture”?

“[Laughs] The only reason I know this is ‘cause my mom made me watch that video not too long ago when I was visiting her. That was Amy Winehouse.”

CORRECT.

“I hope the movie Back to Black is kinder to her and her legacy than some of the other things I’ve seen.”

You highlight Winehouse in your 2015 book Huey Morgan’s Rebel Heroes: The Renegades of Music & Why We Still Need Them.

“Renegades are important. We live in a world that has so much fucked-up shit going on and these things aren’t being discussed by the artists that are supposed to reflect society. Now I’m not saying I was Crosby, Stills & Nash… when I was making records, but I did try to talk about things I experienced, be that my time in the Marine Corps or running around with nefarious characters in New York. I don’t see a lot of that coming out of Drake, who’s the biggest artist of the 21st century flying around on 777s and my man can’t even say anything about the socioeconomic situation in his home country of Canada, where they’re shitting over the famers and stuff. Everyone’s watching their bag and don’t want their money fucked with.”

What posters did you have on your wall growing up?

“I had movie posters, and I framed my 12-inches like the first [self-titled]  Van Halen record, and ‘The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1’ – the first album I ever bought. It was just me and my mom in small apartment, so I didn’t masturbate that often as a kid!”

Can you name any guests who appeared on the 2006 episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks that you hosted?

“When I guest hosted or the time everybody wants to talk about when I threw the mug?”

When you guest hosted…

“The Smiths’ bass player Andy Rourke – he was really cool. I got along with him great. What a sense of humour too! When I heard he’d passed [in 2023], it made me cry.”

CORRECT. Apart from Rourke, you could have also had comedian Reginald D. Hunter, The Three Degrees’  Sheila Ferguson, and Natalie Cassidy, aka Sonia Fowler from EastEnders – a show you’re famously a fan of…

“When I was growing up in New York City, PBS – the Public Broadcasting Service – would play lots of British TV shows and my discerning taste brought me to EastEnders. I smoked a joint with Finley Quaye in The Queen Vic one time! We went out while we were filming Top of the Pops together and found The Vic.”

As you mentioned, you provided Buzzcocks’ last ‘controversial’ moment during a 2013 Rizzle Kicks-helmed episode where you smashed a mug during the Next Lines Round, before walking off set as the credits rolled…

“I was having a personal low point, and was moving house the next day so I was under tremendous amounts of stress. Without getting into it too much, being a former marine with stress disorder and white wine… shit happens! I’m not making excuses – that was on me.”

Which country’s government allegedly complained about the title of a Fun Lovin’ Criminals album?

“[Laughs] Colombia.”

CORRECT. According to Select magazine, Colombia’s government made complaints about the implications of your 1998 album ‘100% Colombian’.

“The Colombian diplomat in London had a problem with it and contacted the British government over it, as if I was a British subject, who told him: ‘You know this band are American?’. They then tried to lobby the British government to say or do something on their behalf. It was hilarious!”

On which two songs do both Fun Lovin’ Criminals and Garbage appear?

“That would be our alternative version of Garbage’s ‘You Look So Fine’, and Garbage did a version of our song ‘Korean Bodega’ with Shirley Manson singing.”

CORRECT.

“We sent them ‘100% Colombian’ – haha! – and ‘Korean Bodega’ was their favourite song. I wrote the music and lyrics for it when I was age 11. My mom had got me a Tascam MiniStudio, and I was always producing music. That’s why I learned to play guitar, bass and drums – so I’d have music to produce. We toured with Garbage and they were fantastic to learn from – Shirley is an amazing frontperson and me and Butch [Vig, Garbage member and storied producer] would spend hours talking about how to manipulate different sounds.”

One of your other notable collaborations was with Echo and the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch on numerous cover versions including Wayne Newton’s ‘Summer Wind‘ and Louis Armstrong‘s  ‘We Have All the Time in the World‘…

“We had a couple of tunes that we had recorded as his band and we were calling it Echo and the Funnymen, and there’s still two [unreleased] songs – one’s called ‘Crackerjack’ and it’s really fucking good! He’s a great songwriter and we had a cool vibe happening.”

Who did you present the British Breakthrough Award to at the 1999 BRITs?

“I know BB King presented me with an award at some point. That’s how I met him and it was fucking awesome*! I don’t keep any of my awards… Who did I present one to?

WRONG. Belle and Sebastian, who beat Steps amid claims from their manager Pete Waterman of online vote-rigging.

“[Joking] Which one showed up – Belle or Sebastian? Controversy indeed!”

You left the Fun Lovin’ Criminals in 2021 and are back with a new band called ‘Huey Morgan: The Fun Lovin’ Criminal’ while the rest of the FLCs soldier on, who you dubbed a ‘sad and creepy tribute act’…

“I have a new record more than halfway done which I’ve been doing for a couple of years now.”

“I understand there’s a lot of stuff that’s going around that’s unseemly and a bit tatty and that’s unfortunate. The band [FLCs] should have broken up a couple of years ago, but the other guys didn’t get the memo, that’s all. There’s nothing I can do about it. I’m managed by [Creation Records supremo] Alan McGee now. He called me up one day and said: ‘Do you know those scumbags in your old band trademarked the name Fun Lovin’ Criminals while you were still in the band?’ [Laughs] I didn’t, but that’s one of the reasons I’m not in the band anymore ‘cause they were scumbags.”

“That kind of stuff lends itself to the idea that I’m happy I’m not with those guys anymore. It’s not something I’m concerning myself with ‘cause I’m not about to fall over anything behind me. I am the Fun Lovin’ Criminal – they’re all my stories, I wrote a lot of the music and produced a lot of that stuff with them, and it’s just a shame it got to this point.”

“What’s important is I’m still doing what I’m doing and it’s going to be fun to get out there and play with my brand new band and make some people happy again.”

*BB King played on ‘100 % Colombian’.

The verdict: 7/10

“Oh wow, that’s cool man!”

Tickets to see Huey Morgan: The Fun Lovin’ Criminal at The 100 Club in London on May 4 are available here

The post Huey Morgan: “Reggie Kray wanted to collaborate on music with me” appeared first on NME.

NME

How many meteors are pictured on the cover of your 2004 debut album ‘Who Killed…… The Zutons?’?

“Eight.”

WRONG. Four.

“Shit! I should have got that one! I did ask for eight but they never fucking listen to me anyway!”

How do you look back on that time?

“It was exciting and new. I was young and it felt like the realisation of your childhood dream, but it had its ups and downs. I had a month of intrusive thoughts on loop in my head. It was just stress and where my brain went.

“For example, I thought I was gay for a week because I’d split up with a girl and was heartbroken and couldn’t work out why I’d fucked it up. That was in the back of my mind, so I thought I was gay! [Laughs] I remember going out in London, and looking at fellers, thinking: ‘If I’m gay, I must fancy him’, before crying in a club’s toilet because I didn’t fancy them.

“Looking back, I could give the standard answer of ‘I really enjoyed myself’ – which I did most of the time – but that meteoric rise to fame brings out weird things that most people don’t talk about.”

The Zutons were nominated for the 2005 British Breakthrough BRIT Award. Who beat you?

“I’m guessing it begins with an F and ends in a D?”

WRONG. Although Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled debut album did pip ‘Who Killed…… The Zutons?’ to the 2004 Mercury Prize. Keane won the BRIT accolade.

“I knew Franz Ferdinand beat us at one thing! I met CeeLo Green at Coachella years ago, and he thought I was the singer Tom Chaplin from Keane! He goes: ‘I know your shit man! You’re in Keane, motherfucker!’. The girl I was with tried to tell him I was in The Zutons, and I said: ‘Just let it go – this is brilliant’, ‘cause he was convinced.

“He was dead small, like a little barrel, and him and his mates all had white jeans on, with their tops off, and covered in gun tattoos. They were all shaped like him – about 5ft-wide and 3-ft big. It was intense! I was staring at his AK-45 tattoo while he was praising my work in Keane! [Laughs]”

In 2008, which Las Vegas emo band covered ‘Valerie’ on Radio 1’s Live Lounge?

“Hmmm…My Chemical Romance? No? The Killers? I’m losing this one!”

WRONG. It was Panic! at the Disco.

“Well, that’s a compliment, thank you very much! I’ve never heard it – I’ll check it out.”

Everyone from Louis Tomlinson to er, The Nolans have covered that song…

“The one that blew my mind was Azealia Banks singing a verse of it at Coachella, and both Bruno Mars and Queen Latifah have covered it. It’s got its own life. I don’t look back on it badly at all. Some people wrongly think we were gutted about Amy Winehouse covering it, but we thought it was the best compliment an artist could give us. You can’t fake her passion for that song.”

“When I was a kid growing up listening to Nirvana and Metallica, I didn’t think I was going to write one of those songs that your auntie sings. It’s a top karaoke song. I’m not complaining. If anything, I’d like to have written more wedding songs. They stand the test of time.”

When you first heard Amy Winehouse’s rendition, did you know it was going to blow up?

“When I first heard her version on the Radio 1 Live Lounge, I thought: ‘Fucking hell, that’s good’, but I didn’t think it would take off. We’d already had a hit with it ourselves, so I didn’t think lightning would strike twice. When she released it and it did what it did, it was crazy.”

“I met Amy three times in my life. Once at the Mercury Prize, once in the Camden boozer The Hawley Arms, and once when I was hanging around with this Brummie lad called Boo, who was a tit. He spent all night comparing me to her, saying: ‘If you’re a 1, she’s a 10’. I thought: ‘OK, I get it, she’s good’. Eventually, I said ‘Look Boo, fuck off being a wanker. You’ve done this for hours and it’s pissing me off’, and Amy turned round and said: ‘Well, you fuck off then!’ to me, because he was her mate.

“So, I walked out of the house in the strop, and she followed me and pleaded: ‘Please come back. I’m sorry I told you to fuck off. I really like that song’ [‘Valerie’]. We went back in and carried on drinking.”

“I’ve got a lot to thank Amy Winehouse for, but I’ve also got a lot to thank Boo for because if he wasn’t being a wanker, we wouldn’t have got talking about the song and I don’t think she would have covered it. So thanks Boo – he made me a 10! [Laughs]”

For a bonus half-point: Which 2010 song by a rap artist/crooner references The Zutons version of ‘Valerie’ in its lyrics?

“Fucking Plan B!”

CORRECT. Plan B’s ‘She Said’ includes the lyric: ‘And I’m saying all this in the stand/While my girl cries tears in the gallery/This has got bigger then I ever could have planned/Like that song by the Zutons, ‘Valerie’’.

“Is he trying to say we’re shit or is it a backward compliment? He was doing an album [‘The Defamation of Strickland Banks‘] in the style of Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson and the Dap-Kings, and he’s saying The Zutons’ ‘Valerie’ is a bigger song than it ever ought to be? Maybe I’m being a paranoid wanker, but it puzzled me.

“I’m not saying he’s a c*** – but he might be! [Laughs] I didn’t get it, so I messaged him on Twitter saying ‘Thanks for the mention’, and I didn’t receive a reply, so I thought he must think we’re shit! [Laughs]”.

Name four songs The Zutons have released with women’s names in the titles.

“There’s ‘Oh Stacey (Look What You’ve Done!)’, ‘Valerie’, ‘Pauline’ off the new album [‘The Big Decider’] and…there isn’t another one, is there?”

WRONG. You missed April from ‘April Fool’, the B-side to ‘Valerie’.

“Fucking hell! I forgot about that! What a song!”

You co-wrote ‘The Bike Song’ with Mark Ronson, whom you nicknamed Chesney Hawkes owning to his physical resemblance to the ‘80s ‘The One and Only’ one-hit wonder. The track is the lead single off Ronson’s 2010 album ‘Record Collection’. But which three 1980s pop stars appear on the LP?

“Boy George and two of Duran Duran.”

CORRECT. Boy George, and Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon and keyboardist Nick Rhodes. Alas, no Chesney Hawkes!

“Mark’s got a good sense of humour. When I said that to him, he thought I was taking the piss but I’m like: ‘I look like the fucking feller from [the 1991 film] The Commitments. You look like Chesney Hawkes!’ He’s not remembered well, but he was a good-looking guy!”

What are your memories of writing ‘The Bike Song’ (featuring Kyle Falconer from The View) with Chesney…sorry, Mark… in New York?

“I kept asking him and his mates in the studio: ‘Have you got a bike?’, ‘cause I wanted to live the New York dream of riding over the Brooklyn Bridge, but everyone said no. While Mark was recording vocals and his band was playing poker, I just wrote it there and then as a joke, but when I played it, his band turned round and said they liked the song. We didn’t think Mark would like it, but he did.

“I’d taken lots of songs over, but ‘The Bike Song’ was better and spontaneous. I remember taking Mark to see Devo and buying all their merch. The next day, we were all wearing the Energy Domes in the studio!”

In 2008, superfan Adam Shone won a magazine competition for The Zutons to play where?

“His garden.”

CORRECT. His back garden in Heswall, Wirral.

“Some of the band weren’t keen on the idea until I pointed out the Foo Fighters did it not long before us. But it was strange. People were saying ‘Mind the flowers!’. Bizarre!”

The Coral’s James Skelly told NME that they and The Zutons had once joined forces to create a Liverpudlian supergroup together while touring Europe. What did he joke was the band’s name?

“I remember I had a bear outfit on that he gave me to wear – the bastard! He didn’t want to be outshined [Laughs]. We played a fuck-load of slightly mad pop songs they’d written that sounded like Justin Timberlake that you’ll never hear – and they’re all really good. I think they should record them for their next album, but I can’t remember our band name.”

WRONG. He quipped that you were called Zed And The Wankfish.

“Nice one! It was in Strasbourg and it was hot in the bear outfit which stank because it was from The Coral’s ‘Dreaming of You’ video, and I had a curtain rail around me. My guitar wasn’t even plugged in, and we played a medley of songs at the end.”

“I owe a lot to The Coral. They got me interest from Deltasonic, who signed us, so I’m forever in their debt. In the beginning when we supported them, they made us raise our game because there was no better live band around.”

You and The Coral were part of a scene NME dubbed ‘Shroomadelica’. Ever do magic mushrooms with them?

“No. Fuck that! I like to go naked on the mushrooms, so I can’t do that in public. I’ve been clean as a whistle [sober] for three years and I’m on the program, so sometimes I microdose mushrooms now because it helps with anxiety and depression. Seeing as we’re in the age of fucking anxiety and fear, maybe mushrooms need to make a comeback!”

In 2005, The Zutons supported Oasis at Milton Keynes National Bowl. Which band were you a replacement for?

Was it The Libertines or Babyshambles? It was Pete Doherty in some form.”

CORRECT. After Babyshambles failed to show at Oasis’ previous Southampton gig, they were replaced by you.

“Liam Gallagher is fucking hilarious. He’s like a dead funny uncle. Noel’s just as funny, but not as boisterous. I’ve had a bevvy with Liam and he’s like Jonathan Ross in that he turns anything you say into a joke to make you feel at ease. You’re thinking: ‘Go on, rip the fuck out of me more because this is funny’.”

The Zutons covered the Beatles’ ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ on Radio 2’s ‘Sgt. Pepper’s…’ 40th anniversary show and album. Name two other acts who also appeared.

“Russell Brand, Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs, Athlete – there’s a blast from the past!”

CORRECT.

“The Beatles producer/sound engineer Geoff Emerick was a bit like that feller off Wallace and Gromit, but he was a proper whizz. He told me I wasn’t being sarcastic enough when singing ‘Good Morning Good Morning’, because it’s about someone who lives in the suburbs but wants to live back in the city. I didn’t realise it was such a dark song, and he got a better performance out of me.”

Did Paul McCartney ever give you any reaction to your cover?

“No, but we supported him at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium in 2008. As he was telling us he liked our song ‘Always Right Behind You’, someone interrupted with a bouquet of flowers for him from Chrissie Hynde. To which Paul replied: ‘WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE FOR CHRISSIE HYNDE?!’ [Laughs].

“It was very un-McCartney – it was almost Evil McCartney! My ma was drunk and getting her picture taken with everyone, including Dave Grohl. As I was trying to keep her away, Paul said: ‘Come on, your mum still has to meet Yoko Ono!’, and gave me a wink. He saw how much of a handful she was being and thought he’d direct some of that chaos towards Yoko. He was being Dark McCartney in the best way! [Laughs]”

Name the four methods of murder in the ‘Oh Stacey (Look What You’ve Done!)’ video.

“Strangle, drown, stab, asphyxiation, fire – I’m trying to think of the worst ways to die!  [Laughs]”

WRONG. Your head is chopped off with an axe, former bassist Russell Pritchard is run over by a car, saxophonist Abi Harding is suffocated, and drummer Sean Payne and former guitarist Boyan Chowdhury are pushed off a building. Cheery!

“That video was shot in an old, abandoned kids’ hospital which was like Most Haunted. Fires had been lit and pentagrams drawn. It was fucking horrible, and I didn’t hang around long!”

Bonus question! For an extra half-point: in 2005, The Zutons were the final ever band to face Popworld’s ‘The Big Ones’. Can you remember any of the nonsensical questions that host Simon Amstell asked you?

“He asked Boyan: ‘Tell us about your moustache’.”

CORRECT. Among others, you could have also had: “Do you know anyone called Hans?’, Is there any way back for Benjamin Netanyahu?’, ‘Who in The Zutons is the spunkiest?’, and ‘Favourite bit of the Bible?’.

“I just remember Simon kept asking Boyan to lick his moustache. Credit to him, he never licked it once. Even I wanted Boyan to lick his moustache by the end, because Simon kept on asking him so many times!”

The verdict: 5/10

“I thought I’d do better! I’m going to have to live with that score, but these things happen!”

The Zutons’ album ‘The Big Decider’ is released on April 26, with the band heading out on a UK tour that month. You can read an NME interview about the process of recording their first record in 13 years and working with producer Nile Rodgers here.

The post The Zutons: “CeeLo Green was once convinced we were Keane” appeared first on NME.

NME

Your new documentary is called Hate to Love. But in 2019, who did Slipknot’s Corey Taylor claim had replaced Nickelback as the world’s most hated band?

“Oh, fuck yeah! Thank you, Corey! He anointed Imagine Dragons as the new most hated band – they’re dear friends of ours too.”

CORRECT.

“As an addendum, I believe that, sadly, Machine Gun Kelly has now had the crown fall on his head because he’s getting pilloried by the media and it’s terrible. It never ceases to amaze me how little people have to do to bring the hammer of public vitriol down on them. I’ve no idea what he’s done, but I guess he’s winning!”

Have you ever given them any advice on how to deal with the opprobrium –  is there a New Nickelback survivors’ club?

“I’ve never talked to Imagine Dragons about this, but I’ve a pretty good idea they don’t give a fuck, because they’re killing it. ‘Radioactive’ is one of the biggest-selling singles in history. But I should temper that by saying even if you’re on top of the world, you still want to feel loved and liked, and negativity sucks. So I would imagine there’s two sides to that having lived it.”

In 2018, a jokey Facebook petition went viral for which Seattle band to reunite with Nickelback frontman (and your brother) Chad Kroeger on vocals?

“I’ve never heard about this. Tell me more! [Laughs] Alice in Chains?”

WRONG. Nirvana. The proposed venue for ‘Nickelvarna’ was The Nirvana Hair and Beauty Bar in Manchester.

“[Laughs] I like that one!”

Talking of the seminal grunge group, a fake Dave Grohl account (which some journalists assumed was real) used to tweet out Nickelhate such as: “If you play a Nickelback song backwards, you’ll hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forwards, you’ll hear Nickelback”…

“What was funny was that directly after that happened, we had Dave Grohl in our dressing room at the Forum in Los Angeles, and I got to ask him about it. He explained his Twitter was being impersonated, and I poured him a Crown Royal and Coke, and we hung out.”

Still, the real Nirvana member Krist Novoselic defended you in 2019 after Fox News editor Chris Stirewalt compared Nickelback to the “danger” of socialism*. The bassist tweeted:  “Who is this jerk? Nickelback is a power pop rock band & I love them!”

“He wasn’t necessarily throwing himself on the railway tracks for us so much as rightly pointing out the outsized reaction. It was more an appeal to reality! The journey in this thing is you start off in a band, and you get a few fans in the small microcosm you’re in, and you’re the secret only they know about, and that makes it special to them. But when you become ubiquitous, a very loud vocal minority spews vitriol. Human sentiment moves like a blob, and when everybody’s saying something sucks, nobody wants to be the lone detractor.

“The thing we came to realise through all of this is as much as the word ‘hate’ is used, it’s pretty overstated because people don’t really care that much. [Laughs] If Nickelback is the thing you get most upset about, you’re living a charmed life. Nobody’s trying to kill you, and you’re not starving to death. If our band is the level in which your hate exists, boy, you’re living in a fairy tale!”

Have any celebrities who slagged you off in the past later apologised?

“Not enough! [Laughs]”

*He said: “Our generation and prior generations fought hard against the scourge of Nickelback and to show what the dangers are of emo pop-ballad ’90s rocks. And now a new generation has come along that has forgotten the hazards of the past, and now are playing with these ideas. It’s very, very dangerous.” Even the tumbleweed didn’t laugh. 

Name three superhero franchises that Nickelback songs have appeared in.

“OK: we originally endeavoured to write a song for the Batman Dark Knight trilogy, which was ‘Savin’ Me’,  but it didn’t work out. We got on Deadpool, The Punisher, and ….oh shit, what’s the third one? Help me!”

WRONG. Apart from The Punisher (with track ‘Slow Motion’) and the teaser for Once Upon a Deadpool, you could have had Titans (‘Burn It to the Ground’), Daredevil (‘Learn the Hard Way’), and we’d even have accepted Chad’s contribution to the soundtrack of 2002’s Spider-Man (‘Hero’).

“This is a combination of having too long a career and too short a memory! The Deadpool scene where Ryan Reynolds and Fred Savage argue over Nickelback’s achievements before singing ‘How You Remind Me’ together was hilarious and snaps tightly around how absurd the dialogue around our band is. I was here for it! I’d love to meet Ryan one day, but he’s the busiest man in existence. He’s everywhere and nowhere – like a phantom!”

In a 2018 Saturday Night Live sketch called ‘Dying Mrs Gomez’, an elderly Nickelback fan’s last words are the lyrics to your 2001 monster hit ‘How You Remind Me’. How did she die?

“I can’t remember because I only watched it once, and I couldn’t make it to the end because I was laughing so hard!”

WRONG. She passed away from falling into the moshpit at a Nickelback concert. ‘How You Remind Me’ was the most played song on US radio in the 2000s decade. Ever get sick of it?

“For me, it was that old expression of being in the eye of a hurricane, meaning all hell’s breaking loose around you, but you’re in a place of calm and largely insulated from what’s going on and too busy to notice. It was the most-played radio song in the world in 2001 – I have an award for that in my studio! I can’t think on that scale. That’s like thinking about space travel in a realistic and experiential way – I don’t even know what the hell is going on down here, let alone going into space. But I’ve never been sick of that song – it’s a blessing and changed my life.”

In 2016, Kensington Police Service on Prince Edward Island, Canada, apologised after humorously threatening that anyone caught drink-driving would be made to listen to which Nickelback album on the way to the station?

“Oh, I don’t know this one!”

WRONG. They pledged to play their “perfectly good unopened copy” of Nickelback’s third album ‘Silver Side Up’ as punishment before issuing a mea culpa for joining in the Nickelbacklash.

“Well, they didn’t have to apologise! [Laughs] That would probably be good listening for getting taken to jail. I’m not mad at that. Getting taken to jail is something you never forget, so if we’re the soundtrack to an event like that, I’m fine with it.”

Which four “Detroit heroes” do you dress as in a 2011 Funny or Die skit responding to a petition (another one!) to stop Nickelback playing at the Detroit Lions’ NFL Thanksgiving game?

“I dressed as my friend Alice Cooper, Chad was RoboCop, Ryan [Peake, keyboardist/rhythm guitarist] was Magnum P.I., and Danel [Adair, drummer] was stand-up comedian Dave Coulier.”

CORRECT.

“I really need to win this! [Laughs] I forgot to tell Alice Cooper  I dressed up as him – it’s not something that would naturally come up on a golf course.”

Did you and Chad ever rock any good Halloween costumes growing up?

“We used to dress up as the guys from Mötley Crüe – the idea that it was cool to be a rock star was something we embraced early!”

 

On the single cover of Nickelback’s 2006 hit ‘Rockstar,’ the tabloid-style artwork claims that a strip club has banned a boyband for what?

“[Laughs] I don’t know!”

WRONG. “A sock-puppet-related incident”.

“That’s a nugget! Gun to my head on that one, I would have got shot! There’s no access to that fact in my brain! That ‘Rockstar’ caught fire was unexpected. It was our ‘Aloha’ single – that last one you put out that doesn’t really work, but I feel we were able to exploit the gap in the English sensibility, which is prim and proper and likes to be outraged by things.  We were in the studio making the next record, and we had to fly to England to play some shows to support it, and then thusly it popped everywhere, which was awesome.”

Last year, which Scottish singer-songwriter covered ‘How You Remind Me’ and ‘Rock Star’ onstage with Chad?

“Is that Lewis Capaldi?”

CORRECT. Lewis declared ‘Rock Star’ “the greatest song by any Canadian artist.”

“I was really reaching on that! My brother is friends with him, but I’m not that familiar with him, so I was going out on a limb with that one!”

Artists such as Lizzo and SZA have outed themselves as ‘Back fans, with the latter recently commenting: ‘Wait, you know what’s crazy? Do white people hate Creed and Nickelback? Why? Black people love them! They rock! That shit is the bomb!’. Who’s been the most unexpected? 

“The one I never would have guessed is Harley Flanagan, the lead singer from hardcore band Cro-Mags. I met him on the Jujutsu mat in New York City, and he said: ‘Fuck all those haters, they’re just jealous. They all want to be you’, and then he signed a copy of his book Hard-Core: Life of My Own for me. The SZA quote was funny, but realistically, I don’t take any sentiment people put in the press – positive or negative – seriously. You take it all with a grain of salt!”

Nickelback once paid a drum technician £235 to stick what into the blades of an electric fan?

“That was an early tour in Germany, and Chad paid him to put his cock into a fan.”

CORRECT.

“I thought it was a lot less! Back then, we didn’t have to pay people much to do things. We were all broke! We should have got him down!”

In 2019, Nickelback had a video posted on Twitter by then-President Donald Trump removed for copyright infringement, which criticised Joe Biden and was based on the popular ‘Photograph’ meme. By how many per cent did Nickelback downloads jump by after his tweet? A bonus point for expressing it in the form of a graph.

“[Uproarious laughter] Come on, how am I supposed to know this one? Thank you, Donald Trump, though, I guess. What’s the statistic?”

WRONG. Downloads surged by 569 per cent. How are you feeling about the upcoming US election – do you worry Trump might use Nickelback songs at his rallies?

“We all have political ideas, but we don’t involve Nickelback in them because our individual views are different. As far as the upcoming election, it looks like it’s a re-run of 2020 and a bit of a mess.”

Ever sent a Nickelback meme?

“When the Kim Kardashian body type was popular, there was a ‘Thickelback’ meme, where we were photoshopped with narrow waists and huge asses and that was sent around the band a lot.”

Tell us about your documentary Hate to Love: Nickelback.

“With a dearth of real information about Nickelback, it’s been up to the media to compose their own narrative, and this is our opportunity to tell our own story from our perspective. A lot of the negativity around us was our fault for not sharing our truth because we were too busy writing, recording and touring.”

The verdict: 4/10

“I was pretty much an average C student at school!”

Nickelback: Hate To Love is in select cinemas worldwide on March 27 and 30, with tickets available here. The band tours the UK from March 16.

The post Nickelback: “If we’re the thing you get most upset about, you’re living a charmed life” appeared first on NME.

NME

How many dancing syringes feature in the music video to The Dandy Warhols’ 1997 single ‘Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth’?

“Um….3?”

CORRECT.

“[Surprised] What?! That was an educated guess! There didn’t seem to be room for more than three and two wouldn’t have counted as a chorus line. At the time, there was nothing like that video. In 1997, the ‘80s were passé. We were a small-town band confused by the expenditure and scale of it. We decided to slap pasty white makeup on and do nothing but look like we were strung-out and remain deadpan. But it was nerve-wracking, and we were adapting to what would probably be a normal day in Hollywood.”

The video was directed by pop photographer Dave LaChapelle…

“I had broken up with my girlfriend and was super-depressed when we met David LaChapelle at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. He could see I wasn’t OK so invited me to stay in the hotel, saying: ‘We’re going to hang out and brainstorm until we come up with a F-ing amazing video’. So we partied in the Chateau with a lot of people from Madonna’s documentary Truth or Dare and Keanu Reeves. For me, it was depression mixed with overindulgence. And I developed a palette for 15-year-old bottles of Dom Pérignon which I still carry to this day.”

Which two bands did The Dandy Warhols play between at Glastonbury 2000?

“Bush went on before us, then I have no idea because when I started walking offstage, David Bowie and his band – who had been watching us at the side – came towards us like a wave of black Gucci jackets and teeth.”

WRONG. You were sandwiched between Saint Etienne and Muse.

“I have no idea what happened that day. Hours are gone from my memory. We were invited to watch David Bowie’s headline set at the side of the stage. Zia [McCabe, Dandy Warhols’ keyboardist/bassist] started blowing bubbles over David’s stage, and somebody launched into a flaming bitch-fest at her: ‘WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?! THIS IS GOING LIVE ON TV TO MILLIONS OF PEOPLE!’. Zia put them away, then after the next song, that person frantically came up to us and went: ‘DAVID LOVES THE BUBBLES! WE NEED MORE BUBBLES!’.”

“Whenever David was in New York, he would come to our shows and he and Philip Glass owned a studio in Midtown that he’d let us use for free – that’s where we did our fourth album ‘Welcome to the Monkey House’, and we worked together with him on that. Above the telephone line, if you pulled one of Philip Glass’ platinum records to one side, the number of the Beastie Boys’ pot dealer was there – David caught us calling him one day and thought that was so cool.”

“We toured extensively with him and it was fun being friends with. He was like a wizard, but was reluctant to give advice. When we found out we were David Bowie’s favourite band, it was like god came down to me and said: ‘Courtney, I meant to tell you, you were right the whole time. All that shit you went through in high school – they were wrong and you were right’. Bowie was also great at pool. I remember him once walking into a bar with me and my friends, racking up the balls. He ran the pool table while we stood with our mouths agape!”

In an infamous scene from the documentary Dig!, can you name the contents of a package Anton Newcombe gifts you?

“Shotgun shells?”

CORRECT. Individually-wrapped shotgun shells. Will you be doing anything to mark the 20th anniversary of Dig! – which purported to follow the rivalry between The Dandy Warhols and Anton Newcombe’s Brian Jonestown Massacre – this year?

“Hopefully the 20th anniversary of Dig! will help visibility for our new record ‘Rockmaker’, but as for the movie, I don’t care one way or another. It wasn’t accurate. It ended up being a very mean and nasty affair. We were just there as a foil to the Brian Jonestown Massacre. It was a terrible situation. Other than bright moments of [Brian Jonestown Massacre member] Joel Gion being funny, it’s just straight-up negativity.”

Do you regret doing it?

Yeah, definitely. People weren’t used to being filmed back then. We were told that she [director Ondi Timoder] was manipulating the Jonestown in the same way. She would get in their van and go: ‘Hey, the Dandys are working in the studio with David Bowie now. Anything like that going on with you?’, and they would just get pissed and work themselves up to her getting the shot. There was nothing about music; she’d just try and get something angry out of us. She’d wake me after two hours sleep at noon saying: ‘We’ve got the president of Capitol Records on the phone. You’ve got to talk to him!’, as I’m about to throw up and my head hurts. But it all makes for a fun watch – I just wish it wasn’t my band in it. It was a huge turning point. It was brutal for us. It made Anton’s career though. He would not have had a career without it.”

Who covered Dandy Warhols’ ‘We Used to Be Friends’ for season four of Veronica Mars?

“Chrissie Hynde.”

CORRECT.

“When a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer covers your song, you don’t forget it!”

Name the five first names contained in song titles on your 1995 debut album ‘Dandys Rule OK’.

“OK, there’s Lou, Betty….fuck! Those are the only two I can think of!”

WRONG. Tom, Tony, Lou, Dick and Betty.

“Oh! The songs ‘Introduction by Young Tom’, ‘(Tony, This Song Is Called) Lou Weed’, ‘Grunge Betty’ and I forgot about ‘Dick’!”

At which Britpop band’s salubrious Hollywood industry party did Zia claim she once walked into completely naked with a martini glass in one hand?

“That was Supergrass’ record release party.”

CORRECT.

“We had opened for them. Zia was not going to upstaged by someone else’s record release party! She was a hot, young, liberated indie rock chick and loved to get naked because she was super-fit and extremely cute – but it intimidated and scared off every guy who would be worth her time. That night really brought us together with our record label big wigs, because the security guards were chasing her around, and the President of Capitol Records, the head of radio of promotions, and the head of video, would block the security guards so that Zia could walk around nonchalantly chatting to people. Any time someone saw the security guards coming, another executive would block them. It was a whole show! She worked it.”

Who were the best bands to party with at the time?

“The Charlatans were an awesome train-wreck [Laughs] and Joe Strummer took us to some good, weird parties. The Strokes partied hard and were up for anything at any hour, before they got to a level of success where they became more ambitions and got more guarded.”

The Dandy Warhols’ 2000 hit ‘Bohemian Like You’ played as the former UK prime minister Theresa May walked offstage of the Conservative party conference in 2011. But which band mistook it for their song?

“Bobby Gillespie?”

CORRECT. An incandescent Bobby Gillespie thought the then-home-secretary walked offstage to Primal Scream’s ‘Rocks’, issuing a statement that described the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government as “legalised bullies…persecuting the poor for being poor’, before realising he’d mistook ‘Rocks’ for The Dandy Warhols’ ‘Bohemian Like You’. Which is hardly a fitting choice for her either…

“But what song would you pick for Theresa May? [Laughs] [Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes] ‘(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life’?! Conservatives don’t really get music made for them; they aren’t in tune with the right kind of people.”

The Dandy Warhols appear playing ‘You Were The Last High’ as one of the titular 9 Songs played by rock bands in the director Michael Winterbottom’s 2004 movie, which was controversial for featuring real sex scenes. Can you identify any of the eight other songs?

“‘Spread Your Love Like a Fever’ by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and ‘Rocks’ by Primal Scream?”

WRONG. You could have had: ‘Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘N’ Roll’ (Punk Song)‘ and ‘Love Burns’ by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Primal Scream’s ‘Movin’ on Up’, The Von Bondies’ ‘C’mom C’mon’, Elbow’s ‘Fallen Angel’, Super Furry Animals‘ ‘Slow Life’, Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Jacqueline’, or Michael Nyman’s ‘Debbie’. Did you enjoy the movie?

“Well, it’s porn and gets boring. I was friends with Michael Winterbottom who was a daring pioneer, so I went to Sundance with them and did some hard partying – once again! Those were the days! – but I never saw it the whole way through. By the end of the third reaming, you’re yawning: ‘Again?!’”

What is the reclusive musical genius lead character in your 2009 graphic novel One Model Nation called?

“Sebastian Shell.”

CORRECT. Which follows a fictional 1970s German krautrock band, who end up getting embroiled with the terriorist group Baader–Meinhof. An accompanying studio ‘greatest hits’ album by the group, ‘Totalwerks, Vol. 1 (1969–1977)’, was also released.

“Seven film companies over the years have wanted to turn it into an animated feature, but they can’t get the green light for a movie about the krautrock and terrorism of 1970s Germany [Laughs]. Keanu Reeves helped me by giving advice when I started writing it as a screenplay before I turned it into a graphic novel; he’s a very sweet guy, funny, and very commercially-world minded.”

What number did ‘Welcome to the Monkey House’ reach in the UK albums chart?

“14?”

WRONG. 20. Your 2003 album featured musical and production collaborations with Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes, Nile Rodgers, and Evan Dando.

“Man! That one clunked and bumbled along because we had a new president at Capitol who was against it, so it did really well considering everything that was thrown at us. It was bludgeoned in the press, with journalists complaining ‘the ‘80s are stupid and suck – I knew this band wasn’t cool!’ . It was the time of The Strokes, The Vines, The White Stripes, and Jet and our previous album, ‘Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia’, was still selling a lot, so it took time to find its way and become a classic album. We collaborated with David Bowie on ‘Scientist’ and ‘Rock Bottom’ on that record, which was fun.”

Tell us about The Dandy Warhols’ new album ‘Rockmaker’…

“The start of the pandemic was a very stressful time, and there wasn’t any metal or punk-influenced music coming out that I liked. I generally don’t relate to the singers. It’s either growling ‘Grr, I’m a hairy, hairy man!’ leftovers from grunge, or whiney pop-punk that’s too slick for me. To me, punk sounds like Circle Jerks, Sex Pistols or Ramones. There’s something in the dirt in in the recording that turns me on. When you iron that out with expensive producers, it just misses, so I started this album by putting down heavy guitar riffs.”

“Originally, Zia didn’t like the direction, protesting: ‘This is just sweaty, smelly-boy rock’, but she did due-diligence and appears on every track. When she heard the mixes, she finally looked at me with this dazed expression and said: ‘Wow, I really didn’t think it could be like this!”

The album contains big-name guest stars such as Guns N’ Roses Slash playing guitar on the single ‘‘I’d Like to Help You With Your Problem’…

“I’ve bummed 300 cigarettes from that guy during my career! I asked his people about appearing on the song, and 40 minutes later, I got a text back saying ‘Slash loves the song. He wants to know what style you want’, and I replied: ‘Well, fucking Vietnam-era acid rock, dude!’. He ended up doing these amazing Guns N’ Roses ‘Don’t Cry’ riffs and it just fits the song.”

…And Pixies’ Black Francis contributes guitar to the song ‘Danzig with Myself’…

“We were going for a Danzig 4 sound, which is how the title started, but then it moved towards sounding like the Pixies. I was checking in with him [Black Francis] and he happened to be in Zurich, so I hooked him and his children up with a tour of HR Giger’s house and some museums. They were stoked and months later, he said ‘If I can ever help you out…’, and that’s when I replied ‘Yes, you can actually!’ All of our guests are on there for the reason that they can do something that no one in my band can do.”

The album culminates with the epic ‘I Will Never Stop Loving You’, featuring Debbie Harry…

“Debbie Harry was very difficult to get. I sang her part in the demo, and made sure it was too loud and underproduced, because like a stupid kid, I thought it would make her think: ‘They need me on this one!’. Listening to her vocal reminded me of mixing Sinéad O’Connor [on the Wolfmen’s 2009 single ‘Jackie, Is It My Birthday?]. You move all the faders down and bring the track up by itself and have her legendary voice in your ear and it feels insane.”

“I listen to this record constantly every day. I get a little buzz on, smoke some grass, and have to put the Dre Beats on, open up the page and then just let her rip!”

The verdict: 6/10

“Ugh! That’s a C!”

The Dandy Warhols new album ‘Rockmaker’ is released via Sunset Blvd. Records on March 15

The post The Dandy Warhols: “‘Dig!’ was a huge turning point. It was brutal for us” appeared first on NME.

NME

Which Motown legend performed your 2001 chart-topper ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ on the Intros Round of Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2004?

“[Laughs] I’m not allowed to Google it?! I have absolutely no idea.”

WRONG. Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas.

“Wow! That’s incredible! I didn’t see that.”

You’re embarking on a series of gigs to celebrate 20 years of the album ‘Gotta Get Thru This’. How do you look back on its success?

“I’m not diagnosed, but I think I’m pretty high on the spectrum and high functioning, so I get overwhelmed easily and it’s an enormous amount of information to handle. I think I handled it OK. I probably came across as an arsehole a few times, but I was trying to mask my fear by being standoffish and 20 years later, I can understand that. The whirlwind of press and attention was a lot to handle for a 21-year-old’s developing psyche, and it made me run away and live a life. So after it, I did farming, dated a lot, and went around the world. I’d move to a country, stay there for six months, learn the language and fall in love a few times.”

What did you make of Fifth Harmony (ft. Ty Dolla $ign)’s 2016 hit ‘Work from Home’ which sampled ‘Gotta Get Thru This’?

“That was great. I was really happy they did that and even happier to have 25 per cent of the song! That’s groceries money, mate!”

Which Birmingham rapper introduced himself during his 2018 Bestival set as “I’m Daniel Bedingfield, your secret guest”?

“Um…I’m not very good at this, am I? [Laughs] Who was it?”

WRONG. The Streets’ Mike Skinner.

“What?! No, he didn’t! That’s funny. I would have loved to see that. I haven’t met Mike Skinner yet, but I do know he was cool enough for NME and I wasn’t, and I was trying to figure out why at the time!”

Oi! NME rated your debut album ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ 8 out of 10 in 2001…

“That’s true! But I remember not feeling cool enough for NME in general.”

Ever been mistaken for anyone else?

“James Corden looks like my twin. In America, I get mistaken for him, and because the English accent is a novelty, a few girlfriends have compared me to him.”

Which pop double-act did you throw cheese at during a Popworld BRITs red carpet interview in 2005?

“The only double-act I can think is Jedward. If threw cheese at them, I’m not ashamed of it. [Laughs]”

WRONG. You hurled cheese at Pop Idol also-rans Sam & Mark. “Haven’t they suffered enough?!” quipped host Simon Amstell. You later appeared playing God in Amstell and co-presenter Miquita Oliver’s 2006 swansong episode.

“Nope, no idea! I guess rock ‘n’ roll must kill brain cells. I didn’t do any drugs throughout that whole period, but I did drink every night after the concerts to get to sleep so that might be part of it!”

Any memories of the BRIT Awards?

“After my near-fatal car-crash in 2004, I was in hospital when I received the Best British Male BRIT award and I was sooo high on morphine when they put a phone in my face and I had to speak to host Cat Deeley and my award-presenter Kerry Katona. I remember trying to make a joke, while crazy, high and dying on morphine, and the feedback was dead-quiet, like ‘You’re not funny mate!’”

Did you think you’d ever perform again after the crash?

“Yes, I said I was going to be Superman and be one of the people that gets out of this situation and walks. My brain switched into hardcore, Spartan mode. I was continually happy for three years and pushed through it. I did intensely painful three-times-a-week rehabilitation. The weird part was I had to learn to be sad again. I completely disappeared the sadness for three years, to the point my auntie was worried that I hadn’t said anything negative during all that time. So I went to PTSD therapy and discovered there was a lot of pain and sadness behind the crash, and it only took five sessions before I could cry again.”

You co-wrote ‘Hold Me in Your Arms’ for Steps exiles H & Claire with your sister Natasha Bedingfield. Which of their singles does it appear as a B-side on?

“How have I ever written a song with Natasha?! I’m completely blanking here!”

WRONG. It was a B-side to their 2002 double A-side ‘All Out of Love’/’Beauty and the Beast’.

“Can I play it? [Bedingfield plays it on his phone] I remember writing this with her now! It’s the cheesiest song of all-time! I’d blocked it out from cheese trauma! I’ve thrown cheese at Sam & Mark and now….I’ve given cheese to H & Claire! We wrote this together with our friend Nathan [Winkler] way before anything blew up.”

Name of the 2003 Sabrina the Teenage Witch episode you guest starred in.

“I don’t know, but that’s wonderfully the most embarrassing moment of my life!”

WRONG. It’s called The Lyin’, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the plot involves aspiring journalist/titular witch Sabrina Spellman interviewing you.

“I had to wear a feather boa. The cast were nice, but I couldn’t act for shit. [Laughs] After that, I took four years of acting classes, but it’s not like music for me. I can’t take on a character and take it off. I remember doing a scene where the character is angry at his father, and then I was angry at my father, and I realised taking on the reality of other stories could destroy my life. With a song, I can step into the emotion without damaging my own psyche, but with acting, I only know how to do full method.”

Guest-hosting Beats 1 in 2015, which London grime rapper (partly under his alter-ego of DJ Stiff Chocolate) included your 2002 Number One single ‘If You’re Not the One’ as prime pick on his ‘Motorway Jams’ section?

“That I would definitely not know! I think I may prefer my chocolate flaccid.”

WRONG. Stormzy.

“Really?! Stormzy’s amazing!”

The early ’00s British garage scene paved the way for grime…

“It did. I was heartbroken when Wiley said all that antisemitic stuff because he’s probably the best British music producer since Adam F, and it upsets me because the person I’d most like to get in the studio with now is him but he’s cancelled – and for good reason. Hate-speech is not acceptable.”

Do any younger artists give you props?

“Connan Mockasin for me is the greatest living guitar player, alongside St Vincent. and I rushed up to him at a festival to shake his hand like a fan boy. He had his arms open saying: ‘Daniel, I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet you!’ That meant a lot that he didn’t see my music as too cheesy but enjoyed the melodies within it.”

“Because I saw my music as too cheesy. I produced it myself, and then had to work with people who were available to me on a record company budget. Some got me to a place where I was happy, and then some of it was infinitely more cheesy and made me ashamed to release it. There wasn’t a lot of time and there was an enormous amount of pressure, so I have a weird relationship with cheese where I love it and hate it at the same time.”

“The thing is, falling in love is cheesy. Hugging your dad is cheesy. There’s an element of authentic cheese I appreciate. This is er, a very cheesy interview!”

After hanging out with you on noughties Saturday morning pop show CD:UK, which Welsh NME Godlike Genius described you in 2004 as: “He’s an absolutely brilliant nutter actually. He’s truly warped and mad – in a good way”?

“That has to be Pino Palladino, the bass player from D’Angelo. [Laughs] No? Rhys Ifans? I’m trying to think of what Welsh people I’ve hung out with. Um – Catherine Zeta-Jones?

WRONG. It’s Manic Street Preachers’ Nicky Wire.

“What the fuck?! That’s amazing. We probably only got a few conversations in at CD:UK, but his description of me is so true that I appreciate it! [Laughs].”

What number did your 2005 duet with Natasha, ‘Ain’t Nobody’, reach on The Guardian’s list of ‘the weirdest BRITs performances’?

“I don’t know, but that’s the only time I ever remember being nervous singing on TV and you can hear it in my voice. I choked up and could barely sing anything. People were enjoying it, but I was desperately trying to breathe. I’ll go for Number Three?

WRONG. Your John Barry-style cover of Chaka Khan and Rufus about “how the closeness between two people can unexpectedly lead to an endless night of tender love-making” hit Number One in The Guardian’s ranking. Another coveted chart-topper for the Bedingfield clan! Talking of duets, you’ve sang with both Lionel Richie and Mariah Carey….

“I recorded ‘Do Ya’ with Lionel Richie in five days in my studio in Dulwich, and he’s lovely, an exceptional musician, entertaining, and very real. We still text. I don’t have many celebrity friends – I talk to Elton John and [his husband] David Furnish every few years and the songwriter Diane Warren. But I think I frustrated both Bono and Sting when I met them by talking too much! The Mariah duet was never released, and I didn’t get to meet her. Once I got into Unreality Land, I started pushing away from that to get back to real conversations and eye-contact. There are only a few occasions when fame and money mattered. I asked someone to marry me – she said no, but I took her whole family on a yacht and that was a good moment to have money. Apart from paying medical bills and buying food, there’s not many upsides.”

In 2003, 11-year-old Kai Taylor won which ITV1 talent show by impersonating you?

[Laughs] How do you know this stuff?! These are my favourite interview questions ever!”

WRONG. He won Stars in Their Eyes Kids by mimicking you by singing ‘Gotta Get Thru This’.

“Did they put a goatee on him as well? [Laughs] I love the 13-year-old drummer Nandi Bushell’s version of ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ – it’s frickin’ awesome.”

Why did you decide to come back to tour for the first time since 2005 now? Arguably the charts would seem to be in tune with the early noughties…

“That’s what I’ve been feeling. I now turn on the radio and don’t want to turn it off and the music being made is what I enjoy making and listening to. For me, I enjoy making music that resonates with people. I’ve no interest in releasing music in a vacuum. After ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ blew up, the world changed and became about Coldplay, and then Pop Idol killed off so much good music, but now I’m living in a musical world that’s in sync with me again. It’s a 20 year cycle where the kids who were five or eight are now 25 and 28 and want to go out and enjoy stuff they liked when they were young. I’m working on new music that’s firmly in the reggae/R&B/afrobeats/garage/drum ‘n’ bass/ballads world! I’ve never known how to pick a sound.”

Which veteran pop star covered ‘If You’re Not the One’ for his 2007 ‘Love…The Album’ compilation?

“Well, I would love it to be Cliff Richard. That would make me really happy.”

CORRECT.

“He did?! I love that man. I didn’t hear it, but I’m going to text him to ask about it now!”

The verdict: 1/10

“A miserable failure! [Laughs]”

Your sister Natasha Bedingfield beat you with a 3.5/10 score when she took the test back in 2019…

“Well, she’s always been more rock ‘n’ roll than me!”

Daniel Bedingfield hits the road for a three-date-run of gigs in Manchester, Birmingham and London from April 21

The post Daniel Bedingfield: “The whirlwind of attention made me run away and live a life” appeared first on NME.

NME

Which former prime minister wrote a bizarre article in 2006 where he branded the Kaiser Chiefs “the weeds from Leeds”?

“Boris Johnson.”

CORRECT.

“He took a weird dislike to our band and I don’t know why, because you’d think we’d be right up his street. [Laughs] I say that jokingly. He also said when he was a student, he didn’t predict riots, he started them, and called me an ‘epic softie’. That’s still my Twitter bio. I don’t know what an ‘epic softie’ is, but it’s probably something you’d call someone if you’d been to boarding school in the ‘80s and were trying to sound cool in the ’00s. If you were going to have a new pop star, Epic Softie is a perfectly acceptable name, so I don’t mind being called that.”

 When his successor Liz Truss gave her resignation speech in 2022, she was almost drowned out by activist Steve Bray playing the Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘I Predict a Riot’…

“That was marvellous work because that song captured the way people were feeling.”

When Girls Aloud covered the Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘I Predict a Riot’ live on their ‘Chemistry’ tour in 2006, what did they change the lyric “Borrow a pound for a condom” to?

“Borrow a pound for a phone call.”

WRONG. ‘Borrow a pound for the bus home.’

“I really liked them. In the mid-noughties, we were cool for 15 minutes and then we went mainstream – and I enjoyed that a lot more. It was nicer sofas in dressing rooms. When even NME were taking the piss out of us, we found new contemporaries like Girls Aloud – and went toe-to-toe with them in charts. They made me raise the bar to thinking: ‘Our next single has to beat Girls Aloud’, rather than ‘Our next single has to beat insert also-ran indie band here’.  They were really cool – and I still think they’re cool. I saw them before Christmas and performed one of their songs – badly! – at their fundraiser for Sarah Harding’s charity. And they didn’t take the piss out of me!”

You also played the late Sarah Harding’s boyfriend, named ‘Rock Star’, in the 2009 St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold movie…

“That was dodgy but weird!”

Additionally, you performed a mash-up of Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘Never Miss a Beat’/Girls Aloud’s ‘Sound of the Underground’ on their 2008 ITV1 special The Girls Aloud Party…

“I don’t remember that! Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Brain Cells? Yes!”

Which four acts did you beat to receive the Best Dressed gong at the 2006 NME Awards?

“This question is null and void! The year before, The Killers’ Brandon Flowers won it and he had the trophy in his hand at the end of the night, but when I won in 2006, I never received the one-finger-salute statuette, so it’s a non-question!”

OK: Name the four acts you beat when you didn’t receive the Best Dressed Award…

“If I’d received it, I would be telling people whenever they looked at my award shelf: ‘You know who I beat for that…’, but I haven’t so I’ll guess Carl Barât, Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand, the singer of Neils Children [John Linger] and The Cribs’ Ryan Jarman?”

WRONG. But close! You triumphed over Brandon Flowers, Alex Kapranos, Liam Gallagher, and Pete Doherty.

“There was always drama at the NME Awards. The first time I went in 2005, some guy from another record label made hand-signals at me when we were performing onstage. I was so pissed off, I marched around trying to find him afterwards. A year later, Ryan Jarman jumped onto our table and split his side open and I had to sit in the ambulance with him – he was trying to get out! [Laughs] I’d been on tour with The Cribs enough times to know he’s indestructible though. They’re in my Top Five bands of all time because they’re both rock’n’roll in the music they make and their attitude towards it. Their legacy will last forever and we’ll be listening them longer than most other bands from that time.”

Speaking of beating Liam Gallagher to Best Dressed…

“I didn’t beat Liam Gallagher to Best Dressed because I DIDN’T GET THE AWARD!!!”

…Oasis had a few pops over the years (for example, Noel Gallagher once quipped: “I did drugs for 18 years and I never got that bad to say, ‘You know what? I think the Kaiser Chiefs are brilliant'”). Ever encounter them afterwards and have a laugh about it?

“I’ve met up with them, but we haven’t laughed about old pops they’ve had at me, because I’m not the kind of guy who would confront Liam Gallagher about the things he’s said about me in the past, because I’m sure he’s forgotten most of them and I don’t care. Would I like to be his friend? Definitely. Do I think I could be? Probably not. I think he’s very good at being at hilarious. I don’t think he’s ever tried to be hurtful towards me – and long may he reign in his hilarity.”

At a Kaiser Chiefs New York gig in 2008, what pseudonym did you use to introduce Mark Ronson onstage?

“Probably Ron Markson? No idea!”

WRONG. You introduced him as “Saul Rosenbaum, our New York lawyer” – and later crowdsurfed to the bar during ‘The Angry Mob’ to pour yourself a whisky.

“That must have been Mark’s idea, because that doesn’t flick any synapses in my head! I don’t do it anymore, but crowdsurfing to the bar was the oldest trick in the book. It makes people laugh even more if you can bring a whole tray of tequila back – which I did on many occasions!”

“Mark Ronson is fun to hang out with. When we were making our third album, ‘Off With Their Heads’, with him our guitarist Whitey used to refer to him as ‘The Sleeping Millionaire’, because he’d come in every day after being at a celebrity bash and find the cosiest place in the studio to fall asleep.”

“One time when I was in the pub with Mark, Amy Winehouse arrived. You could see the paparazzi bulbs flashing outside. She sat next to me being quiet. I didn’t realise until I got home that she was playing a game with herself to see how many sweets she could fill my pockets with while I wasn’t looking. I had a whole packet of Mentos in one pocket! Every pocket – including those in my obligatory waistcoats – were filled with Haribo. I loved her intensely and think she’s the greatest artist of our generation.”

In a jokey pre-encore video the Kaiser Chiefs played on tour in 2015, which rock icon calls you “Mr Fucking Celebrity TV Judge”, before admonishing you by saying: “If I was a fucking judge on that TV show and your band came up and played like that, you know what I would say? Your band played like shit. Get your act together – you’re systematically destroying your legend.”

“Dave Grohl.”

CORRECT.

“We toured with the Foo Fighters a lot, and I thought it would be good to have a pre-encore video where Dave storms into our dressing room and tells us to go out there and tear a new arsehole. But we then had to agree to wear the same clothes we were wearing at the time for the whole tour [Laughs]. Dave inexplicably likes the Kaiser Chiefs as well, so that was good.”

According to the liner notes of Kaiser Chiefs’ debut album ‘Employment’, who is the motorcycle that appears at the beginning of the track ‘Saturday Night’ owned and “played by”?

“It’s Graham Coxon’s motorcycle.”

CORRECT.

“He was annoyed because we credited the wrong motorcycle. We put it as something like a 750cc Manx TT Works Racer – and he sent us a message saying it was a Honda XX 14 or something. I don’t know about motorcycles! He came into the studio, and we got him to rev up his motorbike, because we love Blur and thought it would be good to get a member on the album – and we didn’t want them singing or playing guitar.”

Name any three celebrities the judges mistook you for when you appeared as Phoenix on the 2023 series of The Masked Singer.

“David Tennant, Stephen Mulhern, and Jason Statham.”

CORRECT.

“David Tennant was texting me a lot during that asking ‘Is it you?’ and I’d reply: ‘No, it’s obviously you David!’. The first time I met David Tennant was when we did an NME article together when he became Doctor Who, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Which famously irascible Salford frontman once suggested that “the Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys should open a chain of chip shops in North Yorkshire”?

“Mark E Smith.”

CORRECT. The late Fall frontman said in 2006: “I think the Kaiser Chiefs and Arctic Monkeys should open a chain of chip shops in North Yorkshire. I think the East Germans had it right actually. Every group used to have a permit. Until they came up with anything culturally relevant like a classical composition, I think they should bring them in here. I should start a musical Stasi. If you can’t play in fookin’ time, then fook off back to the factory.”

“I respect and admire Mark E Smith a lot, and I’d respect and admire him a lot less if he respected me! [Laughs] So well done Mark E, RIP. You know what though, nobody ever said that he should have opened a tent company called Marquee Smiths.”

Complete the following lyrics: “Ra-ra-Rasputin, England’s got a goal machine/He’s Harry Kane and he’s going to score…”?

“[Laughs] I don’t know! That was the World Cup song I did with Freddie Flintoff? Freddie Flintoff, me, and [ex] Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy were in a studio once and I don’t remember much of what we did – but the extension on my house does!”

WRONG. It’s indeed from your collaboration with former cricketer Freddie Flintoff, a rewrite of Boney M’s ‘Rasputin’ to coincide with the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The rest of the lyrics are: “Ra-ra-Rasputin/He’s captain of the England team/He’s off to Russia to lay down the law.|

“Oh, really? Sounds terrible!”

Any reaction from Harry Kane?

“I’ve met him. I don’t think he was grateful. I think he was too busy thinking about playing for England at the time, and I was thinking about the extension on my house!”

You appeared in the audience of the The Mrs. Merton Show as a teenager in 1995. What question did you ask Barbara Windsor?

“I asked her how young she’d go.”

CORRECT. A flirty question in response to the late EastEnders star commenting she liked younger men. Did you ever run into Caroline Aherne, who starred as the eponymous pensioner, Windsor, or Mrs. Merton co-creator Craig Cash after gaining fame with Kaiser Chiefs?

“No. I was at school, and got tickets to see it in Manchester because I thought Caroline Aherne was a genius and wanted to see her in action. I fucking loved it! She was inspirational, and so funny. I wish they’d allow comedians to spread their wings like that now, and not give them simple formats like quiz shows.”

Tell us about the Kaiser Chiefs’ forthcoming ‘Easy Eighth Album’. Was there a battleplan going into it?

“As the title suggests, it was to make it as easy as possible. We didn’t want to worry about what anybody else thought about it apart from us. We do social commentary well, and we also do party tunes well. We worked with Nile Rodgers for it, and I don’t think I’ll be able to appreciate for years to come how much that was an important moment, ‘cause you have to divorce yourself from it in the studio and not just keep asking Nile: ‘What sandwich would Bowie order?’”

The verdict: 6/10

“The ones I didn’t get were impossible, so I’m not bothered. I don’t see them as questions. They didn’t even make sense to me!”

Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘Easy Eighth Album’ is released March 1. The band tour the UK from April.

The post Kaiser Chiefs: “Boris Johnson took a weird dislike to our band and I don’t know why” appeared first on NME.

NME

Which horror character appears in the video to your side-project band The Superions’ 2010 track ‘Santa’s Disco’?

“Was it a dead guy from George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead?”

WRONG. It’s Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. ‘Santa’s Disco’ is off The Superions’ album ‘Destination…Christmas!’…

“I like weird holiday albums. I’m sick of ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and ‘Ave Maria’, and prefer the Barking Dogs doing ‘Jingle Bells’ and [Gayla Peevey’s] ‘I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas’. So I always wanted to do a Christmas album and since no one has ever done a song about fruitcake – and I’m probably one of three people in the world who likes fruitcake – voila, we recorded [the track] ‘Fruitcake’! I hardly mention Christmas in my songs and I don’t mention JC.”

On the subject of horror, you used to film your own movies before you started the B-52s…

“We’re doing a B-52s documentary and they might show bits of one 8mm horror movie I did – it was more like a horrible movie! – called The Day After the Night of the Living Dead, which starred one of my brothers and two of my sisters, and was filmed in a cemetery next to my friend’s house. It’s six minutes long and is my brother and his friends just popping up from behind tombstones and attacking us while we’re having a barbecue [Laughs].”

On The B-52s 1986 album ‘Bouncing Off the Satellites’, what does the backwards message on the song ‘Detour Thru Your Mind’ say?

“It says: ‘I buried my parakeet in the backyard’. [Laughs]”

CORRECT.

“It’s like ‘I Buried Paul’.* That was my idea. We can’t do that song anymore because it’s not funny talking about cutting someone’s head off and using it as an ashtray. One of the lyrics it had was ‘supersaver to your mind’ back when they had supersaver flights. Back in the Stone Age!”

What are your memories of ‘Bouncing Off the Satellites’?

“Even with Ricky [Wilson, original B-52s guitarist] passing [of AIDS-related illness shortly after the album’s release] being really traumatic, the single ‘Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland’ turned out to be one of my favourite videos we’ve ever done. It felt fun, back when I could fit in that outfit which I still have – now I’d look like a stuffed pork roll!”

* At the end of the Beatles’ 1967 track ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ John Lennon says: “I buried Paul”

‘B52/ROCK LOBSTER’ was etched on the main circuit board of which ‘80s/’90s home computer system?

“Are you kidding?! I don’t know that one!”

WRONG. It was the Commodore Amiga 500.

“Too bad they didn’t just use ‘Rock Lobster’ and pay us! [Laughs] I didn’t know that because I’m not a video game player. Back in the ‘80s, I started playing Super Mario Bros. with my six-year-old nephew. After 10 minutes, he protested: ‘Come on Uncle Fred, you gotta keep moving!”, but I didn’t know what the hell I was doing! I’m more of a Ms. Pac-Man type of person!”

Was there a moment when you realised that The B-52s music had entered the mainstream?

“That came with [1989’s] ‘Love Shack’, which I had to beg radio stations to play because they wouldn’t touch it and thought it was too weird – but I’m glad they did in the end. It saved us financially and then the next single ‘Roam’ charted at Number 3 [in the US] as well. But it was just a happy accident that ‘Love Shack’ finally became a hit, and now you have to go to every damn wedding and hear it! Whenever I hear a bad version of ‘Love Shack’ being performed, I’ll say: ‘Look, do you mind if I sing it?’ If someone’s ruining the song on karaoke, I’ll get up there! The singer is in shock – but everyone else appreciates it because the other person stank.”

In his 2020 autobiography ‘Remain In Love’, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz claims that when you first sent The B-52s’ iconic 1979 single ‘Rock Lobster’ to New York club CGBG, their response was negative, which made him want to march down there and “kick their asses”…

“He probably would have! [Talking Heads’] Chris and Tina [Weymouth] were huge supporters of us from the very beginning, as was Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. CGBG was a punk club and no-one had a sense of humour until we came along. We were tongue-in-cheek. We weren’t ‘camp’, which is a label we keep getting. We weren’t telling music as jokes, although I must admit some of our songs are weird! Like ‘Rock Lobster’! People even dressed up as lobsters at our gigs – now they just wear big wigs and block peoples’ views.”

Talking Heads’ member David Byrne produced The B-52s 1982 EP ‘Mesopotamia‘. How did you find working with him – didn’t you once accuse him of stealing your ideas?

“He did a really good job. I only went in for the two songs I was on. And he did use lyrics that Ricky had written on two of his songs. Don’t share original ideas with him!”

For a bonus half-point: the B-side to ‘Rock Lobster’ is ‘52 Girls’, but how many girls’ names are actually mentioned in its lyrics?

“[Fred starts singing ’52 Girls’] ‘Effie, Madge and Mabel/Biddie, see them on the beach, Or in New York City/Tina Louise/And there’s Hazel and Mavis/Can you name, name, name’…So how many was that? Eight so far? I guess 18 then?

WRONG. 25.

You provided the vocals for a Foo Fighters live cover of The B-52s ‘Planet Claire’. Which of their singles does it appear as a B-side on?

“I thought it was a just a limited edition single of a couple of thousand records?”

WRONG. It also appears as a B-side on their 2003 single ‘Times Like These‘.

“I wish they’d told me. I’d have bought a bunch! [Laughs] I was excited to do it and thought it turned out good.”

As suburban kids, Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl had their minds opened after watching The B-52s on Saturday Night Live…

“Well, tell that to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! [Laughs].”

Did you know that SNL performance would be such a lightning-rod moment?

“No. We were paralysed by fear. That’s why we looked so serious, ‘cause we were nervous as hell and we weren’t camera-ready like most kids today. Kate [Pierson, B-52s member]’s keyboard was vintage, and we had to fix it every time we dragged it somewhere, and Ricky broke strings all the time back then, so we were afraid something would go wrong.”

Who’s been the most unexpected fan of The B-52s?

“David Bowie came to one our shows before we signed. You could hear our jaws hit the floor!”

Which 2007 song that you co-wrote with Sophie Ellis-Bextor shares its title with a famous Oasis track?

“Supersonic’?”

CORRECT.

“I didn’t know that. Mine’s better probably! [Laughs] Sophie’s a doll. I loved working with her I was hoping ‘Supersonic’ would be on her album, but it only ended up as a bonus track [on ‘Trip the Light Fantastic’]. It sounded good.”

Any favourite collaborations over the years?

“Kate and I got to sing ‘Mind Train’ with Yoko Ono at her birthday party and it wound up being 11 minutes long, because we were waiting until Yoko said ‘OK, that’s it’ – but she didn’t. At the end, she said: ‘Boy, you guys really go for it!’”

There’s a celebrated story of how ‘Rock Lobster’ prompted John Lennon to record again after his post-Beatles music career had been on hiatus for five years after hearing it in a club…

“The weirdness of ‘Rock Lobster’’s lyrics and Cindy [Wilson, B-52s member] doing the fish noises were obviously a tribute to Yoko in a way. And John and Yoko went back into the studio after hearing it and came back with a marvellous album ‘Double Fantasy’ that we loved.”

Which two B-52s videos does RuPaul appear in?

“’Love Shack’ and ‘Funplex’?”

CORRECT.

“I met RuPaul in the ‘80s on the 15th Street bus, alongside Lady Bunny and Lahoma [Van Zandt]. I was carrying two bags of records and was no big deal back then – and I’m not that big of a deal now – but they asked if they could meet me and I was like ‘What?!’. We’ve been friends ever since. He was in ‘Love Shack’ because they were hiring people, and then I asked him to be in ‘Funplex’. I also played a rotten manager in his MTV Christmas Ball [in 1993] – I got a lot of tips from our first manager!”

Talking of drag: last year, The B-52s issued a statement denouncing the “numerous bills that promote transphobia and discrimination” against transgender people and drag artists in the US. How important was it for you to speak out?

“Very, because it affects so many [trans] children and their hormone treatments and also their parents. Even Republicans have trans kids and they’re upset. It’s just disgusting what’s going on. It’s all part of the anti-gay thing and now we have a real idiot who believes the earth is 6,000 years old as the speaker of the House [Mike Johnson] and he’s a piece of shit.”

With such a polarised subject, did you worry about any backlash?

“We don’t care. You can say whatever you want about me online – I’m not going to see it, because I don’t read any of that. I know when I’m good, and I know when I’m bad and if we’re doing something good like this, you’re not going to affect me. I just know that you’re a rotten person if you don’t like it!”

Speaking of inclusion, Noodles from The Offspring (who covered ’52 Girls’) claimed that the B-52s made him question his own prejudices, noting: ‘Where I was brought up, there was a lot of anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. When I was still a teenager, the B-52s helped me to help grow beyond them’…

“Well, I am a sex god so I have a magic way with these people! [Laughs]”

The B-52s perform in ‘Ramones Aid’ in the New York band’s 1986 ‘Something to Believe In’ video. Name any three other artists who also appear.

“I haven’t seen that video since it came out. We’re talking ancient history!”

WRONG. Among many others, you could have had: Afrika Bambaataa, Sparks, Spinal Tap and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic.

“It was great because I hung around Downtown a lot. I didn’t wanna live up in Mahopac [where he shared a house with The B-52s] which was like The Shining, so I got an apartment in the city early on, and there’s some crazy pictures of me and Joey Ramone in clubs. The Ramones opened for The B-52s, and I was a huge fan. I loved Joey, who was a hoot, and all the others except for Johnny – I’d see him at the post office and he always looked like he was about to beat somebody up!”

You provided the vocals for ‘90s cartoon Captain Planet and the Planeteers ‘Eco Rap’ theme tune. Can you complete the following lyrics: ‘But when Eco-Villains run amok/Plundering and pillaging, Yuck!/ Cap’s here to level the playing field…?’

“I didn’t write those lyrics, but it was great to do.”

WRONG. The rest is: ‘With a Ph. D in sustainable yield!’

“It’s pretty wordy! [Laughs] I think I could have written a better tune, but that’s what they wanted and I was gonna do my best.”

What’s been the most unusual offer you’ve ever turned down?

“They wanted us to play for the 60th anniversary of the B-52 Bomber, and we said: no, we’re not really about bombers! [Laughs]”

Note: the band’s name refers to the beehive hairdo favoured in the early days of the band by Kate and Cindy. 

Name anything that’s contained within The B-52s boxset that Fred Armisen opens in a 2017 episode of US comedy Portlandia.

“Rare albums? And Kate, Cindy and I are in a miniature Love Shack.”

CORRECT. Any B-52s pop culture references stand out to you?

“It was great being in [1994’s] The Flintstones movie, and I thought we did a pretty good job of the theme song. We did loads of takes, but they didn’t pick our most exciting one because the dancers couldn’t keep up with how wild we got. Being in The Simpsons singing ‘Glove Slap’ was another ‘oh boy’ moment.”

What do you list as your hobbies in The B-52s’ ‘Song For a Future Generation’?

“Collecting records and exploring the cave of the unknown.”

CORRECT. It’s the one song in your catalogue that features all the B-52s on vocals. After Ricky Wilson passed away, you never performed it live again – did you ever discuss it or was it just implicitly understood that you couldn’t sing it?

“We never put it back in the song-list. It would have been impossible to do, even more so now that Keith [Strickland] is no longer touring with us, though he’s still involved in the band.”

After Ricky passed away, your record label allegedly told you to ‘just get someone else in and carry on’. Was nobody suggesting taking time off or helping you deal with your grief?

“Nobody could replace Ricky, except [original drummer] Keith, who had his own style, but he used Ricky’s tunings and was true to his spirit. They had worked closely together, and it was so lucky for us to get back together. For Cindy, it was losing a brother and Keith was best friends with Ricky since high school, but to the label, it was a business and whatever keeps the business going. The label treated us like poor cousins the whole time anyway. When we got our first gold record for [1989 album] ‘Cosmic Thing’, the record president was there but they just got one of the housekeepers and the janitor there to watch. We thought: why don’t we help just sweep the place too?!”

Are you working on any new music?

“I’ve written a song for the forthcoming tribute album to Bernie Worrell, who co-produced my first solo album [1984’s Fred Schneider and the Shake Society’] and I’ve been working on songs with Hardgroove from Public Enemy, and also Ursula 1000.”

The B-52s are on a farewell Las Vegas residency but is there any chance of new material from the group?

“We might do a song together. It’s not that there’s any ill-will or anything. It’s just that I was ready to retire from touring, and then the girls said: ‘Fred please, come on, let’s keep doing it’ And I’m glad I did. And we’re working on a book. They wanted us to do a biography and I said: ‘We’re not going to tell the truth about a lot of things! We’ll wind up wanting to choke each other!’ I want a picture book with captions like ‘Fred chases everybody with an axe around in a drug-crazed frenzy’, rather than just: ‘And then they walked into the studio…blah blah blah’.”

The verdict: 5/10

“Well, that’s an F! [Laughs]”

Fred Schneider & The Superions ‘Destination…Christmas!’ has been re-released. The B-52s continue their Las Vegas residency in April. Fred hosts the Weekly World News online newscast.

 

The post The B-52s: “If someone’s ruining ‘Love Shack’ on karaoke, I’ll get up there and save it!” appeared first on NME.

NME

In 1982, Chumbawamba (under the pseudonym Skin Disease) recorded an Oi! band pisstake called ‘I’m Thick’, which ended up on a compilation called ‘Back On The Streets’. Name any other Oi! group on the EP.

“[Laughs] That’s evil! I’ve no idea who else was on it.”

WRONG. The others were: Venom (with the ditty ‘Where’s Dock Green?’), East End Badoes (‘The Way It’s Got To Be’), The Strike (‘Victim’) and Angela Rippon’s Bum (‘Fight For Your Lives’).

“We hated Oi!, which was largely created by Sounds journalist Garry Bushell, and had a nasty right-wing fascist element to it. We couldn’t think what we could possibly do about it other than create our own Oi! band, and had our hair cut to appear like a skinhead band, went down to a London studio and were produced by Cockney Rejects’ Mick Geggus. We pretended ‘I’m Thick’ was a comment on how Oi! was misrepresented in the music press, and ended up on the EP.”

“Years later, we also pretended to be a band that supported the Liberal Party called The Middle and did an EP for them [a collection of songs about the joys of sitting on the fence in 1988] and got as far as being invited to play their party conference before being rumbled!”

“Then we made out we were putting out a charity tribute single to Princess Di called ‘Never Say Di’ [in 1992]. We didn’t even have to record a song for that one, just issue a press release and it garnered all this interest. That came back to bite us because the week [Chumbawamba’s 1997 Number Two single] ‘Tubthumping’ was Number One in the midweek chart, Princess Di died in a car crash and everybody stopped playing it.”

“There’s a scene at the beginning of the first episode recent series of The Crown where Princess Di and Prince Harry are singing ‘Tubthumping’ and it’s just bizarre!”

Which Leeds indie band covered ‘Tubthumping’ at a homecoming gig in May 2022?

“Ah, that was Yard Act!”

CORRECT. They were joined by CMAT and comedians Phill Jupitus and Nish Kumar for the rendition.

“Yay! I saw loads of videos of that and some of Chumbawamba were at that gig. I love Yard Act and how they did that song – although I was pretty peeved that they never invited one of us to get up and do it with them! [Laughs]”

How do you look back on ‘Tubthumping’?

“I have a good relationship with the song. It’s never been an albatross and has enabled me to do other stuff. Last year, I performed it with Peter Crouch at Crouchfest – 12,500 drunken men at Wembley Arena were going berserk to it! Twenty-seven years on, and ‘Tubthumping’ still resonates.”

‘Tubthumping’ was a hit in America, and led to unusual scenes like the band performing it on The Rosie O’Donnell Show with the titular comedian in a ‘Anarkist [sic]’ shirt. What were the most surreal moments?

“Probably meeting Dolly Parton backstage on The View, before [Chumbawamba members] Alice [Nutter] and Boff [Whalley] went on to be interviewed by the host Barbara Walters about being anarchists. Part of what we were doing was to get our politics out there, and moments like that was where we felt it was working in a surreal way.”

For a bonus half-point: The Simpsons is the only time Chumbawamba have ever allowed the lyrics of ‘Tubthumping’ to be changed. What does Homer alter them to?

“Erm… ’I take a whisky drink/I take a chocolate drink/And when I have to pee, I use the kitchen sink/I sing the songs that remind me I’m a urinating guy’.”

CORRECT. From the 2002 episode ‘Little Girl in the Big Ten’.

“That was funny. Loads of people wanted to change the words. The weirdest one was Dustin the Turkey – an Irish puppet character from the makers of Zig and Zag – once wanted to change the words to being about digging up the roads and tarmacking them over again.”

Upon hearing the news of Chumbawamba’s split in 2012 via NME’s Twitter account, which Labour politician tweeted: ‘Chumbawho? ‪#currentlyresidinginthewherearetheynowfile’?

“John Prescott?”

CORRECT.

“He also tweeted that he was planning to go out and buy our “greatest hit album”. Boom! I thought that was really funny of him.”

Chumbawamba member Danbert Nobacon famously doused the former Labour deputy prime minister with an ice water bucket at the 1998 BRIT Awards, in solidarity with the striking dockers in Liverpool.

“I’ve got a photo of me and John Prescott from years later at a Labour party conference event in Brighton, where I live, and he’s absolutely hammered and has no idea it’s me. [Laughs] I just look so happy in that picture.”

Were any pop stars shaking your hands after the stunt?

“No. It was divisive, because a lot of people on the left were still celebrating that there was a Labour government and happy the Tories weren’t in. We were happy the Tories weren’t in, but we weren’t necessarily fans of Tony Blair – he began that demise of Labour being a traditionally working-class organisation. We felt he was starting to destroy that and turn it into some middle-class apologist movement. So when the ice bucket thing happened, Billy Bragg was pissed off and accused us of attacking the only working-class member of the cabinet. Even Jarvis Cocker criticised us – which we thought was totally bizarre considering what he’d done at the BRITs two years earlier. He said if we didn’t like being in the music industry, we should go and do something else instead.”

“The reason we’d taken the dockers to give a speech if we won British Single of the Year and threw the water over John Prescott was because he could have resolved that dispute and he refused to even though it was a union that he used to be a part of. It was that hypocrisy of people on the left once they get into positions of power and they immediately turn their back on the people who got them there.”

Could you see any chart acts now taking similar direct action?

“I can’t imagine anybody attacking Keir Starmer with an ice bucket. In the late ‘90s, we thought there was the possibility of an alternative way of doing things. You got a brief glimpse of that when Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour party, and seemed to mobilise a lot of young people. Plus, we were drunk and we weren’t careerists, so we didn’t give a shit when the BRITs backlash happened. I suppose the equivalent to that now is the brilliant Greta Thunberg getting arrested here, there and everywhere – she reminds me of us.”

Which pop star features on the t-shirt Chumbawamba gave away with their 1992 ‘(Someone’s Always Telling You How To) Behave” single?

“[Laughs] Jason Donovan.”

CORRECT. He’s mocked up wearing a ‘Queer as Fuck’ T-shirt.

“I don’t know if Jason ever found out about those T-shirts! We did it because he sued The Face magazine because they’d questioned his sexuality, which seemed outdated.”

In the single’s liner notes, you called out stars such as Shaun Ryder for past homophobic remarks..

“We were never afraid of that. We even got into a massive argument with The Prodigy when they released ‘Smack My Bitch Up’. We had a problem with it promoting domestic violence. As a prank, we said we were releasing a song called ‘Smack My Keith Up’, and The Prodigy’s Liam [Howlett] was pissed off and released a statement saying: ‘I’ve got more talent in one of my cymbal-clashes than Chumbawamba have in all their 15 years of making music’. [Laughs] We put that quote on the back of one of our T-shirts!”

Chumbawamba’s 2008 LP ‘The Boy Bands Have Won…’ holds the Guinness World Record for the longest album title. How many words is it?

“No idea, because that album was after I’d left the band [in 2004], when Chumbawamba changed from being an electronic to an acoustic folky outfit. We were losing money, so we made the decision to do one more electric album and if it didn’t sell, we’d knock it on the head and me, Danbert, Alice and Harry [Hamer] would leave and the band would carry on as a smaller, acoustic outfit – which they did for another eight years.”

WRONG. It’s 165 words. The full – deep breath! – title is: ‘The Boy Bands Have Won, and All the Copyists and the Tribute Bands and the TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture to Be Shaped by Mimicry, Whether from Lack of Ideas or from Exaggerated Respect. You Should Never Try to Freeze Culture. What You Can Do Is Recycle That Culture. Take Your Older Brother’s Hand-Me-Down Jacket and Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It to the Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don’t Just Regurgitate Creative History, or Hold Art and Music and Literature as Fixed, Untouchable and Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try to ‘Guard’ Any Particular Form of Music Are, Like the Copyists and Manufactured Bands, Doing It the Worst Disservice, Because the Only Thing That You Can Do to Music That Will Damage It Is Not Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It’s Over, Then It’s Done, and the Boy Bands Have Won’. 

Which Welsh indie icon once ranged of Chumbawamba: ‘The worst group that has ever been created. If you’re going to wear a skirt, at least make an effort to look like a woman! You can’t just put on a fucking bit of rag on and look like an ugly bloke at a stag night!’?

“That could be absolutely anyone! [Laughs] Nicky Wire?”

CORRECT. The Manic Street Preachers bassist also added: “Put it this way, if Richey [Edwards] was here and someone said: ‘’Chumbawamba are trying to be like you’, he’d probably cut his whole forearm off on the spot!’ Ouch!

“[Raucous laughter] Oh my God! You’d think the Manic Street Preachers, whose subject matter was concerned with the state of the world and were from industrial working class towns, would have lots in common with us, but they hated us. They once did guest singles reviews for the NME as well, and really slagged us off in that as well. Although we did used to have a song called [1994’s] ‘Mouthful of Shit’ and one of the verses is about the Manic Street Preachers, so in saying that out loud, I realise it’s totally justified that they hated us! [Laughs]”

Afterwards, in 2000, you listed Nicky Wire among the ‘Passenger List for Doomed Flight #1721′, listing the irritating public figures you hoped would perish in a plane clash…

“That was definitely after. Not that we hold a grudge or anything!”

Which band name did Chumbawamba adopt for your 1987 Ferry Aid parody single ‘Let It Be’?

“Shit! I can’t remember!”

WRONG. It was (The Scum’s) Scab Aid.

“Of course! We had a massive thing about charity not being the solution to the worlds ills, and back then, it seemed weird that pop stars were getting behind the The Sun‘s Ferry Aid. We were trying to make a political point about how fucked-up the world was, and that we didn’t think a charity event was going to change the world.”

In a 2012 sketch on the US late night chat show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which comedy actor hosts his own Chumbawamba Show?

“No idea! Not Eugene Levy?”

WRONG. Adorned in Chumbawamba gig lanyards, donning a boxing glove, and solicitously offering his guest a ‘whisky drink, a vodka drink, a lager drink, and a Smirnoff Ice…just kidding, a cider drink’, it was the late Fred Willard.

“I didn’t see that. Brilliant! God, these questions are hard!”

In 2015, which US police force were reportedly found to have edited Chumbawamba’s Wikipedia page to list its officers as band members?

“I’d never heard of this. Was it the NYPD?”

CORRECT. A NYPD computer is reported to have added three NYPD officer names – Danny Levine, Paul Law, and Mark Kraljevic – to Chumbawamba’s band members. Ironic, considering Chumbawamba’s views on the police – which included changing the lyrics of a 1997 Late Show With David Letterman live performance of ‘Tubthumping’ to call for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal who had been imprisoned a few years before that for a crime he says he was unfairly convicted of, killing a police officer.

“Alice used to do all our chatshow appearances and every time she went on something, and tried to say something more outrageous each time. Once, she said [to UK music weekly Melody Maker] ‘We laugh every time a cop gets killed’. When she said that, she knew she’d taken it as far as she could – she didn’t even think that. Our record label, EMI, told us to apologise. They’d already apologised on our behalf to John Prescott for the BRITs award ice bucket-drenching – which pissed us off. After the cop-killing remark, we pretended to kick Alice out of the band and drafted a press release. But EMI realised: ‘You’ve just made this up, haven’t you?’. She had to reign it in after that.”

In 2019, which Tory politician branded himself, without irony, as “the Chumbawamba kid”?

“Is that Michael Gove?”

CORRECT. Rather than share any of the band’s anti-establishment views, the current Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it was because er, he gets knocked down and gets up again. 

“He was probably coked up to the eyeballs when he said that! [Laughs] Various right-wing American and Australian politicians have used ‘Tubthumping’ and we’ve had to issue cease-and-desist letters. When we turned down money [£30,000] for the song to be used on a Jeremy Clarkson TV series trailer, you realise they have no idea about us. No offence, but he should have been on the ‘Passenger List for Doomed Flight #1721” as well! That Nigel Farage dared to start using the song at UKIP conferences [in 2011] was irritating, but it explains why it’s such a big hit – it has a universal message of resilience that can be applied to people on both the left and right. We’ve always been grateful for is that Trump has never latched onto it!”

The verdict: 6.5/10

“That’s more than I thought I was going to get!”

Dunstan Bruce’s documentary ‘I Get Knocked Down‘, is available on streaming platforms Amazon, Google and Apple from January 15

The post Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Chumbawamba’s Dunstan Bruce appeared first on NME.

NME

In 1990, Orbital performed your debut single ‘Chime’ on Top of the Pops. Name any other two acts who appeared on the same episode.

“Snap! and Big Fun. I jumped into the audience and danced to Snap! afterwards.”

CORRECT. Apart from the Eurodance group and boyband, you could have also had Liza Minnelli and They Might Be Giants.

“Afterwards we tried to speak to Snap!, but they turned their noses up at us, so we left and went to a party Pete Tong had invited us to and were gobsmacked because Neneh Cherry and Boy George were there. We felt we’d hit the big-time!”

You performed with your keyboards’ plugs visible, mocking Top of the Pops’ miming policy…

“We were banned from Top of the Pops afterwards for six years for being utterly boring! [Laughs]. We were doing something new and ‘other’ than rock and roll, so having to do something as old-fashioned as miming your music on Top of the Pops felt like a crock of shit. I’m quite Lars von Trier about things. If it’s not happening for real, I can’t do it. They didn’t let us bring our own equipment, and had to get tables from the BBC canteen because we refused to use their fancy keyboard stands. I’d only stand there twirling a plug or playing with the on/off switches, so we stood looking awkward.”

What pseudonym did Alison Goldfrapp use for the tracks she sang on Orbital’s 1996 album ‘In Sides’?

“Auntie.”

CORRECT.

“She’s brilliant. We met because she was an acquaintance of Phil’s [Hartnoll, Orbital’s second member and his brother]. She had the voice of an angel and nonchalantly didn’t seem to care – you’d ask her to sing and she’d treat it casually like you’d asked her to make a cup of tea. She even asked us to help her start a [solo] career, but I was always looking for unconventional psychedelic hooks and was crap at working with singers at that time, so it didn’t work out. But then she met Will Gregory and Goldfrapp exploded. I remember her bringing her first album [2000’s ‘Felt Mountain’] to the studio, muttering ‘Oh yeah…done this…look’. I grabbed my Sharpie and said: ‘Sign this bloody record because when you’re famous, it’s going to be worth something’. She incredulously told me to piss off! [Laughs]”

At 2010s Glastonbury festival, you brought out Matt Smith for Orbital’s cover of the Doctor Who theme tune. In the show, what number Doctor he is?

“I know all the Doctors! You’ve got: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, John Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant… so Matt Smith is the Eleventh Doctor?”

CORRECT.

“The controversial thing is whether we’re counting Peter Cushing’s [1960s] Doctor as canon, and whether John Hurt’s War Doctor, who is supposed to come in between Paul McGann and Christopher Eccleston, counts!”

Eek…just take the point and run! What was it like being joined by the, er, eleventh Doctor?

“There’s nothing more fun than walking around Glastonbury on a Saturday night with Doctor Who if you want to see people off their faces freak out. He’d never been in front of a crowd that big before and was loving it.”

As a die-hard Whovian, did you ever consider throwing your Fez into the ring to compose the music when the show was revived in 2005?

“I got vaguely close to doing it. The BBC asked me to submit a demo – which was a bit lazy and a revamp of the Orbital one that already exists – but it was a done-deal that [Who supremo] Russell T Davies would be working with composer Murray Gold. I would have loved to do it.”

On the subject of sci-fi, Orbital sampled a speech by Klingon Lieutenant Worf (played by actor Michael Dorn) from Star Trek: The Next Generation on the 1993 track ‘Time Becomes’/’Moebius’. Did Dorn ever hear it?

“I won’t say whether we did or didn’t sample it, but Michael Dorn came into a club of some DJ friends of ours, who waited for him to be on the dancefloor and then played ‘Moebius’ at him – he fell about laughing!”

Back to Glasto: its founder Michael Eavis credits your legendary NME Stage headline slot in 1994 as bringing rave to the masses…

“We were supposed to go on before Björk, but she swapped set-times with us so we could go on in darkness. Watching her go on, I lost all my bodily fluids when I heard the roar of the crowd and just thought: that’s you next. But it was amazing and Glastonbury had been craving dance music. I was there the year before when The Orb played the same slot and when they dropped ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’, it was immense. I thought: ‘Somebody’s got to do this with full-on banging techno’. I didn’t know it was going to be me the year after!”

Orbital’s Tilda Swinton-featuring promo to ‘The Box’ was nominated for Best Video at the 1997 BRIT Awards. Who beat you?

“Ah you’ve got me there! We walked off in disgust as soon as we didn’t get it [Laughs]. No, we knew we weren’t going to win. The audience was cheering for each band in the category until they announced ‘and Orbital…’ and it was tumbleweed. Who beat us?”

WRONG. You were pipped to the post by the Spice Girls’ ‘Say You’ll Be There’.

“Bollocks! I nearly said them! They recorded their ‘Spice’ album in the room below ours at the Strongroom studio [in London]. We used to have our lunch watching Neighbours with Mel C. Mel C is the only DJ on the planet to have a copy of ‘Spicy’ [Orbital’s live ‘Wannabe’ remix]. She said she loved it, so I said: ‘Here you go – have it’.”

In 1997, Orbital played Lollapalooza. Which Manchester indie band claimed they once stole golf buggies before knocking your dressing room wall down on that touring festival?

“If that’s not James, I’ll eat my hat!”

CORRECT.

“They became our party buddies on that tour. It was Brits abroad gone mental. We were put in the same dressing room as them, with curtains separating us down the middle. As banter was flying through the curtain, Saul [Davies, James member] started climbing up it, so we just removed it. James would go on at 4pm, and our set was at midnight, but when we finished, they’d still be partying, bless them. They probably just smashed a dressing room wall down of another band – but thought it was ours! [Laughs]”

Reviewing Orbital’s EP ‘Times Fly’ for Select magazine in 1995, which mothership-loving musician raved: “They got a funky drummer – I’d like to play on top of it”?

“Was it Jamiroquai?”

WRONG. George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic.

“Whoa! I didn’t even know that!”

Ever meet him?

“No, I saw him at an airport once during festival season. I once sat on a flight to Japan next to Peter Hook chatting all the way – and didn’t realise it was him until we got to the gate and I saw a sign saying ‘Mr Hook’. I’ve met some mad people. I even had Ennio Morricone bless my unborn child at one point. When we played ‘Where Is It Going?’ at the Paralympic Games opening ceremony with Stephen Hawking in 2012, we discovered he [Hawking] was a trickster and funny. He even wore our torch-glasses even though he could see sod-all to feel part of the band.”

“But if we’re name-dropping the two most incredible people I’ve met were David Bowie and Kate Bush. We played with Bowie at Phoenix festival [in 1997], and afterwards, he asked us to do a remix for him and my biggest regret is turning him down because I was stressed with work – my toes are curling thinking about it!”

How many times have you asked Kate Bush to work with you now?

“Hmmmm…only once. It won’t be the last time I ask either. I’ve not given up. I asked her on the last album [2023’s ‘Optical Delusion’] because I had a big sample of hers, but she replied: ‘No, I don’t want my music taken out of context. But I do remember you from Buckingham Palace!’”

“Because we’d met at an industry soiree at Buckingham Palace and we were told we had to stay together in a group because the Queen was coming through. Then we sneaked into the other room and tried to play their harpsichord, creating this awful din! I couldn’t believe I was playing an out-of-tune harpsichord sharing a piano stool with Kate Bush, as every face you’ve ever seen on Top of the Pops turned around looking at us thinking: ‘Who’s making that fucking racket? Oh, it’s Kate Bush and some herbert!”

For a bonus half-point: In a later Select magazine feature titled ‘If Pop Was World War 2’ in 1996, comparing Britpop to historical figures, who were Orbital bizarrely likened to? For example, Noel Gallagher was compared to Stalin*

“[Laughs] Did anybody get compared to Hitler?”

Yes! Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. “Demonic, vegetarian leader of forces of darkness, hell bent on enforcing American longhairs,” according to the Select writer.

“Jesus! [Laughs] I would like to think we’d have been compared to Monty, but even by ’96, the rock ‘n’ roll world treated electronic artists suspiciously – like witches. They still thought: ‘ I don’t know what they’re doing! The music makes itself!’. As we’ve found out with AI, the music didn’t make itself. Watching all the people afraid of AI now, I think: ‘Oh yeah, that’s what you used to accuse me of in the early ‘90s!’. Possibly we were compared to some kind of V2 rocket engineers or inventors of some war-related equipment?”

CORRECT-ISH. Close enough – you were likened to Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, for being ‘Top boffins’. 

“I love discovering weird, obscure old articles. The first ever publication to print something about Orbital was our local newspaper the Sevenoaks Chronicle. Reading it recently, I wondered why all the quotes were attributed to Phil, until I got to the end where I say something like: ‘A few weeks ago I was in this paper because of the evils of acid house – and now I’m being applauded for doing an acid house record. Funny that, isn’t it?’ Then I remembered I was furious because the police had beaten the hell out of us ravers for having an illegal rave [then outlawed by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994] and the local paper had taken the side of the police!”

*Noel G was compared to Stalin because the latter was a “big-moustachioed leader of [the] biggest country in world, on whom victory depended. Many of [his] original political compadres vanished’, while the Oasis icon was judged: ’Similarly hirsute chief of world’s biggest band, on whom victory depends. First drummer not seen since last year.”

Complete the following lyrics: ‘Blaming everyone in hospitals/Blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel…’?

“Blaming everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.”

CORRECT. From the track ‘Dirty Rat’ – Orbital’s 2023 team-up with Sleaford Mods.

“That’s my favourite reference to gammon without saying the words! Sleaford Mods are absolute diamonds.”

Which novel does the mother wash in the video to Orbital’s 1992 single ‘Halcyon’?

“I’d put money on it being Jilly Cooper’s Riders!”

WRONG. It’s Barbara Catlin’s Shotgun Wedding.

“Goddammit! Of course. It’s implying the poor woman in the video was unhappy with her life. That’s a piece of trivia I should have known!”

You DJ-d in a 2002 episode of medical drama ER. Which character crowdsurfs during your scene?

“That’s unfair because I didn’t watch ER so I don’t know the characters’ names!”

WRONG. It’s Dr. Jing-Mei Chen.

“We’d been doing an album launch in New York, and Phil decided he wanted to go home, but our film agent said they were happy for me to do it on my own. I remember debating with one of the actors if the Royal Family could have bumped off Princess Diana, while Maura Tierney [who played Nurse Abigail Lockhart on the show] was just tutting in the background, not having any of it! [Laughs].”

Which 2004 American teen movie uses ‘Halcyon + On + On’ for its final scene?

“Mean Girls?”

CORECT.

“That intro to ‘Halcyon’ is all over TikTok at the moment which is brilliant. I’d like the upcoming Mean Girls musical remake to use a Jon Hopkins or Bicep track for that scene, so the next generation get their ambient intro.”

You’ve composed myriad film soundtracks. What’s been the most surreal Hollywood experience?

“Probably pretending to play live in [2002] film xXx, in complete silence, with Vin Diesel walking through the crowd.”

The verdict: 6.5/10

“I wish I’d just guessed the Spice Girls for that extra point!”

Orbital’s ‘The Green Album – Live – 2024’ tour, celebrating the duo’s 1991 debt album, tales place April and May 2024. Full dates can be found here

The post Orbital: “We were banned from Top of the Pops for being utterly boring!” appeared first on NME.

NME

Mis-Teeq’s hit ‘Scandalous’ was picked to replace which singer’s track in the 2004 movie Catwoman?

“No clue! I’ve never heard this story before. Christina Milian? Brandy?”

WRONG. According to Mis-teeq member Su-Elise Nash, the film’s theme song was originally meant to be ‘Outrageous’ by Britney Spears, but it was scrapped when she broke her knee on the set of the music video.

“I didn’t know that. We met Catwoman star Halle Berry at the movie premiere, and she was lovely and thanking us for being a part of it. When ‘Scandalous’ came on halfway through the film, we cheered and whooped in the cinema – even though you’re supposed be reserved [Laughs]. And we got to meet Snoop Dogg at the party afterwards.”

“Whilst ‘Scandalous’ was becoming a hit in America, our record company in the UK [Telstar] went into liquidation, so it was a strange time for Mis-Teeq. It was a random story with ‘Scandalous’. Carson Daly, who was a TV/radio host and big character in the music industry, overheard the song on holiday in France and asked: ‘Who is this?’ and he tracked us down and helped push us in the States.”

You danced in the 2004 video to N.E.R.D’s ‘She Wants to Move’. Name the album that single appears on.

“‘Fly or Die’.”

CORRECT.

“YES!! I got one right! [Laughs] I was watching Friends when Mis-Teeq’s PR phoned to say Pharrell had picked me personally to be in the video. I asked: ‘Have you seen the video treatment? Because if I have to kiss him or do anything like that, I’m not doing it.’ He reassured me: ‘No, you’re just dancing’. I was grinning from ear-to-ear and left for LA within a few days. During the shoot, I performed it so much to the point where I couldn’t breath and they had to bring out an oxygen tank and mask for me. Being from the UK, people were surprised to see me in the video. I felt honoured. My dream is for Pharrell to ask me to come out and perform it with him onstage. If he’s ever doing a show in the UK, I’d love to come out and dance to that song.”

Your debut solo album, 2006’s ‘Fired Up’, never received a physical release in the UK – until this year. What number did it chart at in Japan?

“[Laughs] I know the first single ‘Lipstick’ did well there, but I couldn’t guess.”

WRONG. 54.

“Japan’s a big place so I’ll take that! Having the album released on vinyl in the UK now is surreal. Coming out of Mis-teeq after eight years, I spent a year-and-a-half, every day bar Christmas Day, in the studio experimenting with producers, writing and recording and discovering who I was as an artist. I felt proud of ‘Fired Up’ and prefer the album as a body of work over [2008’s] more successful ‘The Alesha Show’. I was heartbroken and devastated when ‘Fired Up’ never had a physical release here, but the label [Universal] gave me the rights so I was able put it out in Japan. ‘Lipstick’ was Number One in the ringtone charts there! [Laughs] It was October 2006 when I received the dreaded call that a big radio station wasn’t going to playlist my second single ‘Knockdown’, and the record company had lost faith and didn’t want to risk putting the record out. It was a dark time. In the space of two weeks, my marriage [to Harvey from So Solid Crew] ended and I lost my record deal. ‘The Alesha Show’ was a rebirth, but ‘Fired Up’ has a special place in my heart.”

You allege that when you signed your solo deal for ‘Fired Up’, the label higher-ups claimed ‘Black women don’t sell records’…

“That was a conversation that I had with my manager. When I got the offer from Universal, he sat me down and said: ‘Look, here’s the offer, but it’s important you know that this is the top people at this label’s attitude’. Or it was back then. But being a competitive person, I had a ‘I’ll show you!’ attitude and wanted to prove that it was possible – so it was that drive that made me say yes to that record deal. My A&R and the person who signed me had great faith in me, so I wasn’t focussing on the powers above them. After I won Strictly Come Dancing and I wrote [2008 top five single] ‘The Boy Does Nothing’, the label that dropped me tried to sign me again. They said: ‘Who would you rather sign with – Manchester United or Arsenal?’. I replied: ‘Well, I’m a huge Arsenal fan!’ – so I signed with Warner.”

Which indie anthem did you perform on The Charlotte Church Show in 2006?

“Was it The Killers’ ‘Somebody Told Me’?”

CORRECT. You duetted with Church on the track. Any reactions to your covers from the original artists?

“When I performed Skepta’s ‘Shutdown’ on Lip Sync Battle UK [in 2016], he gave me some props which was nice, and when I sang Stormzy’s ‘Shut Up’ in a style of a Disney princess on That’s My Jam, he acknowledged it and thought it was funny – he’s always so lovely to me when I see him.”

Your 2009 single ‘Let’s Get Excited’ namechecks Madonna. But which other track on its attendant album ‘The Alesha Show’, shares its title with a famous T-shirt slogan that Madonna once wore?

“‘Um….’Italians Do It Better’?”

CORRECT. What are your memories of that album?

“From October 2006 when I was let go by the label to August 2007, I was lost and sad, didn’t feel good about myself and was confused about what to do next – even though I was still writing and loved music. One day, Brian Higgins [of production company Xenomania with whom she wrote ‘Knockdown’] called me and said: ‘I believe in you. Do you want to come to my studios and we keep writing?’ That was a magic moment for me. I’d drive down to Kent every day and I was a student to Brian Higgins and the Xenomania team. They would send me home with 90 melodies to write lyrics to. That’s when ‘The Boy Does Nothing’ was born and it felt like a big hit. At that time, I’d said yes to doing Strictly… because I never had the chance to learn how to dance when I was younger, and I needed escapism.

When I made ‘The Alesha Show’ and returned to Strictly…to perform ‘The Boy Does Nothing’ in 2008, its success felt sweeter given everything that happened with ‘Fired Up’ – because there was one point where I was sitting on my kitchen floor and didn’t know what was going to happen with my life. So the 360-degree moment with ‘The Alesha Show’ was magnificent.”

You co-hosted and displayed your MC-ing skills during the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Which country won and who placed last at the grand final?

“Sweden won with Loreen’s ‘Tattoo’, which remains one of my favourite songs. The UK came second to last, but I can’t remember who came last.”

WRONG. Sweden did indeed triumph, but Germany were rock-bottom with Lord of the Lost’s ‘Blood and Glitter’.

“I felt bad for the UK’s Mae Muller because everyone was talking about her coming second to last, which was surprising because she went down a storm in the room. I’ve fallen in love with Eurovision. There were many years that I didn’t watch the show because I never felt there was anything there musically that suited my tastes. My kids have been playing the Eurovision soundtrack constantly and there’s so many brilliant pop songs on it and I’m super-impressed!”

Ever been asked to represent the UK in the contest?

“There were some rumblings about it years ago, but I’ve never fancied it. There’s too much pressure. It’s hard enough putting music out, let alone entering into the biggest music competition in the world.”

In 2022, a former contestant on Britain’s Got Talent (on which you’re a judge) Nathan Wyburn, took three days to make a portrait of your face out of 644 what?

“Digestive biscuits!”

CORRECT.

“As you’d casually do! The things that people come up with! That’s what’s great about Britain’s Got Talent. People come up with things you’d never think of.”

Obviously BGT is a huge mainstream success – any numbers you have in your phone that would blow the teenage Alesha Dixon’s mind?

“Gary Barlow. When I was 13, I was part of the Take That army – we were a force to be reckoned with! During Mis-Teeq’s second appearance on Top of the Pops, Robbie Williams told me: ‘I love your rapping!’. That made my year. Gary’s since become a good friend, we’ve written songs, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro together.”

When you appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2021, which two queens lip-synced to Mis-Teeq’s ‘Scandalous’?

“I can see their lovely faces but can’t remember their names! Ugh! That’s annoying! Was one Scarlett Harlett?”

CORRECT-ISH. HALF A POINT. Scarlett Harlett was one, but you missed Vanity Milan.

“I didn’t know that was coming, and I was floored by them!”

In 2002, Mis-Teeq rocked up to Brixton Academy to collect a posthumous NME award for which artist?

“Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes?”

WRONG. You collected the Best R&B/Soul Act accolade on behalf of Aaliyah.

“Gosh, wow! Bless her soul. I loved that Mis-Teeq were at the NME Awards. We’d come from the world of garage and had crossover to the pop commercial world which meant we could play Glastonbury or turn up at the NME Awards and it would be authentic and make sense. When younger artists say: ‘I would try and learn all your raps when I was growing up’ or saw us an inspiration, it makes me realise that Mis-Teeq opened a lot of doors and showed things were possible. Growing up, we’d look to artists in America because we didn’t always have role models – particular women of colour – in our own country, so it’s important that we broke down perceptions and stereotypes. Even 22 years after releasing Mis-Teeq’s first single, I still feel there’s work to be done and more to achieve.”

Any chance of a Mis-Teeq reunion?

“We’ve talked about creating a moment. We’ve not talked necessarily about creating another album – although I do feel like Mis-Teeq’s third album should probably have come out because we split up halfway through making it which is a shame because it feels like Mis-Teeq have unfinished business. We still communicate, there’s still a lot of love, so we would like there to be a moment. We’re going through a period of many bands reforming and I’ve never wanted to look like we’re jumping on a trend. If we come back, I don’t want people to see it coming. I want it to be a surprise. So it’s definitely something we’ve considered and when the time is right, hopefully we can come up with something special. Watch this space!”

In 2003, Smash Hits magazine released a version of Top Trumps, awarding each pop luminary a rating. So, in the spirit of your late friend Bruce Forsyth*’s ‘80s/’90s game-show Play Your Cards Right, can you guess whether the next musicians in the pack have a higher or lower Smash Hits rating. Your base card is Alesha Dixon, who has a Smash Hits Factor of 43. The next card is Eminem. Is he higher or lower than you?

“So you’re asking if Eminem is better than me? I’d say he has a higher pop factor.”

WRONG. Lower by one point at 42.

“Really? I’d have put him a lot higher! Can we try another? [Laughs]”

OK… Madonna.

“Higher than Eminem.”

WRONG. Lower. She ranked 36.

“Who did this?!”

One final chance to salvage a point: Charlie Simpson from Busted.

“Lower.”

WRONG AGAIN! Higher at 49.

“I’m going by my personal taste here which is probably the wrong thing! [Laughs]”

NO POINTS OVERALL. Who were the best bands to party with back in the day?

“Blue were the most fun. They were like our annoying brothers. We’d do kids’ tv shows and were always in and out of each other’s dressing rooms. I remember performing at Miss World with McFly and we were drinking neat tequila and I fell over and injured Dougie [Poynter, McFly member]’s eye, and they had to help me up from the floor. We were living our best lives.”

*Forsyth once branded Dixon “the British Beyoncé“.

The verdict: 4.5/10 

““I’ve the world’s worst memory and knew I’d be terrible at this game, but it was a nice trip down memory lane!””

Alesha Dixon’s solo albums ‘Fired Up’ and ‘The Alesha Show’ are available on vinyl now

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