Post by labouch on Mar 2, 2006 23:39:57 GMT
This makes interesting reading. Not seen this mentioned before anywhere - the weekender sounds cool. The full interview is here if you're bothered :
And you’re embarking on a tour of about 16 dates in the UK and 10 in Europe is that right?
I’ve actually lost count to be honest because it keeps changing, but it’s something like that yeah. We’re actually talking about going back to Europe in October and I am planning on doing this special sort of thing in November where we’re only going to play songs from Telekon.
Can you tell me about that?
I haven’t really finally decided on what’s going to happen yet, but the idea is… I’ve been increasingly concerned about that the fact that I know I concentrate on new stuff a lot and there’s an ever-decreasing amount of old stuff in the set. I don’t want to compromise that at all, but I’m also aware that it could be seen a little bit like sticking my two fingers up at some of the older fans and I really don’t want to do that, but I’ve got my own problems trying to keep the career moving forward and don’t want to get nostalgic, so it is a difficult situation.
The answer that I’ve come up with, if it works, is just to do a long weekender; two, three or four gigs, where I just play songs from a particular album – and the first one I’m thinking about doing is for Telekon. So we’d do all the Telekon album, plus all the singles that come from it and all the b-sides associated with them. So it could be like 16 or 17 songs, and that would be the gig, and we’d do them in the original way as well, I won’t try to revamp them and do them in the modern Jagged style or Pure style, I’d do them as they were on the record.
So you’re going to get the analogue gear back out?
[glow=red,2,300]Well yeah, what I can find of it yeah[/glow].
And would you get the old band members back out?
No! Fuck that. [Laughs]
Why not?
Absolutely not, no interest in that at all. First of all, one of them’s dead, another one lives in France, Russell [Bell] I’ve not heard from in years and I think Cedric [Sharpley] hates the ground that I walk on.
Why would he think that?
I don’t know, never asked him. I think he was unhappy about not being in the band anymore. Since the last gig we ever did, he’s never ever spoken to me , not a word. I’ve had one or two emails from Chris Payne in the last 15 years, but these are not the people that I was closest to at the best of times. They were not my favourite band, yeah, we had a really cool time, but in between tours we never saw eachother, they weren’t like friends that I hung out with. Russell a little bit I guess, but I didn’t have a problem with anyone, it’s not like we were enemies either, there was never any rows or upsets at the tours but when the tour finished I wasn’t gonna see them again until we started rehearsing the year after.
So they were more like just paid session players?
Yeah, whereas this band that I have now, I love em’. They’re all like my closest friends and we see eachother all the time, we hang out together, we go on holidays together, it’s absolutely brilliant – it’s a lovely lovely atmosphere and I wouldn’t dream of ever playing live with the old band again. I’m not going to go that far down the nostalgia route for the fans.
So you’re not going to put those leather jumpsuits back on again then?
Nah [Laughs]. I’m not being silly about it, I’m not gonna sort of dye a red streak down me head and become the Gary Numan of 1980, I am what I am now. It’s a very clear signal that I’m trying to accommodate the fact that I’ve got fans from 25/30 years ago and some of them prefer older stuff and some of them prefer newer stuff, it’s a way of trying to keep everybody happy without selling out and comprimising my main ambition which is to push where am I now, because these are the albums I really wanna be playing now – but I do know its alienated a lot people, so by doing these retro gigs I can hopefully keep some people happy, because each year it will be a different album.
And you’re embarking on a tour of about 16 dates in the UK and 10 in Europe is that right?
I’ve actually lost count to be honest because it keeps changing, but it’s something like that yeah. We’re actually talking about going back to Europe in October and I am planning on doing this special sort of thing in November where we’re only going to play songs from Telekon.
Can you tell me about that?
I haven’t really finally decided on what’s going to happen yet, but the idea is… I’ve been increasingly concerned about that the fact that I know I concentrate on new stuff a lot and there’s an ever-decreasing amount of old stuff in the set. I don’t want to compromise that at all, but I’m also aware that it could be seen a little bit like sticking my two fingers up at some of the older fans and I really don’t want to do that, but I’ve got my own problems trying to keep the career moving forward and don’t want to get nostalgic, so it is a difficult situation.
The answer that I’ve come up with, if it works, is just to do a long weekender; two, three or four gigs, where I just play songs from a particular album – and the first one I’m thinking about doing is for Telekon. So we’d do all the Telekon album, plus all the singles that come from it and all the b-sides associated with them. So it could be like 16 or 17 songs, and that would be the gig, and we’d do them in the original way as well, I won’t try to revamp them and do them in the modern Jagged style or Pure style, I’d do them as they were on the record.
So you’re going to get the analogue gear back out?
[glow=red,2,300]Well yeah, what I can find of it yeah[/glow].
And would you get the old band members back out?
No! Fuck that. [Laughs]
Why not?
Absolutely not, no interest in that at all. First of all, one of them’s dead, another one lives in France, Russell [Bell] I’ve not heard from in years and I think Cedric [Sharpley] hates the ground that I walk on.
Why would he think that?
I don’t know, never asked him. I think he was unhappy about not being in the band anymore. Since the last gig we ever did, he’s never ever spoken to me , not a word. I’ve had one or two emails from Chris Payne in the last 15 years, but these are not the people that I was closest to at the best of times. They were not my favourite band, yeah, we had a really cool time, but in between tours we never saw eachother, they weren’t like friends that I hung out with. Russell a little bit I guess, but I didn’t have a problem with anyone, it’s not like we were enemies either, there was never any rows or upsets at the tours but when the tour finished I wasn’t gonna see them again until we started rehearsing the year after.
So they were more like just paid session players?
Yeah, whereas this band that I have now, I love em’. They’re all like my closest friends and we see eachother all the time, we hang out together, we go on holidays together, it’s absolutely brilliant – it’s a lovely lovely atmosphere and I wouldn’t dream of ever playing live with the old band again. I’m not going to go that far down the nostalgia route for the fans.
So you’re not going to put those leather jumpsuits back on again then?
Nah [Laughs]. I’m not being silly about it, I’m not gonna sort of dye a red streak down me head and become the Gary Numan of 1980, I am what I am now. It’s a very clear signal that I’m trying to accommodate the fact that I’ve got fans from 25/30 years ago and some of them prefer older stuff and some of them prefer newer stuff, it’s a way of trying to keep everybody happy without selling out and comprimising my main ambition which is to push where am I now, because these are the albums I really wanna be playing now – but I do know its alienated a lot people, so by doing these retro gigs I can hopefully keep some people happy, because each year it will be a different album.