19th June 2000
Back to index
When I first heard about your solo plans, the
first song title mentioned was If I Were You I'd Kiss Me. How come this song
won't be making it on to the actual album?
Kris Coverdale
Oh, it'll show up one of these days. It's too good to ditch, but it didn't fit with the whole sound and vibe of the album. Plus, it's a duet and I can't think of anyone that I wanna sing with. Any suggestions anyone?
Since Conny is in your band now, I was hoping
you could shed some light on what he's been up to since the last Electric Boys
album. I had heard he was going to release a solo album at one
point.
Jason
Conny recorded a solo album (Psychonaut) that was never released outside of Sweden. It's fucking brilliant as well. Talent like his should be 'up there', and I promise to see to it that this is done. And overdone.
Will you be playing any of Conny's material
live, once you get the band together? Psychonaut was one of my favourite CDs
last year and it would be good to hear some of those songs live
again.
Phil Smith
I think we're gonna have too much of our own material to fit into a set. But who knows? The great thing about this job is that you honestly don't know if you're right until you try it out in public.
Do you mind me asking why you did Japanese
tours (Tokyo Suits Me) and nothing in Britain?
Craig
Because the Japanese have always paid handsomely for our wares, as opposed to Gt Britain, who always had someone 'that little bit more hip' getting all the money. This country pays shite and, although I love it and would never rather come from anywhere else, this makes paying the bills a little harder. Plus, until famous people were spotted wearing 'metal' t-shirts, rock music has always been frowned upon by the folk that pay types like us. This is why I think that Japan is a lifesaver, as well as a wonderfully warm place full of wonder, and the UK is a wasteland largely populated by moaning bastards with nothing good to say about anyone.
I've just seen your mate Alex and his new band
AntiProduct supporting Rachel Stamp at the Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms. I just
wondered if you'd had the chance to see them live yet.
Mark Golden
Alex, the most secretive man in rock, has still to let me know when they are playing. Therefore, sadly, I've not seen them live and don't expect to.
Re: bassist. SAMMI YAFFA! I'm tellin' ya, he'd
be perfect!
NoizeAttic
He's too damn busy. We met in NY. He's a great guy.
I was just looking back through the archive on
the site, and I read the first little thing that you stuck up on here. It
mentions some live videos and stuff that never made it to a studio that you
were going to put out. It made me wonder - where is it? There's no criticism
intended, 'cos I realise you're a busy man. But it'd be kinda cool to have a
gander at it.
Jim
Gillett
I guess I just got busy. Too busy in fact to get those things together. To be perfectly honest, I just don't care about putting anything to do with The Wildhearts together. Maybe I will in the future, but for now they're a distant memory, and there are far too many new ones to start blocking up the scenery just yet.
What thoughts do you have about the whole
Napster argument? If surfers swapped Wildhearts or SilverGinger 5 MP3s without
you seeing a penny from royalties, would you be pissed off? I thought it was
cool that you put out three tracks from the Clam Abuse album on the
SilverGinger web site, as it made me go out and buy the album!
Neil Everitt
I'm from the 'what has this got to do with me?' side of the tracks. I don't earn nearly enough money to really let this kind of stuff bother me. In fact, people like me who work more on the underground side of things need bootleggers as a way of letting people get hold of our songs. I regard Napster as a modern \par day bootlegger, and therefore see what they do as a service that the fans want. I don't see why bands are so pissed off at giving the fans what they want, as it was them that made these people millionaires in the first place. It's kinda like complaining about the colour of your money really.
What festivals are we gonna see you at this
year? Glastonbury's looking its normal shitty self, but the Lost Weekend and
Reading are looking good, don't you think?
PD Pomerantz
I think all the festivals look absolutely shite this year.
Just wondering... does your bass player have
to be a guy? Girls can play too you know!
Skettle
In contrast to popular myth, the bass player doesn't have to be anything but interesting looking. Not pretty, not glam, just really, really good. If a girl turned up with the right look and attitude, and most importantly ability (the bass and drums on this album are fucking painfully good - some standard has been set), then they would get the gig regardless of sex. I mean, why on earth wouldn't I? Ruling out females because of their sex would be like ruling out black people because of their colour (and what kind of bastard do you think I am?). But look at the statistics. How many truly great bassists throughout history have been female?
Which song out of your whole career was the
most fun to record?
Nad
Message To Geri, for the sheer amount of people that "would never sing on a record" turning into studio pigs that wouldn't leave. We had over 100 people mixed down on that chorus.
Why did you choose the Absolutely cast to be
in the video for Just In Lust?
Keith
Marnoch
I wanted the Absolutely guys as I was, and still am, a massive fan of the programme. They were great to work with, and if we hadn't been so fucked up I'm sure I would have kept in touch with them!
I just wanted to ask: what are your long term
plans? Are you looking to keep Super$hit 666 going for a while, or will it be
another one-album job? I don't really care, keep churning it out, us Geordies
have little real pleasure besides tac.
Paul Kerry
The long term future looks like this: get band together, tour world, make people love album, dominate rock 'n roll, make fans smile, make fans fuck, make fans drink, do not reform The Wildhearts, do not tour with S$666 until we have an album out, make shitloads of cash, repeat as often as is humanly possible.
Do you have ginger pubic hair?
The Golden Gopher
That's a very personal question, and one that one would expect from someone who believes everything he or she reads and has no friends named Ginger that have gleefully showed him or her their genitals. No.
Do you think that people see you as "Ginger"
or "that geezer who used to be in The Wildhearts"?
Andy Castledine
Well, there are still a few people of the "when are you going to reform the... blah blah blah|" persuasion that will probably always think of me as "the guy out of The Wildhearts". But there are people who still think that Brian Johnson is the new guy in AC/DC. Thankfully, the press have started mentioning my name without a "from" tacked on the end, which means that I've become rock royalty. Or something. I guess as long as I'm being remembered for something it'll do.
I'm just wondering what happened to keep Nikki
Sixx from working on the new record with you. Any chance you'll do something
with him later? Also, hopefully the US is included in your tour plans. Any
chance of getting on something like the Maximum Rock tour package (Motley,
Megadeth, Anthrax)? Zakk Wylde's band dropped out as the opening
act.
Jeff Hall
Well, around the time we were going to work together, Tommy split and Randy joined. Motley toured, and toured... and toured. Then they started recording the new album and mixing the live album. All in all there wasn't a spare week in the whole time. I'm sure that before we both die we will have done something together. Nikki's new album (58) is well worth waiting for. It's mental! The Maximum Rock package sounds like a dream tour, but methinks that if we were in line for a tour like that we'd already have been added to the bill.
Is Fugazi (Do The Fake) about a certain
"crummy band from England" called Whatever?
Mike Sachs
Fugazi is not about Whatever.
I just wondered, who's Honey, who's Sonny and
what got you "talk, talk, talking"?
Mark Johnson
Sonny is you, Honey is her, and we're talking about anything.
Even though your views on love, life,
yourself, etc have changed over the last year, does the SilverGinger 5 stuff
still have the same passion and general downright dirtiness that The Wildhearts
had? What kind of feel does the new album have?
Neil
Mochan
The new album has the feel of a baby duck in the hands of a virgin that has unfortunately undergone a horrific operation on dry skin only to have her hands covered in velvet. With extra sensitivity. And slightly darker than the previous skin hues. Maybe like a purply / blue. Or something.
When will the new album be released in
Britain, and can you get the Japanese import? Will there be a tour to coincide
with its release?
Tom
Bowman
You know something? I just don't know. Wish I did though, because, although I like avoiding direct answers as much as the next man, I would actually like to get on to a different topic of discussion on this fine, fine site. I'm sure that Japanese import copies will be available and a tour will follow imminently. Oh no, does this mean that after the Japanese release there'll be a new line of "when's the tour"questioning? Does anyone mind if I start to lie? Cool.
Have you got any ideas for your son's name? Do
you want him to be a musician like yourself?
Shiho
I don't mind what he wants to be, although if we haven't found a bass player in 16 years' time, I wouldn't mind him taking that up. As for names, I thought of Pigeon. But then went off the idea as it's a silly name.
"How can I get down when I got all my friends
around? And I can be there once again, so where are you hiding, Richey James?"
Is this the Richey James I think it is, and does it mean what I think it
means?
Klara
It's referring to Richey from the Manics. My telepathy is kinda slow today, so who you think it is and what you think it means is unclear, but you can bet your right forearm that you're probably right.
Listening to all your albums, your voice gets
more and more polished (for want of a better word). Your voice sounded really
raw and fucked up on Don't Be Happy... Just Worry. But it got much clearer from
Earth Vs The Wildhearts onwards. Being a singer, this interests me. How did you
get from the rawness of the early stuff to the crisp clearness of Endless,
Nameless?
Matt The Hoople
The "rawness" was obtained from not being able to sing very well. Works a treat, mate.
I was just wondering if there will ever be a
Wildhearts video released - either a live vid or promo videos. Hell, maybe you
could combine the two.
Dan
I'd love to do something like a Wildhearts vid one day soon. But until my request with God - to add a few more hours to the day and another couple of days in the week - is reviewed I'm a victim of the syndrome known as 'not-enough-time-itis', that fells man and beast alike with equal gay abandon. Like.
Why do you think more and more bands are
dropping solos in their songs? I'm in a band at the moment and we all seem to
think that solos are still a big part of a song. Is this just us being lazy and
not knowing what to write next to "fill the gap"? What do you think?
Jon
Willock
Just as a short song is no better than a long song if it stinks, a solo is a terrible thing if put in if only to give the guitar player something to do. If it feels good then it is good. It doesn't matter if the government make guitar solos illegal and punishable by penalty of eternal pub circuit, if you want to do it... do it. Slash always plays really interesting fucked up solos, Rick Neilsen plays melodies in his and Angus sounds like he doesn't know the next note coming out of his guitar. Hey, even I shread a bit on my new album. You gotta go with what feels good and fuck what anyone else is doing.
Where is a tortoise's dick
hidden?
Kez
In a female tortoise, if it has any sense... by Christ, those things are gorgeous.
