Interview taken from HermAphrodite #4?

There was a time before singers wore big anoraks with hoods onstage.

A time before lyrics had the rhyming wit of 'sister' / 'blister' / 'missed her'.

A time when you could truly be inspired by the music that you loved.

Long long ago, the world of rock-music was more colourful.

Vibrant.

Flamboyant.

We had Marc Bolan and Ziggy Stardust, Lou Reed and Jim Morrison.

They filled the stage, they held your attention, and you loved them despite their faults, through everything.

20 years on, the world needs more rock-gods.

( And so I have been bemoaning... )

But then, 20 years on, the world has been given Strangelove.

I know that the above reads like an overwhelming combination of hyperbole and convoluted histrionics ( as, uh, does that sentence ) but in a way, that's fitting for the band too.

I went to York to see Strangelove in October.

I had read their interviews past, heard their records ( and hey, even bought a few ) and caught them live on the radio. But I'd never actually seen them.

A virgin to the Strangelove live experience.

And now a total convert.

Patrick's faintly patronising onstage asides and tantrums,

the sweeping grandeur of the songs

and the melodrama of the music

it all makes sense

when it’s created before you;

all the pieces slot together

and complement each other properly...

And, thusly converted, after the show, I buttonholed Strangelove 'newboy' Nick, for an extended chat...

him - " The rest of the band are from Bristol, I'm from London."

me - " Do they pick on you ?"

him - " Yup. ( ponders ) No, actually, I pick on them. Straw-sucking yokels..."

He loves them really.

Else he wouldn't have stayed with them for two years.

However, he will remain the 'newboy' ( much like Neil Codling will to Suede ), well... forever.

Or until Strangelove bring in a newer new-boy.

But that looks unlikely.

There really isn't anything left for anyone else to do, within the band.

Patrick - Vocals / Alex - Guitar / Julian - Guitar / Joe - Bass /

Nick - Keyboards, Occasional Guitar / John - Drums

And they don't really need a Bez. They've got Patrick.

"I am not a goth. We actually laugh about that because we're the furthest you can get

away from goth. But I have some good friends who are goths... erm, no I don't, actually."

- Patrick Duff, 12 October 96 NME

Humour, darkness, intense introspection and not being Goth.

The integral parts to Strangelove.

me - " Do you feel that you as a unit and everything are getting happier ? At all ?"

him - " Um, yeah. I think that would be fair to say. We've never always as a unit been collectively miserable."

me - " Well yeah, you wouldn't actually get anything done if you were..."

him - " And we're really enjoying this tour. Which is because there's actually some people here. Which - especially up North - is kind of a first for us. We do feed off the audience a bit."

Yeah. You can see that. Feel it. When Patrick was crowd-surfing ( repeatedly ) during the show, it was as though he was being carried high by the audience's emotions. As well as their hands.

Which makes it one of the utmost physical gestures, from band to audience and then back again...

( Plus he always managed to get back onstage in time for the next chorus... )

So then, Nick... Don't you ever want to stage-dive as well ?

him - " Yeah. I do, really want to. In fact, yesterday, I very nearly did. But for some reason I checked myself. It looked a bit dangerous tonight."

I've never seen Strangelove play live before - so I don't know this to be true - but I would think that their gigs were once slightly more sombre affairs. ( Though probably no less cathartic. )

And although they haven't descended into the cheery realms of 'happy clappy' since their last offering, the mood has definitely lightened.

The lyrics now give the impression of looking at the blackest times of your life - or someone else's - from a clearer place. Definitely an emotional improvement, if only for the lyricist’s sake…

I asked if the band usually rocked out in that way onstage...

him - " When we were doing the last album we were probably a bit more downbeat, but this album just ended up being a bit of a rock-out... It's good fun."

me - " And does Patrick strop like that normally ?"

him - " What on John the roadie ? ( grins ) They've got a sort of Laurel and Hardy routine - it's not really serious..."

Well yeah. Cos he did keep on grinning as he viciously verbally lambasted the man before the entire building...

him - " Yes. ( grins wryly ) But John is horrible."

Also of note from the 'Strangelove Live Experience' is that the roles onstage appear to be fluid - you don't just have to stay behind the keyboards all night, you could go and pick up a guitar. Or vice versa.

me - " Do you all swap instruments because you get bored or because you're all really really talented?"

him ( immediately ) - " Oh, the latter. Definitely."

Eyebrows raised. He starts grinning.

him - " It actually comes out of the fact that we recorded this album pretty much live; like we didn't overdub stuff... And when we wrote it, we just set up all the instruments in a room in a cottage in the middle of Wales, and we just worked out the songs in a really informal way. So it was like whoever was near the instruments at the time played them. So the live-set is probably a reflection of that."

He plays the keyboards. Different ones. And the guitar too.

Helen - " So what do you prefer playing then ?"

him - " Obviously I much prefer playing the guitar, because it's much cooler. But I'm not very good. So I can only do 'Freak' and the easy ones."

So then, while we're on the subject of composing...

me - " When you're writing the songs, do the lyrics come first or the music ?"

him - " That kind of varies - but this album came much more from Patrick writing songs on acoustic guitar, at least half the album's that. And the rest is sort of doing other bits around it, which actually works... But everyone in the band writes themselves, we all do demos of music and offer them up to see if anyone likes them, and that's really good, cos then everyone has the chance to have their own song on the album... But in some ways I think it works best when it comes from an actual song - an idea that Pat had or whatever - it's much more focused. The mood and atmosphere of the music goes from the lyrics..."

me - " Does it all mean something to all you even if you weren't the one who wrote it ?"

him - " Wrote the lyrics ? Oh yeah, definitely. ( thinks about it ) And also, when you write a song, there's a set of chords and a vocal line and the melody line and the lyric - which is a lot - but it's all the little bits and the tunes that you bring out. So everyone writes their own part..."

Helen - " Is there anything you're really embarrassed that you've done."

him - " If there was I wouldn't tell you. ( shyly ) Maybe."

me - " So is there anything you deliberately haven't played for a long time now ?"

him - " Yeah, but we're an old band now, we've got a ridiculously big back catalogue. Like we've got over thirty songs rehearsed for this tour, ready to play live, but we can only do about twelve a night."

me - " Mmm, it was mostly the new stuff. Is that where you're looking to ?"

him - " Well yeah, definitely. Well we've got a new album out, and that's why we're touring..."

PLUG TIME READERS - IT'S CALLED 'STRANGELOVE', AND IT'S BY, YUP, STRANGELOVE.

>>> Part 2

Last revised: 26/07/01