Interview taken from HermAphrodite #4?

I tell Nick the evening's set was like a show. And that makes him happy.

him - " Yeah, I really believe in that. One of the things I most like about the band is that it does seem like a show. But it's not like showbiz - it's just that we're not afraid of being quite theatrical."

me - " I can see that..."

him - " We're not the kind of band that gets up onstage and looks embarrassed to be there."

That could be one reason why they love Drugstore so much. Cos Isabel is having such obvious fun.

When I asked Nick if there was anyone that the band would want to be covered by, I was told with absolute surety;

him - " Drugstore. They're brilliant."

me - " Is this the first time you've been out with them ?"

him - " Yeah. And they're fantastic. I really like them. And I like their music too."

Isabel seems to fill the stage - and despite her stature ( she's just such a happy pixie ) commands the attention of the whole room.

Characteristics of the band which they share with their headliners...

him - " Yeah, I like the gestures onstage, particularly when we're playing bigger places ( looking round ) though it's fun playing places like this. It's just that when you're on at the Astoria you can't just get up there and only stare at your shoes. ( pauses ) Well you can, but if you do you become part of a fairly short-lived musical phenomenon."

And Nick personally wouldn't want them to play anywhere bigger than the Academy in London. He likes to be a able to actually see the audience. ( Particularly as, as he said, the band do kind of feed off the audience's attention. )

him - " Another thing I think we succeed in doing is connecting quite directly with the audience; if it's 'figures in the distance' we...( searches for the right word... ) get bored. ( grins ) So I can't really see us at Wembley Arena... Though it is a bit of a hypothetical question, isn't it...?"

Well no, not really.

I explain my now seeing Patrick as being a true rock-god in the old style. The one who demands your attention and applause from the moment he steps onstage...

him - " Yeah. Pat's a rock God."

And that's that.

Though Strangelove are probably not going to want, as a collective, to become rock-giants in that kind of a way.

Or to do stadium rock.

him - " I consider the intimacy of our gigs really important. So as long as that was still there, I'm into any other form of stage excitement you could have..."

( Which answered my question about the possibility of giant flying pigs...)

me - " Is there a limit as to how may more people you'd want up there with you - I mean, would you want an orchestra behind you ?"

him - " Well I can't speak for everyone, but I don't think we'd take anyone else on tour with us. We've used a string quartet a couple of times, and that's really nice. But it's getting a bit trendy now."

Helen points out that My Life Story started it all off.

Luckily ( for the interview, and the future of Strangelove with regards to keyboards, Nick likes the band. Else Helen would have had his eyes. And heart. And liver... )

him - " I know that lot really well, they're a really brilliant band."

( Definitely the right thing to say. )

him - " I've just done a theatre show with their violinist, Lucy... about a bunch of people in their late twenties who've known each other for a long time, and it's just about the way the relationships they have with each other starts to fall apart. And it's got a weird time structure..."

PLUG TIME # 2 - IT'S CALLED 'TIMELESS', WAS AWARDED THE 'CRITICS CHOICE' AT

THIS YEAR'S EDINBURGH FESTIVAL, AND CAN BE SEEN AT THE DONMAR WAREHOUSE BY THE 'SUSPECT CULTURE THEATRE COMPANY' ( ???) IN MARCH.

(This hint is now, sadly, out of date. By ooh, two and a half years. But if it ever comes around again…)

And what can we conclude from this...?

That Nick is very clever.

And that he has showbz friends...

Though the band would are not inclined towards having anyone guesting with them onstage.

him - " No. ( grins ) We don't need anyone else."

Though miscellaneous members of Suede have popped up on their records before.

I think they're confident enough in their selves not to need to overstate any rock-starr connections - they actually do seem to shy from that all now.

Strangelove do now know that being adopted and promoted by another band can be as irritating as it can beneficial.

You receive more exposure, but at the same time, set up indelible connotations in the minds of the public between your mentor band and yourselves.

him - " The whole thing is a bit of a thorn in the side sometimes. If you get a band who are really successful name-checking you then that is good - it's really nice - but you then find that everything that's ever written about you mentions these other bands. And you don't sound like them."

The board outside the building that evening had the usual two line introductory description that most bands get. Dubbing Strangelove ' the band who inspired Radiohead'.

And Nick is not happy with it. The band collectively hide from references like that.

( Which makes me feel ever so slightly guilty about attempting to describe them to people ( as an incentive to come with me ) over the last week as sounding like a 'fractured Suede'. )

him - " On our press release there's a quote from Ed from Radiohead, which is really nice quote and all that, but if people buy the Strangelove album because they think it's going to sound like Radiohead, then they're not going to like it. It works against you."

'That' quote which he mentioned could well be the one from the July Select ( the one with Thom Yorke on the front cover ). The journalist interviewing Radiohead referred to Strangelove as a band which fitted into the category of being 'post-Bends'

- 'Gothic-rock guitar heroes, and contenders for 'most underrated band in UK prize.'

To which Ed O'Brien replied

- 'Ah, well, in this case, Radiohead are definitely post-Strangelove - we toured with them for 'Pop Is Dead' and we changed quite a lot after that. They were inspirational. Apart from their trousers. Patrick had an awful pair of baggie trackie bottoms.'

Though I'm sure he never went onstage in them.

The style of the band appears awfully important to them. 'Skinny boys in Farrah-slacks' as they've been touted, following Patrick's debut modelling appearance.

When Helen asks who the most vain member of the band is, he starts laughing.

Helen - " It's not you ?"

him - " Certainly not me. ( giggles ) Oh, we're all vain in our own peculiar ways."

me - " So how long is spent on hair, before you all go on ?"

him - "Actually I don't do my hair... I think you'll have to speak to Pat about that one, I think he does a MAJOR hair-routine. But Pat's hair looks good, it's worth spending time on."

Helen - " Who's the one with the big hair ?"

him - " Jazza - Julian. Yeah. He's got big hair, but it's pretty low maintenance. He just doesn't wash it."

me - " It was cool, because with the lighting behind it it was all kind of glowing."

him - " Yeah - it's a bit of an 'Eraserhead'..."

But that's said in an affectionate way.

Of course.

The band's current favourite methods of entertaining themselves as they tour - as the video on the bus is broken, as id the stereo - is to insult each other.

him - " That passes the time."

And when I asked if the band see each other out of context, if they all 'hang' together when they're not working, Nick explained that;

him - " We're not like The Monkees, we don't live in the same house. And we've all definitely got lives outside of the band. Actually, in general we don't see that much of each other outside of the band - but then we ‘do’ the band a lot. So it's just good to get a break. Though everyone does get on really really well."

Yup.

Inquiring of pre-gig rituals, I was told that;

him - " We give each other a little hug before we go onstage, to wish each other good luck."

Aaw.

Oh sod it, they must get on well.

He refused to divulge any of their dirty habits.

Or even admit that they had any...

him - " We don't have time for dirty habits, we all have our personal valets, so we don't leave socks anywhere..."

They do apparently have a 'full staff' touring with them.

And a 'silver service dinner' every evening.

I think that maybe there's just something about that corner of Fibbers that makes whoever I'm talking to turn into a lying toad... ( This's happened before. The drummer from the Beekeepers had managed - in that very spot - to get me believing that he was actually the son of hippy parents and so was genuinely called Tree. )

(Photo by Rob Grierson.)

me - " Do you co-ordinate what you're wearing before you go on ? Has there ever been an occasion when you've clashed ?"

him - " Well as part of the team we've each got a valet. But there's also an overall clothing co-ordinator. You probably saw it - there's a juggernaut out the back with our wardrobe... And what they do in there, they have a little virtual reality simulation of the stage, and computer-generated images of each of us, and we try out different outfits on, on screen, every night. To go with the decor of the club or whatever, we can actually match ourselves up, with shirts, trousers or whatever... And we discuss it. And then come to some sort of joint decision."

And that is - bemusedly - the essence of the band.

Everything is mutual.

Nick didn't 'end up' doing the interview with us because he drew the short-straw or because he's the chattiest, but more because it was his turn to.

Most people want to interview Patrick, if they want Strangelove.

him - "It starts to get him down a bit. So we spread it out. And it is a band."

So then, Strangelove.

A band with a lust for life.

And positively no dirty habits…

Last revised: 26/07/01