Interview taken from HermAphrodite #3?

In 1998, a film will be upon us. A film named after a Bowie B-side. A film taking as its base the ‘glam’ years of rock music, using the starrs of the Nineties to portray fictional representations of real ones from the Seventies. A film directed by Todd Haines, and produced by Michael Stipe ( who owns a ‘fil-im company’). Even the soundtrack, featuring Placebo’s cover of ‘Twentieth Century Boy’ and Radiohead doing Brian Eno is looking... promising. So will ‘Velvet Goldmine’ be worth the wait ?

Um, yeah. It’s a film with Eddie Izzard, Brian Molko, and PB Jnr...

PB - “ And Ewan McGregor...”

It’s going to be nice...

PB - “ I play like a Brian Ferry character, Brian Molko plays like a New York Dolls type - I actually didn’t see him on the day he was fil-im-in, but he said he wore an awful lot of make-up. Ewan McGregor plays Iggy Pop, Eddie Izzard is David Bowie’s manager in it, and then Toni Colette from ‘Muriel’s Wedding’ plays Angie Bowie - she’s really cool.”

Becca - “ Is it good ?”

PB - “ Yeah ! Yeah, it’s going to look really good.”

me - “ What have you been wearing ?”

PB - “ I was wearing lots of make-up, a little pencil moustache - my hair slicked back sort of Forties style, and a white satin tail suit, with a white satin dicky-bow. And then everybody else is dressed in big platform boots... It’ll look really glam...”

Becca - “ Did you enjoy it ?”

PB - “ Yeah! Very much.”

Becca - “ Who approached you for it, why did he think of you ?”

PB - “ It was supposed to be Roland Gift from the Fine Young Cannibals, and he dropped out for some apparent reason, so in desperation they rang our publishers ( Becca - “ Aaw...” )

so I said yes to it. I’m not really acting in it - I mime a Roxy music song. It’s a very small part - you’ll see me and then you won’t see me... But it was good you know, it was the first thing I’ve done, and hopefully I’ll get a few more from that...”

From his first stage role - Peter Pan in junior school - Peter has always known he wanted to be performing.

When asked what he would be doing if he weren’t singing, he comes unstuck for a moment. I don’t really think it was ever a considered eventuality.

PB - “ I’ve never considered myself a part of the ‘normal world’, so I guess I would always be doing something creative. ”

This is what he loves to do.

PB - “ To be onstage is my ultimate perfect delight. I think there’s probably a subconscious schizophrenia there which makes me not give a fuck, whereas generally when I’m in company with people I’ve never met before I’m more paranoid and shy than I would be when I’m onstage.”

And, just like Brian Molko, Peter takes putting on his make-up as his pre-gig ritual. They both seem to use it as a way of getting into his stage-role/self.

Though he was wearing make-up when he spoke to us. And that was day-time.

His onstage physical self is little different from the daytime PB Jnr.

PB - “ I do dress up to go grocery shopping, it’s not something specific I do to go onstage...”

When we spoke to him, he was still in his chunky silver rings, and kohl liner. As a child, he and his brother used to try on their mother’s make-up and clothing. The alien-head gold skirt Peter is wearing in their press photos was being worn and admired ( by The Pecadiloes as well as us - from ‘Adhoc’ in Kensington if you’re interested... ). He’s the first male artist I’ve found who changes out of the skirt to go onstage. And when questioned of his ‘image’ - Becca wanted to know whether he thought people ‘related’ to him asa result of it - he answered that;

PB - “ Um - probably my image is a dis-relation to a lot of people. It’s nothing that we’ve sat down and constructed... I’ve always had a fascination with playing with myself; it’s physical. Masturbating with costume.”

And he does it, because he wants to. Simple.

When ‘Becca asked whether he had ever been possessed, with a thought or an idea... she was told; “Possessed with my own determination... of what I want to be.”

Becca - “ Which is?”

PB - “ To be able to be in Subcircus, and to be perceived as a really special band. To be pushing the boundaries in areas where other bands don’t push.

Musical and physical boundaries.

When Peter was ickle, ickler than he is now, he was signed to Polydor as a solo-recording artist. As; “ I hadn’t found the right people to collaborate with at that point.”

Becca - “ So what sort of stuff were you doing on your own ?”

PB - “ Different to Subcircus, I mean I was a lot younger... seventeen, eighteen. It was probably a lot more ‘pop’ than Subcircus is. It wasn’t until we found Subcircus that we found the realisation of ourselves complete; we all feel that...”

Becca - “ You have to feel physically and emotionally full...?”

PB - “ Yeah. And to have some people around in the band that you get along with too cos that’s important. I mean moments of friction are inevitable when you do lots of gigs, but we are generally pretty in love with each other... I mean, should any of us not be there it would be a different band, we wouldn’t be able to call it Subcircus.”

In saying this Peter was probably thinking specifically of Nikolaj - Subcircus had been set to do this tour at the beginning of May, but cancelled when their guitarist was struck with viral meningitis. Now he’s fully recovered, appears far healthier ( apparently ) and has shaved his beard off. He has even been affectionately dubbed ‘Sporty Spice’. but I think he really worried them for a time. Subcircus is the sum of its parts, and all four need to be looked after.

PB - “ We do put it across like a band, and we are very much a ‘band’ in that sense - if one of us is having a bad gig then it affects us all; it is noticeable cos we play off each other an awful lot.”

Which is lovely.

Peter spends his time off from the band “ with my wife, and my friends. and then when I’ve got time off from everybody I go for walks on my own.”

But does socialise with the band. ( Yeah, Becca, and with nature. )

PB - “ We are the best of friends, we do really enjoy each other’s company.”

And this is agreed on by the rest of the band.

When I asked Sir George of his musical taste, I was told that “ Nikolaj hates things that I like and I hate things that Nikolaj likes. ( pauses ) No, I’m just exaggerating cos it sounds good... if people have got records that they like then usually other members of the band will like it, to a certain extent.”

( And if you’re interested, on that day they were all happily listening, in the van, to their Visual Man’s’ “60’s R’n’B and Psychedelia compilation tape... which is excellent...” )

And none of them will reveal the others’ bad habits, Nikolaj, resolutely immovable on this, tells us firmly that “ if we have bad habits then we change them to something good, and call them good habits.”

Is there anything more you should know of Subcircus? Well, yes. Before everyone disappeared to sound-check, there was one more question which needed to be asked of Sir George and Nikolaj.

me - “ If you were going to be a mythological creature, or cartoon character, who would you be ?”

Nikolaj - “ I don’t know who I would be. But I tell you if I had to be the voice of a cartoon character I’d be Donald Duck’s friend, whatsisname, the cow...”

Becca - “ The cow ?”

Much time is then spent pondering this, where exactly the cow came into Donald Duck catoons, and suggesting possible cow type names for this ( seemingly mythological ) creature. But it doesn’t really make for interesting reading. So we’ll just move straight on to the productive part of the conversation.

Nikolaj ( helpfully ) - “ He doesn’t really look like a cow but I’m sure he is a cow.”

Becca - “ The cow...”

And somehow that prompts me to ask whether the one he means is “ the big dog with a hat that talks...”

Becca - “ But that’s Goofy.”

Nikolaj - “ Ah, that’s Goofy that I mean, he’s definitely a cow. A mad cow.”

YES ! Finally...And so the cow identity problem is solved.

And also the ‘what IS Goofy’ question, which has been irritating me for approximately seven years, where I first started thinking that if Pluto was a dog - Mickey’s pet dog, WHO DOES NOT SPEAK, who has a collar and is taken for walks and everything - then what did that make Goofy, one time fireman, who wears a hat and drives a car...?

A cow! Thankyou...

( Oh and incidentally, Cathy Dennis fancies Goofy. I don’t know why. But it looks like Nikolaj could be in with a chance there...)

Nikolaj - “ Have you seen Goofy’s girlfriend - sometimes she’s there and sometimes she’s not...”

me - “ Goofy’s got a girlfriend?”

Nikolaj - “ Yeah, and she’s definitely a cow.”

Becca - “ Can he get a girlfriend?”

Evidently.

me - “ And how about you...?”

Sir George - “ I’d be one of those 3 baby ducks - Huey Dooey or Looey - cos they’re annoying...”

Nikolaj - “ No you wouldn’t.”

Sir George - “ Alright then, I’d be Donald Duck.”

Nikolaj - “ You’d be his uncle...”

Becca - “ Scrooge McDuck.”

Sir George - “ Yeah, I’d be his crabby old uncle...”

me - “ And what about everybody else, seeing as they’re not here...”

Sir George - “ Thomas would be Donald Duck.”

Nikolaj - “ Would he ? No, he’d be his cousin...”

Becca - “ Why would he be a duck? Cos he gets very annoyed?”

Sir George - “ Thomas? He’s got a bit of a temper.”

Becca - “ But does he have a bit of a fetish for ducks?”

me - “ But you wouldn’t have a fetish for ducks if you were one...”

Sir George - “ Yeah, you’d have a fetish for other ducks. Lady ducks...”

Nikolaj - “ Peter would be Daisy the Duck.”

Becca - “ Peter would be Daisy ? You’re all like a big duck family !”

Nikolaj - “ No, I’m a cow...”

Though he can ( and, unprompted, does ) do excellent duck impressions. ( A phonetic ‘quack’ for your benefit dear reader. )

Becca tries to persuade him to do that onstage and is told; “ Well that’s our sound, you’ve obviously never seen us... But I’m the cow, so I can’t do that.”

It all now gets confusing, as some of us thought that Daisy was the cow Nikolaj was going out with.

Sir George ( resignedly ) - “ I certainly would not pass my GCSE Donald Duck...”

Becca ( closest to understanding of the lot of us ) - “ Daisy the Duck is going out with Donald Duck. So who’s Donald ?”

Nikolaj - “ I don’t know, he’s not one of ours...”

One cow, 3 ducks.

And some beautiful soaring tunes.

That’s Subcircus.

Last revised: 26/07/01