Interview taken from HermAphrodite #6?

Yeah, yeah. Hotly tipped. Britain's brightest young things. Overwhelming critical acclaim. Media feeding-frenzy. Swooping epics overladen with fearsome passion. Oh, and probably some bad puns about the 'largin' it' lead singer.

But never anything about the people...

So whaddaya wanna know ???

Welcome to Ultrasound.

Their lead singer is called Andy, but in an ironic move worthy of Robin Hood ( 'why, hello there John Little... or should I say, Little John... ARF' ), Andy is mostly known by the nickname of Tiny.

Their bass player made a fool of herself in front of Eddie Izzard at the Brat Awards. ( Something about being Northern. And eating pies. I think. )

Their lead singer was once, at the Arena in Middlesbrough, many many moons ago, to see a band whom fatured a lead singer who left the stage to worship at the feet of his crowd. And to worship Tiny’s pink Docs. ( Cool. )

They have the best press photos in the world.

Tiny, in true Nicky Wire style-ee, misses his TV whilst on tour.

The listening choices of the tourbus are dictated by Tiny and Richard.

No pants have, as yet, been hurled at the band.

Tiny is, essentially, a music history mastermind in the vein of Jyoti Mishra [White Town] and Jarvis Cocker [Pulp]. And he feels that setting up a period estate agency - so as you could buy a house in whatever time you wished - would be an excellent plan, possibly for his retirement.

And of the 5 in the band - and this is very freaky ( to me alone, essentially ) - two really look like my friends.

And Richard actually really sounds like Gaz too. AAAARgh.

When I spoke to the band, their first single for Nude Records was very nearly upon us, only two more days of living in the state of ‘soon-to-be-released but still getting-lots-of-airplay’ .

( Live, they actually do come onto 'Best Wishes' as their intro track because that way they get out of playing it... ) And Ultrasound are in a very strange 'almost' position. They have the trappings of superstarrs - nice tour-bus, nice hotel rooms, nice riders, accompanied by media appreciation and a fair number of ‘on the ball’ music-fans. Yet they're only on their second single, only on a tour of the smaller venues of the country, only really pushed on a national scale by indie-evening- Radio1. They aren't yet able to be dictatorial about the contents of their rider. They can't yet destroy things ( hotel rooms, equipment ) without getting into serious trouble. They don't yet have the full stage-SHOW that they would like to.

But they can see it all coming closer.

Richard - " We really enjoy it but we've been on the road for about three weeks now, and the colds are starting to kick in."

Perhaps because they're still in this in-between stage, the band themselves appear fairly untainted as yet as to the rock'n'roll lifestyle. Fairly.

Richard - " I've woken up with my trainers and me coat on..."

me - "And anything else ?"

Richard - " Oh yeah ( giggles begin around the room ), I had on everything else..."

me - " Have you ever woken up in the wrong city ?"

Richard - " I did actually, I woke up in Seven Oaks, and I was supposed to be in London."

Tiny - " Vanessa keeps thinking it's Sheffield, wherever we are."

They aren’t either, as yet, ‘hanging’ with any pop-starr types...

me - "Who’s the coolest person that you've met ?"

Richard - "Our tour manager, Pete Thompson."

Eleanor - "Aaw."

Richard - "He just gets everything sorted."

Tiny - "It's quite difficult meeting people you have so much respect for..."

Which is why he's run away from Suede before.

me - "You have to be as important to them as they are to you, or it's not worth it..."

Richard - "You get too star-struck; it's really frightening, even catching a glimpse of someone..."

Though, um, not Richard Branson.

Whom genuinely DID kiss Vanessa's bottom, by the way.

Richard - " He got down on his hands and knees..."

And somewhere in the world there are pictures floating about of that.

Richard - " Andy [ Tiny ] was pulling at his beard as well at one point."

A tickling kind of action.

Once they can afford to, they'll be breaking more stuff in their hotel room. Heh-heh.

Tiny - "The first time that Richard started behaving badly, he was basically just jumping up and down on the bed. And Vanessa's going 'no, no, you'll break it, people'll start complaining, stop it...' so he says 'right, let's chuck something out of the window !'. And she's like 'no, no, you can't do that'. And he wants to chuck the telly out. But she's like 'no, no, you can't do that, they'll be really annoyed with us' so he knows he's gotta chuck something out, and he goes for the pillow. And Vanessa's like 'no, they'll know it was us, they'll charge us for it'... so it's a bit difficult to be rock'n'roll when she's around. She's like our conscience."

me - "Well you could chuck the soaps out..."

Tiny - " I think that the best thing to do would be to buy loads of second hand tellys, keep them in the back of the van, and leave one in every hotel room..."

Because of the freak potential of such an action...

How perversely rock'n'roll...

Later, we learn that Vanessa, as well as being the sensible one with regards to not losing anything ( whether inanimate objects or yourselves ) from hotel windows, is also the one with the good advice and the urges to look after your health, etc.

Eleanor - "So she's the mum then ?"

Tiny - "Yeah, I s'pose so."

Vanessa ( hollering from around the corner ) - " More of a big sister."

But they're all in the same band...

I ask whether they have a world plan, a set itinerary of things which they want to achieve.

Tiny - "It's very difficult to actually put into words what your aim is, I tried it the other day and it sounded so fucking naff I’m just not going to repeat it."

Richard - " Just say it !"

Tiny - " I can't... You just imagine like a Miss World competition, and they go 'What's your ambition', and they all say 'I want world peace'..."

( Richard - I want to sky-dive..." )

Tiny - "...it sounds shit."

He doesn't want to throw out soundbite sentiments in case they turn to cheese - I think that that was what he was trying to to say. But at the same time there is this underlying idea that they can use their music as a tool to unite. Tiny knows the power of music, the force which it can have. It's almost as though the 'wilderness [ sellotape on nipples ] years' have been an internship in learning that fact. He hasn't lost his passion for music. Which is why he's still buying music. Still talking music. Still making music.

Tiny - "Music is more powerful than anything. And that is my aim. To get music to be that powerful."

Which is where their song 'Same Band' comes in.

We're all of us in the same band with them.

Which is why Tiny will will stand arms outstretched when onstage.

I asked after whether he was, with that, hugging us or for us to hug him.

Hugging us. Indubitably.

me - " So what do you want out of 1998 ? Not just 'by the end of the year we shall have had three Top 10 singles, metChris Evans and have been on Top Of The Pops' ?"

Richard - "No not at all no, that's just the things that happen to get you there. Like Tiny's saying, it's using the power of music to try and do your bit of... ( searches for the right words ) good for the world."

Tiny - " You look at Jimi Hendrix, now. It doesn't matter what he did in his life; what parties he went to, who he knew... what matters is the music. And that is still living."

And are they now fully fledged darlings of the London scene ? Gadding about with new-found pop-starr friends ? Frequenting all the best parties ?

Uh... no.

Richard - "We try and avoid them really."

Tiny - "We went to the Radiohead one, and we were put in this dingy little bar area, and it was full of liggers just hanging about, trying to be seen. We stayed there for about five minutes, and then were like 'aaah, let's get out', but it took us ages to get out, and while we were trying Siouxsie and the Banshees walked past, and then we were like 'AAARGH.' Fuckin' nightmare."

Even for the Brat Awards thing, they only made a brief appearance.

Tiny - " I went for the ceremony, and then I went home."

They aren't ( yet ) bent on using & abusing their new found acclaim / popularity. Tiny knows that the folks that matter probably won't be going to these sorts of parties. They'll have better stuff to do.

Ultrasound are not set to become media whores then. Gossip column tarts.

They don't mind the excitement generated around them at the moment, who would, but they’re not set to court it. We won't be seeing them in the Public NME column each week, is what I'm trying to say. Probably.

Eleanor - " We won't be seeing you in 'Hello!' then ?"

( giggles )

Richard - " I doubt it."

Tiny - " The songs themselves are the things that have got us where we are - not us."

Last revised: 26/07/01