Sinister: WE ARE NOT INTELLECTUALS, WE WANT TO BE ON TV, EH WHO'S SPEARMINT?!

Elisabeth Zachariassen elisabeth_z at xxx.com
Sat May 13 12:39:17 BST 2000 

hi,

I never write but some might remember me from those
early picnics....ahhhh those were the days.

I have translated this interview for someone else so I
thought I might just as well send it to you as a
response to the selling out debate.
The interview also had a nice picture of mr jackson
and his (?) drawings of the other band members, and
featured in the cultural supplement of one of Norway’s
biggest newspapers. 
I guess Stevie would have made the cover if Motorhead
hadn't released a new album as well and a lovely
picture of Lemmy is on the cover. Urgh!

Please overlook the spelling and basically the
language,-)


It’s not true that B&S play with their backs to the
audience, nor that they are so bloody intellectual,
nor that they never do interviews, here is one for
example;

SHYNESS AND HONESTY

“I am going to be completely honest with you. I am
only doing this interview because I like flying. I am
also able to go places I’ve never been before. Saying
yes to doing this interview with you, not that I mind,
gave me the opportunity to fly to Norway and explore
Oslo. After this interview I’m going out in the city
with my girlfriend.”

B&S’ guitarist SJ is sitting with his legs femininely
crossed in a darkly lit room at a record company on
Karl Johan. He’s got pale Scottish complexion and
black clothes. He has let us interview him and that is
supposed to be a rarity, we are supposed to be
grateful. They sure are weird these Scots, they rarely
play gigs and when they do they play with their backs
to the audience, and the singer Stuart doesn’t talk to
anyone and they are all really well-read and
intellectual and they refuse to be on telly.
“No no no, nothing of this is true” Stevie carefully
shakes his head. He blushes. Excuses himself. He
doesn’t mind journalists. It’s just that they write so
many things that aren’t true.
“Firstly we do not play with our backs to the
audience. Its not like we jump around or anything but
we do not play with our backs turned!
When it comes to this thing about intelligence I am
definitely not an intellectual. I did go to college
for a while, but that’s a long time ago. Stuart is
maybe the only one who went, I’m not sure.
 That’s one in seven, which doesn’t exactly make B&S
an intellectual band. And when the British press wrote
that we didn’t want to perform on the Top of the Pops
then

.”
Pause
-Then?
“Then they were completely wrong. We would have loved
to be on TOTP! I can’t understand where they got that
from. “The band who refused to play on TOTP” it said.
And with those headlines of course no one ever asks us
to do TV. WE WANT TO BE ON TV!
We want our music to get into the charts, that’s our
goal. And then I read in a mag that our new single
“Legal man” is our first attempt at being mainstream.
What nonsense!”
-Why?
“Why!”
Pause.
“What is it people think we are doing? Do people
really think that we make music that we only want a
few to like? That we ask our record company to
withdraw all our records when we have passed 4000
sold? I can’t understand that people are disappointed
when we say that we want to make hits.”
-How does these myths come about if nothing of it is
true?
“I don’t know, we don’t set out to make myths. We
don’t play many gigs and we don’t give many
interviews. That’s just the way we are.”

The Scots have made their 4th album “fold your
hands
.”and it sounds like their former albums.
Minimalistic, vulnerable and acoustic. 
“We haven’t changed,» says Stevie.
There are quite a few expectations from your audience,
like here in Norway for example.
«Why? Are we big here?”
-You were no 7 in the album charts with your last
album.
“Really? Wow. What do you think people are expecting
from us then? We would like to give people what they
want, we wouldn’t like to disappoint anyone. We are
going to do our best, but we’re not people to run
around to fans and papers and scream “PLEASE LOVE US!”
-No you’re not.
“We are just trying to be honest with ourselves.
-Yes, you are.
“It’s not like we try to keep up with the new musical
trends. Yesterday someone asked me what I thought of
Spearmint.
Spearmint!
He thought it was incredible that I hadn’t heard about
them. Have you heard about Spearmint?”
-No
“ Thank God! I thought it was just me!”
-What do you listen to?
“ I like pop. And musicals. When I’m drunk I like to
do a couple of songs from “Guys & Dolls” and “West
Side Story”. And I like Madonna. And Miles Davies. And
the Beatles. So I am not really down with the latest
trends.
-No?
“No. We are just ordinary people that live in Glasgow.
We don’t hang out in the party crowd in London. We go
in the studio, make records and when we are finished
we go home again”



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