Welcome back to chriswasanon - someone still thinks that we defy and posted as much over at Jack's shack...I told 'er I said well blah blah blah I said and er I'll leave it at that!
Gossip news:
None cos to gossip is to validate.
Please make sure that you have Steve Jones in your top 8 - if you have a top 8 - as to not leaves you open wiiiiiiiiiiiide open to having your profile scrutinised.
After scrutiny comes judgement. Not to have Steve Jones in your top 8 is mutiny and the plank awaiteth. He will delete you from his friends.
Other news, we are planning on knocking out some more transcriptions Mclaren, Cook and Scabies convos with Steve Jones on Indie 103.1 will get the teasing Teresa treatment here and be winged in a full format over to www.cookandjones.co.uk. Karl's excellent Anarchy in Sweden site gave us a big up too. Thanks Karl!!!! Check my links for Svenska punk rock!
Keep coming back.
Chriswasanon
Steppin' up well I like this Timothy Leary song Flora, what do you think?
Agreed Flora.
______________
Humpty Dumpty is on deck...
floratina
Friday, April 07, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
April 4, 2006 A bit with Stewart Copeland - and Steve's Luxurious Hair!
Tina here. I transcribed a slice of this interaction and can't help but insert a bit of a kvetch!
It was difficult to for me to listen to Mr. Copeland when it came to his impressions about The Pistols. He asked Steve whose idea it was to adopt the angry stance, the look, etc. These kinds of questions you'd expect from someone who is removed from the scene, like Paul Anka maybe, but not from someone like Stewart Copeland, who was "there" at the time. He was still apparently under the impression that The Pistols were engineered like The Monkees or something. For example, Steve had to tell him that John was already ‘like that’, with the hair and safety pins, etc., and this was a surprise to Copeland! It was all organic, Stew. What was this guy doing back then and since, that these basic facts about the group and how it began have eluded him?
Okay, climbing down from the crate now...
Hey, I just heard a radio commercial for Virgin Atlantic featuring Mr. Jones. It wasn't on a rock station or even a music station at all - it was conservative talk radio! I was confused by this momentarily, lost my bearings. What? Where am I? Oh yes, it was good, by the way.
We pick up the interview as Stewart is summing up the punk scene as he saw it….
Stewart: …it was still the same E, A and D chords but the hairdo was different and the attitude was different. And these youngsters kind of kicked down the door of the music industry which was locked at the time. Even for old wavers like myself. It was locked. Uh, until the rules all changed and a new scene rose up where bands could work for themselves and for thirty quid actually take home…fifty, instead of the record company getting it. So, with that start, of course in England, we were slagged off immediately, we were spotted as carpetbaggers and interlopers um, flying under a flag of convenience. But, in America, they didn’t care about all that.
Steve: Right.
Stewart: We just took it, club by club, city by city.
Steve: Did you, did you feel like that, that you were getting on some bandwagon?
Stewart: Oh, yeah. It was completely Machiavellian at first. (Steve laughs) I mean, it was a good band, I mean, I was twenty-two and everyone else in the punk scene was seventeen. How old are you guys? How old were the Sex Pistols in 1976?
Steve: I’m fifty now.
Stewart: Fifty now. I’m four years older than you and so you must have been eighteen.
Steve: Eighteen, nineteen, yeah.
Stewart: Let me ask you. Did you ever have long hair?
Steve: Uh, not…
Stewart: Ever? You do now…
Steve: Uh, yeah, later. No, later I did, in the Eighties I had really long hair.
Stewart: No, but before the Pistols, did you have…were you ever like, you know, into uh…
Steve: I actually had a period when I was about fifteen, sixteen where I did everything. I was a skinhead, mod, grease, I did it all.
Stewart: Yeah. So at some point, the barnet came off.
Steve: Oh, yeah.
Stewart: And was that like, an image decision or, “that’ll be, hey, guys – cool idea. Let’s look different from the hippies and cut our hair off.” Was that like a decision, or it just happened one day.
Steve: No, no, no. Yeah, I don’t, see, I don’t have a punk hairdo. I don’t have punk hair. I had the thickest hair. I looked like, my hair’s like John Travolta.
Stewart: Yeah.
Steve: It’s all poncified.
Stewart: Well, you looked kind of…yeah, you’ve got that same kind of slick kind of deal going now. You’ve grown into it.
Steve: (laughs) No, it’s…it’s thinned out now. It’s thinned out but it used to be really thick. If you look at any early Pistol pictures, I look like a hairdresser.
Stewart: What, you’d need like a haircut every three days to keep you punk.
Steve: I wish I’d have had the product that they have, back then. Now, back then.
Stewart: What was that?
Steve: Well, they got all this new gear. You can straighten it , you can do anything. Back then, you just you know, either you had thin hair and it looked good when you cut it short and spiky, or you was unsuccessful like me, who just had this thick barnet.
Stewart: Yeah, yeah, but you were a Pistol, so you’re all right.
Steve: I’ve still got it, that’s all I care about. Them ones who put Brylcreem in their hair, they’re bald now.
Stewart: Well, after you guys opened the door, actually blew it away, the first ones through it were bands like The Police.
Steve: Right.
Stewart: Because we actually had the tunes and we could actually play. (Steve laughs) But you and Paul, actually were pretty serious players. You had kind of a joke bass player, he was kind of a image and stuff, and Johnny…well, he was Johnny. He definitely reinvented how you sing a song.
Steve: Well actually Glen Matlock, the bass player, before…
Stewart: He was actually a real musician.
Steve: He could play, yeah.
Stewart: Yeah.
Steve: I’d only been playing three months before we did our first gig…
Stewart: Well, like a lot of the bands, like the Clash guys. I remember Paul Simonon was of your roadies, I think and thought to himself, looking at you up there, that “That looks easy”. It’s him and Strummer and the rest of them, they were all kind of like, new at it.
Steve: Strummer had been playing. He had, he had a R&B kind of rockabilly band, called, uh…
Mr. Shovel: (in background) The 101ers.
Steve: The 101ers and they had a song called, “Keys To Your Heart” and we opened for them at The Nashville. The next time I see him, he’s singing…
Stewart: You opened for The Clash? Oh, the 101ers.
Steve: The 101ers. This was when the pub thing was going on.
Stewart: Well, you guys hardly played any shows…
Steve: No.
Stewart: I mean, you didn’t have to.
Steve: Well, at first, we did a few.
Stewart: There was all the buzz about you know, “Have you seen The Sex Pistols”? “Well, no, actually…”
Steve: It was after, it was after…
Stewart: The ten people who had, which multiplies by like a hundred who claim they had.
Steve: It was after the Grundy thing is when we didn’t didn’t play. But we did, we did quite…about fifty shows before that.
Stewart: Really? That’s much more than I thought.
Steve: Yeah. (burp).
Stewart: The band that nobody actually…cos all the people who jumped in never actually saw The Pistols. We saw The Clash, we saw The Damned and The Stranglers and all the others. But The Pistols remained legendary.
Steve: Yes.
It was difficult to for me to listen to Mr. Copeland when it came to his impressions about The Pistols. He asked Steve whose idea it was to adopt the angry stance, the look, etc. These kinds of questions you'd expect from someone who is removed from the scene, like Paul Anka maybe, but not from someone like Stewart Copeland, who was "there" at the time. He was still apparently under the impression that The Pistols were engineered like The Monkees or something. For example, Steve had to tell him that John was already ‘like that’, with the hair and safety pins, etc., and this was a surprise to Copeland! It was all organic, Stew. What was this guy doing back then and since, that these basic facts about the group and how it began have eluded him?
Okay, climbing down from the crate now...
Hey, I just heard a radio commercial for Virgin Atlantic featuring Mr. Jones. It wasn't on a rock station or even a music station at all - it was conservative talk radio! I was confused by this momentarily, lost my bearings. What? Where am I? Oh yes, it was good, by the way.
We pick up the interview as Stewart is summing up the punk scene as he saw it….
Stewart: …it was still the same E, A and D chords but the hairdo was different and the attitude was different. And these youngsters kind of kicked down the door of the music industry which was locked at the time. Even for old wavers like myself. It was locked. Uh, until the rules all changed and a new scene rose up where bands could work for themselves and for thirty quid actually take home…fifty, instead of the record company getting it. So, with that start, of course in England, we were slagged off immediately, we were spotted as carpetbaggers and interlopers um, flying under a flag of convenience. But, in America, they didn’t care about all that.
Steve: Right.
Stewart: We just took it, club by club, city by city.
Steve: Did you, did you feel like that, that you were getting on some bandwagon?
Stewart: Oh, yeah. It was completely Machiavellian at first. (Steve laughs) I mean, it was a good band, I mean, I was twenty-two and everyone else in the punk scene was seventeen. How old are you guys? How old were the Sex Pistols in 1976?
Steve: I’m fifty now.
Stewart: Fifty now. I’m four years older than you and so you must have been eighteen.
Steve: Eighteen, nineteen, yeah.
Stewart: Let me ask you. Did you ever have long hair?
Steve: Uh, not…
Stewart: Ever? You do now…
Steve: Uh, yeah, later. No, later I did, in the Eighties I had really long hair.
Stewart: No, but before the Pistols, did you have…were you ever like, you know, into uh…
Steve: I actually had a period when I was about fifteen, sixteen where I did everything. I was a skinhead, mod, grease, I did it all.
Stewart: Yeah. So at some point, the barnet came off.
Steve: Oh, yeah.
Stewart: And was that like, an image decision or, “that’ll be, hey, guys – cool idea. Let’s look different from the hippies and cut our hair off.” Was that like a decision, or it just happened one day.
Steve: No, no, no. Yeah, I don’t, see, I don’t have a punk hairdo. I don’t have punk hair. I had the thickest hair. I looked like, my hair’s like John Travolta.
Stewart: Yeah.
Steve: It’s all poncified.
Stewart: Well, you looked kind of…yeah, you’ve got that same kind of slick kind of deal going now. You’ve grown into it.
Steve: (laughs) No, it’s…it’s thinned out now. It’s thinned out but it used to be really thick. If you look at any early Pistol pictures, I look like a hairdresser.
Stewart: What, you’d need like a haircut every three days to keep you punk.
Steve: I wish I’d have had the product that they have, back then. Now, back then.
Stewart: What was that?
Steve: Well, they got all this new gear. You can straighten it , you can do anything. Back then, you just you know, either you had thin hair and it looked good when you cut it short and spiky, or you was unsuccessful like me, who just had this thick barnet.
Stewart: Yeah, yeah, but you were a Pistol, so you’re all right.
Steve: I’ve still got it, that’s all I care about. Them ones who put Brylcreem in their hair, they’re bald now.
Stewart: Well, after you guys opened the door, actually blew it away, the first ones through it were bands like The Police.
Steve: Right.
Stewart: Because we actually had the tunes and we could actually play. (Steve laughs) But you and Paul, actually were pretty serious players. You had kind of a joke bass player, he was kind of a image and stuff, and Johnny…well, he was Johnny. He definitely reinvented how you sing a song.
Steve: Well actually Glen Matlock, the bass player, before…
Stewart: He was actually a real musician.
Steve: He could play, yeah.
Stewart: Yeah.
Steve: I’d only been playing three months before we did our first gig…
Stewart: Well, like a lot of the bands, like the Clash guys. I remember Paul Simonon was of your roadies, I think and thought to himself, looking at you up there, that “That looks easy”. It’s him and Strummer and the rest of them, they were all kind of like, new at it.
Steve: Strummer had been playing. He had, he had a R&B kind of rockabilly band, called, uh…
Mr. Shovel: (in background) The 101ers.
Steve: The 101ers and they had a song called, “Keys To Your Heart” and we opened for them at The Nashville. The next time I see him, he’s singing…
Stewart: You opened for The Clash? Oh, the 101ers.
Steve: The 101ers. This was when the pub thing was going on.
Stewart: Well, you guys hardly played any shows…
Steve: No.
Stewart: I mean, you didn’t have to.
Steve: Well, at first, we did a few.
Stewart: There was all the buzz about you know, “Have you seen The Sex Pistols”? “Well, no, actually…”
Steve: It was after, it was after…
Stewart: The ten people who had, which multiplies by like a hundred who claim they had.
Steve: It was after the Grundy thing is when we didn’t didn’t play. But we did, we did quite…about fifty shows before that.
Stewart: Really? That’s much more than I thought.
Steve: Yeah. (burp).
Stewart: The band that nobody actually…cos all the people who jumped in never actually saw The Pistols. We saw The Clash, we saw The Damned and The Stranglers and all the others. But The Pistols remained legendary.
Steve: Yes.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
April 3, 2006
Steve: You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031, with Andrew WK in the studio.
Andrew: Hi. So, Jonesy, I wanted to ask you. First, I want to say hello to you, not only as myself, Andrew, but on behalf of two friends of mine who are quite a bit older than me, on eof them is going to have his fiftieth birthday coming up in a week or so. His name is Tom Smith and he and his friend, another friend of mine, Don Fleming, who are both, again, in their…close to fifty. They saw the Sex Pistols and you play in Atlanta on that first tour and thinking about that, to me, that was before I was even born so it’s…it’s hard to me imagine. But what I really was curious um, to ask you was, was does that time, does that show, does that part of your life seem like a very long time ago? Does it…is it something you think about every day? Do you feel like it’s colored your experience to this day, as a person? Not just the show, but that time in general?
Steve: Yeah. Well, it seems like ages ago. It really does, I mean it was thirty years ago and it seems like thirty years ago. But more than anything else, it wasn’t great memories back then. Coming from England and that was the first time we came to America, like for me, America was so different than England. You know, it was, it was so bizarre. I thought it would be kind of similar, cos you can kind of speak the same language and everything. But it was so different, you know, with the big roads and….
Andrew: Was it the entire sensation of being in this place that was different? Was it the people? The way it looked? The way it felt? The way it smelled? Was it all these things or was it anything in particular?
Steve: Well, I always remember as a child, watching a lot of American shows. You know, “CHiPs” was one of my favorites. And I thought, “Wow. I’d love to go there. That looks fun!” All these birds on rollerskates at the beach and guys and cops who are like, with muscles and…you know, it weren’t like that in, in England. You know what I mean? And it just seemed like a different place, America, in all the TV shows I used to watch, like “The Fugitive” and, um, you know, everything on TV. There was always American shows and it was always like, intriguing and you think like, “America. Wow. It’s all big, everything’s big there.” And it was…and uh, but, but it was, as far as rock and roll goes, I mean, we would still be walking around in London, even though we were huge at the time. We didn’t have roadies. We had barely one roadie. I used to tune me own guitar and whatnot, you know. And then all of a sudden, we come to America and you’ve got all these guys wanting to do things, like…and Warner Brothers were, were um, because we got rejected the first time, with our visas, for whatever reason, cos all the hype, or whatever.
Andrew: They didn’t want you coming in the country cos you were dangerous, they thought.
Steve: Right. That’s what they thought, the press, whatever. So Warner Brothers had to uh, ensure the government that there would be no problem. So they hired all these guys, making sure there’s no trouble. So you had weird guys with walkie talkies. We had Vietnam vets who were like bouncers and it was bizarre. The whole thing was bizarre and it didn’t make sense to me, coming from little horse-and-cart land, you know what I mean? It was all kind of strange. But when you…the reason what I tapped on when you said, “Did it seem weird like, thirty years ago?” I mean, how long ago, how many years was Henry The Eighth? Five hundred years ago?
Andrew: Something. Five hundred and two.
Steve: That’s like, not long ago, is it? But it seems like it’s thousands of years ago.
Andrew: Sure.
Steve: You know what I mean?
Andrew: Yeah, well…that’s what I’m curious about is our perception of time. How long…why does five minutes seem like five minutes versus five hours? Or those times when you can make five minutes seem like five hours, or someone says, “Oh, the last fifteen minutes went on forever!” Or “Wow, those last two hours just flew by.”…
Steve: Well, I know one thing, the older you get, time flies quicker.
Andrew: It does go faster.
Steve: Yeah. Without a doubt.
Andrew: That’s what I hear more. Do you have any idea how we could make it feel like it was going slower?
Steve: I don’t want it to go slower.
Andrew: Oh yeah? You want to hurry up and go out?
Steve: Well, I don’t want to go out, but I like it when…cos when I was a kid, fifteen…I’d be walking around the streets of London looking at cars to break in, to steal things and, and shops to steal stuff out of, the day seemed it went on and on forever and I think what you’re talking about is, if you’re happy, I think time goes quicker. I’m a lot happier in my own skin now.
Andrew: It must be because, perhaps we spend less time thinking about what’s to come and less time concerned about what’s already happened…
Steve: Or what I’m gonna get out of the deal.
Andrew: And you’re just, you’re just in the midst of it, right? You’re caught in-between and that’s the state of much more happiness.
Steve: Yeah. It’s all about what’s going on in your head, innit? You can wake up and your outlook, what you see all depends on how you wake up, you know. Wake up in a good mood, things, you know, your whole outlook is good.
Andrew: We have that power. It’s hard to hone it. We wanted to talk about spirits.
Steve: Yes.
Andrew: You want to talk about that, still?
Steve: One more thing before we go to spirits. The trouble, I think with a lot of people, and I guess I am judging in way or, or…not preaching but, a lot of people get a distorted view of what’s going to make them happy. They think like, winning the lottery and having a hundred million dollars, or being better looking by having plastic surgery or getting the right TV show is gonna make them happy. That is a, that is a distorted view. That is not correct. That is completely not correct. And really, it sounds lame, but the only way you really are happy is if your healthy and you’re in touch with yourself.
Andrew: I agree.
Steve: Inside.
Andrew: Turning inward. Turning inward.
Steve: Yeah, exactly. Anything else on the outside is complete hogwash.
__________________
Andrew: Did you have times when you were younger when you felt the way you were describing before, that having a certain…that there was something you were looking forward to that was going to be the answer, that all happiness was going to come from this achievement…
Steve: Yeah, of course. Being famous, successful and have women you know, dropping at your beckon and call on their knees, you know? That was going to fix everything and it actually made things worse. Cos that didn’t work and that’s why, I think, another theory I have, is that bums don’t kill themselves. Rich people kill themselves, more than bums, you know? Because they get what they want and they’re so miserable and they don’t see anything else that’s gonna make them happy cos they, in their minds think they have everything. You know, and then they, they think the only way out is to shoot themselves or whatever, you know?
Andrew: Hi. So, Jonesy, I wanted to ask you. First, I want to say hello to you, not only as myself, Andrew, but on behalf of two friends of mine who are quite a bit older than me, on eof them is going to have his fiftieth birthday coming up in a week or so. His name is Tom Smith and he and his friend, another friend of mine, Don Fleming, who are both, again, in their…close to fifty. They saw the Sex Pistols and you play in Atlanta on that first tour and thinking about that, to me, that was before I was even born so it’s…it’s hard to me imagine. But what I really was curious um, to ask you was, was does that time, does that show, does that part of your life seem like a very long time ago? Does it…is it something you think about every day? Do you feel like it’s colored your experience to this day, as a person? Not just the show, but that time in general?
Steve: Yeah. Well, it seems like ages ago. It really does, I mean it was thirty years ago and it seems like thirty years ago. But more than anything else, it wasn’t great memories back then. Coming from England and that was the first time we came to America, like for me, America was so different than England. You know, it was, it was so bizarre. I thought it would be kind of similar, cos you can kind of speak the same language and everything. But it was so different, you know, with the big roads and….
Andrew: Was it the entire sensation of being in this place that was different? Was it the people? The way it looked? The way it felt? The way it smelled? Was it all these things or was it anything in particular?
Steve: Well, I always remember as a child, watching a lot of American shows. You know, “CHiPs” was one of my favorites. And I thought, “Wow. I’d love to go there. That looks fun!” All these birds on rollerskates at the beach and guys and cops who are like, with muscles and…you know, it weren’t like that in, in England. You know what I mean? And it just seemed like a different place, America, in all the TV shows I used to watch, like “The Fugitive” and, um, you know, everything on TV. There was always American shows and it was always like, intriguing and you think like, “America. Wow. It’s all big, everything’s big there.” And it was…and uh, but, but it was, as far as rock and roll goes, I mean, we would still be walking around in London, even though we were huge at the time. We didn’t have roadies. We had barely one roadie. I used to tune me own guitar and whatnot, you know. And then all of a sudden, we come to America and you’ve got all these guys wanting to do things, like…and Warner Brothers were, were um, because we got rejected the first time, with our visas, for whatever reason, cos all the hype, or whatever.
Andrew: They didn’t want you coming in the country cos you were dangerous, they thought.
Steve: Right. That’s what they thought, the press, whatever. So Warner Brothers had to uh, ensure the government that there would be no problem. So they hired all these guys, making sure there’s no trouble. So you had weird guys with walkie talkies. We had Vietnam vets who were like bouncers and it was bizarre. The whole thing was bizarre and it didn’t make sense to me, coming from little horse-and-cart land, you know what I mean? It was all kind of strange. But when you…the reason what I tapped on when you said, “Did it seem weird like, thirty years ago?” I mean, how long ago, how many years was Henry The Eighth? Five hundred years ago?
Andrew: Something. Five hundred and two.
Steve: That’s like, not long ago, is it? But it seems like it’s thousands of years ago.
Andrew: Sure.
Steve: You know what I mean?
Andrew: Yeah, well…that’s what I’m curious about is our perception of time. How long…why does five minutes seem like five minutes versus five hours? Or those times when you can make five minutes seem like five hours, or someone says, “Oh, the last fifteen minutes went on forever!” Or “Wow, those last two hours just flew by.”…
Steve: Well, I know one thing, the older you get, time flies quicker.
Andrew: It does go faster.
Steve: Yeah. Without a doubt.
Andrew: That’s what I hear more. Do you have any idea how we could make it feel like it was going slower?
Steve: I don’t want it to go slower.
Andrew: Oh yeah? You want to hurry up and go out?
Steve: Well, I don’t want to go out, but I like it when…cos when I was a kid, fifteen…I’d be walking around the streets of London looking at cars to break in, to steal things and, and shops to steal stuff out of, the day seemed it went on and on forever and I think what you’re talking about is, if you’re happy, I think time goes quicker. I’m a lot happier in my own skin now.
Andrew: It must be because, perhaps we spend less time thinking about what’s to come and less time concerned about what’s already happened…
Steve: Or what I’m gonna get out of the deal.
Andrew: And you’re just, you’re just in the midst of it, right? You’re caught in-between and that’s the state of much more happiness.
Steve: Yeah. It’s all about what’s going on in your head, innit? You can wake up and your outlook, what you see all depends on how you wake up, you know. Wake up in a good mood, things, you know, your whole outlook is good.
Andrew: We have that power. It’s hard to hone it. We wanted to talk about spirits.
Steve: Yes.
Andrew: You want to talk about that, still?
Steve: One more thing before we go to spirits. The trouble, I think with a lot of people, and I guess I am judging in way or, or…not preaching but, a lot of people get a distorted view of what’s going to make them happy. They think like, winning the lottery and having a hundred million dollars, or being better looking by having plastic surgery or getting the right TV show is gonna make them happy. That is a, that is a distorted view. That is not correct. That is completely not correct. And really, it sounds lame, but the only way you really are happy is if your healthy and you’re in touch with yourself.
Andrew: I agree.
Steve: Inside.
Andrew: Turning inward. Turning inward.
Steve: Yeah, exactly. Anything else on the outside is complete hogwash.
__________________
Andrew: Did you have times when you were younger when you felt the way you were describing before, that having a certain…that there was something you were looking forward to that was going to be the answer, that all happiness was going to come from this achievement…
Steve: Yeah, of course. Being famous, successful and have women you know, dropping at your beckon and call on their knees, you know? That was going to fix everything and it actually made things worse. Cos that didn’t work and that’s why, I think, another theory I have, is that bums don’t kill themselves. Rich people kill themselves, more than bums, you know? Because they get what they want and they’re so miserable and they don’t see anything else that’s gonna make them happy cos they, in their minds think they have everything. You know, and then they, they think the only way out is to shoot themselves or whatever, you know?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)