November 29, 2006 Rob Halford Visits The Box

Steve: We have in the studio Mr. Rob Halford.

Rob: Isn’t life great? You start your day and you just don’t know who you’re going to bump into next.

Steve: What you doing in town here?

Rob: What am I doing in town here? Well…

Steve: Nice to see you, by the way.

Rob: It’s nice to see you too. When did I see you last?

Steve: I’ve no idea.

Rob: Cos we have met before.

Steve: Yeah…

Rob: And it was in Hollywood.

Steve: It was in the Eighties when I had long hair…did I have long hair?

Rob: Could have been…

Steve: When I was doing kind of a rock thing?

Rob: Could have been…I had long hair one time.

Steve: One time…

Rob: It’s all (?) and whatever it is now, these days so I shaved it off.

Steve: You still living in Arizona?

Rob: Yeah, I’m still in Arizona, still got the place over in Paradise Valley…but I’m back with Priest, which is the great thing that’s happened to me recently and we’re working a new record back in England and it’s going to be really exciting. It’s our first-ever concept album. It’s a metal (?) things. Just when you think Priest has covered every bit of metal territory there is, we’ve got this great record that’s coming out next year, based on the life of Nostradamus.

Steve: Oh, yeah?

Rob: So that’s going to be kind of an unusual and exciting new moment for the band and at the same time, I’m releasing some of the solo projects that I did while I was away from Priest with the Halford band and Fight and a couple of other things going on all through the internet, through the wonderful world of the download digital experience. I’ve got lots of things happening. I haven’t slowed down a lick. Thirty-six years of metal and still roaring on.

Steve: Do you wear earplugs when you play?

Rob: Well, I do those in-ear monitors now, which has been an absolute joy and relief for me. Sebastian, back from Skid Row, he turned me onto them. They were working with Van Halen, I went to see them at a show in Phoenix and he said, “Hey man, check out these…” this was just ‘round when they were invented. He said, “Check these out, man. These are inner-ears, they’re awesome, you know…you can hear everything.” And I’m old school. I mean, I love the racket and the roar, you know…

Steve: Right.

Rob: …but I said, “Stick ‘em in, let me check ‘em out” and of course I was like, “This is incredible, this is like listening to a cd!” The balance and everything else is absolutely perfect and for a singer especially, you know, farting against the roar of the guitars and the drums and the bass…I thought, “I’ll give these a go” and now I can’t do a performance without the inner ears. I love them and that’s my world, now.

Steve: So, when you’re wearing them, the guitars are still playing, the guitars…

Rob: Yeah, everything’s balanced and that’s the cool thing because you’ve got everything at a level that makes it more understandable and nothing gets lost in the roar and the power of the performance on stage and I was a bit, you know, reluctant cos I’d been old school. You know, using the wedges in front of you, but what that gives a singer an opportunity to do is you can wander around all over the place and you can still hear yourself perfectly well, you know. And the quality is absolutely superb so I wouldn’t work now without inner ears, they’re absolutely brilliant.

Steve: You don’t…do you have a teleprompter?

Rob: (enthusiastically) Yes, I – now, here’s a story -

Steve: (laughs)

Rob: I never thought I would ever use a teleprompter but I have for years cos it’s like a safety blanket for me now and I went and saw Korn in the early days just before they became this massive band and Jonathan was using one of these things. I’m like, “You don’t need one of these, you’re like twenty-one, twenty-two…” He says, “Man, I love my teleprompter. It’s like…makes me feel confident and secure”. So I got into that world, I got into the teleprompter world and the inner ear world. But everybody’s using them now. I think, you do whatever you gotta do to give your best performance and you know, this head’s been full of metal for thirty-six years and trying to remember all of the songs…it’s just there as a quick look down, you know, when I need it. But it just makes you feel secure…at the end of the day, you just want to give your best for your fans out there and don’t cock it up and forget a word or a whatever.

Steve: It’s not good when you forget the words.

Rob: It’s a nightmare, it’s a nightmare and I’ll tell ya, here’s another funny story. I went and saw Barbra Streisand about a week ago…

Steve: Where?

Rob: I wanted to see this living legend, this woman…

Steve: Vegas?

Rob: Sorry?

Steve: Vegas? Where was it?

Rob: No, it was in Phoenix. This woman has this most incredible voice so I went and saw her for the first time in my life. I was blown away. Got a full orchestra, sounded absolutely sensational and of course she’s got this massive stage and she’s got like twelve of these little you know, flat screen monitors and out front, hanging out over the crowd is this big, massive things like ten-foot square with everything on there and she mentioned that in her show. She said, “The reason I’m back out on the road after so many years is because when I did a concert in Central Park in New York City,” in 1970-something, or whatever it was…she said, “I had my first free concert and I forgot one of the words. It was to America The Beautiful.” Of all the things to forget.

Steve: Yeah, yeah.

Rob: So she’s like, “From then on when I knew about Autocue prompters, that the reason now why I can do my live shows because, yeah, I remember the words, but I have a blank moment or something, that’s where I can look and do my show.

Steve: It happens, innit, when you get older, those blank moments.

Rob: It does, doesn’t it?

Steve: It’s alright, though.

Rob: I think you do whatever you gotta do to make it work.

Steve: Exactly

Rob: At the end of the day, that’s all we’re out to do you know, give our best show.

Steve: Exactly. I watched the making of…uh…(he forgot). See, look…

Rob: What, is this a Priest thing?

Steve: Priest, yeah.

Rob: “British Steel”?

Steve: “British Steel”.

Rob: We were just talking about that.

Steve: Classic Albums.

Rob: Just talking about that, yeah. That was a joy to make, whatever year that was, 1980, ’81 I think it was, because we did it in Ringo’s house in London which used to be John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s house.

Steve: Where you recorded the album?

Rob: Yeah.

Steve: That’s right, yeah.

Rob: And that was just fantastic cos I’m a huge Beatles fan, you know. So, to actually be in that house, you know, that John and Yoko lived in and you know Yoko would put these little things like on brass plates like, “You are not here” and like, “You are not reading this”. Very bizarre stuff.

Steve: Yeah yeah.

Rob: But, this is funny. Glen, one of our guitar players, Glen had the room that John and Yoko used to sleep in and they have a bathroom with two loos next together. You know, sitting side-by-side (laughs). “John” on one on a brass plate and there’s “Yoko” on the other. So you know, you say, “Imagine”. You can just imagine them pair, sitting in the morning...(laughs) holding hands, you know. That’s love, that’s love.

Steve: Yeah.

Rob: But it was a great place to make a record and that’s one of the Priest classics as you say, “British Steel”.

Steve: Good album.

Rob: Yeah. Thank you.

Steve: So what are you doing in town?

Rob: Well, I’m just basically talking about the Halford stuff we’ve got, these re-releases on RobHalford.com. I’m embracing all this new technology. The digital download experience, it’s brilliant. I can’t remember the last time I bought a cd. I get all my stuff from Apple iTunes and elsewhere and stick it on my computer then on my iPod. I’ve got my iPod with me wherever I go.

Steve: Don’t you miss going into a record shop and going into and looking through the things and looking at the artwork and all that?

Rob: Yeah, I do, I do. But you know, again, we were saying earlier, that’s just the way things have gone in the world. Now Tower Records just went down which is really sad cos I always used to go to Tower a lot and browse through the stuff like that but you know, you’ve been through the same thing, Steve. There was vinyl, then vinyl went. Then cassettes, then cassettes went and eight-tracks went and then everybody was moaning about cds. And then we lived in the cd generation but now we’re into the download vibe so you do that. But I think it’s, I think it’s made music for the consumer more personal cos you can go on your computer anytime of the day or night, get up there and you know, you can see the artwork, you can download and make your own cd if you want to. But it’s all there and I think it’s become even more personal now, you know. You can just really kind of take it to another level. But again, for me, at the end of the day, as long as the music’s connecting, no matter what format you do it. If you still want to get vinyl, you can get limited edition vinyl if you want to you can search for that. The irony is, you find vinyl off the internet. You know, you go into ebay or somewhere like that for a vinyl recording and there it is. So, you just use what you use to keep it all, keep it active and flowing and of course again, you can have a fan in Japan talking to a fan in L.A. to one in Rio, all multi-chatting to each other live. It’s absolutely amazing.

Steve: It is.

Rob: So I love all that kind of stuff.

Steve: I’ve yet to resist…I’ve not kind of gone on that side, yet. I’m still holding on the the cd-thing. But I guess I’m gonna be forced into it at one point.

Rob: Ohh, yeah. I think it’s the way you’ve got to go, mate…so I’ll drag you into the cyber world with me one day.

Steve: (laughs)

Rob: I’m out of here, it was great seeing you!

Steve: Nice to see you, mate…we are going to go and visit The Duke. We’ll be right back after these lovely messages. Thanks for listening.

November 16 and 17 2006 - Time

Chris has finished the Marco Pirroni interview, to have a look, you can scroll down the page or click here. Meanwhile...


Steve: You are listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031. Twelve bells…it is about eighty degrees, it’s a gorgeous day again. It’s Thursday the Sixteenth, is it today? Sixteenth of November…just in case this show gets…put in a pod and sent to another planet, I just thought I would document the time and date.

Mr. Shovel: Like they're going to have some kind of reference to what that means.

Steve: What?

Mr. Shovel: What the date is.

Steve: Yeah, well you never know.

Mr. Shovel: You think they have the same calendar as us?

Steve: I heard that a bunch of scientists have come to the conclusion that the twenty-four hour day is not twenty-four hours anymore. It’s sixteen hours but you can’t really change it cos everything would not work…meaning that time has sped up.

Mr. Shovel: No wonder I’m always so tired.

Steve: I don’t understand it properly so I don’t want to go into it too deep, not that I can cos I don’t know, but a bunch of scientists, scientifically speaking, (think that) the day is shorter, is not so many hours as twenty-four…

Mr. Shovel: And the earth is flat.

Steve: …it’s closer to sixteen hours.

Mr. Shovel: A day is how long it takes the earth to revolve around the Sun, right? No. That’s a year…no, to revolve around itself.

Steve: Yeah, when it turns around.

Mr. Shovel: Yeah.

Steve: It’s turning around quicker.

Mr. Shovel: I don’t believe that.

Steve: It’s scientifically…

Mr. Shovel: Well, if that were true, then the sun would be coming up at three o’clock in the morning.

Steve: Listen…I’m going to look more into it before I go on, but I do know one thing. That a day goes by really quick for me. Do you notice that? A week goes by really quick. (Mr. Shovel is laughing) It never used to. Scientists.

Mr. Shovel: (laughing) Well, that proves it right there.

Steve: Listen, I’m very in-tune with this little ball that we live in.

Mr. Shovel: So who are these scientists who…

Steve: I don’t know their particular names but I’m going to look more into it. You wait and see. You can mock me…you wait and see. It makes sense to me.

I met Bryan Ferry last night. That was a treat. We had a little chat. He’s doing an album, of Bob Dylan songs and Bob (came?) out and he’s mixing it right now and I can’t wait. He said he would come on The Box. Probably not this time but next time he’s in town. I told him I’m the only guy in America, in the world, probably, that plays Roxy Music…no one plays it more than me. I would say that’s pretty much true, wouldn’t you say? I give him two spins a week, at least.

Mr. Shovel: Mm hmm.

Steve: I don’t know any other station…do you? Unless there’s a Roxy Music Channel that I don’t know about.

Mr. Shovel: Well, you’re also playing the oddball cuts, not the big hits.

Steve: Yeah and I play Bryan Ferry and all that stuff.

I’m going to play some dodgy stuff today but I’m going to enjoy it. I’m going to think positive, positive thoughts. Successful thoughts. Creative thoughts. (reverb on) Good energy, good energy…positive thoughts…magnificence…royal thoughts…positive thoughts. Think positive. Get rid of your negative energy. It is not worthy, it’s no use to you. You must think positive. We must change the way we think. We are the world.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Steve: You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031. Before I came here, where I heard the news about the shorter days, this bloke made me this shake that he makes me every now and again, it has greens in it and mocha and this other stuff that’s like crack and he must have put…I said look, I need to go to the bathroom, I’m a bit clogged up and he put this stuff in it and he puts the crack in it and I was like, buzzing like a bee and now I’m starting to crash. But I went to the bathroom before the show, I mean I had to go. I mean, someone was talking to me and I’m like, “I’ve got to go to the bathroom”. I didn’t even have time to put the (?) paper on the seat, that’s how quick I had to go. And now, I’m just like crashing, I’m a mess. What’s going on…?

Mr. Shovel: So the guy that made you the crack shake is your source for the days being “sixteen hours” now?

Steve: Yeah, he was actually. I’ll bet there’s something in that. You wait and see. You can mock me, Shovel.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~

From November 17

Steve: But I did find out more about…that thing I was talking about, that time’s speeding up…The Schumann Residence. (click --> Schumann Resonance) Basically, they’re saying that sixteen hour days as opposed to twenty-four hour days, the days are speeding up. Google it and read it yourself cos it’s really complicated. I haven’t got time to explain it.

Mr. Shovel: I just need to know, do we get off work early and do we stop for commercials at the same time?

Steve: Well, you know that term, there just ain’t enough hours in the day? That really does mean that, now.

Mr. Shovel: Right.

Steve: You know. 24/7? Forget that. They’re 16/7 now. Actually, 16/6, probably. And 7-11 are going to have to change the names of the shops. 76 gas stations going to have to change their name - 16. Whatever you want to do. Dunkin’ Donuts are going to have to change…

Mr. Shovel: Think of all the signs they’re going to have to change…”Open 24 Hours”, everybody’s got to change their signs.

Steve: That’s what I mean…that’s why they can’t change it cos it would be too much craziness.

Mr. Shovel: It would be a devastatin’ blow to our antiquated system.

Steve: It would but the truth is, is that’s what’s happening. Time is speeding up.

Mr. Shovel: But nobody’s noticing.

Steve: Except me. I notice it. Like I said, time seems like it’s flying by, to me. But you don’t think it’s changing because it just doesn’t fathom in your head. But if you think about it, from when you was a kid ‘til now, don’t you think days go a lot quicker?

Mr. Shovel: Well, one day, now, is a smaller portion of my life.

Steve: Yeah…let’s play some rock and roll.

Yes it's been a long time

But the Marco interview is complete! Here we see Marco wearing his SEX Anarchy shirt, Sid on the drums btw.

Some interesting old amplifiers -



The future's bright!




















Selmer Amps.

And from the blog for that bleaching agent rotting freshness (and that's not guaranteed)





oh and these....




Yes bangers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2d Coo ur, that's about five farthings, six pence ha'penny and a tuppenny bit in the old money.

BONUS!!! Have a good peek into a complete box of authentic "Astra" fireworks

Some (or one) of these things you will not see unless you click -----> here

Also I neglected foolishly to include the wolfmen's website here

CwA.

November 17, 2006 The Slits Visit The Box

I tried as best I could to figure out which girl was which, but I had to put in a few (?) where I wasn't sure who was speaking. There are places where more than one person is talking and I couldn't make out all the words, that's what happens when you have that many folks in a room!

Steve: You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031. That was The Slits, from an album, “Cut” and the was the cover version of …was it Marvin Gaye who did that originally?

Ari: Yeah, and we call it “bassline”, “Heard It Through The Bassline” cos at the time, there wasn’t any bass except reggae.

Steve: Exactly.

Ari: And that’s hence, why we all got together and started listening to reggae and then bringing it into our music too, that heavy bass.

Steve: You’ve always liked reggae, haven’t you?

Ari: Yeah.

Steve: Did you ever like punk?

Ari: I didn’t know what punk was. Though it was punk, I mean, we were called punk after we already started hitting the stage...

Steve: Yeah.

Ari: I mean, what was it, really? We just played and…

Steve: I think Caroline Coon come up that word.

Ari: Really? I thought it was the Americans saying, “Ugh, punk…” terminology of, you know…waster’s (?) life.

Steve: Well, there was a magazine called Punk, I think. I don’t know where it came from.

(?): (from the background) I thought it was the wives in prison or something.

Steve: The what?

Ari: Speak up there, c’mon.

Steve: Come into ze mike.

(?): I heard it was the derivative of a kind of slang term for sort of men-wives in prison. Male wives.

Steve: Punk…?

(?): Yeah, you’re a punk. You’re gonna be my punk…

Steve: Oh, you mean, weaker blokes became bitches in the prison.

(?): Yeah.

Steve: Yeah, tossing salads and whatnot. (general laughter)

Ari: Like that cowboy shirt…

Steve: Yeah.

Ari: Steve wore this beautiful cowboy shirt in the Pistols days that I remember, where these two cowboys were connecting, like in that movie…(Brokeback Mountain)

Steve: Yeah, they was having a few words with each other.

Ari: Yeah, with the naked parts showing, coming out.

(?) : That wasn’t the language I saw in the pictures. (more laughter)

Steve: So how’re you enjoying being on the road? You’re roughing it, I heard.

Ari: Yeah, we’re roughing it. It seems like The Slits haven’t changed much - the things that surround The Slits, I mean – haven’t changed much since ’76, you know. Like the minute we come on the scene, we’re a threat all over again. We’re still very threatening and that’s shocking to me. In 2006, to be as threatening as we were in ’76.

Steve: Why do you think…what makes you think you’re threatening? What, people’s reactions to the way you look?

(?): …that question about why “you were so violent”…

Ari: Yeah, I mean the other day this radio guy was like, “Oh, we need to make clear, we’ve heard a lot of people saying how violent you were and what about all the violence that was coming from…”

Steve: Really?

Ari: Yeah. They feel so threatened. They still do. I don’t know what it is.

Steve: You’re not violent at all.

Ari: No we were not at all. It was other people who were violent around us.

Steve: I dunno, I’ve never heard that. Did you hear that?

Tessa: No.

Ari: What?

Steve: The violent bit.

Tessa: That we’re violent.

Ari: No, but it’s what they were trying to…that’s what I’m saying, we’re stuck with all this stigma-type weird thing, whatever.

Steve: Yeah, well…who cares.

Ari: Well, if they want violence, they’re not going to get it onstage. But we do playfight, so you can come and see us playfight.

Steve: Yeah and you’re playing tonight at the Troubadour.

Ari: Yes, we’re going to playfight there as well.

Steve: Mud wrestling. You live in Jamaica.

Ari: Who’s “you”? Got to say “Ari”.

Steve: Ari…Ari. Do you want to, there’s a bunch of girls here who I’ve never seen before. Do you want to introduce them?

Ari: Okay, well there’s Tessa on the left which you have seen cos she’s the…

Steve: Original Tess.

Ari: Yeah, original Tess, bass player of The Slits. We’ve got Anna the drummer, new.

Steve: Well, how long’s Anna been in The Slits? Has The Slits always been together or had they broken up? Did they ever break up for a period?

Ari: We broke up for…

Tessa: We just parted company for a while…a few years. (laughs)

Steve: Okay, now you’ve been back with this lineup how long?

: Early in the year like maybe since February we’ve been playing.

Steve: Okay. And who’s that, behind you?

Ari: Okay, we’ve got Adele.

Adele: Hi.

Ari: The crazy, mix of guitarist which loves Jimi Hendrix sound, mixed with like, Keith Hudson reggae, totally. She’s like totally crazy guitarist, there.

Steve: What was your name again, I’m sorry.

Adele: Adele.

Steve: Adele.

Ari: Yeah. And then we’ve got the other crazy guitarist with Siberian blood, going nuts with experimentation.

Steve: And your name is, madam?

No: No.

Steve: Go on, what’s your name. I’m just kidding. (laughter) And we’ve got this one here…

Ari: Well, that’s, I mean that’s family, right? You might as well say.

Steve: My goddaughter.

Hollie: Hello.

Steve: Hollie Cook.

Hollie: Yes.

Steve: Paul Cook’s daughter.

Hollie: All the way from Shepherd’s Bush.

Steve: All the way from Cooke’s Pie And Mash Shoppe. (general laughter) And you are my, I’m your goddaughter, right? (more laughter) I mean…

Hollie: I’m your goddaughter.

Steve: You’re my goddamndaughter.

Hollie: Yes, that’s the one. (more laughter)

Ari: And you’d been my stepfather for a while. Ari-up’s stepfather…slightly.

Steve: I’m the stepfather…I just help everybody. (laughter)

Hollie: Fairy godfather.

Steve: Fairy godmum.

Ari: But we enjoyed so much on the tour listening to your radio show. We just thought, “Oh, if we could only hear that the whole tour through.”

Hollie (?): All around America.

Ari: All around America.

Hollie: Put Jonesy’s Jukebox all around America!

(?): National, go national.

Steve: Say it louder in there.

Hollie: (closer to the mic) Put Jonesy’s Jukebox national. We love it.

Steve: I hear you. I’m with you there.

Ari: The Slits love Steve’s show.

Steve: Excellent. Um, do you know what time you guys go on tonight?

Ari: Oh, quite early tonight. So please be there before ten…you definitely won’t miss us, by ten-thirty we should be on, latest.

Steve: And how long do you play for, hour, two hours?

Hollie (?): About an hour and a half, give or take.

Steve: Nice one. Should I come down?

The Slits: yeah!

Steve: There’s not going to be any violence, is there? (general laughter and wisecracks) What are we doing, Shovel? Should we play a song? Did I give you a song?

Mr. Shovel: No.

Steve: Nyum nyum nyum…let’s play…num num num – I know…

Ari: And don’t forget to play our new Slits EP as well, before I forget it.

Steve: I’ll tell you what, I’m going to play that right now…now, is there an album?

Tessa: “Number One Enemy”.

Ari: Yeah Tessa, say something about “Number One Enemy” there.

Tessa: Play “Number One Enemy, which has got Paul Cook playing drums, Marco Pirroni playing guitar and Chris – I don’t know his surname – from Adam and The Ants, playing bass.

Ari: Are you pl…? Oh, no you didn’t play…(hard to hear, three people talking at once)

Tessa: No, I’m not playing on it.

Steve: Track two, is that track two? There’s no profanity on this, is there?

Ari: Yeah, there is a F-word, I think.

Steve: Oh, we can’t play that.

Ari: Can’t you beep it out?

Steve: We don’t know where it is.

Ari: Oh, what a shame and Hollie’s singing on it…

Steve: Play track one. Track one’s good.

Hollie: No I’m singing on track one.

Ari: …oh, no she’s singing on “Tradition”.

Hollie: Yeah.

Ari: Oh god, I’m getting…(couldn’t decipher, Steve talks over her)

Steve: Maybe we can, while we’re…later on we can take out the F-word.

Ari: Yeah, yeah. Maybe play track one, then. That’s Hollie on it.

Steve: “Slits Tradition”. I like this song. This is my favorite one, actually.

Ari: Talk about that, Hollie.

Hollie: Yeah, that was slightly crazy, wasn’t it? All of a sudden I was having an exam at school and I got a phone call from my mum saying, “Ari – she’s around the corner. She wants you to sing on a record. Go, now, now!” So I was wandering around Old Street, walking up and down the road, trying to find this like, ridiculous little studio up in some flat somewhere. I hadn’t seen Ari for about…ten, fifteen years or something?

Ari: Let’s not get into age now…

Hollie: It had been a long time. And she was like, (hurriedly) “Right, okay! It goes like this! Go!” (all laugh) and that was it and it was done in about ten minutes.

Ari: And then she was in The Slits in about twenty minutes.

Hollie: And then I was in The Slits.

Steve: And here you are now…in Hollywood.

Hollie: Here I am, in Hollywood.

Steve: Amongst the wolves.

Ari: And you know what? Oh, we love Hollywood. I think that that’ll be great for The Slits. I think Slits should go Hollywood, bigtime.

Steve: Move out here, you mean?

Ari: No. I think that America would be the ones to break The Slits big. Put them back on the map. I think it’s going to happen.

Steve: That’s what I think.

Ari: Yeah, you do?

Steve: Let’s do it now. Let’s play a track. Take it away, Shovel.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Steve: You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031. There’s a skip in the disk. That was. “Queen Majesty” by The Techniques.

Ari: We all listened to that when we were going against the monarchy, going against the Queen in England.

Steve: Yeah. Absolutely.

Ari: We still are against the Queen.

Steve: Do you go to England much?

Ari: Who is that to, me? Ari?

Steve: …Ari?

Ari: Not really. Only if I have to you know, only if I have to.

Steve: Yeah. I’m not big on it.

Ari: I’m big more on Brooklyn – Brooklyn girl! I’ve been living in Brooklyn and Kinsgton, Jamaica most of my life.

Steve: How is that, Kingston Jamaica? Is it fun there?

Ari: That’s a different planet to describe. I think we won’t have the time on your show.

Steve: Yeah. Is it heavy, in places?

Ari: It’s very heavy. It’s very heavy. It’s very extreme. You see, it’s hard to explain unless you watch a spaghetti movie, try to picture movie western without the horses and…just that extreme thing of like, really, when it’s good, it’s really amazing. Partying and talent, sunny, action…beautiful, everything. And on the other hand it’s really bad. It’s evil. It’s dangerous, it’s depressing, it’s poor, it’s totally messed up.

Steve: Like, if I went down there with a ten-gallon hat on and a big camera and a shiny gold watch and said, “Excuse me, can you tell me where Lyshester Square is?” do you think I’d get rolled?

Ari: I think…I mean, Kingston is not used to tourists anyway. So you’re better off if you would come to visit me in Kingston. Nobody would mess with you cos you’d be like, friends coming to see friends, you know. But um, I think it doesn’t really work, that type of approach where they used a lot of tourists. It’s worse, even.

Steve: I never been there. I remember the Clash guys went there once and they didn’t leave the hotel room. (the group bursts into laughter) They were scared, they were scared.

Ari: Yeah, well that gets picked up, you know. People thought, “Oh, these big rock and rollers (?) them, whatever back then and then they raided them in the studio, I think. They went and robbed them.

Steve: Something like that yeah, yeah.

Ari: But that would never happen with me cos I’m a Kingstonian over here, you know. It’s like…

Steve: You’ve been there years, right?

Ari: Yeah.

Steve: How long you been there, twenty years?

Ari: Since, since ’81, I started gradually migrating, since The Slits.

Steve: You like the weather there? I love that kind of tropical weather.

Ari: Yeah, I love that tropical thing. I love that tropical thing.

Steve: You’ve got a good tan.

Ari: Oh, this is, that’s not even a tan…it’s the normal thing.

Steve: No, I know but, I know…I’m the same. I’m a sun worshipper. I get tan without even being in it.

Ari: Yeah, we tan (?) Vitamin D.

Steve: I don’t know what it is, I’m always tan now and I don’t even lie in it.

Ari: That’s because of the Vitamin D input. You needed it. That’s why you were so depressed in England…

Steve: No, I know that.

Ari: …and created a revolution and went against the monarchy and destroyed the Queen forever. They’re never the same again.

Steve: No.

Ari: Never recovered.

Steve: Oh, well.

Ari: All because of you, man. Cos you needed your Vitamin D.

Steve: What can I do? I had to do it. What can you…I mean, people don’t realize how depressed they get if they’re in miserable weather.

Ari: Yes.

Steve: Most people in England, they don’t know why they’re depressed.

Ari: No, no. It’s a chemical reaction I have over there. No matter how England is, I get so…(to Tessa) what?

Tessa: It’s the lack of light, cos it’s so gray…

Ari: That’s Tessa speaking there, the expert on England.

Tessa: They call it SAD. (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Ari: It’s so bad. Well, L.A. can’t relate to that. It’s so nice and sunny here…they can’t relate to that when we’re moaning about England.

Steve: Oh, who cares about…who? Where, here?

Ari: Yeah. They’re like, “What are they talking about?”

Steve: It’s really strange.

Ari: They wear only slippers, my twins. By the way, they live here, my twins. They’re here, they’re coming to the gig tonight. I want a big-up – Pablo and Pedro and their girlfriend and all their friends they’re coming tonight and they’re going to wear sandals because that’s all they ever wear.

Steve: I’ve got sandals on now, look! (the girls laugh)

(?): Adele (?) lost her sandals.

Ari: That’s L.A. for you. You know they can’t, like…you talk about England, it’s like, “What?”. They can’t imagine. It’s just shorts and sandals.

Steve: But when you’re young, you don’t know any different. You know what I mean? You don’t know any different when you’re young. You have to get out and experience the world to realize what you like and what you don’t like.

Ari: What do you like about “Slits Tradition” then. You just played your “favorite” song on “Revenge Of The Killer Slits”.

Steve: I dunno why I like it, I just like it. Technically, I can’t explain. It’s just a feeling, innit?

Ari: The feeling of it.

Steve: That’s what I’m always like, though. It’s always a feeling. It’s not…

Ari: That’s great, that’s how you were with guitar on The Pistols as well.

Steve: I’m Great. (laughter all around)

Ari: …and I just heard Steve play reggae you know when you guys aren’t listening out there in radio world and…he’s just, he needs a reggae band. So right now, please apply to get Steve into a reggae band as well as The Pistols because he is just natural born.

Steve: Natural. It’s a God-given gift, that only a few have. I’m one of ‘em. We’re going to visit The Duke, we’re here with The Slits, they’re playing tonight at The Troubadour, we’ll be right back after these lovely messages. Thanks for listening.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Steve: You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031 with my guests, The Slits in the studio.

Ari: And I want to big-up Wayne Jobson, that’s my big, big family friend.

Steve: (Jamaican accent) Wayne, man, come now.

Wayne: Maximum respect, Steve. Jonesy and The Slits and (they were?) a nuisance from way back, England, early days and they kind of started a revolution along with Dennis Brown. So now I’m going to give you some Dennis Brown, classics, along with Jonesy.

Steve: This is uh, nice one. I’m on the axe and The Slits are going to be singing, all six of them. There’s six of you, right?

Ari: It’s a Slits revolution.

Steve: (Jamaican accent) Here we go now…echo?

(They perform “Slits Revolution”)

Ari: We messed up one part because the bass was missing!

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Steve: You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031 with my guests The Slits, in the studio. That was Kay Starr, doing a song called, “Wheel Of Fortune” and before that was The Honeycombs doing a song called, “Have I The Right”, produced by Joe Meek.

Ari: We love all them old songs. We love that type of…that’s the thing with The Slits, why they created such a new sound. We have a new sound because we’re very tolerant in just soaking up a lot of different sounds without really imitating. We might be emulating and inspired but we don’t really imitate so that’s when The Slits first came out, we actually sounded like nobody else and to this day we’re still like this. And when you come tonight, you’re going to see it’s not retro. If you think you’re coming to a retro thing, I dunno, you might be disappointed because it’s…we do the old “Cut” album, of course. We do a lot of it. Half the set is of the old songs because they sound timeless anyway.

Steve: Yeah.

Ari: I mean, they’re timeless when you listen to the stuff now. So, and because we love old school anyway…but we’re also new. We’re new school, we continue, you know?

Steve: Yeah. I think The Slits inspired a lot of other girl bands, to be honest with you.

Ari: Yeah, it did.

Steve: A lot of other birds to get up and play.

Ari: I mean, let’s talk to the riot grrrl movement girls that were in that age. Anna, the drummer and No, one of the guitarists…they picked up on all that legendary thing that was created in the early Nineties with that riot girl movement. How about saying something about that?

Steve: Say somesings…

Anna (?): No, we heard it like, through other people’s influences and then went straight to the records and heard it, you know…through the baseline and I think it was…everybody name-checked them, whether they liked them or not. It was like, “Oh yeah, The Slits, yeah, they’re great!” and then went out and bought the albums just in case anybody…

Ari: …missed it.

Anna: Well, just in case anybody quizzed them on the reality of their…

Steve: Have you actually done an album, or just an EP?

Ari: Well, we just did the EP now. That’s…a in-between stage because the live, new Slits haven’t really been put fully together at that point. We just did the EP…The Slits needed to continue. Me and Tessa got together…Tessa, you want to say something about that?

Steve: All right, Tess…

Tessa: Um, well, nothing more to say (laughs). I don’t know…

Ari: Naw, tell people how we got together. (pause) We got together…

Steve: See, look…you’re mudwrestling on the front of here, on the front of the album. What happened to her?

Ari: Non-violent. Well, she’s not here to speak for herself so we don’t like talking about the girls who are not here.

Steve: Well, you don’t have to talk about her, you just like…is still…

Ari: She’s retired.

Steve: …she’s finished, don’t like playing music?

Ari: Yes, right. Exactly.

Steve: What was her name? Sorry…

Ari: Viv doesn’t want to play anymore so we can’t speak on her behalf. But the thing is, when I played Ari-up shows, solo with my backing band in England, cos I’ve got an album out too, by the way. It’s called “Dread More Than Dead”, it’s very nice. And most of The Slits people know that one. But it’s sort of mixed in with Jamaican more, too. But that’s when Tessa and me linked again and Tessa just said, “Let’s start The Slits again” and then it started. About three years ago we said, “Okay, we’ll do it again”.

Steve: Excellent.

Ari: But it’s not going to be retro. It’s going to be new. It’s like a continuation of The Slits which, with the riot grrrl movement became more aware.

(?): Evolution.

Ari: Evolution…

Steve: What’s this riot grrl movement?

(?): I think (?) knows more about that…

Ari: Don’t you know nothing about it?

(?): No. (laughs)

Steve: Some movement. It must be very secretive, this movement…(all the girls are talking at once) it’s a secretive society movement. No one talks about it. Need code to talk about it. Mum’s the word.

Hollie (?): I think part of it is that women were written out of history again, every bloody generation has to start again, that’s the thing.

Steve: The riot movement is top secret.

Ari: We’re going to pop up a quest (?) to know that. I’ve never asked the rest of The Slits, actually. Like, how did you find out about The Slits, Anna?

Anna: Well, I’m very much into music and all that and so it’s pretty much like talking about friends about music and that’s how it comes up and a lot of people when you ask them about music the say, “Oh, I like The Slits” and obviously you become curious about it.

Ari: So when did you find out about it?

Anna: Probably like, five, ten years ago.

Ari: Okay, Adele, like to say something as our little, little generation?

Adele: I always loved reggae and when I was younger, an artist friend of mine introduced me to The Slits because he was saying, “They play reggae, they’re three girls”. But he introduced me to the old album, from when you were like, sixteen…so he said, “They’re girls that play reggae” so he thought I might be interested and I listened to it for a bit and then I think I lost the…(Steve talks over her)

Steve: Do you guys like, what do you guys…

Ari: Lost the what? Your virginity?

Adele: I lost…shhh. Not yet.

Steve: (hollers something with the Jamaican accent)

Ari: We have a girl in The Slits who lost her virginity to listening to The Slits!

Adele: What are you talking about? (laughter, general hubbub ensues)

Steve: What do you girls think of The Spice Girls?

Hollie: I loved The Spice Girls.

Steve: I know you did.

Hollie: I was ten when they came out.

Adele (?): I’ve got all the dolls…

Hollie: No, I never had all the dolls but I remember the first time I even saw their video. It was the most exciting thing in the world.

Steve: Yeah.

Hollie: I was…I loved it. Scary Spice that’s who I…you always pretended to be one of them and I was always Scary Spice. (the girls talk amongst themselves)

Steve: We got to knock it on the head, it’s time to go.

Ari: Really, ohhh. I wanted to ask everybody…Jen (?) our tour manager, I want to big-up Jen our tour manager. She knew about The Slits too, quite a while…from the riot grrrl movement, right?

Jen: That’s a little later, a little after my time.

Steve: Shush shush, secret. D-d-d-don’t talk about it!

Ari: Wayne grew up with Slits, it’s not only you who are family, Steve, to me but also Wayne and he’s got this great show that I’ve always wanted to come on. I think The Slits should do it as well, which is the Native Wayne’s Smoke-In on this radio station, Sunday four o’clock to six p.m. So that’s the reggae show, right.

Steve: Are you going to be here Sunday? Or you on the road, you’re somewhere else?

Ari: (disappointed) Noo. I really wanted…

(?): We’re going to be in Oakland…

Ari: Oakland, right.

Steve: Maybe you can call in on the phone.

Wayne: Yeah, do a phoner. (the girls concur)

Ari: Good idea.

Steve: (Jamaican accent) Do a phoner. Have you got any big Slits t-shirts (to) fit Uncle Steve? (the girls answer in the affirmative). Okay, we’re going to knock it on the head, it’s been a pleasure having you girls here, (they say goodbyes and thank you’s) I hope you had fun. Have a good show tonight and I’ll see everyone Monday at twelve bells. Bye Bye.

Just to let you know

That I've added more to the Marco interview and when that's done, "possibly"tomorrow then we can move onto the Oasis blokes. Click here or scroll down. The new stuff is in blue.

Chriswasanon.

From November 13 2006 Ten Days To Live

Steve: (starts off playing “No Future” on guitar and harmonica) I’m getting pretty good on the ole thing, ain’t I? See - natural. You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox, Indie 1031, two minutes after twelve bells. It’s getting close, if not seventy degrees. It is the Thirteenth of November and it’s gorgeous out and it’s been gorgeous all weekend, had a great weekend. Had a good game of football yesterday, we won like, 5-1, I think it was. Got a big game tonight, semi-final. Very good. Can’t wait for that.

Um, what would you do, Mr. Shovel, if there was a place you could go, you go in a room, close a door behind you so no one can hear you and if you wished to know the information, would you do it…and the information is: when you’re going to die, what date. Would you go in there and find that out or would you not go in there.

Mr. Shovel: I’d put off as long as possible.

Steve: Yeah? Wouldn’t you be curious, though…when you were going to die, what day, what year, what month you were going to die? If for some reason they, these people knew when that date was going to be…

Mr. Shovel: I don’t think I’d want to know, would you?

Steve: I don’t know. I think it would drive me nuts, the curiosity, knowing there’s a place around the corner I could go and find that out. I guess it all depends on your mood at the time…like something horrible happened (and) you’re like, “I’m gonna go in there and find out, now”.

Mr. Shovel: See, once you know, you know. But see, you can put it off as many days as possible and then change your mind but once you know, you can’t change your mind.

Steve: Yeah, exactly.

Do you think most people would want to know that information?

Mr. Shovel: I don’t think so.

Steve: People go to…psy…what do they call them? You know…

Mr. Shovel: Psychics?

Steve: Yeah. They tell you the future. A lot of people do that otherwise they wouldn’t be in business. Like, proper ones, I don’t mean them jokers on the street with them silly little shops and they’re all in the back there. I mean like, proper clairvoyants, whatever you want to call them. People go to them.

Mr. Shovel: I do wonder, though, what will be the cause.

Steve: Yeah. Well, obviously they could tell you that if they knew what day you were going to die, I’m sure they would know what you’re going to die of. So, if you knew that, you could avoid it. I wonder if you could avoid it.

Mr. Shovel: See, that’s why I think you could change your destiny.

Steve: So you would go and find out then.

Mr. Shovel: Maybe I would. But see this might be a good movie because, I’m copyrighting it right now, by the way – because if you did know and you could change your destiny, could you really change your destiny?

Steve: Yeah, yeah. It’s interesting. It’s interesting to me…more, what’s interesting to me is what more people would do. Would they go and find out or not? I guess…yeah…I guess not knowing would be the way to go. Maybe if you had like, they say, “Oh, seventy years from now is when you’re going to die.” Then you’d be happy, wouldn’t you?

Mr. Shovel: Um hmm.

Steve: You know what I mean? As opposed to…

Mr. Shovel: Would you want to know?

Steve: Uh, well I think you could relax a lot more if they told you, “Yeah, you’ve got another sixty years to go”.

Mr. Shovel: I’d start counting the days.

Steve: Really? But you’d be so old, then. It wouldn’t matter.

Mr. Shovel: That’s true.

Steve: You’d think, “Oh, good, good…I’m happy, I’ll take that…I’ll buy that.” But what they might not tell you is – you’re going to have no legs in two weeks, but you’re going to live to another seventy years. See, that could happen.

Mr. Shovel: There’s always a catch.

Steve: That could happen, though. They didn’t say that, they just said, “You’re going to live another seventy years. But next week, be careful cos the pendulum is going to come down and chop your legs off, but you’ll still live”. See, I don’t know if I’d want to live if I was in half. It’d be a drag. Or “You’re going to lose your eyesight” or something.

Mr. Shovel: You ought to write movies because there’s nothing about this that has anything to do with reality…

Steve: Exactly. But it boggles your mind, though. It makes you think, dunnit?

Mr. Shovel: You been smoking pot?

Steve: No, I ain’t. I haven’t. The gardener did put some stuff on the grass, though.

November 7th 2006. The Complete Marco Pirroni visits the box!

Steve: You’re listenin’ to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 103.1 and I’ve got my friend Marco Pirroni in the studio. How are yer mate?

Marco: I’m alright

Both laugh.

Marco: I’m alright.

Steve: It’s been a while since I seen you, when was it? When was the last time I saw you?

Marco: Couple of years ago.

Steve: In London?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: That was…must have been longer than that.

Marco: No it wasn’t.

Steve: I weren’t there two years ago, I was there like four years ago.

Marco: Well that was it then, it was four years ago.

Steve: Yeah, well it ain’t two then, is it?

Marco: No, not really.

Steve: Lets ‘ave a look ‘ere. (Picking up cd cover). Dave Berry…that was Dave Berry, “Little Things,” and as we were playin’ it, Marco said that he did a gig opening for you and Adam and the Ants.

Marco: We thought, right to do a really special show in London at the Electric Ballroom or somewhere - where ever it was - and we got Dave Berry out of retirement to do a gig…and we were talking to ‘im and he actually wasn’t very good. He opened up with “High Ho Silver lining,” but you know he’s got…his big gimmick was to not be seen by anybody.

Steve: Like mysterious.

Dave Berry not hiding!

Marco: It’s a bit boring like innit, like you can’t see ‘im – just hiding, it’s not much. laughs). Hiding behind things, it’s not very spectacular is it?

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: So, “Are you gonna do any more gigs?” And he goes “Yeah I’d like to make it really big, you know one day again.”

Steve: Again.

Marco: “And I’d buy loads of scenery.” And we said, “yeah.” And he said, “I could hide behind it.” We thought, “well what do you mean?” He says, “yeah well I can hide behind it and then no one can see me.” And we thought, “Well where’s the entertainment value in that?” That’s not, that’s not really gonna excite an audience. “Hello, you can’t see me.”

Both Laugh.

Marco: He sung the whole first song offstage like he didn’t come on for about two numbers and we were thinking, “what’s he doing?” you know, “what’s all this about?” “He’s out of his mind.”

Steve: Well he was pretty popular at one point weren’t he?

Marco: Yeah he was good.

Steve: In the sixties. And his whole thing was that mysterious…

Marco: Not being seen.

Steve: And scaring…

Marco: Oh yeah and like black gloves and all that.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: But not the, “not being seen thing” is a bit boring.

Steve: Well maybe er, how did he look, did he look alright.

Marco: He looked like that actually. (Picking up cd cover).

Steve: So he weren’t that bad.

Marco: No he was a big tall bloke with really big hands – hence the gloves I suppose.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: Hence not being seen, I don’t know.

Steve: Probably had a big knob as well then.

Marco: I didn’t see.

Steve: You didn’t see it? (increduously).

Marco: He should have got that out and waved it.

Steve: You didn’t see it though did ya?

Marco: He should have threatened the audience with it.

Steve: Maybe that’s the only thing you could see…behind the scenery.

Marco: You could see nothin’

Steve: Like behind the fake plastic tree he could have his knob (hanging) out at the side of it.

Marco: No all you could see was this band playing and this voice coming from nowhere. The audience was completely baffled as I was. What…(slight pause) Is going on?

Steve: It’s kind of cool in a way though.

Marco: Yeah it is cool for five minutes but then after 35 minutes it’s a bit dull. And then he would like hide…the first thing you saw was his leg, his leg came out, then he pulled it back in again. Then he put his hand out.

Steve: Ow, a little tease, yeah.

Marco: This went on for a while.

Steve: Maybe it was a kind of a form of a male strip tease thing?

Marco: Well he didn’t take his clothes off, well if he did we didn’t see it. He might have done it behind it. He probably did! He probably took all his clothes off behind the scenes.

Steve: He was probably bollock naked ‘avin’ a wank behind some tree or something. (Pure speculation!)

Marco: Dunno, but he didn’t want anyone to see that!

Both laugh…

Steve: And before that was the Wolfmen, which is your new project right?

Marco: That’s my new band, my new project, yeah.

Steve: “Needle of a camel’s eye,” obviously.

Marco: Needle in the camel’s eye.

Steve: That’s what I said, don’t argue…

Marco: Sorry.

Steve: And that was Eno’s first single.

Marco: No it wasn’t, it was just the first track of his first album.

Steve: Weren’t it a single?

Marco: Don’t think so. It might have been, I’m not sure.

Steve: It’s a good song though.

Marco: It’s a brilliant song.

Steve: You do a good version of it.

Marco: Thank you Steve.

Steve: I was surprised actually.

Both laugh…Marco choking…

Steve: So when did you start this idea of the Wolfmen? Are you alright?

Marco: (Coughing heavily) No. About a year ago. Someone said, well it was Sam who said, “You should do a band.” So I said, “Oh alright.”

Steve: Sam?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: He’s your partner?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Like in a record company, with The Slits?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: And you got them, and you got that “SEX” one that I got. (“SEX Too fast too live, too young to die.” The CD is on the "Only lovers left alive" record label. It's a compilation cd of all the records that were on the jukebox in SEX, Malcy’s clothes shop.)

Steve: Jukebox and you got the “Granny takes a trip,” one. (Boutique in London).

Marco: So anyway, he said, “You should form a band cos you’re not doing anything, so I said, “Yes alright,” with no intention of forming a band. Then I met up with this mate of mine, Chris Constaninou who had another band called, “Jackie on acid.” He said, “If you come and play guitar with my thing, I’ll come and play bass with your thing.” So we did that. “This is a bit stupid, (in)‘stead of havin’ two separate bands, why don’t we just ‘ave one? “

Steve: Mmm.

Marco: So we called it the Wolfmen, cos it was a better name than “Jackie on acid.”

Steve: Yeah, yeah, it’s a good name. Did you search, make sure no one else has got it?

Marco: There is er, there’s a neo nazi bike gang in Berlin…

Both Laugh.

…Also called “The Wolfmen.” Cos we had to pick them of course, you know.

Marco: So I mean, we’re not goin’ to play Germany, or even go to Germany.

Steve: So you can still use it, as long as you don’t go to Germany?

Marco: We can still use it, as long as they don’t beat us up, yeah.

Steve: They’re probably poofs.

Marco: No they’re…they’re.. yeah they are actually.

Steve: Are they the real deal, are they like???

Marco: I dunno.

Steve: Wannabe?

Marco: They do look gay.

Steve: They got like leather hats on?

Marco: They’ve got leather hats on and chains on across the front and no trousers.

Both Laugh.

Steve: Yeah, that’s gay, they’re poofs. Probably don’t even have bikes, probably have banana choppers.

Marco: What, what do you mean the “banana choppers?” What with the sort of bananas…

Steve: Pushbikes, pushbikes, yeah.

Marco: Banana seats?

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: (Amused) And training wheels? (AKA stabilis(z)ers).

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: And satchels on the back.

Steve: Exactly.

Both Laugh

Steve: Ok, well we started off with “Wolf mother,” that your lot are the knock-off of
Wolfmother, right? That’s the mothership. And your like the “wolf men.”

Marco: Yeah, we’re an off shoot of “Wolf mother,” yeah. We decided that we, we were in
Wolfmother for about three weeks but we didn’t want to do bloody Stonehenge so we left

Steve: Right! (Laughs). That was a song called, “Stonehenge,” it was weren’t it? “Mind’s eye,” that was called. We’re gonna visit the Duke. We’re here with Marco Pirroni, the founding member of Wolfmen and the bike gang with the trainers and we’ll be right back after these lovely messages, fanx for listening!

Steve: You’re listenin to Jonesy’s jukebox on Indie 103.1 with my friend Marco Pirroni, ex Adam and the Ant, now he’s in a bike gang called Wolfmen.

Marco: What’s that other one mate, Wolfsmother?

Steve: Wolfmother.

Marco: Yeah ex Wolfmother

Steve: Ex Wolfmother.

Marco: Yeah I left cos I didn’t want to play, “Stonehenge.”

Steve: Yeah now he’s on the subsidiary band, “Wolfmen. “ Gay bikers from Lichtenstein. So do you actually have a band or is just you and the singer right now?

Marco: It’s me and Chris so far but we actually have a bloke called Wildcat Will but he’s in London. He plays drums sometimes.

Steve: You’ve not done any gigs yet?

Marco: No.

Steve: And your whole purpose for being in New York and America was to…

Marco: Our whole purpose was to come and see you.

Steve: Yeah?

Marco: Mmm.

Steve: Well I can’t save ya.

Marco: Why?

Steve: I can only help. You’re tryin’ to get like a record deal and stuff right?

Marco: No.

Steve: What are you tryin’ to do then?

Marco: Mmm.

Steve: Get a bike gang over in LA. kind of like the Hells angels?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: They have ‘em in every state.

Marco: Kind of like a real hard one, not like a nancy one like those geezers.

Steve: Not like the original, like in Lichtenstein. (Actually the band that share the name of Marco’s band the ‘less macho’ Wolfmen are from Finland).

Marco: No, no, get out!

Steve: So you’re tryin’ to get one in every state, in every country.

Marco: Yeah like a franchise.

Steve: Yeah. Like the Hells Angels.

Marco: Yeah a bit like that.

Steve: Wolfmen.

Marco: Yeah but Wolfmen written in German Writing (Gothic script).

Steve: Like…gay.

Marco: Yeah alright “gay” if you like, yes.

Steve: Gay German writing.

Marco: Like pink German writing.

Steve: Pink bright pink.

Marco: That lights up at disco, Saturday Night fever.

Steve: And no real motorbikes, just like pushbikes.

Marco: No cant ride a real motorbike can we? Might fall off and get hurt.

Steve: And yer thinkin’ of the environment as well aren’t yer?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Like the fumes.

Marco: Well, we’re really thinking most that we don’t want to look stupid.

Steve: Exactly.

Marco: And hurt our knees.

Steve: You don’t wear real helmets, you wear the leather hats.

Marco: With the chains across the front, yes.

Steve: Yes, so if you wore helmets you’d fall over, you’d hurt yer (h)‘ead.

Marco: Yeah exactly.

Steve: That’s it.

Marco: Well you know, you’ve done it.

Steve: Yeah, I’m no mug.

Both laugh.

Steve: So do you think you’re gonna get a record deal?

Marco: (Clearing throat) I wouldn’t have thought so, no.

Steve: Whole different ball game innit?

Marco: Yeah, no it’s completely different.

Steve: So what’s yer plan then? Give us a bit of yer plan, what would you like, what would be your perfect thing, you want to happen.

Marco: We’d like to do some music for films, we’d like to get some tracks in big television programmes.

Steve: Yeah so would everyone else but what are you gonna do about it?

Marco: Well, I dunno, we’re not sure about it. We thought if we watched telly enough and sort of you know, rubbed the cds along the screen maybe they’d just sort of get on there.

Steve: You know what?

Marco: Yeah?

Steve: Mind over matter.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: If you don’t mind, it (both together) don’t matter.

Both laugh.

Steve: I’ll help yer.

Marco: Why what are you going to do?

Steve: …but what are you going to do for me?

Marco: What do you want?

Steve: Can you make me like a member of…

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: …the wolfmen.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Can I wear the pink leather hat?

Marco: You can wear what ever you like, as long as it’s really stupid you can wear whatever. Cos of you’ve got yer own bike haven’t you?

Steve: Of course!

Marco: Yeah but we’ve flogged that.

Steve: Oh yeah?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Is there like an initiation?

Marco: Not really, er well unless there’s something you want to particularly…

Steve: You are all gonna roger me?

Marco: If you want us to. There’s no specific initiation but if there’s something you wanna try that you’ve never done, we’ll ‘ave a go.

Steve: Yeah. I want you all to roger me but I’ll make out that I don’t really want it to happen.

Marco: Right.

Steve: So you kind of, you know.

Marco: Oh will you be going? “Oooh no, don’t, oooh no.”

Steve: Yeah, you know yer kinda rapin’ me.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: I want that to happen.

Marco: But it’s like yer pretendin’ ain’t you?

Steve: Yeah but don’t let anyone know.

Marco: No.

Steve: Don’t let the other guys in the gang know.

Both laugh.

Marco: But you gotta (indistinct), while we’re rogerin’ you don’t start laughing and going, “Ooh this is brilliant.”

Steve: (Chokes back a laugh) I wont. Do you know what, the best thing to do is just put some gaffer tape over me mouth. You know what I mean?

Marco: Yeah. Ok.

Steve: Bind me, bind me up.

Marco: Do you want this done like when you don’t know about it like if you’re sittin’ at home one night and we just break in?

Steve: No, I want it when I’m on the bike goin’ down the street.

Marco: No that’s stupid, we have to catch you,runnin’ down the street, catch you, wouldn’t we?

Steve: Ok. then at my house, then when I’m asleep. I’ll leave the door unlocked make it easier for you to get in.

Marco: Alright.

Steve: Just don’t.

Marco: Ok. We won’t wake you up though.

Steve: I don’t want any warnin’s.

Marco: No you won’t get any warnin’s

Steve: Some gaffer tape, bind me. String…

Marco: We’ll just break in one night without phoning you up and warning you.

Steve: But don’t kill me.

Marco: We’re not going to kill you, no we wont kill you.

Steve: Lets play some Adam and the Ants, are you playing guitar on this?

Marco: Yes well I don’t know, I don’t know what you’re gonna play.

Steve: “You’re so physical.” You wrote this as well didn’t you?

Marco: No Adam wrote this. I didn’t write this.

Steve: You wrote a lot of the songs? Co –wrote, like the music?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: And he wrote the lyrics. Alright then, lets play, “You’re so physical,” off… there’s two versions, there’s a version on the BBC that’s pretty good…

Marco: That’s got Matthew on it. Matthew Ashman.

Steve: Oh, no wonder I like that version better.

Marco: You bastard.

Steve: No that’s alright, ok lets take it away, we’re here with Marco Pironni, we’re gonna play some of his guitar work.

Plays the version which appeared on the “b” side of the “Dog eat dog.” single. They return after playing some other songs. The mash up “Problems at the Gaybar” (Go home productions) which Steve dedicates to Marco’s band.

Steve: (referring to the song) Physical, (You’re So). Why’s it in brackets, (You’re so)?

Marco: I don’t know. Cos Adam wanted it like that I think. He wanted it written like that and we thought, “alright if that’s what you want, you can have it, we don’t mind.”

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: It doesn’t make any sense but if it makes you happy.

Steve: Well he’s a singer, he makes things difficult,

Marco: For himself.

Steve: And everyone else around him.

Marco: Why, nobody knows.

Steve: But we was talking about how difficult Morrisey is and then we were talking about..well all singers are difficult.

Marco: And how some singers…even more difficult than others and they make life so difficult that it becomes impossible and so nothing ever happens. So they sabotage themselves.

Steve: It is, it’s definitely a sabotage thing going on there.

Marco: By the way, I’m not saying that Adam is like that.

Steve: Well who are you saying then?

Marco: Well I can’t tell you who I’m talking about but I’m not talking about him in particular.

Steve: Yeah I’m not talking about Johnny Rotten then.

Marco: You are. James Baker.

Steve: I'm talking about every other singer apart from Adam and the Ant and Johnny Rotten.

Marco: Yeah, they’re all bastards.

Steve: Yeah?

Marco: Yeah. Although I met that bloke out of the Spindoctors the other day, he seemed alright. He claimed to not be difficult.

Steve: Is he a singer?

Marco: Yeah, so I didn’t believe him, obviously. But he wasn’t being difficult actually when I was talking to him, he was actually friendly but then again he (indistinct).

Steve: He might have been after something.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: What about Dave Berry, he’s difficult.

Marco: He’s just stupid.

Steve: Wants to hide behind things. That’s difficult.

Marco: Yeah that’s difficult. Because the rest of the band might say, “look this is stupid.”

Steve: We want to be seen and he’s like, “No we wanna hide.” That’s difficult.

Marco: That is really difficult but it’s also stupid.

Steve: Who else, you know, pick any band and lets think of the singer.

Marco: Did we say Morrisey?

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: I know who is really difficult. That bloke out of Van Halen. He’s really difficult, er that bloke who used to be in Van Halen.

Steve: David Lee Roth.

Marco: Yeah and they threw him out.

Steve: Yeah another lunatic.

Marco: Didn’t they reform at the MTV.awards and they only reformed for about fifteen minutes and they couldn’t stand him? Like he was alright before they said, “we reformed,” they were probably getting on. Soon as they were back in the band, 10 minutes later, they had split.

Steve: No I know. Unfortunately that’s just the way it is, that’s the making of the singer entertainer, front men. There’s a lot of, for them to be as good as they are you have to deal with their baggage.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: That’s it and that’s their two bob and then no one cares about them and it doesn’t matter if they’re nice to get along with cos their rubbish.

Marco: Yeah. It’s like if they’re great and they go out on stage and they’re brilliant, you think I’ll deal with it.

Steve: I’ll swallow it. (Belches).

Marco: I’ll swallow it, because they are in fact really good and it is difficult to do it, so you think I’ll put up with it.

Steve: Yeah, I couldn’t do it.

Marco: No.

Steve: It’s a certain type that does it.

Marco: Yeah. I couldn’t do it either.

Steve: Do you think there’s certain types of bass players, drummers and guitar players or they’re just replaceable?

Marco: Um, no I don’t think they’re replaceable, not guitar players, no.

Steve: I’m not.

Marco: No, or me.

Steve: I’m well good

Marco: (laughing) Me too, I’m brilliant.

Steve: Yeah?

Marco: Yeah. People always say, “You’re completely irreplaceable, you are.” That’s what they say.

Steve: About me?

Marco: Yeah.

Advertising break.

Work in progress – more to come! Including some stuff about Satellite and the infamous 100 club punk festival gig, Sid's debut.

CwA

Steve: You’re listenin’to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 103.1 with my guest Marco Pirroni. If you don’t know who that is, he was the guitar player in that Adam and the Ant.

Marco: Ants.

Steve: Ants.

Marco: Adam and the Ant.

Steve: Founder member, right?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: You were the man.

Marco: I’m the founder member of the Wolfmen and…

Steve: And you found them and all.

Marco: Gay bike gang.

Steve: Pink. Did you er, have you been since then, you ‘aven’t really done much ‘ave yer?

Marco (Deadpan) No Steve, I’ve done nothing since then. Laughter from Mr Shovel and Marco.

Steve: Do you get bored?

Marco: Yeah I get extremely bored.

Steve: Is that why you’ve started this band, just to do something?

Marco: Er Well I started this band because, yeah, I’ve never really thought of it like that but it wasn’t just to do something but it’s like er – well it’s what I do, innit? And if you don’t do it, you get miserable.

Steve: Yeah but you ain’t done it in years.

Marco: Well I’ve been miserable for years, that’s why.

Steve: Exactly.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah... I... (musing).

Marco: What do you mean, “you ain’t done it in years and you’ve been…?” (laughing).

Steve: How long’s Ant, have you played with Ants? How long’s that been?

Marco: Well I think the Ants split up in ’84 or something but I - you know - I still played with Adam for years after that. I played with Sinead O’ Connor, then I went back to playing with Adam, so it hasn’t been that long since I aven’t done it.

Steve: Have you spoke to Adam lately?

Marco: I haven’t spoken to him but I sort of heard from him. I spoke to him about a year ago was, that was the last time I spoke to him actually.

Steve: How was he doin’ a year ago?

Marco: He was alright a year ago, I mean he is “alright.” He’s fine. Quite exactly where he’s at, I don’t know. I don’t really understand. He’s just had his book out in London.

Steve: Yeah?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: What’s it about?

Marco: About him! He’s a singer, it’s bound to be about him, innit?

Both laugh.

Steve: Have you ever thought about doin’ a book?

Marco: Yeah, but it wouldn’t be about me, cos I’m not a singer.

Steve: Right.

Marco: Probably be about you.

Steve: Well that’s alright.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Do it then!

Marco: Alright.

Steve: I think you should.

Marco: It’d be called, “I love Steve Jones, he’s brilliant!…and here’s why.

Steve: “He started me playing guitar when he heard the riff to “Satellite.”

Marco: I could play guitar already before I heard the riff to “Satellite.”

Steve: Don’t – throw me off.

Marco: Alright. Ok. (Going along with Steve) “I couldn’t play guitar at all, until I heard the riff to “Satellite.” Suddenly, amazingly…

Steve: A light went off.

Marco: Yeah. Whatever light that was in my brain went off and I could play “Satellite.”

Steve: You actually played with Sid with one gig, right?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: And there’s pictures to prove it.

Marco: Yeah there’s real pictures to prove it. Unphotoshopped pictures to prove it.

Both laugh.

Steve: At the 100 club, was it the Punk Festival?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: And Sid was playin’ drums?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: You were playin’ guitar, Siouxsie was singing. And who else was in it?

Marco: Steve Severin.

Steve: Steve Havoc.

Marco: Steve Havoc as he was at the time.

Steve: That’s a silly name.

Marco: That’s a stupid name.

Steve: Don’t make no sense.

Marco: Yeah you know especially if you know Steve, he’s like the least Havoc causing person, in fact Steve Havoc, I always thought it sounded a bit like action-man (GI. Joe) or summin, one of them.

Steve: He should have changed it to “Steve Haddock…”

Marco: Laughing.

Steve: …would have been a better name. I often think to myself, “Why didn’t I call myself something?”

Marco: Well why didn’t you call yourself “Steve Haddock?”

Steve: No I don’t like that name. I wanted more of a – not so much a punk name – like the stereotypical like what he did, called himself, “Steve Havoc.”

Marco: Yeah but we didn’t know what punk names were, no one had punk names apart from Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious and of course the great, “Steve Havoc.”

Steve: Right.

Mr. Shovel: Noxious.

Steve: Who?

Steve: Yeah, there’s Ken, all these other blokes later called themselves silly names.

Marco: Stupid names, like, you know…

Steve: “Captain Sensible.” Which actually ain’t a bad name.

Marco: That’s actually one of the ones that’s alright. No Rat Scabies is a stupid name.

Steve: Yeah. You don’t like that?

Marco: No.

Steve: I don’t mind that, it’s a bit, bit stupid.

Marco: Johnny Moped was a good name.

Steve: Johnny Moped.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: What would you call me if you had to come up with a name for me?

Marco: Well there’s millions.

Steve: Well give us one.

Marco: (exhaling deeply)

Steve: Off the top of yer head.

Marco: “Steve Homo.”

Laughter from Mr. Shovel and Marco.

Steve: I like that! That’s good.

Marco: Because I think that anyone who looks at you immediately thinks, “Steve Homo.”

Steve: Really?

Marco: Yeah, Steve “Big” Homo, is what they think about you.

Steve: I bet I’ve had more crumpet than you ‘ave.

Marco: I bet you have.

Steve: There’s pictures to prove it.

Marco: Yeah I bet there is.

Steve: Not photoshopped ones either!

Marco: No I bet there aren’t.

Steve: You know that an' all!

Marco: Yeah I do know it.

Steve: You know what I was like.

Marco: Yeah. Are you still like that?

Steve: Yeah but I’m older.

Someone takes a swig from a drink and gulps.

Steve: Didn’t you…?

Marco: Alright, ok.

Steve: Go on, what?

Marco: Nothing.

Steve: Come on, spit it out! Come on, now you’ve got your chance.

Marco: While you’re drinking can you like, you know like when ventriloquists got a dummy…?

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: And they talk while they are drinking a glass of milk?

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: Can you do that on the radio?

Steve: Yeah but no one can see ya.

Marco: Yeah I know but that’s the whole point of doing it, isn’t it?

Steve: Ok. I can drink it right now!

More general laughter.

Steve: So what else you up to?

Marco: That’s it!

Steve: See how good I did that?

Marco: Yeah, that was brilliant. (To the listeners) He is in fact drinking a glass of milk as he is doing it!

Steve: So what else and er yeah, it’s a lovely day out today.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: 82 degrees. How was that?

Marco: That’s fine. I’m not up to anything, I’m doing the Wolfmen, that’s all I’m doing really.

Steve: Yeah. Trying to get a franchise on the gay bike gang.

Marco: Yeah. I’m trying to make a load of money on the Wolfmen before the other Wolfmen find out that we’re nicked their name.

Steve: You know what, you’d probably make more dough…

Marco: What?

Steve: …having a gay bike gang called, “The Wolfmen from Lichtenstein.”…

Marco: And franchising it.

Steve: …than messing about with music.

Marco: No I know. You’re right and then you could do kind of like Wolfmen “Health clubs” and aftershave.

Steve: Dolls.

Marco: Dolls. What else? Um…mousemats.

Steve: Bike chains.

Marco: Bike chains.

Steve: Pink leather hats.

Marco: With chains across the front.

Steve: Yeah chains across the front, yeah.

Marco: That’s really important that…

Steve: What are the things on the bike on the back wheels?

Marco: Those training wheels.

Steve: Training wheels. You could put “Wolfmother” on the side of them.

Marco: Yeah. That’d look really hard.

Steve: “Wolfmen,” I mean.

Marco: And satchels.

Steve: Satchels.

Marco: Big wolf’s head on the thing.

Steve: Leather though.

Marco: Oh yeah like a really hard looking, stupid studded satchel with like a wolf’s head on it. Or what are those…remember those sort of streamers that you used to get on your handlebars?

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: Like black ones. Black and pink ones, that’d be nice.

Steve: (Of) course!

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Gotta have them mate. See there’s a whole gamut of things that you could be selling.

Marco: I know.

Steve: Forget music.

Marco: I know.

Steve: You’re wastin’your time.

Marco: I know ah yeah, you’re right.

Steve: You gotta leave it up to the wolfmothers now.

Marco: I’d rather not leave it up to them because if they’re gonna make records like that then, well I dunno what, I’m gonna kill myself.

Steve: They’re pretty popular but I don’t know if it’s gonna

Marco: They’re not popular with me.

Steve: It might be a fad though, kinda Retro…

Marco: What progressive music? “Progressive Rock.” Do you remember we used to go into record shops and there used to be a section was like, “Progressive Rock?”

Steve: Yeah. That was really depressin’

Marco: Cause it was huge it was huge, it was most of the counter was that. (Demonstrating with arms?)

Steve: It was flares and clogs and…

Marco: Scarves.

Steve: And moustaches and long hair.

Marco: Yeah and jeanshirts.

Steve: That was depressin’. It wasn’t appealing to me.

Marco: No, or me.

Steve: Was you a big fan of Roxy Music?

Marco: A massive fan of Roxy Music, in fact I still am.

Steve: Great, they're great ain’t they?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: I love ‘em.

Marco: So what you say, “there were two blokes makin’ a documentary?”

Steve: I dunno if it’s two blokes but they’re doin’ a Roxy Music documentary that I participated in.

Marco: Right. Why don’t they ask me?

Steve: I actually mentioned before we started filming, they said that they saw you at the hotel, they’re stayin’ at the same hotel. I said to ‘em I said, “Marco, I bet ” I said, “he’d be good,” I said, “I bet he’s a big Roxy Music fan.”

Marco: I’m a massive Roxy Music...I’d love to do it.

Steve: I said, “anyone,” I said, “I bet Siouxsie, I bet all them…”

Marco: Everybody would be…

Steve: Anyone from that era, they all was involved in that time, would be massive Roxy Music fans and I told them that.

Marco: Cos you, the Pistols were called “The Strand.”

Steve: Exactly. I said that. Before Rotten it was me and Cookie and Wally we called ourselves, “Strand” for ten minutes.

Marco: Cos of the song?

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: You dummy, ‘cause, what did you think it was?

Marco: I dunno. Well obviously I knew that, well I guessed that.

Steve: You knew.

Marco: Yeah, of course I knew. So what shall I do, how can I find these blokes?

Steve: They wasn’t interested in ya.

Marco: Really?

Steve: When I mentioned it, yeah.

Marco: What like really like? “No we don’t care.”

Steve: They said er…

Marco: “He’s rubbish.”

Steve: They said, “We don’t want ‘im, he can’t even play Satellite!” both laugh.

Marco: What the…I can’t play “Satellite?” You came round my house and I had to teach you how to play “Satellite.”

Steve: No Chris Spedding played “Satellite,” mate.

Marco: Oh yeah, that’s right cos he played guitar on all the Sex Pistol songs didn’t he?

Steve: Yeah. But I want to go back to…how did that come about with Sid playin’ drums? This was obviously before Adam?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: And was that like you guys formin’ a band right there and then?

Marco: No, it wasn’t at all like formin’ a band. Malcolm had said that Siouxsie and Steve should have a band. I don’t know if they wanted to, they probably didn’t.

Steve: Because they were part of the Bromley Contingent?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: They used to come to all the Pistol gigs.

Marco: Yeah and he said (Mock creepy Malcolm Maclaren voice) “Oh you should have a band.” You know what he used to be like and they said, “Yes.” Not in fact probably meaning, “Yes,” probably meaning, “No,” is what they really meant.

Steve: Right, that’s why you say, “Yes” when you mean “No”.

Marco: Well yeah, well you know what Malcolm’s like, you say “Yes” to Malcolm, to shut ‘im up so he’ll go away.

Steve: Right. Go on then.

Marco: “Yes go away do what ever you want, just leave me alone Malcolm.”

Steve: Yeah, “take me money, I don’t care.”

Marco: Yeah. So he put them on the poster with you lot and so they had to get a band together but I think they kind of avoided, you know skirted round the subject and hadn’t thought about it ‘til about…

Steve: The day of.

Marco: It was actually Sunday night and the festival was on Tuesday night, so they had a day to get it together. And they hadn’t bothered to you know, sort of think about it and Billy Idol was going to play guitar but then, he didn’t want to do it. So then they asked Sid…no, didn’t they ask me, I can’t remember. They asked both of us cos…

Steve: Could you play guitar at this point?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: You could play a bit of guitar.

Marco: I’d learned to play “Satellite,” before you’d actually recorded it, or written it in fact.

Steve: I understand.

Marco: Yeah (Laughing).

Steve: I get that a lot. Lot of blokes come up to me and say that.

Marco: Yeah, I get that a lot they say, “I invented…”

Steve: They say. (Changing tack again to the 100 Club) How did you come on the scene to be in the band then, Malcolm asked you?

Marco: No, no,no, Malcolm didn’t ask me, Siouxsie and Steve asked me.

Steve: Cos you were friends with them?

Marco: Yeah well I wasn’t really friends with them, I just knew them and someone said, “Marco can play guitar.” And they said, “Do you want to do it?” I said, “Yeah alright.” And that was it really.

Steve: And then how did Sid come about?

Marco: They’d asked him separately but they wanted him to play drums and I didn’t know he could play drums, in fact no one knew he could play drums.

Steve: You actually did a couple of songs didn’t you?

Marco: No we didn’t do any songs.

Steve: You did, I remember hearing you guys bashing away there or something.

Marco: No but…

Steve: Was that in the soundcheck?

Marco: No we didn’t do a soundcheck. We didn’t know what a soundcheck was.

Steve: But there’s pictures of you on the stage!

Marco: No what we were gonna do was we tried to rehearse…We were gonna do a set of cover versions of songs we didn’t like.

Steve: Right.

Marco: And then so…but then we tried to play one of these songs we didn’t like which I think was “Captain Scarlet” or something. (The theme from Gerry Anderson puppet tv. show - in the same type as Thunderbirds). Or some other song that we really didn’t like so we thought, “That’s a great… we hate that song, we must do it.” And we couldn’t play it…I could play it a little bit, I could play the first bit. But it…well really after 30 seconds, we realised we couldn’t play at all. So we decided instead of there and then saying, “We can’t play, we don’t have any songs, we can’t play any songs, we’ve never had any stage experience.” Instead of there and then saying, “It’s probably best we don’t do it,” we didn’t think that. We thought, “Lets just do it anyway.” It was like that really.

Steve: So you did it!

Marco: We did it, yeah.

Steve: That’s what I’m saying!

Marco: What?

Steve: You played!

Mr. Shovel: (Laughing).

Marco: No…Yes, yeah but we didn’t play any songs, we didn’t have any songs.

Steve: Oh, you’re doing the “Yes No” thing. “Yes” means “No,” thing?

Marco: No.

Steve: That means “Yes” then!

Marco: I don’t know. Look we didn’t have any…we didn’t play any songs, we didn’t have any songs, did we?

Steve: I know but I remember seeing you.

Marco: But we played.

Steve: Yeah right.

Marco: But we played but we didn’t have any songs you said, “You played some songs.” We didn’t play any songs, didn’t know any songs.

Steve: So what did you actually do on the stage then?

Marco: We made an enor…(mous) I just made loads and loads of feedback and after about 10 minutes, right? So it was supposed to be like. Basically after we’d about 2 minutes we started, I started thinking actually, “This is alright.” It’s sort of like “Sister Ray,” as done by the Glitter Band. I think, sort of good idea really.

Steve: So after the gig, what happened? Why didn’t you continue?

Marco: We didn’t continue because, well you know Sue (Siouxsie) and Steve wanted to have a serious band and they didn’t want a band with two idiots like me and Steve, er like me and Sid.

Steve: Right.

Marco: And then Sid got arrested the next night so that was all over.

Steve: Really, what for?

Marco: You know for throwin’ the glass.

Steve: At Bob Harris?

Marco: No he threw it at um…

Steve: Nick Kent?

Marco: No, that bloke out of the Damned, cos he was wearin’ white flares. (Variant tale of this infamous incident, other sources cite that Sid wasn’t even present that night the Sex Pistols played).

Steve: Captain Sensible?

Marco: Yeah But it missed, it missed and then it hit some girl in the eye. (Shattered against a pillar, spraying glass some of which went into this girl’s eye, is the conventional story). Then they carted ‘im off.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: And then they put him in Ashford Remand Home for about two weeks.

Steve: I was in there too.

Marco: Were you?

Steve: Yeah for about two weeks yeah, ‘orrible place cos like, it was like a proper prison, they had cells with the little peep’oles. Scary place.

Marco: OK. So then they let ‘im out and then he, he joined you lot.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: So then the, the whole thing sort of fell apart and then Siouxsie and Sid never called me.

Steve: What did you think of…did you see the Pistols with Sid playin’ bass?

Marco: Er yeah I did, I saw you, er when you did Screen on The Green, the first time you did Screen on the Green.

Steve: Well the first time we did it was with Glen.

Marco: No, no,no. The first time you did it with Sid.

Steve: OK.

Marco: You did it twice with Glen, didn’t you?

Steve: So what did you think, did you think back then?

Marco: “What did I think?” “Did I think then?”

Steve: Yeah, did you actually use your head?

Marco: No.

Steve: Did you think it was better with or without?

Marco: I thought it was better with Glen.

Steve: Yeah.. Better chemistry?

Marco: Better chemistry.

Steve: Even though Sid looked the part?

Marco: Yeah, he looked brilliant, in fact, I hate to say this but you all looked brilliant that night. There was a particular bit where Johnny, wassisname?

Steve: Rotten.

Marco: Put his arms up in the air, it was just, it was f…it was great.

Steve: Don’t swear.

Marco: Sorry. It was brilliant. No I didn’t swear.

Steve: You almost.

Marco: But I don’t know, I don’t know, yeah you’re right, the chemistry was weird. The chemistry was offset.

Steve: I think he would have been a good front man, Sid.

Marco: I think he would have done actually.

Steve: The chemistry was messed up for me because…

Marco: But I tell you what I thought, I though that because there was you and Paul and Glen you could all play. I know that everyone says that you couldn’t but you actually could. You were actually a really good band. And that all works with Rotten being in the middle being mental.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: But two mental people and two sort of sensible people doesn’t work. It all throws it all off.

Steve: No you’re right, I agree. And because of that, it didn’t last that long.

Marco: No, it couldn’t do really. Because if you’ve got, you know it’s like (indistinct the oldest?) being in a band, it’s like one person can spoil the thing for…cos it doesn’t matter about how hard the three others work.

Steve: If you had like the, lets just say like The Who f’rinstance? If you had another bloke like the ox, who was like Townshend jumpin’ around like a lunatic…

Marco: It wouldn’t work. No if you had another…no exactly cos it would just be everywhere. There would be nothing to anchor it down.

Steve: Oh well, that was a nice story.

Break for another set of songs. One of which is the Go Home Productions Sex Pistols Cher mash-up “No Feelings for Cher.”

Marco: So the Sex Pistols were an offshoot of the Strand?

Steve: Pretty much, yeah. That’s why we picked Chris…

Marco: Well how many songs did you ‘ave? What songs did you do when you were in the Strand?

Steve: I think we ‘ad “Did you no Wrong.” And some Small Faces songs, “All or nothing.”

Marco: Did you do er…

Steve: A song called “Scarface.” That er…

Marco: What was that, “Understanding?”

Steve: That was a Small Faces song I think yeah.

Marco: I remember that song but you stopped doing it didn’t you?

Steve: I don’t remember.

Marco: No you did it in the Pistols but then you stopped doing it.

Steve: Really?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: We actually played it?

Marco: Well I thought you did, yeah, no you did. I thought I’d dreamt it but apparently someone else said you did. (Ahem. A live version of “Understanding” is on the Virgin “Sex Box” 3cd. set. As Phil over at Sex-Pistols.net says, an essential collection for any Sex Pistols fan. ”Understanding” was in the Sex Pistols set but probably dropped according to the sleeve notes because Lydon felt that the Pistols had enough Small Faces covers already. This is not an exact quote of Lydon or the sleeve notes but that’s the gist of the speculation). Back to the interview…

Steve: Well maybe they dreamt the same dream.

Marco: But it’s never been kind of recorded in the, “Annals”.

Steve: Yeah I don’t remember playin’ it live.

Marco: Well you did.

Steve: Maybe you came down to a rehearsal or somethin’?

Marco: Now I did come to your rehearsals once.

Steve: That’s how you nicked the bleedin’ riff off of “Satellite.”

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: And before that was Cher singing “No feelings.”

Marco: That was brilliant!

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: Do you make these records at home on your own? (Referring to the Sex Pistol mash-ups in the show).

Steve: No this bloke in England does ‘em in his bedroom. In Watford.

Marco: Do you hire him?

Steve: No he just does ‘em.

Steve: I didn’t mention it to him. Although I have been drivin’ him nuts to do a song by Shabby Tiger. Do you remember Shabby Tiger?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: And some other band and he keeps saying he’s gonna do it but he ain’t. So I’m waiting for that.

They pick up guitars and play a melodic non mental version of “Satellite.”

Steve: I wish I could remember words, I can never remember words

Marco: You don’t have to, you’re a singer.

They have decided to play “Apache” the old Shadows number.

Marco: I should just explain to listeners that I haven’t played “Apache,” for over 30 years.

Steve: Do you want a medal?

Marco: Yeah I do actually, alright. So it’s gonna be rubbish right, so but it was rubbish in the first place.

Steve: That’s good confidence for yer.

Marco: It’s not confidence it’s just…

Steve: No wonder you don’t have a record deal.

Marco: Laughs.

Steve: OK. right I’m gonna start, you’re doin;’ the lead business cos you’ve got the electric.

Marco: Yeah but…alright, it’s gonna be.

Steve: Just get on with it, shut up, ready here we go.

Marco: I’ve forgotten the intro.

Steve: Let me go round a couple of time.

Marco: Sorry.

Steve: You ‘ave ruined it already.

They jam “Apache” The song finishes.

Steve: Stick to the gay bike gang from Lichtenstein.

Marco: Yeah I’m good at that.

Steve: Yeah, at lookin’ ‘ard…

Marco: Gay biking.

Steve: Pink leather hat on yer banana bike.

Marco: You must remember “Motorbikin’?”

Steve: Yeah

Marco: But you know that bloke who played guitars on the Sex Pistol records?

Steve: Chris Spedding?

Marco: Remember ‘im don’t ya?

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: What did he say when he came in, well when you was like playin’ guitar that was probably rubbish and he said, “give us that, I can do it much better than you!”

Steve: No Micky Most said let him play it.

Marco: Alright. So played bass then?

Steve: I went an ‘ad a brass round er Denmark Street while they was doin’ the guitarin’. (Brass rubber=scrubber or prostitute). I spent a tenner on a brass.

Marco: Well that’s alright.

Steve: It all worked out alright.

Marco: Yeah it did.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: How many people think that Chris Spedding played guitar on the Sex Pistol records?

Steve: Well I tell everyone, so…most people.

Marco: Yeah but that’s a double bluff, cos people don’t believe you.

Steve: Well you tell ‘em then!

Marco: Chris Spedding played all the guitars on the Sex Pistol records and all the Adam and the Ants records and all the Roxy Music records.

Steve: Well there you go, now that’s confirmed.

They jam, “The price of love.”

Steve: (Singing)

“I got a gay bike gang in Lichtenstein, they're called the Wolfmen and they're ready to rock.

Advertising break.

Steve: You’re listenin to Jonesy’s jukebox with my guest Marco Pirroni.

Marco: Otherwise known as Morris Plackett.

Steve: His real name is Morris Plackett yeah.

Marco: Who was Morris Plackett? Was he the bloke who owned the shop?

Steve: It was our version of “Guitar centres,” weren’t it – music shop. On Shepherd’s Bush Road it was.

Marco: They’ve got the “Guitar centre” and we had Morris Plackett.

Steve: And rentals you could rent his clobber.

Marco: But you could only rent like Selmer amps couldn’t you?

Steve: Yeah. I nicked a bunch of stuff out of there.

Marco: I did once actually. I nicked some high hats for some reason.

Steve: Yeah?

Marco: That’s probably why they went bust, they never sold anything.

Steve: Morris Plackett, what a name! That would have been a good punk name. Sid Vicious and then there’s Morris Plackett.

They both find the Morris Plackett thing hilarious.

Marco: That’s a great name for you actually.

Steve: Yeah? I like Steve ‘Omo.

Marco: Yeah I like that too.

Steve: Do you want me to change it?

Marco: No!

Steve: Steve Homo.

Marco: No keep it like that forever now.

Steve: Do you remember Omo? It was a washing powder weren’t it?

Marco: Omo yeah. My mum used to use it.

Steve: OMO, like “Persil.” Do you remember Penny for the Guy?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Did you ever make a guy?

Marco: I can’t remember.

Steve: It was Guy Fawkes Sunday weren’t it?

Marco: They don’t still do it though do they? Remember when you could just go in and buy fireworks from any shop? Any age. Like 3 year olds buying massive rockets.

Steve: Bangers, yeah. You can’t do that now?

Marco: No, it’s all against the law.

Steve: Course it’s probably terrorists right? They think it’s bombs goin’ off.

Marco: Yeah probably cos of terrorists and 3 year olds were killing themselves or killing their parents by putting bangers in petrol tanks and things.

Steve: Yeah well that’s alright.

Marco: Who hasn’t done that eh?

They jam again, something “soppy and sincere.”

Marco: That’s rubbish, no the way you are playing it is alright but what you are playing is just kack.

Steve: You’re never gonna get a record deal you know that, you’ve just ruined yer chance now.

Marco: I’ll never work in this town again?

Steve: You’ll never get a record deal, I’m gonna make sure of it. How dare you!

Marco: As I’ve never worked in this town before, it’s never gonna matter.

Steve: How dare you insult me!

Marco: (Laughing) “Don’t you know who I am?”

Steve: Now if anyone wanted to buy any of your music, how would they get it?

Marco: They can’t, they have to rent it.

Steve: From Morris Plackett’s?

They crack up laughing.

Steve: Yeah you have to go down Shepherd’s Bush Road, go in and say.. actually you have to go out the back, it’s like a little password, you say: “Wolfmen, gingers.” They take you in the back...

Marco: And you say, “I’d like to rent a Wolfman single for 24 hours.” You ‘ave to leave ‘em a deposit, like 20p or something and then you ‘ave to bring it back the next day and if you’re late, they charge you extra.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: Did you ever rent anything from Morris Plackett, you never brought anything back did you?

Steve: I don’t remember. I didn’t rent anything, I just nicked everything.

Marco: No I don’t think I ever rented anything from Morris Plackett. What’s those other people, Orange, what about them? Weird…

Steve: Down Shaftesbury Avenue.

Marco: Yeah that was a weird concept for an amp, “lets make it orange.” Why?

Steve: Cos it’s bright and everyone’ll look at it.

Marco: Yeah but you don’t want ‘em to look at it, do you?

Steve: It draws everyone’s attention.

Marco: Yeah lets put like huge knobs on it, so it’s like a Chad Valley (Toy manufacturer).

Steve: It was pants. It didn’t sound any good did it?

Marco: No. It looked rubbish and they were rubbish.

Steve: Sounded rubbish, no one back in the day used that stuff.

Marco: Some people did.

Steve: Progressive Rock Stuff.

Marco: No people in Gentle Giant, I bet they had one. They probably had an orange bass rig, didn’t they?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Marco: But no I don’t know where you can buy a record, you can buy it from Amoeba I think.

Steve: Your record? Do you have a website?

Marco: Yeah. http://www.wolfmen.net/.

Steve: Gay wolfmen Lichtenstein.com

Marco: Yeah but how hard is it to find a band called Wolfmen? You just put Wolfmen in.

Steve: And then dot com?

Marco: Yeah and then these gay bikers come out and that’s not us actually.

Steve: Oh so they might come up if you put Wolfmen in there? The gay blokes?

Marco: Lets find out, the wolfmen.

Steve: Oh you’re THE wolfmen?

Marco: They are THE wolfmen too. We are the Wolfmen, they are the Wolfmen.

Steve: So you’re both the same?

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: Well let’s go and…let’s play a song, what is this, is this your er?

Marco: New single out next week.

Steve: What like you’ve ‘ad singles before?

Marco: No.

Steve: This is the debut single.

Marco: Debut single, the other thing was an ep.

Steve: What’s this called, this song?

Marco: Called “Karma Sutra.”

Steve: And you’re playin’ guitar?

Marco: I’m playin’guitar.

Steve: And ole matey boy is singing.

Marco: And ole matey boy is singing.

Steve: And who else?

Marco: That’s it.

Steve: Drum machine?

Marco: There’s a drum machine, we wanted to make it like, I dunno why…

Steve: Wanted to make it sound like eighties, kinda?

Marco: Yeah we wanted to make it sound like Depeche Mode. Cos it really really sounds like Depeche Mode.

Steve: Where did you get the drum machine from? Morris Placketts?

Marco: Yes a Korg minipops we got from Morris Plackett’s.

Steve: OK. lets hear it then, this is the debut single of Wolfmen, who knows how long they’re gonna be around but it’s look like they might be doin’ something. They’re tryin’ to look for a record deal right. Are you lookin’ for a record deal?

Marco: No we’re not lookin’ for a record deal.

Steve: (Exasperated) Well what are you doin’ out here then?

Marco: I don’t know. We came to see you.

Steve: OK. How was it then?

Marco: It was brilliant.

Steve: OK. great.

Marco: And we thought you might have some useful advice but I mean that was a stupid idea, you’ve just got stupid advice like, “dress up like gay bikers,” you said.

Steve: That is not stupid.

Marco: Mmm?

Steve: I’m tryin’ to give you an image.

Steve plays a sample: “such a fine line between stupid and clever.”

Steve: See? Lets hear this two bob song.

Steve plays the Wolfmen’s new single “Karma Sutra.” Followed by “Champion the Wonder Horse.”

They return.

Steve: I think you should do that version of “Champion the Wonder Horse.”

Marco: Yeah no, I think you’re right.

Steve: Because it makes sense, a bike gang, wonder horse, you know what I mean?

Marco: Yeah, I know it makes a sort of sense to you, er.

Steve: I’m tryin’ to get you an image here. Pink leather hats.

Marco: Alright, we can do a version for you, what time would you like it?

Steve: Where are you gonna get the gear from…

Marco: Ummm, (Realises another this is another Morris Plackett joke and they both start laughing).

Steve: No one knows what were talkin’ about, you have to have been there I guess.

End of transcription.