Interesting interview.
http://www.brightonnoise.co.uk/preview/?p=31143When Mani left to get back with the Roses were you ever tempted to get into Primal Scream?
(Laughs) I don’t know, I was almost in Primal Scream before, when the first bass player left. Before they got Mani they actually got me in to play with them. And Throb, their guitarist, thought it sounded too much like New Order, so he voted against it, so the lads didn’t have me. I was very upset about it, cos I was single at the time, it would have been wonderful. I did know what they meant, I wasn’t Primal Screamy enough for them, and I made them sound like New Order and Bobby liked that, but Throb didn’t, so it was a shame, but I think it was the best decision for them I must admit. But maybe now they’ll take me on, now I’ve said that, now Mani’s gone.
Did you go and see New Order?
No, no, I was watching it on Youtube, it was quite funny because since the arguing and the fracas between us as people has spilled over into New Order, I’ve noticed that Bernard and Steve have started playing more and more Joy Divison songs. It’s like they’re trying to take it back, musically as well as physically, which is really weird, because why start New Order again with that huge catalogue, and not play New Order but start playing Joy Division, which I presume they must be doing just to spite me. Fucking weird.
Would you enjoy reading one that Barney or Steve wrote?
Yeah, probably, I used Barney’s book that David Nolan wrote as reference. I actually miss Steve a lot, because Steve is quite an encyclopaedia, he’s got a fantastic memory, so the fact that me and Steve are estranged at the moment is quite a bugbear because I know I would have got a lot more things in had me and Steve been talking, which is quite sad actually. But yeah, I would read them, yeah.
Are you hoping for a reconciliation with the other two?
Well it’d make life a lot easier, without a shadow of a doubt, but judging by how far it’s gone, I think unfortunately we’ll be going to the guys with wigs on. And I don’t mean trannies. It’d be a lot cheaper if they were trannies actually, but no, it’ll be the guys with the wigs on deciding who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s a great shame, because at our age you should be getting on with your life, but all around you are people who are not getting on with life. It’s stupid. It’s very destructive, you feel like you’re working just to pay your legal bills, but there’s no grownups in the playground.
Will you be doing another book after the New Order one?
Yeah, well I think I’m going to do the New Order book as two books, the rise and fall of… coming up and coming down, because it’s so long. So at the end of that, I may want to do a book, I may do 100 greatest bass players.
