Zero Magazine Issue 1 by Mike Shaw

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“THE MOST POTENT PROTEST ALBUM OF THE DECADE” – NME “A WORK OF SUBVERSIVE GENIUS” KKKKK – KERRANG! “SIMPLY BRILLIANT” 10 OUT OF 10 - METAL HAMMER

OUT NOW

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INSIDE Sept05Issue 1 8

SMOKE AND MIRRORS News, stories and competitions from around the world.

CACTUS MOUTH On a break from the Wildhearts, Ginger sounds oﬀ about the pen being mightier than the sword!

ROSES FOR THE DEAD With the release of their new album, Funeral For a Friend, ﬁnd themselves back in the fast lane - but can they handle the pace?

BACK IN THE SADDLE Richie Kotzens new band Forty Deuce are happening, and happening now. With one of the best debut albums we’ve heard in a long time, we talk to Richie about the project..

KUNG FU FIGHTING Rich Ward gets all philosophical on our ass.

BRING ON THE PAIN Chris Jericho brings Fozzy to the UK and ﬁnds that life can be pretty cool.

FLAME ON! With the Fantastic Four movie hitting the screens any time now, it was high time somebody talked about CGI and action ﬁgures with these guys.

BILL HICKS The greatest comedian that ever lived? Possibly.

THE DEVIL RIDES OUT Being the scenes with Tyler Bates at Rob Zombie’s new ﬂick The Devil’s Rejects.

SHOOT ‘EM DOWN Dissecting the world of legendary Rock photographer Fin Costello.

VELVET GOLDMINE We get through a whole Velvet Revolver interview without mentioning **** * ***** or ***! Well, we almost did, but we didn’t start it.

LORENZO’S OIL Art from on high or just a bunch of paintings of naked women? Do you really have to ask? Lorenzo Sperlonga shows oﬀ his wares - big time!

LIVE! Papa Roach, T in the Park, Black Label Society, Oasis.. and more!

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WEDNESDAY BLOODY WEDNESDAY Oﬀ kilter and oﬀ the scale – we tortured Wednesday 13 until he gave up the secrets of life, the universe and Scooby Doo. It just had to be done.

SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM Rock on a small scale, whispering and trying to attract some attention. Hardly!

THE TWILIGHT ZONE Kids ﬂick or scary movie. All is not as it seems behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp.. stand up and be counted.

PUSHING FORWARD BACK Audioslave – Kings of the world?

ECCENTRICITY THROUGH SIM PLICITY Not your run of the mill rock band, but The Kills at least have something new to oﬀer the world

SPELLBOUND Ahh.. the way we used to live. Middle earth will never seem the same again

ARRIVING SOMEWHERE... Porcupine Tree’s Steve Wilson gets a grilling

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DARK, BLACK PAST Welcome to Hell. Non-repenting with Paul Booth, owner of the worlds darkest tattoo studio

BIG TOUGH MEN We gave Zodiac Mindwarp a pen and said “write” - this is what happened…

HANGING BY A MOMENT We caught Society One up on hooks at Download. Ouch!

102 THE INVISIBLE KINGDOM Chaos ensues, dogs talk and Batman is redeemed as Grant Morrison knocks himself out.

104 DEVIL’S NIGHT Before the Matrix, Dark City and Nightwatch, there was a small time movie called The Crow...

108 AIR SUPPLY Rock radio is on the rise. Never before has so much been listened to by so many. We start delivering the inside skinny on the best of the best.

111 THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Life on the open road - kinda like Kerouac with guitars. Dean Walker tells it like it is

112 CLUBS Where would we be at the weekend without the assistance of these ﬁne drinking and rocking establishments! This issue, checking out the Krazyhouse in Liverpool. Hard life huh.

118 HARDWARE Dave Kushner gets behind the new breed from Washburn and we look at just what it takes to put on a show like Download!

124 REVIEWS

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News ✭ Gossip ✭ Stuﬀ ✭ Views

Mythical supergroup turns out to be Led Zep!

Behind the Mask

UK ROCK RADIO LISTENERS VOTE LED ZEPP AS THEIR SUPERGROUP

Jorgen Angel/Idols

Listeners of rock radio station Planet Rock have voted Led Zeppelin as their ideal supergroup. The survey was meant to put together listeners’ favourite singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer to make a mythical ‘supergroup’ - but the respective members of Led Zepp topped each of the four surveys. So Robert Plant beat the late Freddie Mercury and the likes of Bon Scott, Roger Daltrey and Bono to be named Best Singer. Jimmy Page won best guitarist, ahead of Guns N’ Roses’ Slash and Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore. Meanwhile John Paul Jones was named top bassist and John Bonham, who died in 1980, won best drummer. Commenting on the results of the station’s survey, presenter Trevor Dann told reporters: “This is an amazing result. Listeners could have voted for any classic rock artists when creating their fantasy supergroup.”

Best Bassist: Lemmie – a close 8th.

The top ten for each category were as follows: Best singer 1. Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) 2. Freddie Mercury (Queen) 3. Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company) 4. David Coverdale (Deep Purple) 5. Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) 6. Bon Scott (AC/DC) 7. Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow) 8. Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac) 9. Roger Daltrey (The Who) 10. Bono (U2)

Best bassist 1. John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) 2. John Entwistle (The Who) 3. Chris Squire (Yes) 4. Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) 5. Geddy Lee (Rush) 6. Jack Bruce (Cream) 7. Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) 8. Lemmy (Motorhead) 9. Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath) 10. Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)

Best guitarist 1. Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) 2. Slash (Guns N’ Roses) 3. Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple) 4. Jimi Hendrix 5. Angus Young (AC/DC) 6. Gary Moore 7. Brian May (Queen) 8. Joe Satriani 9. Steve Vai 10. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)

Best drummer 1. John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) 2. Neil Peart (Rush) 3. Keith Moon (The Who) 4. Cozy Powell (Black Sabbath) 5. Phil Collins (Genesis) 6. Ginger Baker (Cream) 7. Ian Paice (Deep Purple) 8. Roger Taylor (Queen) 9. Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters) 10. Eric Carr (Kiss)

Check it out at: www.planetrock.com

Sixx writes Anti-heroin Book

FROM NEIL GAIMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF AMERICAN GODS, AND DAVE MCKEAN, THE AWARDWINNING ILLUSTRATOR OF CORALINE, COMES MIRRORMASK, AN UPCOMING JIM HENSON COMPANY FILM WRITTEN BY GAIMAN AND DIRECTED BY MCKEAN, SLATED TO PREMIERE IN 2005. Destined to become a classic for fans of Gaiman, cinema, and fantasy alike, MIRRORMASK tells the story of Helena, a fifteen-year-old girl who works for her family's circus. Helena juggles, sells popcorn, and wishes that she could run away from the circus and join the "real world." Then, one day she wakes up to find herself in a magical world filled with fantastic beings and creatures, an alternate reality. It is a land of opposing kingdoms, one perpetually existing in light, the other in constant darkness. These lands have existed in perfect balance, until now. And Helena finds herself about to embark on a most remarkable journey. In the tradition of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, Gaiman wrote the screenplay and McKean directed, using a combination of live-action and CG animation. Lisa Henson, Michael R. Polis and Martin G. Baker are Executive Producers and Simon Moorhead is Producer. The film stars Stephanie Leonidas as Helena, Gina McKee as Helena's mother Joanne, as well as the two Queens, Rob Brydon as Helena's father and Jason Barry as Valentine. To see the most recent trailer from this one-of-a-kind cinematic adventure, go to www.mirrormask.com. Always a man with something to say, Gaiman commented: "Dave McKean and I created the story and the script for MIRRORMASK in the Henson family home in London, surrounded by memorabilia and artifacts from Jim Henson's astonishing career in television and fantasy filmmaking," says Gaiman. "It was a true challenge and inspiration to try to make something today that would be as visually rich, creative, funny, and as moving as Jim Henson's original works."

Crue bassist Nikki Sixx, who has oﬃcially died twice of a heroin overdose, is currently writing a book about his battle with the needle. The Heroin Diaries is his true life account of his relationship with the horse culled from his own diary entries from 1986-87. "I was lucky and now, if I help just one kid make the right decision, then it's worth it. It may give people a new view. If I'd read it, maybe I'd never have stuck a needle in my arm." But then again, maybe not! No word yet on an oﬃcial release date for the book. Sixx is also busy with preproduction issues as the movie The Dirt gears up to go into production hell.

We have 5 SIGNED copies of the Gaiman classic Sandman: Endless Nights to give away. Simply let us know the name of Dream’s little gothic sister. Send your entry to ZERO, The Old School, Higher Kinnerton, Chester CH4 9AJ with the answer in the subject line by August 30. Don’t forget to include your name and address! Watch out for an exclusive interview with Neil in issue 2 of ZERO!

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ZERO

The Electric

Circus

Satan: “I’ve seen better days . . .”

Beast’s real mark devalued to 616! SATANISTS, APOCALYPSE WATCHERS AND HEAVY METAL GUITARISTS MAY HAVE TO ADJUST THEIR DEMONIC NUMEROLOGY AFTER A RECENTLY DECIPHERED ANCIENT BIBLICAL TEXT REVEALED THAT 666 IS NOT THE FABLED NUMBER OF THE BEAST AFTER ALL. A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating to the Third century, gives the more mundane 616 as the mark of the Antichrist. Ellen Aitken, a professor of early Christian history at McGill University, said the discovery appears to spell the end of 666 as the devil's prime number. "This is a very nice piece to find," Dr. Aitken said. "Scholars have argued for a long time over this, and it now seems that 616 was the original number of the beast." The tiny fragment of 1,500-year-old papyrus is written in Greek, the original language of the New Testament, and contains a key passage from the Book of Revelation. Where more conventional versions of the Bible give 666 as the "number of the beast," or the sign of the anti-Christ whose coming is predicted in the book's apocalyptic verses, the older version uses the Greek letters signifying 616. "This is very early confirmation of that number, earlier than any other text we've found of that passage," Dr. Aitken said. "It's probably about 100 years before any other version." The fragment was part of a hoard of previously illegible manuscripts discovered in an ancient garbage dump outside the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. Although the papyrus was first excavated in 1895, it was badly discoloured and damaged. Classics scholars at Oxford University were only recently able to read it using new advanced imaging techniques. Elijah Dann, a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Toronto, said the new number is unlikely to make a dent in the popularity of 666. "Otherwise, a lot of sermons would have to be changed and a lot of movies rewritten," he

said with a laugh. "There's always someone with an active imagination who can put another interpretation on it. "It just shows you that when you study something as cryptic and mystic as the Book of Revelation there's an almost unlimited number of interpretations." The book is thought to have been written by the disciple John and according to the King James Bible, the traditional translation of the passage reads: "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." But Dr. Aitken said that translation was drawn from much later versions of the New Testament than the fragment found in Oxyrhynchus. "When we're talking about the early biblical texts, we're always talking about copies and they are copies made, at best, 150 to 200 years after [the original] was written," she said. "They can have mistakes in the copying, changes for political or theological reasons ... it's like a detective story piecing it all together." Dr. Aitken said, however, that scholars now believe the number in question has very little to do the devil. It was actually a complicated numerical riddle in Greek, meant to represent someone's name, she said. "It's a number puzzle -- the majority opinion seems to be that it refers to [the Roman emperor] Nero." Revelation was actually a thinly disguised political tract, with the names of those being criticized changed to numbers to protect the authors and early Christians from reprisals. "It's a very political document," Dr. Aitken said. "It's a critique of the politics and society of the Roman empire, but it's written in coded language and riddles."

The Cirque de Soleil return to London once again for another round of their frentic mix of circus and drama. Playing from January 5th through to the 29th 2006 at the Royal Albert Hall, this time around they bring along the Alegria show. The themes of the Alegria show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish, are many. Power and the handing down of power over time, the evolution from ancient monarchies to modern democracies, old age, youth -it is against this backdrop that the characters of Alegría play out their lives. Kings' fools, minstrels, beggars, old aristocrats and children make up its universe, along with the clowns, who alone are able to resist the passing of time and the social transformations that accompany it. Tickets are avilable now from all good box oﬃce outlets - it’ll be a blast!

MUSIC LAWYERS LAUNCH MUSIC BIZ BEGINNERS GUIDE Entertainment and media law types Davenport Lyons have produced a beginners guide to all the legal shenanigans that take place in the music world, aiming to provide aspiring artists with a low down on artist management, labels, publishers, copyright and all that stuff. It’s all available in a free 33 page booklet (though, technically a 33 page booklet is actually physically impossible) which can be accessed, whilst stocks last, from this catchy URL: www.davenportlyons.com/www/legal_ services/music_entertainment/music_ survival_guide_form.htm

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ZERO

Heavy Metal Sunshine WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU LEAVE METAL OUT IN THE HOT SUMMER SUN? The Bone Bash 2005. Testament, Cardboard Vampires, Queensryche and Judas Priest. The Bay Area’s local hard rock radio station, The Bone 107.7FM, flipped summer on it’s side like a burger on the grill, with some of metal’s finest. I, of course, spent most of the event, in the bar like any good metalhead. So, wanting to catch up with folks, and my love for the drink, I stumbled into the area at what turned out to be, the only key moments of the day’s Geoff Tate – past sell by date? events. I must say, it was definitely a day for the old school. Local metalhead’s were bobbing about, catching up on each other’s miscellaneous sobriety, tales of sporadic parenting, and comparing hairline recession. And besides the awesome AC/DC tribute band, Long Gone Bon, and the half naked beauty pageant, there was tons of fun for the whole family.

The Global Village

“Judas Priest took the stage and never gave it back. In the dark days of Mordor, an evil poured over the stone walls into the valleys and covered the heart’s of men, turning them black as coal.” With the all mighty TESTAMENT reforming and tearing down the aural cavities of every rivethead in the crowd, the day was off to a ripping start. Even with the hot sun baking all those butts incased in leather britches, the crowd managed to cool each other from all the hair whipping and head-banging, as if a field of metal propelled turbines generated a breeze to fan the masses. Ripping through the classics like a child goes through Christmas presents, they pulled every gem from their, oh so black bag-of-tricks. Ex-Exodus frontman, Steve Souza, bounded on-stage to end the set, which met with the crowd’s resounding approval. TESTAMENT will also (as a side note) be headlining a local gig, THRASH AGAINST CANCER, where old school returns to raise money for families, who have fallen victim to cancer, www. thrashagainstcancer.com with the likes of Laaz Rockit, Hirax, Vicious Rumors, Agent Steel and many more. To be honest, I completely missed Cardboard Vampires, and I only saw half a song of Queensryche, wasn’t too impressed. And being that it was 500 degrees in the shade, I immediately returned to the bar to take mental notes. And to drink. Not very fair, but life is cruel. Judas Priest took the stage and never gave it back. In the dark days of Mordor, an evil poured over the stone walls into the valleys and covered the heart’s of men, turning them black as coal. The demonic sirens that howled the arrival of impending doom must have sounded like the vocal shrapnel that Halford spits into our ears every time we see the Priest. Sheer perfection, metal to the nines, pure power at ramming speed, Judas Priest hit the audience with everything and sounded as if they had never parted. Halford demands complete attention and the dual guitar shredding of Tipton and K.K., kept the crowd drooling for more. Breaking the Law had us all on our feet, and Screaming For Vengeance blew every head clean off it’s perch. Absolutely crushing. The temperature had dropped by this time, but Priest kept the fire going, blazing through every imaginable classic track. Sunburned, hung over and soaked with sweat, I managed to pass out in my friend’s car, and made it home without puking. I call that a good day. Mark DeVito

Rock album chart: 1 FOO FIGHTERS IN YOUR HONOR (Raskulinecz/Foo Fighters) RCA 82876701952 (ARV)

UFC Boiling Point! IT’S GOING TO BE A HOT ONE!

2 GREEN DAY AMERICAN IDIOT (Cavallo/Green Day) Reprise 9362488502 (TEN)

3 GREEN DAY INTERNATIONAL SUPERHITS (Green Day/Cavallo/Finn) Reprise 9362481452 (TEN)

The latest UFC PPV event has been announced for August 20, 2005. Titled Boiling Point, fans will get a chance to see Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell defend his light heavyweight crown in a ‘grudge’ match against Jeremy Horn – who was the ﬁrst person ever to have beaten Chuck in the UFC. Also on the bill will be Randy Couture up against Mike Van Arsdale. With an extra six bouts still to be announced, it’s going to be one of the best PPV events that the UFC have ever had. The event will be screened on Sky as part of the Bravo channels commitment to supporting the UFC. Check listings for details.

4 FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND HOURS (Date/Funeral For A Friend) Atlantic 5046784442 (TEN)

5 SYSTEM OF A DOWN MEZMERIZE (Rubin/Malakian) American/Columbia 5190002 (TEN)

Long Gone Bon: Awesome – apparently!

6 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE SONGS FOR THE DEAF (Homme/Valentine/Kasper) Interscope/Polydor 4934440 (U)

7 NIRVANA IN UTERO (Albini) Geﬀen/Polydor GED 24536 (ARV)

8 INME WHITE BUTTERFLY (Abraham) V2 PBCDS001NME (P)

9 MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE THREE CHEERS FOR SWEET REVENGE (Benson) WEA WB486152 (TEN)

10 ALKALINE TRIO CRIMSON (Finn) Vagrant VRUK012CD (V/THE)

Carbon Nation PORCUPINE TREE FANZINE NOW AVAILABLE. Each issue has included exclusive interviews with band members and photos from both on stage and behind the scenes. The current issue features exclusive interviews with Steven Wilson and John Wesley. For more details visit the website: www.carbon-nation.co.uk or email info@carbon-nation.co.uk

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THE DEFINITIVE

WAR COLLECTION

Patton A critically acclaimed film that won seven Academy Awards®* Patton is a riveting portrait of one of the 20th Century military geniuses.

Tigerland Charismatic Rolan (Colin Farrell) goes to Tigerland, where his leadership and character bring his men together – triggering extraordinary consequences.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Heroism. Horror. Tragedy. Victory. When 20th century nations went to war, Hollywood cinema bore witness to their epoch-defining struggles, as reflected in this stunning DVD box-set of classic and modern war films. War is hell but, at its best, film helps lead

Epic reconstructions of Pearl Harbour

us out of the inferno: War movies can be key

(Tora! Tora! Tora!) or Stalingrad (Enemy at

to unlocking complex emotions about

the Gates) convey the magnitude of such

traumatic times. They allow us to

cataclysmic world events. Intimate tales of

acknowledge man’s insatiable, destructive

bravery in more contentious engagements

lust for power; to celebrate the human spirit’s

like the Balkans (Behind Enemy Lines) and

triumph over unimaginable adversity.

the Gulf (Courage Under Fire) highlight the individual sacrifices men – and women –

Tora! Tora! Tora! is the Japanese signal to attack – and the movie meticulously recreates the attack on Pearl Harbour and the events leading up to it.

Thin Red Line George Clooney, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and Woody Harrelson explode into action in the hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II.

Twelve O Clock High This gritty World War II action drama staring Gregory Peck, Dean Jagger and Hugh Marlowe is seen as one of the most realistic portrayals of heroics at war.

Behind Enemy Lines Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson excel in this high-flying action thriller, set during the Bosnian conflict, with explosive excitement at every turn.

made to defend freedom.

From all-star blockbuster (The Longest Day) to acclaimed independent (Tigerland), this DVD

The Longest Day Winner of two Academy Awards®** The Longest Day ranks as one of Hollywood’s truly great war films.

collection is packed with action and emotion. ®

It features several Oscar -winners and an array of Hollywood’s finest: screen icons John Wayne, Gregory Peck and Frank Sinatra; and contemporary stars Sean Penn, Jude Law and

VON RYAN’S EXPRESS Sinatra vs the Nazis in a rip-roaring adventure that’ll have you cheering along!

Denzel Washington.

on sale 8 augUST

Enemy At The Gates It’s 1942 and the German and Russian armies are embroiled in one of the most momentous battles of WW2. Starring Jude Law and Joseph Finnes.

Courage Under Fire

Available from

© 2005 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved. © 2005 Pathé Distribution Limited. All Rights Reserved. Oscar ® and Academy Award® are the registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. *Patton – winner of 7 Academy Awards® (1971): Best Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material. ** The Longest Day – winner of 2 Academy Awards® (1962): Special Effects, Cinematography

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Featuring outstanding performances and riveting action-packed battle scenes, this is a moving and unforgettable film. Starring Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan.

20/7/05 12:41:09

Rizla Get Inspired With Merchandise

International London Tattoo Convention

Following the news a few weeks back that Rizla had launched some limited edition pack designs for the festival season, they now tell us they have launched a range of limited edition merchandise, including slipmats, t-shirts and an iPod case.

The debut International London Tattoo Convention, which takes place October 7th, 8th and 9th at The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, will bring together over 150 of the most talented tattoo artists from all around the world. This will be the ﬁrst ever global gathering devoted to body art in London, and will feature a host of diverse related attractions. The list of artists from around the world who will be setting up stall at the convention reads like a who’s who of the royalty of the tattoo world. Top artists from the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Holland, Luxemburg, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden and of course, the UK, will gather under one roof for the first time. There will be an exhibition of paintings by British tattoo artists, organized by Alex Binnie, owner of London’s Into You Tattoo Studio, and an exhibition of photographs taken for Tattoo Life Magazine’s 2006 calendar, featuring German super model Sophie Meister, who will also be attending.

Actually, this merchandise is tied in the with Rizla Inspired By Silver Tour which stages regular nights featuring top DJs and producers (the next ones are in Glasgow and London at the end of Aug). Details of the merchandise is online at http://www.inspired-by.co.uk/silver

Mindwarp

“The First International London Tattoo Convention will be hosted by Biohazard main man Evan Seinfeld, who will monitor the three days of the convention alongside his porn star wife Tera Patrick.” An ‘Art Fusion Experiment’, where a dozen tattoo artists commence working on individual blank canvases and then change places, continuing on the next artist’s canvas, moving on at regular intervals until each work is finished, will take place over the three days. The First International London Tattoo Convention will be hosted by Biohazard main man Evan Seinfeld, who will monitor the three days of the convention alongside his porn star wife Tera Patrick. The convention will take place over

Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction play the Camden Underworld on 19 August in support of their new album Rock Savage. Also on the Zodiacal front, Z and Bill Drummond release the second part of their fantastic travel trilogy Wild High Way – the sequel to Bad Wisdom.

three floors of the Atlantis building, part of The Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, situated at the heart of Jack The Ripper territory, now a bustling, funky area in the East End of London. Tickets are priced at £15 per day or £35 for a three day pass and are available from: www.thelondontattooconvention.com or www.ticketweb.co.uk

We have 10 pairs of tickets to give away to the show. Simply tell us the name of Evan Seinfeld’s wife. Entries in by August 30th to ZERO, The OId School, Higher Kinnerton, Chester CH4 9AJ

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the

ZERO

O R E Z BIGIE SWAG MOV way! a e v i G

Bulldog Bash Line-Up

Hell Is For Heroes, Towers Of London and Flogging Molly are NOT now playing at The Bulldog Bash on August 12th and 13th. However, Inme, Winnebago Deal, The Tokyo Dragons, Smother and Rich Dickinson’s Driving Force have now been added to complete the line-up

Friday August 12th: The Datsuns – 9.45 – 11.00pm Therapy – 8.15 – 915pm Inme – 7.00 – 745pm Winnebago Deal – 6.00 – 6.30pm Hurricane Party – 5.00 – 5.30pm Lord Bishop – 4.00 – 4.30pm Rich Dickinson’s Driving Force 3.00 – 3.30pm Saturday August 13th: Terrorvision – 9.45 – 11.00pm Alabama 3 – 8.15 – 9.15 Queen Adreena – 7.00 – 7.45pm Casbah Club – 5.45 – 6.30pm Tokyo Dragons – 4.45 – 5.15pm The*Ga*Ga*s – 3.45 – 4.15pm Smother – 2.45 – 3.15pm

Straw poles at the ready? What’s going on in staﬀ heads? Judging by this selection, big bales of tumbleweed…

Too lazy to make up lots of diﬀerent competitions, we’ve thrown all our swag in a big bag. Winner takes all. We’re even too lazy to think of a question – just send your name and address to SWAG, ZERO, The Old School, Higher Kinnerton, Chester CH4 8AJ. Here’s what you get: The Ring 2 DVD, The Ring 2 T-Shirt, a Ring 2 Torch, The War Collection DVD Box Set (features; The Longest Day, Courage Under Fire, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Behind Enemy Lines, Twelve O’Clock High, Enemy at the Gates, Von Ryan’s Express, Tigerland, Patton and The Thin Red Line) The Twentieth Century Fox DVD/Book collection (features: I Robot, The Beach, Fight Club, Master and Commander and Planet of the Apes). Don’t say we never give you anything. The War Collection and the DVD/Book Collection are both available to buy from 8 August.

Sion Hot stuﬀ: Marlboro, Budweiser & anything that has an ‘i’ in front of it and is made by Apple (that shit rocks so hard!) Not hot at all: The summer (although I still remain hopeful) & violent mood swings Rediscovered gems: The Throbs: Language of Thieves and Vagabonds & being happy Looking forward to: New Zorro movie, tomorrow arriving and delivery of new Audi A8 from boss (hmm)

JJ Hot stuﬀ: Fantastic Four Movie, HMV Summer Sale & Growing Up Not hot at all: Star Wars & Growing Old! Rediscovered gems: Gene Loves Jezebel: remastered albums with bonus

cuts & The Last Waltz on DVD! Looking forward to: Going into the studio to hear New Alarm album being mixed in London in July & CMJ Music marathon: September NYC (www.cmj.com/marathon/)

Mike Hot stuﬀ: Antony and The Johnsons, Harry Potter. (Haven’t ﬁnished book six yet? You’re rubbish!) & the new football season. Not hot at all: Big Brother… enough already! & Lindsay Lohan Rediscovered gems: Glengarry Glen Ross & Le Grand Meaulnes Looking forward to: Sony PSP & V for Vendetta (Has the potential to be awesome).

Kahn Hot stuﬀ: Nine Black Alps, Scarlett & Foo Fighters – back to their best and beyond. Not hot at all: My birthday and T in the Park clashing with Liverpool’s ﬁrst two

matches of the season & Big Brother. Rediscovered gems: Motley Crue & Suzanne Vega’s 99.9˚F (I can hear my editor sniggering). (Suit yourself mate, it’s not my name next to it you big pussy. Ed) Looking forward to: V Fest & Alice’s Dirty Diamonds

Clare Hot stuﬀ: Audioslave, Martin Grech, Bloc Party, Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds Not hot at all: Velvet Revolver, Reality TV, the Blair, Bob & Bono show Rediscovered gems: Tim Robbins in Jacob’s Ladder, Soundgarden’s multimedia CD Alive in The Superunknown, Pink Floyd on Live8 Looking forward to: DVD box set of Dr Who, new Pearl Jam, new Ours

Louise Hot stuff: Eagles of Death Metal, and Trivium – new kids on the block with a classic rock twist. And the Ducati Multistrada 620 – hubba + hubba again. Not hot at all: Reading selling out faster than Paris Hilton’s sex tape – no Maiden and Pixies for me (sniff ) Rediscovered gems: The “Silent Hill” computer games. Am reminding myself of the plot in preparation for the film. And AC/DC and Jack Daniels. Looking forward to: Next Muse album, Alice

Cooper and Twisted Sister on tour and a decent holiday.

Jack Hot stuﬀ: Symmetry, sugar and Beer Metal. Not hot at all: Bruised elbows, ‘The Ache’ . Rediscovered gems: Planes Trains and Automobiles, good god that ﬁlm is ace as fuck.Looking forward to: Wearing my cowboy boots and drinking Wild Turkey 101 again.

Wayne Hot stuff: That Hugh Laurie medical drama House and finally getting my ipod to work. Not hot at all: Doctor Who ending. Rediscovered gems: Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill – angry chick music but I like it – and Motley Crue (and you weren’t keen on going eh Kahn?) Looking forward to: Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake, Alan Moore’s Watchmen becoming a film if V for Vendetta takes off and Joss Whedon’s Firefly movie.

John Hot stuﬀ: Ong Bak, ToonamiSky Channel 621 & Nine Inch Nails Tour & CD. Not Hot: No Football & hayfeaver Redescovered stuﬀ: New York Dolls –New York Dolls & Halo on XBox Lookin forward to: The Mission – New DVD & Issue 2 of Z.

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The great thing about the internet is that everyone’s a writer. Fact. The truth is that if you didn’t own a typewriter before you got a computer you are NOT a writer. Fact.

usicians that attempt to tackle the creative ramifications of the written word do so, usually, armed with a handful of catchy ‘bites’ or ‘nuggets’ of stylish prose. And then, with all the best will in the world, go to work padding out these morsels of wisdom with rambling word play. Not unlike the albums that these people tend to make. A few good songs, eh? Two singles? The first better than the second? Without the restrictions of the corporate relationship between record company and record maker the ‘artist’ is given free reign to sail the ocean of self promotion. Remember me? Well, I’m a serious writer now. I told you all I had talent and here’s where I start to reveal my serious artistic streak. Stand back, this is gonna be impressive....

..and a few people, without any knowledge as to where to shop and what to buy, actually buy into this scenario. Fact. Musicians are historically bad actors but even worse writers. The reason? There is no link between the ego-rabid love monster you see preening his essence onstage and the studious meanderings of a writer. Few would combat this point with the argument “But what about lyrics? Is this not writing” Bollocks to your argument. You are not listening. Lyrics are the finger puppets of imaginative children. Writing takes the balls to expose yourself as the whining, spiteful, twisted paranoid little creep that you are. Not everyone likes this sort of revelatory confession, this is why we have rock stars. And Rock stars don’t confess.....THEY ROCK. Rock stars are cartoons. They

have never made a single dent in the thickness of the history books. And if you really think that John Lennon and Bob Marley really did ANYTHING to help their fellow man then you should read more books, or read less magazines. Or stop reading, maybe it’s not good for everyone. Rock musicians are by and large spoilt babies that break under the pressure of having to tackle their own washing or find directions to a venue themselves. They are paid more than us to be larger than us. Richer than us. More sexy than us. Taller than us. Have more hair than us. Now, un-fortunately, the job seems to have been handed over to wrestlers. Hulk like entertainers usually filed somewhere between clowns and boxers. (NOT generally favoured by history as one of the more aesthetically pleasing face of entertainment.)

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The, largely American, cult of the ‘anti-rock star’ as favoured by people that are usually known only because of the death of a Rock Star they used to be in a band with, or people that are so hideous that you would ask the server next to them for a burger. The cult of the ‘antirock star’ is responsible for pushing the more ‘artistic’ or pop-stars into a more serious mode of entertainment, i.e. writing. The rock star, my friends, is a dying breed that is all but spat at by a generation that deny that they thought Gene Simmons was once ‘real cool’. When rock stars and actors share the same haircut’s then the forces of evil have alligned and there’s gonna be hell to pay in the form of the “ANTIANTI-ROCK STAR”. AND LO HE WILL BE NAMED ‘GORGOTH SLAYMAN’ OR ‘ SUPERPACK KINGSTUD’ OR ‘ROXY LAZERTHRUST’. And not Brian. There is no reason for the rock star to exist other than on an entertainment level below that of the gameshow host but slightly elevated from newsreader. They are supposed to be stupid. The problem is that people who are NOT stupid are messing up our gene pool. It’s happening right now kiddies. Some guy, destined to be a great writer is rehearsing MUSIC in a loft near you. They are denying you of a good read and will clog up the charts with their ‘T shirt wearing, baseball cap skate shorts rock, that smells like someone didn’t get enough attention from women when they were at an awkward age where they honestly thought that their ‘sensitive side’ would appear attractive because that’s how it goes in movies. So who voted that

“And if you really think that John Lennon and Bob Marley really did ANYTHING to help their fellow man then you should read more books, or read less magazines.” sensitive types made convincing rock stars? And was this an American only vote, or what? Why wasn’t I invited? Where was the ‘Six foot of solid rock beef ’ candidate? There should be laws. Glasses....OUT. They’d fall off onstage, giving away the fact that said guy is rubbish live. Shorts.....OUT. Who wants to see some guys hairy legs sweating, isn’t that what we have psuedo gay spectacles like football for? Baseball caps....OUT. They give away the musicians lack of friends, otherwise SOMEONE would have said something. Like, that baseball

cap makes you look like a twat sandwich. Short guitar straps....OUT. See ‘friends’ section above. As you can see there is a fine but definite theme forming here. Writers shouldn’t rock and rockers shouldn’t write. They’re obviously poles apart on the ‘entertain-o-meter’. And long should that be the case. Let’s insist that our rock stars be stupid. It’s the only way to save this dying trade from a fate worse than banality Writers should not rock. Unless they’re Henry Rollins or me. Fact. Ginger

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20/7/05 13:09:46

Roses for the Dead Words: Louise Steggals

Okay, let’s get a few things straight about Funeral for a Friend. Firstly they are not named after an Elton John song as some people have assumed. The name comes from the song Funeral For A Friend by Florida based post-hardcore group Planes Mistaken For Stars. Secondly, the new album Hours is what guitarist Kristin Coombs-Roberts describes as “an album that you’ll either love or hate”. This certainly seems to be the case, as feedback from fans on the band’s website ranges from “amazing” to “fucking gash”. Thirdly, they are damn hard to get hold of for an interview…

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20/7/05 13:18:25

WHEN WE HANDED IN THE FIRST

DEMOS TO THE LABEL THEY

PULLED ME TO ONE SIDE AND

WERE LIKE,“IS MATT ALRIGHT?!”

After about four hours of heroic work from their PR man I ﬁnally settle down for a quick chat with bassist Gareth Davies. The boys are holed up backstage at the Southampton Guildhall preparing for their 11th gig on a sold out UK tour and they seem as excited as if this were their ﬁrst ever live gig. You’d never believe this is the band that seems to have cornered the market in musical negativity with one of the most lyrically emotional and personal records of the year. Your UK tour is a sell out, your new album has been greeted with great praise and enthusiasm, and you’re due to play a main stage slot at the Carling Weekend. You must be feeling pretty good right now. Yeah, we’re on cloud nine! We’re very pleased with the way everything’s going. We’re just waiting for that hiccup y’know, that everything’s going too smoothly and something’s gonna come and trip you up and you fall flat on your face. But we’re ready for it I think. How’s the current tour going? Is it the classic rock and roll lifestyle of groupies and excess? We’re partying a little bit but no groupies. We’re good boys and we’re all spoken for and have been for quite some time. We’re quite the angels when it comes to touring! But the tour is going really well. We’re touring with bands that we’re friends with as well so it’s always good fun. It’s like one big touring freak show! You have Gratitude on tour with you (current band of ex-Far frontman Jonah Matranga).What does Jonah think of your cover of Far song “The System”? We’ve actually been playing it with him in the encore every night. We’ve been dragging him up onstage and doing it. We did it with him in Onelinedrawing last year as well, which was him and his i-pod and a little R2-D2! So we did it again on this tour and it’s going down really well. It’s nice to be able to educate people on Far. They didn’t really get the recognition they deserved. Matt has been quite outspoken about Jonah being one of his musical idols.Who else are your musical heroes? Who inspires you? Everything! Name an album, I’ve probably got it – or one of us has probably got it, especially Matt. It ranges between us. We all have a sort of core group of bands we all love and then we all branch into our own thing.

Ryan (Richards, the drummer) is a huge Queen fan. I listen to Coldplay and some of the mellower stuff around. There’s nothing better than to come offstage and listen to something that’s going to put you to sleep! The success of the tour is also matched by the triumph of their sophomore album. Already it seems to be heading towards the same success of debut album Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation which sold 100,000+ copies in the UK alone. This is no mean feat by ﬁve lads from the Valleys who seem to be on somewhat of a roll with a headlining slot on the second stage at the Carling Weekend 2004, shortly after which, they pocketed the Kerrang! award for Best Newcomer. It’s clear that Hours was always going to have a hell of a lot to live up to. So they upped sticks to Seattle and brought noted producer Terry Date (whose CV includes the Deftones and Pantera) on board. How do you feel that “Hours” has evolved from “Casually dressed”…? I think it’s a lot more comfortable. When we were writing “Casually dressed…” we were still relatively new, to each other as well as to the industry in general. We kind of felt the pressure. It was like “oh my God, we’re recording a debut record, what are we gonna do?” This album is more relaxed. Everything’s prepared and it sounds like a more comfortable, more mature album. What do you feel working with Terry Date brought to the album? Did he influence your work at all? He helped us relax more than anything. He knew the pressure we were under with the success of “Casually dressed…” But he made sure that we were comfortable and that we focused on having a good time with it as opposed to feeling that pressure and not be stressed about being so meticulous but you go down and are calm. I can safely say I don’t want to work with anyone else again. Terry brought out the best in us, which was one of the reasons we chose him. You can pick up a blank CD and play it and know it’s the Deftones or know it’s Pantera. He customises their sound and he did that really well with us. He said he’s never worked outside of the US before so

we invited him to Wales and he said “yeah, I’d be down with it”. So we’ll take him out, show him the Valleys. That’ll be an eye-opener for him! Didn’t Matt start playing guitar for this album? He did a little bit yeah although we’re not exploiting that on this tour as yet. But on one or two tracks

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ITHINK IFYOU’RE IN A BAND ANDYOU’RE

SAT AT HOMETHERE’S A PROBLEM.WE HAD SIX

WEEKS OFF BEFOREWE STARTEDTHISTOUR

ANDTHE PROMO STUFF FORTHE ALBUM

AND I’VE NEVER BEEN SO BORED IN MY LIFE! – we’ll be bringing those out on the arena tours at the end of this year. “Hours” is a deeply personal album lyrically. Has it allowed the band to exorcise some of their inner demons? Well for Matt more than anything. He’s the man with the lyrics. We don’t have any input on it simply because he has to feel what he’s singing. It very cathartic for him, he’s always said that, with this album in particular, especially on “Roses for the Dead”. It’s probably the most personal song he’s ever written. When we were demo-ing, I remember reading the lyrics and thinking “Jesus Christ!” And when we handed in the first demos to the label they pulled me to one side and were like, “is Matt alright?!” You’re heading stateside after this UK tour for the Vans Warped tour.What are you most looking forward to about that? The sunshine more than anything! We’re in Southampton and it’s currently pissing it down. But it’s always nice to go and play to new people, especially further afield. There’s no bigger buzz than travelling 1000 miles across an ocean and seeing people singing your words back to you. It’s a fantastic feeling, and with the Warped tour being such a renowned tour for the music we play it’s going to be great fun. The “Taste the Chaos” tour we’ve got later is going to be something a little bit special as well. The UK hasn’t seen a lineup like that for a while (it features The Used and Killswitch Engage amongst others). It’s

a pretty tasty line-up. Other than that, I’m looking forward to some time off! There’s so much to look forward to pretty much. 2005 is going to be an excellent year! It seems when you aren’t recording, you’re on tour. How and when do you relax? I suppose time off is what we get during the day. I’m never going to complain about what we do. We work for an hour and a half every night essentially and we have fun doing it. I think if you’re in a band and you’re sat at home there’s a problem. We had six weeks off before we started this tour and the promo stuff for the album and I’ve never been so bored in my life! I caught myself walking round in circles in my flat. I always make a point of checking out the city I’m in. I mean that’s the way the industry works. Next week it could all disappear so I try to make the most of it whilst I can. Love them or hate them, the demand for the boys seems to be endless. They’ve headlined the NME Awards tour, supported Iron Maiden and played a surprise set at the Download festival at Donington. With four of their singles being consecutive top 20 hits, it would not be long before they would join the ranks of the few bands who make it as poster-boys for the rock scene with an appearance on Britain’s most famous music show… You recorded an appearance for Top of the Pops for the single “Streetcar”.

What was the experience like? It was a bit odd. It wasn’t until about half way through the performance that I looked at Kris and was like “Oh my God, we’re on Top of the Pops”. At the time, in the run up to the day it just felt really surreal and fake. The episode we were on, Rachel Stevens was advertised but she’d pre-recorded her appearance a week earlier. We saw James Blunt. The James Blunt album is really great so I was a bit in awe of that. He was the only other person in the studio playing live as such. Is this a sign that Rock music is taking over or is this a resurgence that we see from time to time? I think it’s a resurgence but it’s nice to be able to open peoples’ eyes a little bit. It’s always been there but it’s nice to bring it into the public eye now and again and it’s nice to be one of those bands that can do it. Where do you hope to be this time next year? That’s always a question that’s too difficult to answer simply because we never expected to get this far. It used to be five guys practicing in a rehearsal room on a Sunday with maybe a gig in a week. So to be on tour with our record selling really well, it’s still really surreal so we’re just gonna try and stand the test of time for now and go with the flow. Let’s not think about the future for now and just take it one day at a time. So, although you wouldn’t think it from the album, life is looking pretty rosy for the boys. Talk of arena tours and larger festival appearances are surely the sign of things to come and it seems Funeral for a Friend have learnt to take things in their stride, dealing with the things that come along the road to bona fide rock star status with aplomb and boundless enthusiasm. Worrying the record label over the state of their singer’s mental health aside (“Better out than in” as Gareth says) the band seems to have overcome the pressures of the industry that would break many a lesser band. Which just leaves one burning issue to be resolved… So where on earth did the idea come from that you were named after an Elton John song? It was our naivety to be honest! We thought we’d have a bit of a laugh and in, probably one of the earliest interviews we’d ever done, they asked us where we got our name from and we said Elton John. Before we knew it, it was in the press, and it was all printed in all seriousness. We’d all burst out laughing after we’d said it but the “ha has” never made it into the article. So from then on, in every interview we were being asked about how Elton John influenced us. That’ll teach us I suppose – us and our big mouths… O

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20/7/05 13:18:44

kjihlmkjji Back in

hikihkjih the Saddle If you’re familiar with Richie Kotzen already, it’s likely to be from one of a multitude of sources. Until now though, Kotzen has never really come into his own. Stints with Poison and Mr Big made him a name to watch out for, but despite the global stage, he always seemed conﬁned by the intentions of those bands. Not any more…

Words: Sion Smith

9 9 9 909009099090990 ot any more indeed. Kotzen’s killer solo album from last year (Get Up) proved that not only could he play guitar like a demon, but that he could also write songs and sing. To expand on that: his demon playing is listenable, his songs are balls out rock in the purest form and the fact that he can sing, well, it’s the icing on the cake. By the time he was seventeen, he had toured the US and picked up more than 500 shows. At 20, he was recruited by Poison and gave his all to their then current album, Native Tongue. A few years later he was then asked by Mr Big to fill the huge empty shoes left by the departure of Paul Gilbert. But all of that is water under the bridge. Building on the critical acclaim of Get Up, it’s finally time

for Kotzen to take hold of his dream to play with his own band – and Forty Deuce are one hell of a band! The inclusion of Oh My God on the cover mount is a tactical move on our part. Every so often a band deserve to be heard. Being on an indie label is no bad thing, but to get music heard from that level to the masses is hard work. Nobody has the network to make that sort of slog available any more . . . Is it the best song you’ve ever written? We wanted to make a real rock record. A lot of bands are afraid to go down that road, some aren’t capable and most just aren’t interested. We wanted to make the sort of record that got us excited

pqr

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hhilkjijlmnijhjii when we were kids. Y’know like Appetite for Destruction is a real rock record, so we really just took our time on writing and recording the songs and put our all into it. We did a bunch of showcasing about a year ago for some US labels and had some interest but they were seemingly just sitting around kicking tyres – the business now is a lot different than it was 5 or 6 years ago – and I think the majors are afraid to take a chance on what isn’t the mainstream. Mainstream in the States is pop and hip hop. I also think they were a little gunshy because it costs a lot of money to launch a band these days, so rather than wait and play the record company game, we had an opportunity to release it on Frontiers, who did a great job with my solo album, and hopefully it will get into the right hands.

a band from the very beginning. To write with other guys – and that’s what we do in Forty Deuce. There are two other guys who write and we hang out together and have fun and it’s a huge weight off your shoulders to be able share creatively. I think that comes through on the record too. For the most part, the other guys are largely unknown players who have played around you know. I’d like to go on the road with it but with a new band it’s a little tricky. I’ve been making my own records for years now and it’s only in the last few years I’ve been able to start touring. I think that what would happen with Forty Deuce is that if somewhere the record really caught on. You know, if it got airplay, we could make a video and so on, but for a brand new band without a major label and don’t have major tour support, it’s really hard to pull it off. It’s tough to do the grass roots thing in the States because the place is just so damn big! But like I say, if the record caught on somewhere, the other option is that we could latch onto somebody else’s tour and go out as support.

one of the things i always wanted to do was to be a part of a band from the very beginning to write with other guys and thats whatwedo infortydeuce There are so many great bands out there that pass by either through lack of support or opportunity, it should make all of you out there angry to the core. There’s two schools of thought though. One is that all the time you’re being drip fed what the record companies want you to hear at least you’re getting quality music – well produced and well grounded. Conversely, because of that, you’re also missing out on what those companies are unwilling to take a chance on. The days of the indie record store are nearly over now thanks to the chains and ebay, so this also means you can’t go and hang out there all day and pester the holy crap out of the staff to play tracks off a bunch of albums that look interesting. Honest. That’s the way it used to be and it broke thousands of bands. There is so much good music out there, but you’re right. These days you have to look a little harder, but you know, there’s so many choices now to do other things that it just doesn’t happen. There’s internet, video games, skating, dvds… nobody has the attention span to spend time hunting down good music anymore, but as little as a few years ago, that’s what used to happen! One of the things I always wanted to do was to be a part of

Some people like to ﬂaunt Kotzen as a guitarists guitar player, but that’s not really the whole story. Technically, he can play that game, but he’s always played for the songs which is what made the likes of Steve Stevens and Steve Vai successful. You know, I’m not really the guy that a lot of people think I am. I often play different styles within the context of the song, but occasionally people pick up on it – like if I think a jazz part will work well in context, I’ll do it, but it doesn’t make me a jazz player. At the core of what I do, well, I grew up on rock n roll, but as a singer I listen to a lot of RnB stuff – Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart that sort of thing, but the two seem to work well together. Funny you should mention Steve Stevens there though, but I didn’t really know how much of a musician he really was. He’ll always be associated with Billy Idol, and that’s fantastic, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it sure as hell doesn’t tell the whole story. With Poison I was barely out of my teens and I was involved as a writer. Ultimately, it didn’t last and I didn’t think it would, but it was a great experience – likewise though, whatever band you’re in as a musician never tells the whole story and that goes for a lot of people out there. The funny thing is now, those type of gigs don’t exist. Back then Vai went off and joined Whitesnake, Zakk joined Ozzy – those were the kind of gigs that really showcased the guitar players and it was priceless because when you back, say, Sting, you’re in the background and nobody really cares who you are. But to get that kind of thing in a rock band was a big thing back then. Now the guitars aren’t the focal point anymore. Guitars and solos have taken a back seat, but I’m starting to see that people are getting exciting about seeing it again.

u u u u u u

Comes around, goes around huh. Yeah – you know when I came over with my solo album, after the shows.. well I like to just hang out with the people and there were so many people who were really, really into it y’know. These people – they exist out there and they want to hear more stuff like Led Zeppelin and Guns n Roses and they want to know why there’s not more of that sort of thing out there – but the record companies don’t really see that, so they don’t focus on these kinds of records.

w pqrs Gonna be a long haul huh You got that right!

So. Check it out on the CD. Get up, get out and go buy the damn thing. It’s not hard to ﬁnd. Read the review, let us know what you think.

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“ULTIMATELY IWANTTO PLAYTHE MUSIC I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT, BECAUSE I KNOW IN FIFTEENYEARS NOBODY’S GONNA CARE ABOUT RICH WARD, BUT IWANTTO BE ABLETO LISTENTO A BUNCH OF MY RECORDS AND BE HAPPY AND PROUD OFTHEM.”

Kung Fu Fighting Words: Curt Evans

THE DUKE’S, AKA RICH WARD, NEW ALBUM IS A RADICAL DEPARTURE FROM ANYTHING YOU WOULD ASSOCIATE HIS NAME WITH. IT’S A TRICKY ONE TO DECIPHER WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE FRANTIC BARRAGE OF STUCK MOJO AND THE RAUCOUS, FIST BANGING ROCK AND ROLL OF FOZZY. IT WAS A GENUINE PLEASURE TO CATCH UP WITH THE DUKE AFTER HE HAD JUST TAKEN A HUGE CHUNK OUT OF NORTH LONDON PLAYING WITH STUCK MOJO, AND GET SOME KIND OF EXPLANATION FORM THE MAN HIMSELF. It’s been difficult getting accustomed to your solo album, the first thing that grabs you is the total departure from anything you have done before – why is this? It’s because I love all music. So there was no real decision to sit down with an acoustic guitar and pen the songs? So where does the influence come from? Oh no. I’ve always been real passionate about bands like Queen, Genesis, The Police, U2, Journey, Kansas, the progressive American bands of the seventies, and have always wanted to write more like that. I knew it would never work with Stuck Mojo, but tried to interject bits and pieces of it, and after Stuck Mojo stopped touring I put a band called Six Speed, which was more of a kind of melodic rock thing, Thin Lizzyesque. Then I tried some acoustic sessions and I really liked those versions. I thought they were really cool and they translate really well. So I started writing more songs acoustically and it just happened. I put a little group together, played a few shows and the interest was incredible – so here it is. This is where we are now. It’s one of those things – even with Stuck Mojo we didn’t start it as a rap/rock band, we started more like Faith No More or Red Hot Chilli Peppers and then it just evolved into this. Like a natural progression, everything

that I’ve ever done has naturally evolved, which I think is great, because I think you can over plan things sometimes. So there was no real decision to sit down with the old acoustic and pen the songs? So where does the influence come from? I Love Bad Company / Paul Rogers – they are one of my biggest inspirations. Obviously Peter Gabriel. I think he is a complete genius. I think he is a God of songwriting. The pop hits aside you can go into his records and hear the genius, and I aspire to one day, to be a pimple on the guys butt! I think I am good at writing that personal music. Is the sound of the new album a direction you particularly want to take? Yes it is. I feel really good about it, because I’m not really a religious person, but I try to live my life by a code and by principles. I’d like my life to be as Christ-like as possible. I want to live a good life – treat people with respect and I want to try and leave the world a little better than I found it. Just to do my part and there’s a lot of cool music that could be made with those spiritual themes. So it just seems like a natural progression that I gravitate towards that. Would it be safe to say that all your influences today, are taken from the past? There is nobody I listen to that I really like now.

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“THERE’S NOTHING THAT MAKES ME HAPPIER THAN PUTTING ON ABABCAB, AND LISTENING TO IT WITH HEADPHONES, AND THINKING‘THEY DID THIS IN THE SEVENTIES!’WITHOUT ALL THE COMPUTER EDITING AND PROTOOLS, I MEAN, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?” Is it because there is nothing truly original any more? Oh definitely. Everything seems a bit contrived now. I love bands like In Flames, but from the other side of things, I think U2 are excellent. Let me state this, I’m not one of these guys that’s had posters on my wall of Bono, but I think they continue to be hip and cool and still write great songs and not sell out. They transcend trend. I totally get where you are coming from, but would like to know if another band had recorded Vertigo, would it attract the same attention? Would it just be branded as ‘all been done before’? I just love the honesty they have. It’s the openness. A lot of my passions for music are based on songs and certain albums. When I’m not performing I like to spend time with my girlfriend, I like to spend time reading, I like to try and get away from music. I’m not like a lot of the guys on tour with all these bands, and all they do is listen to music all day long. When I’m not playing music or writing it, I rarely want to listen to it. I’m really into American talk radio, political debates and things like that. I’m just interested in the ideas and thoughts, and that actually inspires me more than listening to a Simply Red album or a Slayer record (whoa, there’s a diverse choice). It’s a fresher input, but there’s nothing that makes me happier than putting on Ababcab, and listening to it with headphones, and thinking ‘they did this in the seventies!’

Without all the computer editing and pro-tools, I mean, how did that happen? How did Boston record their first album in 1976 with that technology – because everyone in the band was a bad-ass player. Now I go and see all these heavy bands, I hear Killswitch Engage – great, crushing riffs, but, maybe it’s because I’m getting old and even hate to admit it, but being angry is like the easiest emotion. It’s that primal thing. Anyone can hang from a tree and sling shit at somebody else – what separates us from apes and other animals is our wide range of emotions other than just those primal ones, and I really want to be inspired when I hear something. When it takes you someplace else, not just wanting you to punch the guy next to you, but with all that said, I still wanna have a band that does that. I like to be able to do both extremes on either side. So you still want to be a part of Stuck Mojo? Oh definitely. I like being The Duke! The Duke is like this alter ego that I’ve created. That love music, and is passionate about creating music and there are a lot of different sides to my personality and I’d like to explore all of it musically. I was at a recent Fozzy bash, and it was just mental.The crowd really feed off the energy. Fozzy is fun too. I am blessed to be a part of three really cool bands. So what’s next up for you? My focus has got to be on this new Duke record. Working really hard to promote it, and let people know that it is something I really love. We’ll be playing a few other shows and then I’ll be thinking about doing a new Mojo record and that’s gonna kick serious ass. I don’t know if I’ll do any more Fozzy records, I’ll take it all a day at a time. It was never supposed to be a serious project, just good fun, like one big party. When Mojo broke up, that short period of time allowed me to focus more of my time to Fozzy. You break up with one girl, you move on... What’s on the headphones at the moment? I’ve been listening to a lot of Genesis recently, like Ababcab, Duke, the selftitled Genesis album. It’s really interesting playing. When I was younger, I liked it but didn’t realised how good they were. Listening to the latest Peter Gabriel album – the live stuff is pure genius. I think Symphony X are brilliant, the singer reminds me of Joe Lynn Turner meets Dio. The guitar playing is great.

Soilworks, Devin Townsend – I like all of his stuff. Old Journey – Neal Schon is such an amazing guitarist. A little Black Label Society when I wanna hear some real heavy riffs. I very rarely listen to full records, I like to do my own compilations. The only thing I can listen to from top to bottom is AC/DC – High Voltage, Highway To Hell, Back In Black – on a road trip, it’s meat and potatoes, NO NONSENSE! Cool driving music. What’s behind it all, success or credibility? What’s the most important to you? Neither. I just do it for myself I don’t have the fans in mind when I’m writing. I have the fans in mind when I perform the gig. Ultimately I want to play the music I’m passionate about, because I know in fifteen years nobody’s gonna care about Rich Ward, but I want to be able to listen to a bunch of my records and be happy and proud of them. It’s important for me to create music that as I get older, I can reflect and think “man, that’s a pretty cool record!”. So do you think you’ll be experimenting with disco? I love listening to disco music when I’m in the mood for it. In the seventies, disco music was all played by real guys – bad ass players. I don’t like any new dance music because it’s all computer stuff. If you listen to Off The Wall – that’s a bad ass album, or a bee Gee’s record, all of those hot cat players. I couldn’t even step in on one of the sessions, I’m not good enough! I just like good music. I don’t really know any Bee Gees songs and I don’t know any country and western stuff (praise the lord), but they sound like the guys in the band are burning up – awesome hot players. I totally respect that.

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Imagine the scenario; you’re a promoter and DJ of some years alongside of being one of those people who religiously sat up until stupid o’clock b.c (before cable) watching the WWF and its roster of superstars, which back then included the Ultimate Warrior, Mr Perfect, Bret Hart . . . hell if you’re reading this, you were probably up too. Those were the days of Motley Crue, loud guitars, big drums and often even bigger hair. How we wished that maybe, just maybe, one of those superstars would pick up the microphone and . . .

Shout it Out

Loud!

Bring on the Pain! Words: JJ Haggar • Pictures: Paul Townrow

t never happened of course, but fast forward to 2005 and the dream for any wrestling fan worth their salt is coming true as the WWF moved over, ate up WCW (and anybody else in the way), became WWE and spat Chris Jericho onto a world stage. Chris and co-founder of Fozzy, Rich (ex Stuck Mojo), met at some of the WCW shows while Stuck Mojo was working with Dallas Page. Thus was Fozzy born. They played a couple of shows and came up with the concept that all the cover songs they were playing were really theirs that were stolen from them while they were stuck in Japan for 20 years in an unbreakable record deal. With some success under the belt, they began to tone down the concept and their debut album, which didn’t exactly set the world on fire, opened the door just enough for them to have a second album come out this year called All That Remains. So when the phone rang to say that the band had a matinee show in Manchester in the afternoon, but were looking to blast down the M62 to Liverpool to play a second show and then jump on the ‘Wheels Of Steel’ to perform a DJ set, the gauntlet was thrown down. Could we do it? Could they do it? Damn fuckin’ right was the answer to both. Jericho was flying in from Japan to do the UK tour, then straight after the last date in Liverpool, was jumping on a plane back to America where he was due in Austin, Texas the very next night for a live WWE performance. He says: ‘I’m not tired of it, I’ve been wrestling for fifteen years and I have accomplished more than I ever thought I would. I still love wrestling but when other things come up, such as Fozzy, you can’t go into it half hearted, not if you’re me!’ Extra curricular activities are nothing new for members of the WWE. The Rock has gone into movies and done very well: ‘Yeah it’s something that I would like to do, I’m sort of dabbling with it with the day

job! I see what I do as performing a role and a character within the WWE, but at the moment the music is what I’m here for’. ‘I’ve been playing in bands since I was fourteen years old, it’s something I have always loved doing, a long time before I became a serious wrestler. To be able to record with such great people as Rich from Stuck Mojo or Zakk Wilde (who guests on All That Remains), then come over here to the UK and play sold out shows is just amazing, then the cherry on the cake is ending the tour in Liverpool because I am such a huge Beatles fan’. Chris Jericho in the WWE is exactly the same as Chris Jericho in Fozzy: ‘ It’s

what I pride myself on, we give the fans 100%. They leave knowing that they’ve had the best of me, they know that they got their money’s worth. So the next time I am in town, they will come to see me again’. Judging by the performance given in the Krazyhouse, Chris certainly gives more than his all. Out of the traps like a 30 year old Jon Bon Jovi, Chris rules the stage. He has the moves, the look and with many of the tracks played from the second Fozzy album, he has the songs, the band even manage to squeeze in a cover of Judas Priests Screaming For Vengeance before leaving a packed house gagging. Will he come back? ‘I would love to come back to Liverpool again, do the tour

of the city, either with some of the other guys from the WWE or with my wife’. So does this mean the end of wrestling is on the horizon for Chris: ‘My contract is up before the end of the year, I have achieved so much, but I feel that I still have something left, if I had to walk away, I could, but I’m not ready to do that just yet. If it was all I had, maybe, but with Fozzy as well, I would be a fool not to push both buttons at the same time. With the band I am in control, total control, it’s not always like that in wrestling. Compromise is the hardest word in the world’ So does Chris feel he needs to be WWE champion again before he leaves? ‘I’ve been the World Champion once and I can do it again, so yeah, I want a crack at the title once more - who wouldn’t, but I don’t feel that I need it. Now, I just go out there and have a good time. It’s entertainment, so is Fozzy, but in a different way - Fozzy is not a WWE project, it’s my band! They don’t sell my CD at the souvenir stands like John Cena. The Fozzy record is in record stores all over the world, the album has the band on the outside, not a WWE belt. It sells because of great music, people buy it cause they want it for what’s inside’ After the sweat-filled performance I drove Chris over to the apartment booked for him. He grabbed a shower, then returned to the club to do his DJ set. Along the way, we chatted about life, love, and mostly music, just like two normal guys out for the night in Liverpool. Chris Jericho deserves all that he can get in life, he has no ego, no attitude, he was just Chris. When the lights go up he becomes the Y2J monster we all associate with the name, but the rest of the time he is just a man who loves what he does and loves life. I felt like I had known him for 20 years after he left Liverpool and I never even knew him for 20 hours. If you love wrestling then give him your support, if you love good honest rock music, All That Remains is available in all proper record stores right now, (SPV records), or check the website for news, updates and all that jazz. www.fozzy-rocks.com O

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Flame On!

Sometimes, a person’s future is sketched out from the moment they leave the womb. Such was the case with young Victor Von Doom, a young man cursed with a name that left him with limited options in life. Careers advisors would point him down one of two paths, telling him he could be either a stuntman or a wrestler. However, these shallow schoolboy spirit-crushers forgot about one other option. An option that had the potential to make real money, where Victor would not be hindered by his ‘evil’ name… a super-villain.

Words: Mike Shaw Pics: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox

MR FANTASTIC

THE INVISIBLE GIRL

o it followed that, in time, Victor would become Dr Doom, arch-nemesis of the Fantastic Four. Fantastic Four is based on Marvel’s longest running comic book series, which bodes well given their recent success with comic book/movie conversions (X-Men, Spiderman), and was scripted by Michael France who wrote the woefully under-appreciated Hulk. The details aren’t important, all you need to know is that a group of people blast off into space and stuff goes wrong. Their space station is hit by a barrage of cosmic radiation, and the crew are genetically altered. Fortunately, rather than all becoming chav-like, knuckledragging dribblers, they get awesome super powers as a result… that’s lucky.

DR DOOM

THE HUMAN TORCH

In a surprising move, the studio chose not to simply throw big-name actors into the project, and opted for an interesting mix of TV stars and up-and-coming young things. Ioan Gruffudd, best known for last year’s King Arthur, plays Reed Richards (the stretchy Mr Fantastic), with Jessica Alba (who is fast becoming one of the world’s favourite Hollywood honeys following her appearance in Sin City) as Sue Storm/the Invisible Woman. Chris Evans who co-starred in Cellular with Kim Basinger gets to flameup and fly as the Human Torch, and most exciting of all is Michael Chiklis’ portrayal of Ben Grimm (The Thing). Chiklis, who has been on the fringes of great things for many years, is best known for his role as bastard-cop Vic Mackey in The Shield. In F4, he

THE THING

gets to dress up as a giant, orange, beast-rock-man and smash shit up. It was a bold decision to have a man in a suit play The Thing, rather than generate him digitally, and was not one that was taken lightly. “It was one of the biggest decisions we had to make on this movie,” says director, Tim Story. “We made it very early on so that we would have all the time necessary to really get The Thing right. Unlike The Hulk, for example, beneath all that rock is a human being who has human feelings. He talks, he has conversations, he even has romance, so we felt it was imperative that an actor generate this character rather than a computer. Although he looks like a monster, it is Michael’s performance that makes The Thing believable as a man.” Producer Avi Arad agrees: “CGI lends itself more to characters like The Hulk

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“I mean, it’s always nice when four women have to pull you into spandex when you’re standing in your boxer shorts.”

or Gollum or dinosaurs. What we didn’t want to do was lose Michael’s performance within some computer software. Instead, we wanted to be able to look into The Thing’s ey es a nd know that they were, in fact, Michael’s eyes, human eyes. You can see all the human pathos that the character is experiencing through his eyes and it worked because of Michael’s performance and the talent and dedication of our creative teams.” Even with his stateof-the-art suit, The Thing was enhanced with CGI for certain situations. “Our real job with The Thing was all about enhancing the integration with his environment,” explains visual effects producer, Kurt Williams. “For instance, when he jumps onto a pavement, that pavement would crack under the weight of all that rock. If he brushes by the corner of a brick building, some of

those bricks might be loose enough to fall off, and if he scratches an itch on his face, you’ll see a little scrape on the rock and a bit of dust. The practical suit may have weighed sixty pounds but we augmented him to appear like the two thousand pound rock that he is.” The man inside the (incredibly heavy) suit, knew that he would one day have to suffer for his art. When Chiklis was 18 years old, he told his brother that “if they ever make a movie of the Fantastic Four comic book, I’m going to play Ben Grimm.” Was this teenage bravado, or a creepy prophecy? “What can I say,” replies Chiklis. “All I know is that the first day I put on the costume was a very intense and frightening experience, and it was a real psychological test. I felt genuine fear. “I’m not a phobic person at all,” he continues, “so when I felt that kind of claustrophobic feeling, it really caught me off guard and was quite unnerving.” With it taking three hours each day to install him in The Thing’s prosthetic make-up and heavy-duty costume, we can surely make allowances for feeling a little out of sorts. “I have to say, that one of the most humiliating moments of my life was

putting on the spandex under the outfit,” he says. “I mean, it’s always nice when four women have to pull you into spandex when you’re standing in your boxer shorts.” Alas, there is sometimes a price to pay for remaining true to the source material. However, not everything in the movie is entirely accurate. During the course of shooting, Aussie actor Julian McMahon (Dr Doom) had to ditch the steel-skinned adversary’s Latvian accent: “I can’t tell you how many accents I went through. It was an absolute nightmare. At the end of three weeks of shooting different accents, I just said, ‘I can’t do this accent thing’, and the director was like ‘That’s good, because we can’t understand you.’” Regardless of whether Eastern European accents remain intact, F4 has placed its marker as yet another excellent Marvel adaptation that doesn’t take itself too seriously and isn’t pretending to be anything other than an explosive, exciting and exhilarating comic book experience. Even the younger members of the cast are excited about the impending release, and all that comes with it. “I’d better get kung-fu grip,” says Chris Evans enthusiastically of his Human Torch action figure. “I’ll be pissed if I don’t have some kung-fu grip.” O

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The Life and Times of

Bill Hicks

As a stand-up, Hicks had the unique ability that very few posses of telling the truth in such a way that it isn’t offensive - well, at least not to people with functioning brains. There were occasions though, when Hicks ran into his worst nightmare – the ‘no-brain’ people. At one infamous show, two Vietnam vets took exception to his routine and broke his leg. At another show, a guy completely unable to keep up with the speed of Hicks’ mentality, pulled a gun on him. That’s when you know you’re rocking the system! Driven by a desire to waken all the people in the world to their full potential – or at the very least, enlighten themselves enough to see the shit they were being fed by government and media, at the age of 12, together with his buddy Dwight Slade, he formed a double act. Spending all of his free time locked in his bedroom, pumping out Woody Allen style jokes and creating gags around his parents idealistic living of the American dream, they always had an affectionate undercurrent to them – although in later years, when his parents turned up at one of his shows, they left disgusted in a state of shock and drove the three hours back home without

Published by Harper Collins, Bill Hicks’ official biography “Agent of Evolution” is available now in good book stores.

When we lost Bill Hicks from our circle of influence back in 1994, we lost a true visionary. More of a people-watching psychoanalyst than a stand-up comic, Hicks ran the gauntlet of Amercian tours but found his true home, as do many intelligent comics, here in the UK. stopping and never spoke a word to each other for nine hours! Honing his presence on stage as a young comic enabled him to become the forceful presence he did. Hicks was afraid of no audience and delivered his early material with a passion far surpassing his years – some however would call it naivety – his biting wit however saw each and every show becoming better and better… “Our father’s very lazy. He once worked in a mortuary measuring bodies for tuxedos. But then he was fired. He was accused of having an intimate relationship with a corpse. The family was shocked. We all knew it was purely platonic.” In the spring of 1980, he moved out to LA and started working the Hollywood Comedy Store, playing with the big guns of the time such as Andrew Dice Clay, Jerry Seinfeld and Gary Shandling, where he picked up some good reviews becoming an underground hit on the circuit, but by 1982, Hicks was hitting the booze and the drugs pretty hard. Both allowed him to push his act even further into the psyche of the nation allowing him to become more angry on stage and expand his own awareness of the people he saw before him. Using a double edged sword he was able to lambast members of the audience into submission and then let them off, slightly, by following with a tale of how he saw Jesus riding a unicorn or of his alien abduction. The parties become harder and harder and at one three day bash, somebody brought in an oxygen tank to play with. By the start of 1986, he found himself broke, having literally spent all his money on booze and drugs. Moving to New York, he resurrected himself by

“As long as one person lives in darkness then it seems to be a responsibility to tell other people.”

“I’m a heavy smoker. I go through two lighters a day.” playing nearly 300 shows a year for the next 5 years and giving up the illegal drugs, turning instead to that great beast of legal drugs – cigarettes. An addictive personality? Maybe, but what this did was give him the ammunition to connect with smokers and non smokers alike. It became a big part of his act and proved immensely popular. By 1992, he was flooring audiences over here too and became the countries most loved import – his act was just getting better and better all the time: “If the FBI’s motivating factor for busting down the Koresh compound was child abuse, how come we never see Bradley tanks smashing into Catholic churches?” Sadly, by June 1993, he learned he had cancer but until he became too ill to function, his work ethic exploded and he delivered the angriest shows of his career, determined to go out with a bang – which he did on 26 February 1994. Ultimately, Hicks’ dream did filter through to some and there are legions of bands who dedicate albums to him ranging from Radiohead to Rage Against the Machine. In a lifetime, I guess you can’t ask for much more. For those responsive to such an act, it’s people like Hicks that have the ability to change the world over and above any political manifesto. All it takes is enough people to believe…

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Words: Sion Smith. Pics: Courtesy Costa Communications

Come on. Let it out. You loved House of 1000 Corpses didn’t you! If not maybe, it’s time to move along the bus. We caught up with Tyler Bates, the man behind the music of Rob Zombie’s second ﬁlm The Devil’s Rejects. Does it promise to live up to the expectation of House? You bet. At a preview screening, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house – and we weren’t crying tears either…

To say that House of 1000 Corpses became a cult-smash would be somewhat of an understatement. Anxious and nerve shattered fans will be pleased to hear that not only does The Devils Reject’s match it in the psychostakes, it goes further. Much further. Instead of doing the ‘spoiler thing’ and taking away all the pseudo glamour from the movie, which really just needs to be seen and not dissected into tiny pieces, Tyler Bates – the master of the eerie movie score turned up, so we thought we’d dissect him instead… How in hell do you even begin to score a soundtrack for a movie? Do you watch the film once, twenty times or what? I try not to watch it too many times. Oftentimes, the director will send me a cut and I’ll watch it on my own, or I’ll watch it with the director and we’ll talk about the movie, specific characterisations and the dynamics. Generally get a sense of what the directors vision is. Then I try to give myself some time to let the film seep in and prepare for it. It depends on the style of the movie. If it’s an orchestral approach, you have a good idea of what the palette of sound

is going to be, but with Rob’s movie he was quick to tell me that everything they had put against the picture didn’t work. Nothing felt genuine and he felt the movie needed something else to heighten the drama, so he left me to come up with pieces that served the film well. Fortunately, Rob’s really happy with it. It must be odd watching a movie without any musical soundtrack. It’s interesting because when I first saw Dawn of the Dead, they had a temporary soundtrack on it that sounded like it came

from some TV cop show. It didn’t feel strange enough or scary enough for what was going on, and I didn’t get it at first, but once they hired me, I asked them to let me get on with working on some ideas to replace the test score with right away. Do you compose something and then play it back over and over? I usually work simultaneously with the movie, but what I’ll also do is walk away for a few hours and then come back to it and have an idea of where I want to go – emotionally and dramatically.

“When you’re seeing some pretty heinous acts carried out on screen, it can drain your soul – especially when you watch it over and over. But I’m balanced! I have a family and kids…”

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It sounds emotionally draining! Well, with Devil’s Rejects… when you see a movie like that as extreme as it is – it’s not a horror movie, it’s more of a psychotic thriller, it’s so intense and the material is so heavy and done in such a believable manner that it causes you to really engage in it. In fact, it demands that you engage in the picture. When you’re seeing some pretty heinous acts carried out on screen, it can drain your soul – especially when you watch it over and over. But I’m balanced! I have a family and kids…

So to watch the movie without music must be like watching documentary footage. Yeah – music really shapes a film. It certainly affects the believability of the characters and the tone of the film in general, but it’s a great challenge. I can’t be emotional about every moment, but it does get that way. So how do you work? Are you working with

“Nobody tells Rob what to do. Not because he’s belligerent or anything, but he’s a man with a vision and knows exactly how each part will be put together, so they left us to it.” banks of Mac’s or with live orchestras and musicians? I have a tendency to do scores that are hybrids of some fashion. I would never do a score where it was all midi and then replace it with an orchestra. I tend to have people come in, or I’ll play things as I go and build off the performances that help the film. I record those in ProTools and go form there. Often they put a temp score in which effects you. Sometimes it’s a great help and sometimes it’s a real hindrance. It depends what they put in there. When you’re doing a drama and they put the score from like, Shawshank Redemption in there, then you’re screwed! Are there banks of temp soundtrack scores then that people just plagiarise to get the job done? Yeah. Sometimes when the director and editor work together, the editor will drop music in while they’re cutting to help the director see the potential of the scene – it’s kind of an incestuous process because that’s how temp scores are developed, but the temp score becomes part of the final score and then that final score becomes a temp score for something else and so on.

The days when Mancini wrote the score from a script and storyboard are long gone. There’s so much money involved that the studio encourages a process that will hedge the bets of the film as much as possible. Why doesn’t that surprise me? Yeah, but you know what, you can get to work with directors who have won the confidence of the studio and then it’s a non issue. Dawn of the Dead – they didn’t care. And with Rob, well, nobody tells Rob what to do. Not because he’s belligerent or anything, but he’s a man with a vision and knows exactly how each part will be put together, so they left us to it.

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Shoot ‘ e m Down! Words: Sion Smith Pics: Fin Costello

It should take a massive leap of imagination to link Dani Filth to Argent, but the key is the only one on the ring. Fin Costello, one of the most talented and respected rock photographers of the last three generations, subjects himself to the dark side…

in Costello takes no prisoners. In his work he can be both brutal and sharp. Capable of taking better pictures in ﬁve minutes than most of us are able to in a lifetime, in conversation he is animated and sincerely honest – that makes two of us. We hit the ground running, and invariably, we begin with a Kiss story (natch): Kiss are going through something of a resurgence at the moment. We’ve just finished filming for VH1 a show called Ultimate Albums. It started out as half hour documentary about Kiss Alive! and ended up as a two hour film. Once Gene Simmons got involved you couldn’t shut the fucker up. Anyway, we’d shot the cover for Alive! a couple of days before at the Michigan Palace during rehearsals and it was their last throw of the dice – if the album came out, good and well, if it didn’t they were going to go for it anyway. So I’m wandering around taking photographs and there’s these two kids with this really amateurish banner, so I said to them ‘come over here and I’ll take a photograph of you’, then I took the banner back to the band to get it autographed for them, and the kids were over the moon. For those familiar with the album, that photograph made it to the back cover. Anyway I had an email a couple of months ago from a guy called Brad Smith who said he and his brother were in the crowd just three or four guys to the right of these two kids with the banner and he wanted an original print of the shot, autographed by me, for his brothers birthday. His brothers name is Chad Smith – the drummer in the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

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The value of the band who use visuals as art of their persona, must surely be a gift to a photographer on the prowl for that magical shot that makes the shoot worthwhile? Sure – I remember doing the cover shots for Twisted Sisters debut, Under the Blade. I used to live in America and I knew of Dee Snider from when he was a DJ, long before he joined Twisted. When he popped up, I was pretty shocked anyway because I’d never seen him – the man’s a giant! Anyway, when they come to the studio for the shoot, he wouldn’t let anyone be in the dressing room or see them get changed. They were all these Italian New Yorkers, big bruising guys and Jesus, when they changed… Tony, my assistant fell apart laughing. He was holding onto this table and the table was wobbling but the shot worked out really well. They looked pretty daft, but they had the idea down to fine art. Don’t give the game away and hit them right between the eyes for the shock to have it’s full effect. It was a good time for rock bands back then

because the world was pretty primed for it huh? Aw, hell yes. It was the same with David Lee Roth, he understood what rock n roll was all about. I was on the road with them when they were out supporting Black Sabbath, and they were just blowing them out of the water every night. We’d arranged to do this shoot and they were really primed for doing a good job and, another assistant of mine, who was gay, had a boyfriend who owned a theatrical shop just next-door, so just for a laugh, we got some costumes and dressed them as soldiers. They were so into it, but that sort of spontaneous shit doesn’t happen anymore. Now you have to get permission from the security guys, the roadies, the bag carrier before you even get near to them. I agree, though I’m not sure how that happened – from the most rebellious social scene in the world to practically the most corporate. I don’t think anybody even saw it coming. Well, I don’t know really. I became ill and went to Spain, but by the time I came back, it had all changed. I would hate to be a young photographer now – that

goes for being a journalist too. What I’m finding now is that I get some pretty over the top projects, probably based on my past experience, but what’s really prevalent is that back then – and I really don’t mean this in an ‘it was better back then’ fashion – there was attitude where rock n roll was a lifestyle and now it’s just so cardboard cut-out. It goes way back. Motley Crue tried to be what they had read about, there was no honesty there, it was just them defining the sort of lifestyle that the likes of Lester Bangs and Nick Kent wrote about. Basically shag your life away and have a good time, but look back on it because Motley Crue left nothing of musical value to the world. Yeah but the thing about the Crue was that they caught the generation who didn’t have the real thing kicking about. Just about every band who was worth something in the early eighties had seriously fucked it up. From Zeppelin through to Kiss, there was nothing left and I think Crue caught us at the right place and the right time. The eighties would have been a desolate place without them!

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Sure, I agree completely, but that generation had a lot of energy and that’s what propelled them forward. We also agree that Marilyn Manson is not some sub standard Alice Cooper ripoﬀ, but is in fact the real deal with a hell of a lot to say to two generations – one that hasn’t ever heard it before and one who are desperate to hear it again. Alice wasn’t really that rock at the end of the day – the show was very camp. He’s become what people needed him to become. One of Fins’ more recent projects was for Cradle of Filth – mainly the head man of the clan – Dani Filth. I point out that even though I can’t really get into their music, Dani has so many great ideas that it’s a shame they aren’t able to expose themselves to a wider audience. He’s got a great head on his shoulders. He’s very into the world that you’re into I think – the world of movies and comics and the general dark side of life. I’ve done four shoots with them and I probably won’t shoot with Dani anymore because the last shoot was so intense as the ‘Company’ got involved, but prior to that, it was tight, tight mini budgets. So when Sony got involved it turned into a bloodbath. I got really upset at their attitude and I don’t get upset easy… .. what after all the shoots you’ve been on... Well I went to a meeting at Sony and it started there. I was onto a new thing. I’d never really explored the Goth thing before. Let me tell you I come from a Catholic background and I’m well versed in the dark side the mythology if you like and the hidden fears and guilt, and all those influences translate really well into the gothic style. Dani, Paul, their guitarist and myself were having a great time mocking up graphic illustrations, but the band where distracted by pressure from Sony. Anyway we had naked girls with serpents coiled around them and four hundred big candles burning away on the set and we were there. We were seriously on a roll and then Sony pulled the budget. So I went down to the meeting and they said they weren’t going to talk to a ‘press photographer’ and I could fuck off. As you can imagine, I hit the fucking roof. It was the first time I’d ever lost my temper. There must have been a time for you though when that was different.You must have had days when you could just turn up and say ‘Hi, it’s Fin’, and they’d say, ‘Hi, here’s some money – go shoot.’ Once upon a time yeah, but something has gone out of it now. There’s a fear in the land, almost like a culture of bullying and control from all sides. You watch people in clubs now, they have to contend with

“What’s sad about it, is that you and I can sit here and talk about history, but there’s a whole generation who aren’t going to have any.” doormen and security and they are so used to it, it’s expected, but going back my generation – maybe even yours, we just wouldn’t tolerate that kind of bullying behaviour. It extends into the business too. Sure.You know I considered making a strike for one of the other big guns when I seriously started thinking about working in the industry again, but then I decided that I couldn’t handle being told what to do so… here’s Zero! That’s how it has to be. You take any of those magazine and they’re just a big fucking machine. They all look the same, they all feel the same.. feature, feature, advert. Sometimes it’s like there’s not an original thought amongst them. What I’m really excited about at the moment in the industry, is that people are empowering themselves. Technology has enabled it and all round, I think people are

just sick of taking the shit. Definitely. The record companies are in dire straits because they failed to master the internet at its inception and the turnover of bands at the moment is so fast that if you go on holiday, you might miss something! What’s sad about it, is that you and I can sit here and talk about history, but there’s a whole generation who aren’t going to have any. I’ve just done a shoot with Train and the record company had this idea that we’d go down to the gig and take some shots and then go home. We ended up at the hotel – years ago, we would have just been put in the hotel with the band – I sat down with the tour manager to explain what I wanted to do and I got my portfolio out. Anyway, he gets to the end and there’s a page of about ten album covers, the really big

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stuff that I’ve done. By the end of it, I could have had them standing naked in the harbour and they would have done it. The point I’m making is that the connection is always there but there are huge barriers up all around and it’s so much of an effort now to break them down and you really shouldn’t have to go through it. I really need to get off this ‘then and now’

thing, but there used to be the band, but what people didn’t see that was part of the package was that all the great bands were flanked by great journalists, great photographers.. sometimes even a great record company! All those things you mention though, they used to be a calling. Now it’s just a job.You go to university and you study hard and you go and see some shows... to my mind that

doesn’t give you a licence to write about jack-shit if you don’t know the name of the first Stones album. Go back to the late seventies, early eighties… the years when I was between 12 and 16 and really getting into rock – I knew who you were. I knew what you had shot and I’d see your work every month in Kerrang! or Sounds – to some extent, there was you, Ross Halfin and Zlozower and I knew you were the big guns. The point here is that my friends did too, so I’m not just being anal! Fin would get talked about just like David Lee Roth would, but now, not only do I not know who the main men are in that world, I could actually care less because they’re just reeling them off and not daring to put their careers on the line and do something different for the sake of something that’s worth more than the money at the end of the day. Actually, that’s not absolutely true because Steve Gullick was pretty cool a bit later on too, but you get my point. Yeah, I never treated it like that. I have an attitude about it. I’m a photographer first and a businessman second, so I keep photography pushed forward. I don’t show up at press shoots, I can’t work like that and I won’t work like that. I also don’t really do anything but rock. I do many other things too, but primarily that’s what I want to do. Even after all this time, I still haven’t developed a day job attitude. I still get excited. He counts amongst his close friends the guys from Deep Purple and Status Quo, which suits him just fine. I ask how it is that these guys are able to function in a world where, from what you read in the main, nobody cares anymore. Ian Gillan will never be anything else but Ian Gillan. That’s who he is and what he is, and he wouldn’t want to do anything else because he’s enjoying it so much. If you get the chance to see him at the moment, he’s as hot as hell. Robert Plant also seems to have mastered that theory at the moment. I find the material he’s putting out is hugely valid in today’s music. He’s a nice guy and yeah, you’re right. The Led Zeppelin DVD is awesome. I saw them at their best and sometimes they were awesome and sometimes they weren’t. They were a real band, but having said that, Aerosmith never failed to be

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“In the job that I do, you see that it’s not just two hours on stage and shag the rest of the night away. The bands that have made it have worked so incredibly hard at it – how many hours they put in and the sacriﬁces they make is unbelievable.” brilliant. When they were hot they were great but at the times when they couldn’t even remember their own names, they were still great! They never fail to deliver. There was a chemistry there that never got broken. Maybe that’s what it is these days – maybe there’s just no chemistry.. or maybe that should be chemicals! Ha – you could be right there, but then again look at Kiss. There was very little chemistry there musically, but the theatrics carried them through it. It always amazes me the effect that Kiss had on the entire American culture. Wherever you go, in America out side of New York and L.A., it’s all jeans and check shirts and yet Kiss took off like a rocket and it became a cultural thing. It was almost like they planted the idea in your head and you did the rest! They showed everybody that there could be and was something outside of the misery you were living in! But the sheer numbers – you know.. well educated people too sometimes! It was just amazing. Can we imagine the world if Kiss Alive! had flopped and they gave it all up? I wouldn’t have got paid for a start! At the time they were playing these old Victorian style theatres and I remember walking in one time about three and four numbers in and there was lights, fire and glitter and Gene was there, nearly 7 feet tall spitting fire and there was all these kids at the front with their hands raised and it was like something out of Dante you know. I got my camera out of my bag and just ran straight down there. There’s just some things you just don’t want to miss. Neil Bogart was hiding out the back like record executives do when they’re not sure if something will work or not. Probably hiding from the IRS! No, I think he was probably hiding from some people a lot more scary than the IRS! At the time he had Donna Summer and The Deep (the movie), and Kiss and he couldn’t afford to promote any of them as he had no money. They were just taking gambles all over the place. But the key – and young bands should learn from this – was that they had gone out and done the groundwork. They had been on the road forever. I don’t care what anyone says. Gene gets knocked about for being a motherfucker but he knew exactly what he wanted and went there many times. You have to admire people like that. In the job that I do, you see that it’s not

just two hours on stage and shag the rest of the night away. The bands that have made it have worked so incredibly hard at it – how many hours they put in and the sacrifices they make is unbelievable. Marriages just don’t last in rock do they. We were talking about this the other day and the only two people I know who are still together are Geddy Lee (Rush) and his wife, but then she has a good career and is successful in her own right, so maybe that’s the secret. Fin is a man of many words befitting his heritage.We flounder for a while and take in all the years that have gone by and the work he did in them. Is there anybody left to work with and I really should have asked, how the hell did you get started? You know who I admire at the moment and would like to work with right now? Rob Zombie. He just has so much creativity in

his visuals. He knows exactly how to pitch it and I think he’s just great. The songs are so perfectly throwaway to match it though, you can see why he took off like he did. As for how I got started, it’s actually a second career for me. I’m a sailmaker by trade... or a sailmaker by accident to be more precise. When I came over to England, I would hang out in jazz clubs and stuff and the Marquee – and you had people like Alexis Corner bringing over guys like Muddy Waters.You’d listen to everything back then – jazz, blues – it was just a melting pot but it was very much a wing and a prayer at the start. Some people saw something in me that I didn’t see at the time and gave me so many chances which I obviously didn’t blow, so that was how it started. Then I got brought into Kerrang! – I was never out of work. Luck played a part but then doesn’t it always. It was a long time before I actually called myself a photographer – one day it was as though I just stopped and thought wow – look at all this work I’ve done. History in your hands people. Read it and weep! You can check out more of Fins work at www.fincostello.co.uk O

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ZERO

R E D N U UND O R G

iaki Nozu

: Ch ith • Pictures

Sm Words: Sion

In the relatively short time that Velvet Revolver have been together, they’ve suffered more than most at the hands of the gaggles of fans and journalists that want to talk about the past. Scott Weiland, quite understandably has been the most defensive, whilst Slash has been patient and, to a point, quite conversant about it. It must be hard to be a legend outside of his story, but then Slash is just a guy who loves to play guitar. Period. My first impression is that he’s still not really sure what all the fuss is about but is willing to go along for the ride anyway.

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ZERO

“...I’M A FATHER OF TWO. THAT’S SOMETHING THAT WILL CHANGE ANYBODY’S PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE.”

he upstairs storage room in the Crobar - London’s popular music journo drinking establishment - is the last place I figured I’d ever find myself, let alone with Slash. Standing outside on a reasonably pleasant London evening, people come and people go, but as Slash gets out of the car, one guy stops, does a double take and, in a manner that would impress even David Blaine, produces a pen and a scrap of paper. “Slash!” He thrusts the tools under his nose and without missing a beat of his stride, it’s signed, returned and we’re inside. Impressive for the 5 seconds it takes to get from a car to a door. “We just had this little press conference

for all the editors and publishers of fanzines and fansites. It was pretty cool y’know and under those circumstances, it’s not a hassle to talk about Guns because at that level, everybody is such a fan - they’re not out to dish dirt, they’re genuinely interested in the story - are these your cigarettes?” Now there’s a turn up for the books. Apparently, Slash has quit smoking - take a look at the Velvet Revolver publicity shots and videos. No, I hadn’t noticed either. “Can I have one? This trip, the bug has come back to haunt me. I gave up because we’d just had a baby and my wife kept on saying that I was making the house, the car and the baby smell - so I went to see a hynotherapist and just came out not wanting to smoke

anymore. When I got in the car, I noticed there were cartons on the dash, cartons in the door, cartons in the glove box, on the seat. I threw them all away”. So here we sit with a packet of Marlboros growing smaller by the minute. The ever present spirit of Jack Daniels also sits with us but maybe that’s one of the things that will never change. Slash is well in charge of himself these days, realising that it’s OK to cavort with demons, so long as you can see where they are. But let’s face it, it wasn’t drink and cigarettes that saw him plucked from the arms of the reaper by Motley Crue back in the nineties. With a riotous set performed at Download behind them, (although thankfully not as riotous as Rio), the Live8 spectacle in which they proved

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ZERO

SEX TOYS!

that even icons can make bad set list decisions and the odd show performed here and there along the way, it’s safe to say that Velvet Revolver are possibly the most important band in rock n roll today. It’s probably also safe to say that the Live8 show was a missed opportunity to confirm that fact

Well, that all depends on how you want to use them, but how famous do you have to be exactly to be made into an action figure? Well, from one look at this motley crew (natch), pretty famous! This Slash figure will be available from September and comes complete with leather jacket, top hat, guitar, amp, speaker cab and, we’re pretty sure, would look damn hot superglued to the top of your Marshall stack. Also available from spawn.com are figures of Kiss, AC/ DC, Motley Crue, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Rob Zombie . . . go see for yourself! While you’re there, check out Todd’s new comic book project Case Files. Talk about comics that rock!

to all of those outside of the rock world. It’s easy to get suckered into believing that when you’re in the pages of a rock magazine, you’ve made it - but put yourself on a global stage and in front of a predominantly teenage/pop audience, then you start to separate the men from the boys. For the band, I put it to you that this will be one of the singularly most important events they will ever take part in. (Oh.. and it’s a good cause too - it’s not too late to get those hands in your pockets.) “The dynamics of the band now that we’ve been together for a while, are different now. It sounds cliched but we’ve grown together as a unit and we’re playing great. I had to watch a video of us this morning. That’s not something I normally do - ever - but it’s part of a show that we’ve been taping for MTV and I had to approve it. So, I’m sitting in the hotel room with it on and I really enjoyed it and for the first time I really appreciated us for the great rock n roll band that we are.” The cigarettes are going down pretty fast here as we hurtle through some kind of stream of

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ZERO

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING Unconscious through Download? Desperate to impress? Blag it... Set list: Sucker Train Blues Do It For The Kids Headspace Superhuman Fall To Pieces Dirty Little Thing Big Machine It's So Easy Sex Type Thing Set Me Free Wish You Were Here Mr.Brownstone Slither

THE BOTTOM LINE:

consciousness interview. Slash has the ability to make you feel like he’s known you for years. Speaking of video - is that something you get involved in on a concept level? “No. My favourite kind of videos - to be in and to watch - are ones where it’s a live performance. I don’t really like those big concept video clips, live is much better. I’m a guitarist y’know. I don’t like watching myself perform - this morning was business, but I like watching other people and seeing how they perform. I guess you could say that the Velvet videos are part live and part concept - there’s certainly some kind of story going on there, particularly with Fall to Pieces, but essentially, they’re performance driven. I put it to him that this second album should be a lot easier, maybe even a lot more fun to make than Contraband. The

level of expectation from the public and record companies alike was an unknown quantity. Now firmly established as a band that aren’t going to fall apart at any given moment, and as a band that are delivering the goods time after time, to quote Tom Petty, the future looks positively wide open. “We’re going to start recording the second album after this series of dates. I’m looking forward to it. We’ve got some great material”. The new song, Come on, Come In, that surfaces on the Fantastic Four soundtrack is killer. It’s not an advancement, it’s not a band trying to figure out how to get better or fit in more. It’s just Velvet Revolver doing their thing. Rock. There’s too much of that segregation shit still sadly going on around these parts.. something we both agree on. “You know, how many good rock n roll

Despite being as tight as a band that have been playing together for ten years, the wind vs sound scenario gets at least one band every year. This year, it was the Velvets that suﬀered more than most which is a shame because they delivered a short sharp shock to any doubters that may have been lurking. Scott, understandably, was pretty annoyed at the media judging by some of his thinly veiled comments (and who can blame him, check out the score at velvetrevolver.com), but as a frontman and a vocalist, he can be ﬂawless and was pretty close to being at his best tonight - even if you couldn't hear him all the time. Slash meanwhile seemed to have his own problems with the sound guy and gave up some of his guitar parts to Dave who didn't seem to be affected so badly. The Velvet Revolver that appeared on stage tonight was not quite the same Velvet Revolver that we normally get indoors! Still, the inclusion of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here was a good move, if not only to confuse those who didn't have a clue. So did you miss anything? Yes and no. Anytime you miss Velvet Revolver you miss something, but if you've seen them before, you won't be crying in your beer... and if you haven't caught them live yet, you need to get out more.

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ZERO albums will there be this year? Apart from us, you’ve got Audioslave, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Weezer and maybe the White Stripes album - I’ve not heard it yet. How many is that? Six. That’s not too fucking many is it, but I’d like to think it’s getting there and if we can help it move along a bit faster, then that’s fine. The problem is, even if you make a great video, MTV really don’t want to know anyway”. I point out that it’s an absolute necessary evil these days. “Sure, but just because you made a video doesn’t mean that they have to play it”. Maybe it’s a little more relaxed over here in the UK. It’s a fact that MTV Stateside are about as unsupportive of rock as they have ever been. So be it. Maybe underground is where it should breed for a little while. Let it lay it’s grass roots and let it grow from being a baby into an adult without being a victim of growing up in public. Looking healthier than ever - and martial arts is something we just have to sit down and talk about one day without even mentioning music - Duff joins the piece: Talking of being married and having

children - which I’m sure we were about an hour ago - you were little more than kids yourselves when Appetite surfaced. When you think about it, most pivotal albums of any generation are made by musicians who just ‘go for it’ with pockets full of naivety. “We were, like, 21 years old, says Duff, “but I don’t think it ever came from the drugs, or the alcohol we were doing. Appetite was how we were living at that time but still we have a common mindset. How to approach and portray music, and that never leaves you. I mean inside of us boils all kinds of different shit, you know and our outlet is, thank god, music. And... Slash: “We’re just aggressive by nature.” Duff: “Yeah - that’s what I was trying to say.” There’s a completely different dynamic to Velvet Revolver than there was with either band previously. On stage - and presumably off - they’re focussed and very driven on getting the job done. Not in any control freak kind of way though, but in the way they all bring their separate parts to the show and just let physics and chemistry take care of the rest. If my

…AT THE MOVIES

Despite their relatively short lifespan, Velvet Revolver have chalked up a good few wins in the movie soundtrack column. Luckily, none of the movies were complete stinkers.. well, they weren’t so long as you don’t have really high standards: The Italian Job: The first official song from the band - Money, a Pink Floyd cover, is featured at the end of the movie and is also played occasionally during the feature. Not our personal favourite Floyd track of all time but at least the Velvets make it listenable again without an ashtray on your chest... The Hulk: a more popular song than Money, Set Me Free sees the band loosening up and gave everyone a good idea of what was to follow – namely Contraband. Fantastic Four: The sign of a band really at ease with themselves, Come In, Come On is probably the pick of the bunch as the Velvets really settle in to getting the led out! A solid rock affair written specifically with the movie in mind as opposed to a wild card contribution. Sit back, enjoy without wondering what might happen next!

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ZERO

“WE’RE JUST AGGRESSIVE BY NATURE”

NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE…

Following his leave of absence from Guns n Roses, Duff figured he’s better get himself a back up plan.. but college? Well - it makes sense, kinda, to me… I went through kind of a pretty serious, physical problem and it straightened me out. It was really kind of simple. I started because I had to fill time, right? I started to ride my mountain bike, because I had the shakes so bad, and when the shakes went away I decided, that I needed shit to do. So, I started going through my files - and I started trying to read lots of Guns N Roses financial statements from the last four or five years and I looked at them and I was like; “I don’t how to read this!” You know? Where’s the bottom line, how did they get to the bottom line? So I was still in L.A. and I went to a simple business class, just a general business thing. In that class there was a section on financial statements and I could apply it directly, you know. I was

really interested in it. Then I took up a securities class - stocks, bonds, and it was at about that time that I was starting to invest. So that really interested me - I could apply it immediately. The professor of that class said I’d got a knack for it, and I should really pursue a ﬁnance or some sort of economics degree. So, I applied to this pretty high brow school, this Jesuit school, in Seattle. It’s rated 14th in the States - the Business School – and, well, I didn’t graduate High School so for me to get into that I had to go through community college and get straight. They told me which class to take and I got the A’s and I had to write an ‘Entrance Essay’, and - I’d forgotten how to write a fucking essay, so a friend of mine from the Presidents of the United States, (the band), those guys are all like Ivy League graduates, and he re-taught me how to write an essay. You know, intro, body, conclusion. And so I was like - what do I write, you know? And he said - tell them the whole fucking story! Tell them your fucking story. You were a fucked up alcoholic, a drug addict, blah, blah, blah. Tell them about your band. Tell them everything – right up to how you’re married now with 2 kids. So - I wrote the story, right from High School to the present. And they let me in! I’m one quarter short of actually having the degree, cos this band started. I was studying still when this band started!

memory is half as good as I think it is, isn’t that the way rock n roll should be delivered? Where the hell did it all go so astray? Scott recently stated for the Washington Post that: “It’s a kind of vibe you just don’t see anymore. It must have been what people saw when they saw the Rolling Stones in the ‘70s. But it’s a whole new millennium. We’re kind of like ‘Sticky Fingers’ on steroids!” Well, that’s two of us on the same train of thought then... Duff: “The main difference is that we’re in a completely different place as people. I mean we don’t have to call promoters and... and buy drugs and... make sure you’ve got enough alcohol with you and all that kind of thing. Which is really a big fucking huge boulder off your back, you know. You can focus more on what we’re about. I mean you’re sitting in a room with a couple of guys who are really just pure musicians, you know, and all the fame and hoopla - and whatever people might see from the outside - really isn’t part of what we’re about.” Slash: “It became that.” Duff: “You have to understand - at first you’re kinda bowled over by it - but you understand and deal with it in your own way.” Slash: “It’s just... it’s one of those kind of things where the tour is something that we’re so - we’re so ‘present’ - and so everything that’s going on, we’re actually experiencing as opposed to just dulling it all the time - or completely ignoring it. But it’s all fun, you know? I don’t have any regrets from those days but this thing is very exciting and it’s been hell of a lot of fun, like - to remember it as opposed to... well, I know we had a good time, but I just don’t remember it!” Make that four of us, so it must be true. Anyone else along for the ride? O

THE ESSENTIAL VELVET REVOLVER TIMELINE

2002 April 29: The date of the Randy Castillo bash where Slash, Duﬀ and Matt play with Josh Todd (Buckcherry). July: Todd no longer a part of the project. September: Slash gives Scott a tape of the band but as Weiland is still out with STP, thinks no more of it. October/December: The band sees a bunch of guys audition for the currently vacant frontman spot. Amongst them: Seb Bach, Kelly Shaefer, Travis Meeks and Todd Kearns.

2003 January: Slash invites Mike Patton to audition but is declined. April: Scott starts jamming with the band – they record Money for The Italian Job and Set Me Free to later appear on The Hulk soundtrack. June: The band ﬁnally settle on the name Velvet Revolver. Later in the month, they play their ﬁrst show where they perform Bodies (Pistols), Set Me Free, Sex Type Thing, It’s so Easy, Slither and Nirvana’s Negative Creep as an encore. August: Sign deal with RCA

2004 June: June 8 - Oﬃcial worldwide release date for the album Contraband. June 16 – Album goes straight in at No 1 on the Billboard Chart (256,000 copies in ﬁrst week). July: July 17 – Contraband goes gold in the US July 29 – Contraband goes platinum in US

2005 January: Bands ﬁrst UK tour met with resounding success. At the Hammersmith show on January 23, the band perform The Doors’ Five to One. June: Deliver killer set at Download. Thanks to the awesome http://vr.belowempty.com for the bare essentials. Check it out.

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Interview: Sion Smith • Art: Lorenzo

It’s not easy making your own way in the world – and it can break your heart when someone comes along that makes it look like the most natural thing in the world. Behind the canvas of this talented artist, there is a man that spends long hours chipping away at the stone… nothing for nothing right!

Photo by Julie Strain.

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orn in Rome in 1969, Lorenzo Sperlonga spent his early childhood thinking he wanted to be a gas station owner. At least he knew what he wanted to do – which is more than I did! Instead, at the age of 14, he opted for the Italian Institute for Cinematography and Television. At 17 his career was off and running as he began working for several Italian magazines and advertising agencies as an illustrator and graphic designer. He continued to grow and refine his style for nine years at "Lapis," an advertising agency in Rome, where he created scores of book covers, CDs covers, posters, storyboards, and packaging as well as many advertising campaigns. In 1994, Skorpio, Italy's largest comic and magazine publisher, printed his first "pin-up," and Lorenzo decided this was his real calling. Fortunately so did Skorpio and the first one led to a series of many, many more! A meeting with Kevin Eastman for the first time in Los Angeles at the signing of Julie Strain's “It's Only Art if it's Well Hung”, Kevin looked over his portfolio and discussed the possibilities of his working in the American market, and five years later his first cover for Heavy Metal appeared on the newsstands...

Lorenzo apologises for his rudimentry use of the English language. To be honest , he speaks better English than most people I know – but your grasp of a spoken language means nothing when your talent does your talking for you. Reproducing Lorenzo’s work on paper – whether it be in the magazine Heavy Metal or this one, is awesome . . . or at least you think it is. Faced with the real thing, and this is speaking as a layman, for no artist am I, Lorenzo appears to have mastered not only the difficult task of reproducing the human body as a beautiful object but also manages to get some of the soul in there too. These are no ordinary paintings – a Sperlonga exhibition is as sclose as you’re likely to get to truly perceiving what knocking up the Sistine Chapel must have taken.. but for my money, Sperlonga is more interesting. Must something to do with Italian blood.

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Your work appears to be influenced by the likes of the early Frazetta Conan novel covers – at least this is my first impression. Is that an accurate guess at why you went to Rossellini’s and continued in that style, or am I coming from the wrong place? Is what we currently know as the definitive image of your work a progression from something else?

Well, I have always admired Frazetta’s paintings and I think there is a little bit of them in any artist who does fantasy illustrations nowadays. I consider him as the master founder of this kind of art, but to be honest I became familiar with his work only few years later when I started doing this professionally. So I don’t’ think he has been my main influence. I would say more Sorayama. I got his first book when I was 18 and I have been damned since then! Rossellini’s was just a school of cinematography with a small graphic department. I was more attracted by advertising than illustrations back then, but those were the times when Photoshop or any other graphic software, were yet to come: everything had to be made by hand. So I learned how to use inks, gouache and brushes. Today I think I created my own style: it’s nice when you see people recognizing my work even without reading the signature on the painting. Sorayama is an icon! I love his Gynoid art – the guy is a genius. If I recall correctly, he’s just created a new Mickey Mouse for Disney hasn’t he – have you seen it? I can’t imagine a more unlikely alliance than Sorayama and Disney. Come to that, do you guys know each other – he must be aware of your work.

The Art of Lorenzo Sperlonga There’s coffee table books and there’s Coffee Table books. This is a Coffee Table book – and Fanfare certainly know what they’re doing with this kind of material. Whether you’re coming at Sperlonga from a background in Heavy Metal magazine, Playboy and Hustler or his take on Spiderman and Fantastic Four, there’ll got to be something for you in this superb collection! This collection focuses on his pinup work and features art inspired by the likes of Kim Basinger, Traci Lords, Anna Nicole Smith, Julie Strain, Jodie Foster and Pamela Anderson.

“the very first album i ever bought in my life was “the number of the beast” by iron maiden, but i must have been pretty confused at that time. i was 13 or so, because i remember the same day i walk out from the same store with the paul mccartney single “ebony and ivory” as well!” I’m not sure if I saw that specific piece but I met him once in 1999 here in Los Angeles at his One Man Exhibition for the Tamara Bane Gallery (which is the gallery I collaborate with right now). It was such a thrill. He doesn’t speak English so we actually tried to communicate with gestures! At that time I hadn’t published my book yet, so I’m pretty sure I was a perfect nobody to him, so I honestly don’t know if he is aware of my work. Maybe he’ll find that out if you send him a copy of the magazine! Your real talent seems to take oﬀ around ’95 – what clicked into place for you then?

You are absolutely right: in 1995 things changed. Erotic comix were booming in Europe, especially in Italy. So this new publisher in Rome asked me to prepare some covers for their new magazine. That was the fist step and this is how I found myself as a pinup artist. From there then it has been just a magazine after the other. Is there really that big a market for them out there? You can get them quite easily over here but it’s very underground.

Well, that was back in the 90’s,

now I’m not sure if in Italy the market for erotic comics is still the same. Probably not. More recently, you worked for Larry Flynt publications – how was that? That sounds pretty cool to me.

After Playboy and Penthouse, Hustler was the missing segment of the triangle. Of course, Hustler is a much more extreme magazine than the other two so everything has to be more explicit, and leave less to the imagination, but I still enjoy the process… I’m sure you do! Must be a hard life drawing T&A all day long!

I can’t complain! But believe me after many years it becomes routine, and while the audience appreciate the final product for what it is, when I work on it I focus more on the technical difficulties of the painting itself and what’s the best way to achieve the best results. ..and tell us a little about Heavy Metal comics too. That’s quite a seminal publication to be working on with a hell of a lot of history. Is that the thing you’re most proud of – they certainly seem to have embraced you as one of their major talents.

Heavy Metal was a turning point in my career. And when I saw my first cover for the September 2000 issue, it was a dream coming true. Today It is such a privilege for me to keep creating new pieces for it year after year, for the magazine, and posters, calendars, books that come with it. Tell us a little about your musical inﬂuences – does it come out in your work.

The very first album I ever bought in my life was “The Number of the Beast” by Iron Maid, but I must have been pretty confused at that time. I was 13 or so, because I remember the same day I walk out from the same store with the Paul McCartney single “Ebony and Ivory” as well! But I ended up listening to hard rock for most of my life: Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Kiss were my favourites. I also played drums for a little while in a wanna-be-glam-metal-band. But we were so bad… it didn’t last! Yeah, I definitely think that my little metal-boy side still shows in some my paintings. Leather outfits, chains, demons. How many times we have seen those on heavy metal records from the 80’s? Remember Lee Aaron, the Canadian “Metal

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When

Ruled the World

Its funny how things that were once cutting edge evolve into the norm. Back in the dark ages – 1975 – a magazine of French origin called Métal Hurlant was conceived by a group of visionaries, namely JeanPierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet, Bernard Farkas, and Jean Giraud (aka Mœbius). In that very same year, Tony Hendra, then editor of National Lampoon magazine was looking at some comics whilst in Europe. Finding a copy of Metal Hurlant. the company liked it so much they decided to licence it, doing nothing to change the concept apart from translating it and rebranding it for an English speaking audience. The re-brand was titled Heavy Metal – apparently because it was the most pointless title they could think of! When the first issue launched in 1977, sales in the USA went ballistic. Encouraged by the response to the early reprints, they soon began commissioning their own material. Then in 1987, the unthinkable happened. Somebody decided to make a movie. Produced by Ivan Reitman, written by Dan Goldberg and Len Blum, it featured the voices of John Candy and Eugene Levy and produced one of the most genre defying soundtracks of the year with contributions from Black Sabbath and Sammy Hagar. With over 1,000 animators on board, the movie clocked about $7.5 million in expenses and surprised everybody with returns of over $20 million – the final figure would have been a lot more if the movie had been able to have been sold on video. Hampered by that old nugget of music copyright, the retail version didn’t become available until 1997. Under it’s new publisher Kevin Eastman (co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles), Heavy Metal now publishes 6 issues a year alongside of 3 special issues 140,000 readers per issue can’t be all worng... can they? Check it out at www.heavymetal.com

it’s pretty simple: everything starts with a white piece of paper where i sketch something real quick of what i have in mind. after that, i do the final drawing on a bigger illustration board.

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Queen”? I had a crush on her when I was 15. So I did this drawing from one of her album covers.You can say that was my very first Lady-Warrior! I see a lot of imitations of your work out there – is that something you respect as an artist or would you rather people developed their own style.

Sure, I feel flattered when I receive emails for other young artists that are inspired from what I do. And I know that eventually they will come out with their own style anyway. It’s just a matter of time. What tools do you use – anything that you can get your hands on, or are you a more traditional artist. There seems to be a lot of work ﬁnalized with Photoshop out there.

Personally I never use Photoshop for my paintings: they are hand made start to finish. I do an initial pencil drawing and then I start painting over it with acrylic colours. Brushes and airbrush are my usual tools, but I like

to experiment sometime here and there with new stuff. On the other hand, I find digital art totally fascinating: it allows you to create effects that would be impossible to achieve by hand. But you have to consider it a great media to work with. The only downside, if you really want to find one, is that there is never actually an original, and that is what collectors and patrons are looking for. I mean there is one, but it is on the hard drive of a computer. Can you talk us through how you put your work together then – from concept to ﬁnished piece?

It’s pretty simple: everything starts with a white piece of paper where I sketch something real quick of what I have in mind. After that, I do the final drawing on a bigger illustration board. Sometimes I meet with models and we take few photographs of the pose I want to use in the painting so I can have them later on as reference since I would never ask anybody to pose for me for days! Then

I start the painting usually beginning from the background and little by little I complete it. The whole process it might take up to a couple of weeks. And what happens to all of it? Do you exhibit and sell or is your house just full of your ‘babies’ that you can’t bear to part with!

No, no! I want them to go! You see, this is my job and the whole purpose is to sell your artwork. You cannot be to attached emotionally to your originals if you want to do this professionally. It pays your bills! Getting oﬀ the subject of your own work for a moment, do you think the industry is in a good way at the moment. Are the opportunities there for a young artist to make it or has it become too corporate to handle over recent years.

Well, I cannot say if it is or isn’t a good moment, but if you have talent and consistency the opportunities are always out there. For example in comics, sometimes everything can begin

just from an independent project until some major company is ready to pay big bucks and invest in your idea. And maybe later on come up with a movie of your character! That would make you happy and most probably rich. Have you ever seen anyone with a tattoo of any of your work – if so, how did it shape up? That sounds like a bit of a tall order to me.

I actually received mails from someone who did it: but they never sent me the photos. As a guy in the middle of it all, can you give us your own personal ﬁve favourite comic books that people really should be going out and reading?

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, Elektra Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz, Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Guarnido, Raptors by Defaux and Marini, Cybersix by Carlos Meglia and Carlos Trillo, but I’m not sure the it has ever been translated in English. Read these and you won’t be disappointed! O

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ZERO Live! LIVE GIGS

Papa Roach

Live

London Astoria

“SINCE THE NEW ALBUM GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER TURNED OUT TO BE BETTER THAN ANYONE HERE REMOTELY EXPECTED, IT WAS ALWAYS ON THE CARDS THAT THIS COULD BE A VASTLY DIFFERENT BAND COMING OUT OF THE GATES THAN THEY WERE BEFORE.”

Another hot night in the capital and this is one show I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Since the new album Getting Away With Murder turned out to be better than anyone here remotely expected, it was always on the cards that this could be a vastly different band coming out of the gates than they were before. Suspicions were confirmed as the band ripped through Dead Cell and Not Listening. Jacoby (or whatever the fuck he’s calling himself now) has really got his shit together lately. Gone is the dickish persona of olde, and he’s morphed himself into a genuine frontman with charisma. Whatever his personal reasons for doing so, it was just in time because it would have been a shame to see them go down as the guy can sing his ass off – and to be frank, without him, Roach would be just another bunch of wannabes. Blood and Done With You make the focus of the middle of the set and prove just how strong their new material is when stacked up against the old - with the exception of Last Resort of course, which was kept back as the most obvious encore in the world. Take Me and Scars brought up the back end of the set and with sweat dripping from both them and us, I can honestly say Papa Roach have delivered themselves from out of a bad place and into somewhere they can have a future from. DO

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Black Label Society The Astoria

Hells Bells – and I thought I was looking forward to this one. Zakk’s fans are one fanatical bunch of SMF’s. Judging by the crowd presence outside all day long, there’s more then one or two hardcore here tonight and more than a

few who’ll still be here tomorrow judging by the state of some! Let’s get one thing straight from the start. Zakk Wylde pulls no punches. Not a one. Full on from the start, he never let’s up until he’s through. Expectedly, the likes of

Stillborn and Suicide Messiah pull the biggest reaction, but equally, the levels of exuberance are kept well above average for the entire range of the set. Very heavy and very loud was the order of the day and I saw something I never thought I’d see tonight. Zakk throws one of his beloved guitars into the arena – most gigs, the damn thing would have been shredded in seconds, but such is the crowd awareness of how much Zakk thinks of his machines, that it’s passed around like the Holy Grail. More stunning still was that when he asked for it back, it came! Not something you’ll see everyday. Despite appearances to the contrary, Zakk is a consummate professional. The man drank more

beer during the set than the rest of us put together and outplayed even himself at times. There must be 500 kids here inspired to be like him one day. Filmed as part of the forthcoming BLS DVD release, that’s one release you don’t want to miss out on.

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ZERO Live! LIVE GIVES

“BY THE TIME GROHL HAS DECAMPED TO THE DRUM STOOL TO ALLOW TAYLOR HAWKINS FIVE MINUTES IN THE SPOTLIGHT, EVERYONE IS DRAINED AND HAPPY.”

ROCK EXTRACTS!

have made any new fans. Really should have played at night boys…

Audioslave A bright sunny afternoon is not the best atmosphere to be watching Audioslave. A dark club, or even an arena, is good – moody, atmospheric and conducive to bouncing around like a loon – but 80-degree heat and head-burning sunshine just leaves you craving lager and something to chill-out too. Not that any of this stops Chris Cornell from patrolling the stage like a caged lion, or Tom Morello from soloing from such intensity that it’s a miracle his ﬁngers don’t bleed.

“CORNELL WAVES, THEY CHEER. HE POINTS, THEY SING. AND THE NEW STUFF OFF OF OUT OF EXILE GOES DOWN AS WELL AS TRACKS FROM THE DEBUT.” Further back from the stage, the response is mixed, with about half of the people sunbathing while the other half opt for bouncing – but its down the front where proof of this band’s popularity lies. Cornell waves, they cheer. He points, they sing. And the new stuff off of Out of Exile goes down as well as tracks from the debut. But the past weighs heavy with this band – a fact rammed home when the place roars its approval as Cornell hits the opening chords to Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun. And when Morello cranks up Killing In The Name Of, the assembled throng goes into meltdown. Those that were there to catch this “supergroup” won’t have headed off disappointed, but its unlikely they’d

Foo Fighters Dave Grohl is cool as fuck. I’m a married man – I like my women – but when Grohl strolls out on to the stage, chewing gum, grinning like a naughty schoolboy and cranking out the riﬀ to In Your Honour, I swear I get goose bumps. And once he starts singing, all I can do is stand in awe at the fact he’s not totally shredding his larynx on the opening number. And the crowd love him. It’s four songs before he says anything to the crowd, but it’s clear he has them in the palm of his hand. Every stroll to the front, every “how ya doin’” is greeted with a wall of noise. And the set has something for everyone. Yes, there’s In Your Honour to promote, but this is a festival and Grohl and the boys are here to entertain

so a greatest hits set is blasted out – and all your favourites are there. Monkey Wrench, This Is A Call, My Hero, Stacked Actors, Learning to Fly – it’s only when you see them live that you realise what an awesome back catalogue this lot have. But there’s no time to dwell on the song you just screamed along too – the next one is already being ripped out. This lot don’t pause for breath; they want to cram in as many songs as they can before their time is up. By the time Grohl has decamped to the drum stool to allow Taylor Hawkins ﬁve minutes in the spotlight, everyone is drained and happy. If only all festival shows could be this good.

Green Day Following Saturday’s master class in festival entertainment by Foo Fighters was always going to be interesting – but Green

Day have no need to care. They are preaching to the converted. Every man, woman and child in the place has American Idiot, and the vast majority know the back catalogue as well, so they care not a jot that every song seems to get stretched out to incorporate audience participation. In fact, they love it. For me, however, it’s a bit much. I’ve spent the afternoon watching The Subways rip the X Tent apart and Dogs chew up and spit out the Futures stage – and I want more. I want Billy Joe et al to leave my ears bleeding and the adrenaline pumping. This lot, after all, have been playing punk for the last 16 years. They can’t really claim to be punk anymore though. Sure, they have the antiestablishment message, they rant against Dubbya Bush, they tell us all to think for ourselves (and a ﬁeld of individuals agree as one…) but at the heart of it all this is an arena show in every sense of the word. Opener American Idiot sets things up, Billy Joe racing about the stage getting the crowd to out cheer the opposite side. And so it goes on. Be it St Jimmy, She, Longview or Basket Case, Shout, We Are The Champions (punk my arse) Billie Joe wants to conduct the crowd, which to be fair they lap up. I, however, am left wondering what would happen if they stopped fucking around and got on with it…. KJ

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ZERO Live! LIVE GIGS

I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching live music with. As someone who spends most of their concert time at metal/hardcore shows it was a breath of fresh air (literally) to be able to stand in front of the stage (no photo pit at the Crocodile) and not have to worry about my equipment or be constantly squashed. Very friendly indeed! CL

Porcupine Tree Crocodile Café, Seattle

When I last saw Porcupine Tree they co-headlined with Opeth at the Showbox, a venue that holds close to a thousand people. The venue for this show was considerably smaller, having a maximum capacity of 366 including the bar in the back. Because of this they couldn’t have the multiple video screens and surround sound they used at other venues on the US tour. They sold out two consecutive nights at the Crocodile so hopefully they will be able to get booked at a larger venue on the second US leg of the Deadwing tour in October.

the single screen behind the band who didn’t have much room on the tiny stage of the Crocodile. Stage lighting was practically nonexistent; while this lent well to the atmosphere it made photography (no ﬂash permitted) quite challenging. Once the three songs allowed for photography were up I was able to relax a bit and simply enjoy the music rather than worrying about the amount of available light. Steven didn’t speak much to the crowd except to introduce songs but no one seemed to mind, after all we were there for

familiar with. The material covered consisted predominantly of songs from Deadwing and In Absentia with a couple of older tracks thrown in; possibly so as not to alienate the long time fans of the band. Reports from the previous night’s show have indicated some issues with the sound, with a constant bass hum throughout the set. They must have gotten the kinks all worked out as I thought that the mix at this one was perfect; I haven’t heard such clarity in a live performance for some time. The musicianship was also

my favorite song from the Deadwing album. Steven referred to it as “A lesson on how to stretch the same three chords out for ﬁfteen minutes” but the song is, of course, much more complex than that. A particularly interesting part of the song was John Wesley’s take on the second solo that was quite diﬀerent than the studio version. All in all the set was a stellar performance and did not disappoint in any way. It could have been longer than the 90+ minutes that they played but what we got was well worth the money. Even without the state of the art audio/ video they had at other venues the music spoke for itself. As a side note the Porcupine Tree audience has got to be the most polite bunch of people

Funeral For A Friend The Astoria

Man, it’s hot. Not just hot, but insanely hot. The guy standing in front of me has fallen over at least three times.. and no, he didn’t look too hammered. Just hot. The crowd aren’t the only ones suﬀering tonight either. Despite not standing with a thousand other people in a beer drenched pit, FFAF struggled to get their energy levels up to the norm this evening. Professional to the end though, they put a brave face on it and muscled through on sheer guts and balls delivering much of their new album to a hugely (but ﬂagging crowd) appreciative crowd. Not bad, but not great either. DO

“All in all the set was a stellar performance and did not disappoint in any way. It could have been longer than the 90+ minutes that they played but what we got was well worth the money.” Porcupine Tree took the stage to a huge roar from the capacity crowd and started right out with the title track of their latest (and possibly greatest) album Deadwing with art and video playing on

the music, something the band deﬁnitely delivered on. Much to my surprise I actually knew every song the band played despite their huge back catalogue, much of which I am not completely

as close to perfect as possible but that’s to be expected with a band maintaining a consistent lineup for a long period of time. The highlight of the set for me was “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here,”

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Book online at meanfiddler.com & seetickets.com

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20/7/05 15:20:04

ZERO Live! LIVE GIGS

“CAPPING OFFTHE NIGHTWITH A FIRED UP VERSION OFTHEWHO’S MY GENERATION, A QUICK GETAWAYWAS NEEDED AS THE DIEHARD FANSTHREW EVEN MORE PLASTIC CUPS FULLWITH GOD KNOWS WHAT ATTHE STAGE.“ 62 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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VOCAL DUTIES ON WONDERWALL TONIGHTWERE DELIVERED BY LIAM, BUT AGAIN,YOU CAN’T HELP FEELINGTHAT NOEL WOULD HAVE DONE MORE JUSTICE LIVE.

Oasis

City of Manchester Stadium

Nine Inch Nails/ Saul Williams Brixton Academy

The city of Manchester Stadium erupted when Oasis finally hit the stage and started belting out Lyla. Liam, always guaranteed never to disappoint, was his usual arrogant self. Strutting around the stage with his tambourine acting like he was god, he certainly got the crowd fired up! His vocals were good tonight especially on the classics Rock & Roll Star and Live Forever, but by far the stand out moments are the ones fuelled with Noels voice; Little by Little and Don’t Look Back in Anger are sure to win everybody over, but tonight, his light shone brightest when they aired the next single The Importance of Being Idle. Vocal duties on Wonderwall tonight were delivered by Liam, but again, you can’t help feeling that Noel would have done more justice live. Even after all these years, he certainly appears to be the genius of the group. Oasis did not seem to be on stage very long – little over an hour, but in that time they covered a variety of songs from all of their albums. Nobody will be surprised to hear that it was the older songs that got the stadium bouncing. Capping off the night with a fired up version of The Who’s My Generation, a quick getaway was needed as the diehard fans threw even more plastic cups full with god knows what at the stage. Seeing Oasis sure as hell makes you want to dig out those first few albums, but sadly, doesn’t make me want to go out and buy the new one. EM

Unfortunately, through no fault of my own, I missed a sizeable chunk of Saul Williams, and only caught the final ten minutes of his innings. With that said, I found myself totally transfixed by what I was subjected to, and hope to catch up with his own brand of of hybrid trip-hop, industrial soundoff in the future. An appreciative crowd would verify my words – I strongly suggest that everyone should give Mr. Williams some of their time. Nine Inch Nails would never start a punch-up with a couple of lady-like prods and slaps to the face, no, they would wade in without sizing up their opponent. Go for the throat, possibly have a metal bar concealed up a sleeve. Trent Reznor came out of the traps, fists flying, spitting fire, launching headlong into Wish, practically bullying the sold out throng into submission within three minutes. what followed was an awesome barrage of old fused beautifully with the new. Classic, original, potent. Even the visual side of the performance is exciting to witness – a fantastic neo-gothic production with an excellent lighting accompaniment. Every

NIN album represented well, executed with a superb live exuberance and recipricated by the masses. Sin, March Of The Pigs, Hand That Feeds, The Wretched, Terrible Lie – track after track is a godsend. Just when things are at the peak of intensity, Reznor will lure you into the that false sense of security that he does so well, and we follow like kids to a gingerbread house. Something I Can Never Have stops you dead in your tracks. Performed with all the sinister theatre ambience that will drop the temperature 10 degrees and leave you with goosebumps head to toe. They do this so well. The stop, the start and all with that undying anger that they carry around like it was no burden at all, but with the hidden agenda to inject large doses of adrenalin where the sun will never shine. The more recent material is received well and sounds so memorable already. Modern day classics that kicks the boney ass of all the pretenders that have followed in Reznor¹s wake – the likes Mr. Manson and Ministry could all go back to this drawing board and learn some lessons. The climax of the show could be seen a mile oﬀ, but it was what we wanted – Starfuckers, Inc and, of course, Head Like A Hole – that sounds just as awesome as it did a decade and a half ago. I left extremely satiated and in need of some more of that wonderful stuﬀ that leaves you feeling so angry inside. CE

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Words: Sion Smith. Pics: courtesy RoadRunner.

The best part about chilling with Wednesday is that he’s into stuff. Lots of it. Scooby Doo, things stacked in garages that might become useful later on, rock old and new – but more than this, he has a lust for life that is somewhat missing in his contemporaries. Always with one eye on how he can make the next one bigger or a little bit s(l)icker, he deals his best cards and lets them fall wherever they may… 64 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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o today, we find ourselves on the sofa of Wednesday’s house watching one of the new episodes of Scooby Doo. If you’re of a mind to bear with us for two minutes, I’ll expand. The new episodes of Scooby Doo have none of the innocence and style of the originals but they’re not actually that bad either. In fact, they’re very watchable – even from the point of view that they’re good to bitch about when you know what you’re talking about. So why am I here? Impressed by the new album Transylvania 90210, I wondered what was next. Ultimately, the album reeks of theatrics, early Alice mixed in the proverbial blender with some White Zombie and Twisted Sister – this could well be one of the greatest shows on earth.. all we need is some time to set the wheels in motion. Welcome To My Nightmare here we come? Let’s find out:

That’s always been the dream, to one day get enough money together to do a full on production. I’m not the kind of person to sit around and say that until we get the money, I’m going to settle for less and not try to do as much as I can. Every time I tour I try and take things up another level. We just got back from Europe and we’ve been doing this same show for two months, so now that I’m home and we’re planning the Fall tour, I’m trying to figure out how to take it up another level. It’ll definitely go up a notch – I have no idea how, but it will happen! I always want people to never have it quite figured out. With Kiss and Alice, there were certain elements of the show that had to remain. Alice getting his head cut off or Gene spitting blood – that’s always something cool that you didn’t want to go away but you can add other things.

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I’ve got this ‘thing’ in my garage and everyday I keep looking at it and thinking that I gotta make something out of it. I got it from a high school marching band – it’s like this brace that you wear around your body to carry the giant bass drum, but it’s never going have a drum attached to it. I think I might attach some extra body parts to it. I’m not sure if that’s the final idea, but it will definitely end up on then next tour. Things seem to be happening out there for you though. Apart from people like me who refuse to grow up, your audience must be predominantly, what, 15-20 years old? If I was down that end of the scale again, I’d be getting your logo tattooed across my back! Are you finding the world accepting of you? You know, we just did Europe and we were coming back through Spain and everybody was so burnt out. We were climbing the walls of the tour bus to get home and have a break, but I’d been back two days and we were sitting there wondering what the next thing was to get in the plan, and we were ready to go back out there. It’s such a cool thing – everybody got know me through the Murderdolls and that opened the door for me in so far as being exposed to the public, but a whole bunch of kids went out and discovered my past and found I’d been doing this “shock rock thrift store” horror thing for a really long time now. So I developed this cult following with my other band before Murderdolls – Frankenstein Drag Queens – so everywhere I go, there’s always fans of something. It’s neat because it’s not like I just came out of the blue with the guy from Slipknot. So people expect a certain element

to the shows and I think everytime I try to go far and beyond what I did the last time. I’m looking forward to hitting Europe again because we’re doing a full on headlining tour around November/December. I don’t know what the next level is that we’re going to, but it will be good! Even though the UK music TV stations are a lot better at picking up on new bands than their US counterparts, I think you’re one of those bands that are going to make it through the clubs with sheer hard work – like there’s no way on earth you’re going to break through MTV – that’s my prediction anyway! Word of mouth from people having a great time at your show is the way it will build. Are you ready for the slog? Yeah – in America, radio is horrible, MTV is overflowing with, well… the rock shows like Headbangers Ball that I watch whenever I’m home just to see what’s going on, and it’s like two hours of the exact same band and they’re all angry about the exact same thing and I’m not quite sure what that thing is! But that’s

all kind of derivatives of those bands and get away with being average or even hopeless, but when you’re flying some kind of ‘shock’ rock flag – for the want of a better expression – you just can’t be average because it doesn’t work. It’s either great or it’s disastrous. There is no middle ground – that’s what I like about it. For me, it’s so hard to shock people these days. We’ve seen everything you know. For me, it’s all about entertainment not shock. I just like to bring things to the show that people have never seen before – even if it’s like a goldfish in a bowl y’know. To have people ask why the hell is that there? But you also have good songs – which helps! How’s the album shaping up? As far as America goes, it’s doing what I thought it would do. It’s just kind of floating there. We’ve sold some but it’s no landslide, but at the same time I love going and playing a packed out club with 400 people going nuts. If that’s as good as it gets, I’m OK with that. The best experiences I’ve had have been in clubs. You can’t compare – it’s personal, you’re

“For me, it’s so hard to shock people these days. We’ve seen everything you know. For me, it’s all about entertainment not shock. I just like to bring things to the show that people have never seen before – even if it’s like a goldﬁsh in a bowl y’know. To have people ask why the hell is that there?” me, that’s where I come from. I realise that if everybody was doing the same thing I was doing, it would be boring. There’s just nothing that grabs me that’s cool. You’re pissed off and you play guitar. Big deal. Who gives a fuck. Well, there’s Lordi out there taking it up a notch or two as well.. Yeah, I was disappointed that I didn’t get to catch them at Download. They’ve definitely got something that I haven’t seen before. All it takes is for one to get noticed and then people start to sit up and take notice and look for others that are like that. Like all these heavy bands or pop punk bands. After Blink 182, they started popping up like Gremlins! But it’s not the same is it.You can have

closer to the crowd and I’m excited about doing this club headliner tour in Europe. Another weird thing is that now when you have black hair, you’re suddenly Goth! I don’t even know what that is. I thought that was Sisters of Mercy territory! My hair is black because Alice, WASP and Motley had black hair! …and I think that’s a pretty fair place to leave him playing with his toys.Wednesday 13 has certainly got what it takes.You know what, the years are catching up with me but there’s no substitute for some singalong tunes in the car. Transylvania 90210 makes the grade. It’s dumb and it’s mindless but it’s damn good fun. If I was 15, this would be the bomb. I’m mid thirties and it’s still the bomb - go figure. O

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o t k

c o sh

m e t s y

s e h

land

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s by Word

mith Sion S

res by

• Pictu

/Le i Nozu Chiak

“Good evening and welcome to our show. There’s no-one else quite like us, the others all get up and go…”. Those words still have the ability to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up on end. It ﬁrst happened in 1980, then again in 1984 and yet again, just last year, but we’ll come back to that later. It was a good intro if nothing else.

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ut let’s start at the beginning if we’re going to even attempt to get a handle on this. For some, any band that goes that extra mile in the name of entertainment is not ‘for real’ in the eyes of some. For my money, though, any band that goes that extra mile is very for real. To begin with, you damn well better have some good songs behind you and a skin thick enough to deal with the flame throwers they’re going to come after you with! But just what it is that makes a band shocking to the ‘public’ is hard to put a finger on… In an attempt to nail it down though, let’s pin the tail on Alice Cooper. Back in 1970, the band started to dabble in the more ‘visual’ arts in order to get a rise. The Summer of Love was over and Alice himself would have it, there had to be somebody there to “drive a stake through the heart of the love generation”. The

burnt out hippies took offence immediately but Alice found himself speaking volumes to a whole new generation of kids who could care less about summer loving and peace. Right place, right time and a little assistance from the master Bob Ezrin, a snake, a guillotine, gallows and some props, soon had Alice pinned as public enemy number 1. A year or so later, and the new breeds were already appearing. Out of New York came Kiss and the New York Dolls. The Dolls, for all their cult status today, never really set the world on fire. The original self destructors of rock n roll, drummer Billy Murcia died before they had even released their first album – but the band had enough wiles to make an impact that would reverberate slowly through the annals of rock history. The Dolls took the chicks with dicks image to the limit, but still looked like

Right place, right time and a little assistance from the master Bob Ezrin. A snake, a guillotine, gallows and some props, soon had Alice pinned as public enemy number 1. men in womens clothes. Unlike the style over here where Bolan and Bowie were effeminate, there was no confusion with the Dolls at all – maybe that made it all the more shocking. Kiss on the other hand were determined to be a monster from the very beginning. Despite the truth coming out later, they stood fast as a unit for as long as possible. In fact, almost a decade had passed before anything from the inner sanctum was made public. Why Kiss were found shocking is a mystery. Maybe it was the fire breathing. Maybe the blood spitting, the rocket firing guitars or maybe even, the tongue. To figure out why Kiss became so huge, you really have to look at what was happening at the time, and there’s no space to do that here, so you’ll have to do it yourself – but what I’ve always wanted to know

is which dumbass Christian leader had enough to time to sit down and decide that Kiss stood for Knights In Satan’s Service. Yeah right. As the seventies petered out into the great unknown and Kiss went disco (we forgive you), punk and new wave began taking over from the supergroups of the past. Neither brand of music had anything to do with the huge, wanton excesses of the stage – in fact, the pivotal opposite was true, and while the whole world seemed to lap it up along with disco and other pop related diseases, the rock fans stood back and watched with mouths open as the whole world disappeared from under them. Still, all was not really lost, as underneath the covers, the faithful were still plugging away. Indeed, some had been plugging away for quite some years. It was just a bit of a secret for a little while

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BANNED!

that’s all. Then out of the darkness, the first of them came… man, did they ever! Twisted Sister foamed at the mouth right from the start brandishing big metal anthems about what it was like to be a teenager in the early eighties. The media lapped it up and Dee Snider became the spokesman for a whole generation of sick motherfuckers. They even made it to, and I quote – “that idiot show Top of the Pops”. I Am, I’m Me even became a little anthem for a whole bunch of pop teens. Dee was shocking to parents across the land for mainly introducing the word fuck into the vocabulary of their offspring. Things have never been the fucking same since. Some years later, behold the mighty LA scene – out of it you could count about 300 bands who were influenced by all that had come before – but only two really survived long enough to make it through onto a world stage. Motley Crue it seemed were everybody’s favourite bad boys even back then. WASP on the other hand were underdogs before they were even out of the gate. While Motley Crue had a fair few decent songs, their sheer energy and charisma is what propelled them into the arenas. Couple that with their antics and you have notoriety at your feet. Their recent tour proved it was no flash in the pan and that people either still loved their music or want to go and see something other than a bunch of guys smiling at each other. WASP on the other hand were afraid of nothing in a different way. There was nothing that Blackie Lawless wouldn’t use to propel his bands name into the limelight – buzzsaws, chainsaws, torture racks, exploding codpieces, but their pinnacle of fame came from a most unlikely source. In 1984, the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Centre – for those too young to remember) – being what was effectively the biggest target that Tipper Gore (wife of Senator Al Gore) could find, Blackie became a bullseye for a whole nation of American parents. Gore couldn’t have found herself a better nemesis. Not only did she find that

WASP album sales were on the rise, she also found herself a formidable opponent in Mr Lawless. Intelligent and articulate, he hammered Gore into the floor on a few occasions – as previously did Dee Snider and subsequently Marilyn Manson – albeit to a different predator. As the end of the eighties came around, there was a new stomping ground breeding. They were the years of “glam vs thrash” if you like – you were either in one camp or the other or you were a dinosaur.. maybe even a bit of a pussy for not showing your colours. Things got pretty fucked up for a while until Kurt Cobain showed up, said a few words to a different generation and then it was all over. Period. Both camps were fucked and only the very strong – or those who thought they were smart enough to bandwagon – came through it. It looked as though the era of entertainment was over and all there was to look forward to was a bunch of guys that looked like postmen (as an example please.. don’t send me lots of pictures of cool postmen – you know what I mean!) staring at their shoes and being very depressed. What the point was exactly I’m still not really sure because we all know what it’s like to be depressed and broke. That was the most shocking thing of all to me. But there was a point to it, in relation to our story anyway. It brought about a change in the way shock tactics would be delivered and it scared the holy crap out of everyone when Marilyn Manson showed up. In the beginning they were an underground hip band but pretty soon it became obvious that talking to the people who understood where he was coming from anyway wasn’t enough. Cue the AntiChrist Superstar album – the defining moment of the post Nirvana generation. Being depressed was out and attacking the system was in – and nobody could have done it better. Throughout his career he morphed like Bowie, rocked like a maniac and to cap it all, Manson was more intelligent than we could have ever hoped for. He knew the theatrics of rock inside out and took it out of the theatre and into

1973: Leo Abse, MP, tries to get Alice Cooper banned from the UK – yes, the whole country! Alice took it on the chin and kept quiet about the fact that he had no plans to tour in the first place. You just can’t buy that sort of publicity. 1978: The KISS logo is banned in Germany because the “SS” looks too Nazi-esque. The band uses a modified logo when touring there – and you can spot those bastardized European imports a mile off! 1984: Kerrang! drops Blackie Lawless on the cover of the mag - splattered in blood and brandishing a craggy human skull. The magazine sees itself removed from entire shelving system in WH Smiths. 1997: Owner of Calgary’s Max Bell Centre had Marilyn Manson’s July 25 show cancelled, citing “immorality” and the band’s “use of animals on stage.” Several days later, another concert in Portland was cancelled due to Manson’s reputation, and the venue’s inability to get insurance for the gig. So, there you have it. No matter how many years go by and how sophisticated we get about entertainment, there’s always someone determined to make a name for themselves at someone else’s expense. Justifiably so, most of them just end up looking stupid. Bring it on!

the mainstream. You really couldn’t have asked for much more. ..and so came the end of the nineties. Where in the hell where we going next – and just who in the world was going to outstrip Manson for the crown? Expect the unexpected at every turn as Slipknot burst onto the scene with a sound that could take the skin off your face at ten paces. They had a Kiss mentality, a Slayer brutality and an uncompromising sensibility. Kids across the western world identified with their cause almost immediately and sales of Slipknot hoodies exploded. The more cynical would say that it was a flash in the pan, but Slipknot continue to be creatively shocking without turning into a parody of themselves. Judging by their reception at Download, 80,000 people can’t all be wrong at the same time can they? You know what the shocking thing really is though – all of these bands have at one time or another been written off, slammed, condemned and laughed at. Go figure, but you got to love it. O

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You have just entered

Twilight Zone

The

Words: Mike Shaw Pics: Courtesy Warner Bros

There’s no earthly way of knowing Which direction we are going There’s no knowing where we’re rowing Or which way the river’s ﬂowing Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing? Not a speck of light is showing So the danger must be growing Are the ﬁres of hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Yes, the danger must be growing ‘Cause the rowers keep on rowing And they’re certainly not showing Any signs that they are slowing....

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screaming intense technicolour nightmare hits the screen. Willy Wonka’s face is split in half by shifting blinking colours, while bizarre scenes are played out all around those trapped on his chocolate river sailboat to hell – and with that, a moment is created that will live on and on in the juvenile mind, scaring generation after generation of children, giving them a morbid fear of Gene Wilder and the colour purple. But that was then… Now, after years of negotiations, a new version of Roald Dahl’s 1964 classic book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is coming to the big screen, promising to be even more twisted and true to the original story, with master weirdsmith Tim Burton taking control. “I don’t want to crush people’s childhood dreams,” he says. “But the original film is sappy.” Well that’s alright then – with a million children scarred forever by the ‘sappy’ original, what exactly has Burton produced? Well for starters, long-time cohort Johnny Depp is stepping into the chocolatemaker’s boots. Although individually Depp and Burton have turned out some real sludge (Planet of the Apes and From Hell respectively), together they produce the

goods: Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow included – a trend that is continuing later this year in the Nightmare Before Christmas-esque Corpse Bride. In the face of the rumours that Depp based his performance on Marilyn Manson (who was also in the running for the role of Wonka), his portrait of the chocolatier is actually slightly different. “I’ve played him part Howard Hughes reclusive, part ‘70’s glamourous rock star,” elaborates Depp – and after the plaudits he won by basing Pirates of the Caribbean’s Captain Jack Sparrow on the Stones’ Keith Richards, who can blame him for going down the route of rockstar parody once again. In the 2005 version, as Burton delves into his childhood, we see more of the dark past hinted at by Gene Wilder’s proto-Wonka. “We felt we had to provide some framework in the case of Wonka’s eccentricity,” explains the director. We even meet his father, an overenthusiastic dentist played by Christopher Lee, who forbids the eating of sweets, and punishes the youngster by burning a bag of contraband in the fire while his head is locked in an orthodontic brace… not the sort of thing usually found in

your standard kiddie summer-blockbuster. Weaved into this is Depp’s depiction of his character’s anxiety at opening up his inner-sanctum for the first time in 15 years, and allowing outsiders to see into the world that he created. Updating the 1971 original was a risky move – tampering with cult classics always is, so what is it that made Burton the right choice to direct this story? For starters, like Dahl, Burton has a reputation of not underestimating the sophistication of his audience – but they have even more in common. The director’s recent foray into writing, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy: And Other Stories, is a collection of macabre poetry that shares the same DNA as Dahl’s grisly work in Revolting Rhymes, Dirty Beasts and more particularly, Rhyme Stew. Importantly, Dahl’s widow, Felicity, was also won over. Burton previously worked with

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TheKiddie

Grinder

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory wasn’t the only kid’s ﬁlm to stay in minors’ minds for entirely the wrong reasons. Other chilling movies that you MUST make your children watch:

Labyrinth

(1986) Not only for the inappropriate appearance of David Bowie, and David Bowie’s penis, but also the goblins, the Fireys and the Helping Hands

Felicity Dahl when he produced the 1996 animated fantasy adventure James and the Giant Peach, adapted from another of Dahl’s books, and she was especially pleased when he committed to Charlie. Felicity admits that she sees in him some reflections of her late husband’s “unique creativity and sense of humour,” adding: “I wish Roald was here to work on it with Tim, because they would have been brilliant together.” Her confidence is a demonstration of how drastically different Burton’s version

“I wish Roald was here to work on it with Tim, because they would have been brilliant together.” is, and how closely it sticks to the book, as Dahl hated the original film and refused to allow the producers the rights to make the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Felicity is certain that the author would

The Music of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

have felt differently about this version: “It’s the ideal combination – Roald Dahl, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, absolutely unbeatable and completely in sync.” The director and star are clear on what it is about the tale that grabbed their attention: “It’s the unexpected twists in Dahl’s writing,” explains Depp. “You think it’s going in one direction and then it slams you with another alternative route, and makes you think.” Burton agrees: “Also, one of the interesting aspects of the book is that it’s so vivid in mood and feeling and so specific, yet it still leaves room for interpretation.” This room for interpretation is stretched to its maximum by Burton, who gives the story and characters space to breathe. For anyone else who wanted to beat up Peter Ostrum’s nauseating Charlie in the first film, it will be clear that the casting of Charlie was equally important in avoiding sickly sentimentality. Picking the right youngster to play Charlie could be the deciding factor between whether the film would be a dark, magical mystery tour through a stranger’s confectionary funhouse, or a saccharine, diabetic nightmare that would coat your teeth

As well as being the ex-singer of Oingo Boingo (they did the theme tune for Weird Science don’t you know!), Danny Elfman is one of the world’s most versatile and successful contemporary composers, with the scores for countless movies including Spiderman, Batman and Mars Attacks! Under his belt. Memorable though they are, 2005’s Charlie movie needed to update the Oompa-Loompa songs of the original. Elfman, who has scored 11 Tim Burton ﬁlms, decided to tailor each child’s piece of morality-based music to their characters: “The challenge was to give each song for each child it’s own, distinct, feel,” explains Elfman. “Augustus

Gloop was inspired by big, brassy Bollywood production pieces. For Violet, the gum chewer, I threw back to a retro 70s funk feel. With Mike Teavee, I needed something frenetic and hyperactive, like he is – the short attention span, video game, rock kid. Finally, because Veruca goes down the garbage chute and all the lyrics were about ﬁsh heads and such, Tim suggested we contrast that with a really sweet sound, so we went in a 60s-ish kind of hippie, happy lovepsychedelia direction.” “Tim and I worked very closely together on this and I’d have to say, I can’t remember when I’ve had more fun working at all. It was truly and wonderfully nuts!”

Watership Down

(1978) Evil rabbits, dripping blood and swearing seagulls punctuated this cartoon version of Richard Adams’ countryside tale.

Return to Oz

(1985) The mental hospital, the Wheelers, and Mombi’s headswapping scene are inﬁnitely more unsettling than the original’s monkeys with wings.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

(1968) A Roald Dahl script + the Child Catcher = a wet mattress and pissed oﬀ parents.

Hey, we’re fucked up… what makes them exempt!

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Johnny’s honeys As well having women worldwide lusting after him, Johnny Depp gets to star with some brilliant actresses… and by brilliant, we mean sexy and will use any excuse to flaunt pictures of them in your face… Keira Knightley Johnny got to work his magic with English rose Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003, and will do so again in the two sequels currently filming… and she’s only 20. Salma Hayek Exactly how Latin actresses should be, fiery, sexy, and not afraid to strip ‘as long as the role demands it’. Appeared with Depp in Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

Heather Graham Bad actress, bad accents, just a bad ﬁlm all round. Luckily for Depp, 2001’s From Hell was made slightly watchable by Heather Graham’s heaving chest and lax morals. Christina Ricci Has appeared in more than one ﬁlm with Depp, but it was in Sleepy Hollow that Christina’s cleavage diverted the viewer’s the attention away from all the unnecessary decapitations.

“I’ve got nothing against the digital age, but it’s nice to make sets. Ask any actor and they’ll tell you that they prefer to be on a real set than against a bluescreen..” and eyes in syrup within seconds of the first wholesome, toothy grin. Thank the Gods then, that the impoverished imp is being played by Freddie Highmore – the youngster who stole the show from under Depp’s own nose in last year’s Finding Neverland. Burton is full of praise for Highmore’s “gravity and ability to be completely natural and genuine,” but despite being good natured, this generation’s Charlie is neither drippy nor irritating. In fact that’s an allegation that can’t be levelled at any of the kids in this movie. Whereas Hollywood movie kids are generally sweet-natured boy scouts who love their dogs and their folks, here we have Gen-X Children of the Corn with added ASBOs: First off Violet Beauregarde, a competitive and boastful brat; then Mike Teavee, a know-it-all, loudmouth, videogame addict; Augustus Gloop, a fat, greedy German; and finally Veruca Salt, simply a spoilt little bitch. It’s a testament to the child actors that you will want to kill every single one of them, and

Burton helped the kids along by building as much of the set as possible, meaning a minimum of reliance on CGI technology. “I thought it was especially important for of the kids,” he says. “I wanted them to really feel that they were there. I’ve got nothing against the digital age, but it’s nice to make sets. Ask any actor and they’ll tell you that they prefer to be on a real set than against a bluescreen. As the pictures on these pages prove, he did a damn fine job, and any fears that Burton may have had lingering in the back of his mind must surely have vanished the first time that Felicity Dahl stepped onto the completed Pinewood soundstages to examine the work in progress. After slowly wandering around, taking everything in, she enthusiastically declared: “It’s magical! I know that if Roald had seen it, he would have loved it. He would have said this is exactly what he had in mind.” Rest easy Tim, the job’s a good’un.O

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Words: Clare O’Brien Pics: Lois Razonski/Diane Richter

Audioslave – the band that rose from the ashes of grunge metal legend Soundgarden and agit-rap rockers Rage Against the Machine – have spent their ﬁrst three years doing their level best to avoid the ubiquitous supergroup tag and establish themselves as a brand new act, despite wholesale comparisons to 70s behemoth Led Zeppelin. “I want to make it very clear that I think it’s extremely cool of you guys to come out and listen to us, knowing where we come from, and listening to nothing but new rock and supporting us,” said frontman Chris Cornell from the stage at Donington’s Download Festival back in June 2003.

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At that time, the crowd’s roar of approval endorsed Audioslave’s make-or-break decision to avoid their collective back catalogue live, choosing to concentrate on songs from their own potent debut album. Over that tour, Audioslave collected a whole new generation of fans too young to remember Soundgarden or RATM, let alone Led Zeppelin. “I’ve been at airports and someone comes up and says, ‘Hey, you’re that singer in that band Audioslave, that new band,’ “ an amused Cornell told American DJs Drew and Mike of WRIF Detroit. “And I go yeah, that’s me, I’m the new guy!” The band certainly looked a healthier bet for the long haul than say, Velvet Revolver, which welded rehab regular Scott Weiland to the sagging rump of Guns ‘n’ Roses. So it seemed perverse of Audioslave to announce that for their second major world tour in 2005, they’d be more than happy to play some of their old material. With new album Out of Exile outperforming the debut album, shifting half a million plus in America alone during its first month of release, and radio-friendly single Be Yourself topping the rock charts all over the world, why bother to revisit the past at all? Some critics thought it signalled a failure of nerve - or a lack of confidence in the new songs, a view which Tom Morello strongly refuted. “We didn’t want to use our pasts as a crutch,” he recently told MTV. “We wanted to establish Audioslave, artistically, as its own thing, as its own independent entity. And we did that. We’ve made a record that we’re tremendously proud of, that we think stands alongside our best work. Having done that, our histories and our previous bands are important parts of who we are, our lives and what makes us the musicians we are today. And they’re songs we’re very, very proud of.” As it turned out, the move was a resounding success. Silencing critics who thought he could never replace RATM’s Zack de la Rocha, this year Cornell has made the angry outpourings of Killing in The Name and Sleep Now In The Fire utterly his own. Similarly, Morello, Commerford and Wilk have embraced the complexities of Soundgarden songs like Spoonman, Outshined and even a remodelled version of 1989’s alt-metal anthem Loud Love. “ We’ve been having a great time doing it, and people lose their ever-loving minds,”

Tom Morello told Billboard on the phone from the band’s Helsinki show in June. It certainly looked that way on Audioslave’s recent European tour. Audiences from fiery Madrid to cool Cologne went crazy for the new recipe with the familiar songs almost elucidating the new, more diverse material from Out of Exile. Suddenly, it was possible to hear the something of the rhythmic complexity of Spoonman in Drown Me Slowly, the heavy swirl of Outshined in The Worm, the wired energy of Sleep Now in The Fire in Man or Animal. “I think [playing these songs] draws us closer as a band,” Chris Cornell recently told MTV. “Because when we’re onstage doing songs that I may have written 12 years ago, they’re suddenly included in a big part of my past. And then, when we start to do a Rage song, and the audience goes wild, they know every single word, they’re jumping up and down, they know every single part. Suddenly, I’m a part of their pasts. And that was something I hadn’t really thought about or expected.”

DS R A W K C A B G IN IV DR IN THE FOG The triumph of these songs for a new audience was more than an exercise in nostalgic celebration, though. Audioslave is a band which casts a long, dark shadow - reaching back into death, dysfunction and despair. Never really a part of the so-called “Seattle sound”, Soundgarden were always a law unto themselves, edgy, raw and deeply individual. From their initial appearance on Seattle’s legendary Deep Six compilation, they graduated from releases on indie labels Sub Pop and SST to become the first Seattle band to sign to a major. And as time went on Soundgarden’s punk ethos, coupled with a savage metal soundscape, incisive lyrics and Cornell’s predatory roar, first confused and then seduced audiences hungry for more than spandex silhouettes and poodle perms. Early accounts recall a singer almost in a trance – wild-eyed, uninhibited, ferocious. “It’s weird sometimes,” Cornell said at the time. “People tell me things that happened while I was onstage and I don’t even remember them.” However, Cornell’s shamanic presence and the band’s atonal ferocity was proving less than totally marketable to a mass audience. Early albums Ultramega OK and Louder Than Love failed to make a mark on the mainstream despite the former’s Grammy nomination, and the band that

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had predated the grunge explosion in Seattle was soon overtaken by its shock wave.

S IN ONE DIED IN PIECE HEAD HIS BED WITH ALD FULL OF GO There was one more wild card to be played, however. At the turn of the decade, charismatic Mother Love Bone singer Andy Wood – Seattle’s “mythical love child” and putative superstar – shaped one of the city’s most unforgettable albums. Sadly, it wasn’t his own. Wood’s death from an accidental overdose in 1990 left fellow band members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament leaderless and old roommate Chris Cornell bereft. Co-opting Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron and friend Mike McCready, their tribute to their “beautiful friend” became Temple of the Dog – a one-off musical collaboration which not only helped them exorcise their grief but also saw the tangled energy of Cornell’s early work with Soundgarden coalesce into something more comprehensible. “The more we talked about it, the more songs kept flying out,” Cornell told Reflex magazine in 1991,” and it ended up being an album. It didn’t feel like a morose project. It felt sort of celebratory.” His singing on the album, too, was a revelation; the medieval chaos of earlier performances seemed to be giving way to something more measured and soulful. There was a keening gospel edge that nobody had really heard before; some songs also revealed a deep sensuality that had previously been submerged under

anger. Although the album made little impact on its original appearance, its re-release after grunge became a world phenomenon yielded a top 30 single in Hunger Strike. But the other material has seldom been heard live until this year when Audioslave incorporated Call Me a Dog and then All Night Thing into their set.

LOOKING CALIFOGRNIA BUT FEELIN MINNESOTA As Soundgarden eventually gathered speed through the release of hit album Badmotorfinger, Cornell’s enviable sixpack, bright blue eyes and dark corkscrew curls turned him into an alternative sex symbol and his film-star looks were frequently taken more seriously than his art. Unwilling to be reduced to a sex object and embarrassed at the sidelining of his fellow band members, Cornell backed out of the limelight, downplaying his own visual impact in promo shots and videos, growing steadily more cautious about other people’s perceptions. “All of a sudden, there’s pictures of me with my shirt off in all these metal pin-up magazines,” a selfconscious Cornell told Kerrang in 1996. “That shit gets on your nerves really quick. One photographer told me, ‘It’s alright, I know how to photograph naked bodies. I do pictures for Penthouse and Playboy’.” This new austerity was reflected in the music. Superunknown - probably Soundgarden’s masterpiece - is a stark, uncompromising piece of work, full of tortured melody, strange rhythmic

geometry and oblique lyrical puzzles. It doesn’t give up its secrets easily. But through one of those odd pieces of alchemy that sometimes turn the darkest jewels to gold, audiences the world over embraced it. An immediate #1 album in the States, it netted Soundgarden two Grammys, shifted millions of units worldwide, and introduced the band to the MTV middlebrow mainstream via the David Lynch influenced video for Black Hole Sun. At the same time it explored a threatening interior landscape teeming with pain, fear, fury and defiance. The songs might have been full of suffering – but it was evident that the singer was a survivor, unlike fellow Seattle native Kurt Cobain. Although only bassist Ben Shepherd had been really close to Cobain, his suicide in April 1994 nearly caused Soundgarden’s European tour to implode in an orgy of alcohol-fuelled anguish.

NOTHING SEEMSTETOR KILL ME NO MAT Y HOW HARD I TR Cornell’s own inner strength may have laid him open to periodic attacks of survivor guilt, but it was an immunity that was to repeatedly help save his sanity. 1997 was not a good year for him or for his band. Their next album, the scratchily angry Down on the Upside, had achieved about half of Superunknown’s sales despite continuing the band’s musical development out of metal into hard-edged melody and lyrical murk. A vastly underrated album, it’s perhaps their darkest of all – though not without its moments of black humour. Exploring

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“it’s weird sometimes,” cornell said at the time. “people tell me things that happened while i was onstage and i don’t even remember them.” themes of imprisonment, inertia and self-disgust it ends, in the oddly truncated Boot Camp, with a wistful yearning for freedom that approaches the transcendental. With the death of Cobain and Pearl Jam’s deliberate downsizing policy, the fashion for bands perceived as grunge was fading fast, and there were growing rumours of growing schism within Soundgarden. The band finally went out with a whimper after a series of shows in Hawaii; the band weren’t happy and Cornell was looking thin, haggard and troubled. At what proved to be their final gig at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu on February 9, Ben Shepherd gave the audience the finger, threw down his bass and walked offstage mid-show. Soundgarden formally disbanded in April. A month later, Cornell’s close friend the singer/ songwriterJeff Buckley accidentally drowned while swimming in Memphis’s treacherous Wolf River. He’d been there to spend some time alone, working on songs for his second album. The bereaved Cornell would eventually explore his grief from inside a song – although the album on which Wave Goodbye appeared would not emerge until 1999. When it did, his solo album Euphoria Morning proved at least as profound – and just as misunderstood – as any of Soundgarden’s work.

THERE IS NO OTHER PILL TO TAKE, SO SWALLOW THE ONE THAT MAKES YOU ILL Despite the climate of freedom that surrounded the making of Euphoria Morning, as Cornell temporarily decamped from his marital home and moved in with his old friends Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of LA art-rock band Eleven, its themes are loneliness, frustration and aching loss. With hindsight, it’s tempting to read much of the album as an elegy for Cornell’s failing marriage to Soundgarden manager Susan Silver, and his slide into grief, addiction and isolation. He has since described the final stages of the 17-year relationship as “horrible”, a “daily disaster” - and yet the musical settings for these forays into darkness are perhaps the most surprising and diverse of Cornell’s career. Influences seem to come from everywhere; opener Can’t Change Me is exotically Middle Eastern, When I’m Down mingles soul inflections with piano-bar blues. Perhaps most surprisingly, Cornell’s farewell to Jeff Buckley, Wave Goodbye, channels Prince and Lenny Kravitz - with a central section which wheels into a yearning, gospel-choir falsetto.

Audioslave: Tour Snapshots Madrid 29 May 2005 Tom’s 41st birthday: a girl skims a heart-shaped lollipop onto the stage which he picks up and put in his pocket, and the crowd sings Happy Birthday. The new Mrs Cornell takes her seat in the wings and gets her own round of applause. Messrs Cornell and Commerford still look a little frayed from the after-effects of the throat infection they’ve both been fighting, but Chris is visibly moved by the ecstatic reaction from an overheated Spanish crowd. The VIP area is heaving but it’s the pit which boasts moshing movie star Javier Bardem (Collateral, Che). Barcelona 30 May 2005 Chris misses soundcheck and the show starts late, one of those wild, unpredictable things, mirroring the craziness of this overgrown Catalan city. Chris and Tom do a comedy double act when someone throws a ring on the stage and they dispute ownership. The caged crowd seethe behind a vicious chin-high wire barrier. Glasgow 6 June 2005 Suppport band Trail of Dead join the tour and their gear-smashing, girl-snogging arrogance gets a dusty response from the Glaswegian crowd. Chris confiscates a sign from the pit because it’s “just fuckin’ irritating”. The band unveil #1 Zero, which sounds glorious. Paris 17 June 2005 Best outfront sound of the tour so far, and source of a stunning bootleg. Chris brings the whole family - pregnant wife, parent-in-law, brother-in-law and new baby - and greets the crowd as his new home town. Those who’ve seen him sing in Parisian clubs know this already, but it comes as a surprise to many. He manages a few words in French and grins like his head has hinges.

The band unveil a new version of prehistoric Soundgarden tune Loud Love, which Chris says Audioslave have taught him how to play. The solo section now includes an acoustic Fell On Black Days. Brixton 20 June 2005 No-nonsense rock: muscular, male, all sinew and strength. Tom jumps and twists like a downed electric cable. Chris tells tall tales about Timmy’s dubious English ancestors, confiscates another sign, turns Black Hole Sun into a football terrace singalong. The band gather for a funny group photo round the kit, to the delight of the assembled snappers. Brixton 21 June 2005 Trail of Dead’s auto-destruction ends badly when they almost take someone’s eye out with an orchestral gong. Audioslave’s security chief throws them offstage. A fired-up crowd greet the headliners with relief, and a crowd surfer hugs security. This catches Chris’s eye. “I’ve never seen that before,” he says. “A guy comes over the rail and gets a hug from security? I want a hug from security!!!” He gets one too, and more: later, Chris hurls himself into the pit, like it’s 1991. Brixton 22 June 2005 Trail of Dead have had their wrists slapped and play a muted set. Audioslave are late onstage: Chris has been at the hospital looking at ultrasound pictures of his unborn baby son. He announces this to the crowd, to a cheer from the women in the pit: his solo section tonight includes Temple of the Dog’s All Night Thing. The overheated crowd go insane tonight and there’s almost carnage on the rail for Killing in The Name and Cochise.

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On the web: Audioslave

www.audioslave.com www.audioslavica.net www.audioslaved.com Rage Against The Machine www.ratm.net Soundgarden http://web.stargate.net/soundgarden/

It was always possible that the millions who’d bought into the Soundgarden legend might turn away from a Chris Cornell who dared to leave his grunge-metal persona behind. Euphoria Morning’s sonic experimentation failed to sell, though many of Cornell’s fans still count it as a forgotten masterpiece; like Joni Mitchell’s classic Blue, some cite it as perfect therapy for a certain kind of broken heart. “I’ve never been somebody who feels comfortable around a lot of people,” Cornell confessed to Alternative Press in 1999. “But if you relate to it and it makes you less lonely… that’s uplifting.” Many remember the lowkey solo tour with special affection, despite the singer’s growing problems with alcohol. “He had this elusive grace and style,” recalls a fan from Seattle. “His presence on stage was otherworldly -- and yet so human and vulnerable, even fragile.”

HELP ME FIND THEDAY DAWN OF THE DYING Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, activist Zack de la Rocha was not a happy rapper. Rumours about Rage Against The Machine’s demise had been circulating as far back as ’97 -- so when the implosion came and de la Rocha upped and left the band in October 2000, it was by no means unexpected. “Our decision-making process has completely failed,” said the press statement. The rest of the band – guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Timmy Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk – had been in limbo for some time already, but that didn’t make the end any easier to take. “Tom, Brad, and I, we come from a very dysfunctional band and we wanted to make it right,” explained Commerford in an recent interview with The New Zealand Herald. “We wanted to continue working together and we wanted to not feel the way we were

feeling for 10 years.” Commerford credits star producer Rick Rubin for being the catalyst that brought Audioslave together. “I call him the angel at the crossroads because if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here today,” he says. “Rick Rubin was the one who said, ‘You guys should jam with Chris Cornell’. That was a great piece of advice.” He also persuaded the three of them to go into group therapy with $40,000 a week therapist Phil Towle, who’s also been credited with mending the cracks in Metallica. “That was a lot of cash,” recalls Commerford. “But now we have a great relationship and we work great together and we’re all very proud of that.”

CRACK A SMILE ANAD ND CUT YOUR MOUTH DROWN IN ALCOHOL Up in Seattle, Cornell had begun to think about a follow-up solo album while struggling with deepening depression and addiction. “Drugs never interested me while I was busy and working, but when things got quiet, I began not to give a fuck,” he told Q magazine in 2003. “I felt less significant than ant piss. I didn’t care what I did.” What happened next is unclear. In a January 2001 interview with Rolling Stone, Morello claimed no decisions had been made about the RATM vacancy. But Commerford was letting slip some of what he envisaged for his band: “ I think it’s a great opportunity for someone, a singer who has a different style. Like, ‘Wow, what a great place to speak from.’” By February’s Grammy Awards pre-show in February, Morello felt confident enough to mention the band had been working with Chris Cornell. And meanwhile, Rick Rubin had been dropping heavy hints to Rolling Stone’s David Fricke. “It could turn into a Yardbirds-into-Led Zeppelin scenario,

“ he said in January. “In many ways Tom Morello is the Jimmy Page of today”. Small wonder, then that the mysterious new frontman turned out to be someone whose whole career with Soundgarden had been dogged by comparisons with Led Zeppelin. This time round, they weren’t a bad role model to follow. They were, after all, another band who’d learned early how to sidestep the “supergroup” curse by stamping out their own identity with crunching power and relentless touring. Still, the announcement came as a surprise to many who’d expected Cornell to stay focused on his solo career including, by all accounts, to backing band members Johannes and Shneider. But the rapport with the remaining RATM members was instant. “Within ten minutes of us just making stuff up and playing, it sounded incredible, we sounded like a band that had been together for a long time,” Cornell told Detroit DJs Drew and Mike in 2003. “It just sort of took on a life of its own immediately.” Although the new band of brothers famously wrote 21 songs in 19 days of rehearsal, the business, in its wisdom, almost strangled the infant project with legal quibbles and management infighting. Cornell was reported to have left the band – and then to have joined it again, although Commerford now claims the early hiccups were more attributable to lingering differences between himself, Wilk and Morello. Despite the brinkmanship, Audioslave’s debut album – with Rick Rubin at the helm – safely launched in 2002 with Mark Romanek’s million-dollar firework display lighting up the video for its first single, the distinctly Zeppelinesque Cochise.

D SAVE YOUORUSTELOFNAMNE TAKE IT

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Studio Discography

Soundgarden Screaming Life (EP, Sub Pop 1987) Fopp (EP Sub Pop 1988) Ultramega OK (SST 1988) Louder than Love (A&M 1989) Badmotorﬁnger (A&M 1991) Superunknown (A&M 1994) Down on the Upside (A&M 1996)

Temple of The Dog Temple of the Dog (A&M 1991)

Rage Against The Machine Rage Against The Machine (Epic 1992) Evil Empire (Epic 1996) The Battle of Los Angeles (Epic 1999) Renegades (Epic 2000)

Chris Cornell Euphoria Morning (A&M 1999)

Audioslave Audioslave (Sony 2002) Out of Exile (Interscope 2005)

The powerful performance video wasn’t all Page, Plant and pyrotechnics, however. It ended with a silent and shadowy group hug, which seemed both spontaneous and very genuine. Cornell had lost another close friend in heroin addict Layne Staley (of Alice in Chains) earlier that year, and news soon emerged that he had later spent two months in rehab to kick his own addictions. He’d also finally separated from his wife and was about to go through the strains and stresses of divorce. Through all of this, the support of his band colleagues seems to have been crucial. At Audioslave’s earliest shows, he told audiences that “these guys saved my life”, and their support seems to have been a continuing factor in the singer’s long-term rehabilitation. Since then, a new marriage to Parisienne Vicky Karyiannis, a new baby - and another on the way - have remade his emotional landscape, and the dark, pain-wracked lyrics of Audioslave’s debut album have largely given way to songs about love, fatherhood and the joys of rejoining the human race. And in second single Your Time Has Come, Cornell confronts his multiple bereavements, placing the personal loss of Wood, Buckley and Staley alongside the larger losses suffered by wartime populations. Soundgarden – rechristened “Frowngarden” by Axl Rose – had often been criticised for taking life too seriously. And Rage Against The Machine had always been beset by internal strife. “It was definitely more of a battle creatively,” recalls Brad Wilk in a recent interview with Classic Rock. “And that’s one of the reasons it just stopped working.” In contrast, he says, Audioslave’s working methods are “definitely more

collaborative, and definitely more satisfying.” On Out of Exile, it’s plain that Morello, Commerford and Wilk have developed way beyond the RATM template in terms of breadth and range of musicianship, and Cornell has found a solid base within which he can work as a songwriter. “Before, when [Rage] played on stage together, we would never look at each other ‘cause we didn’t like each other,” Commerford told The New Zealand Herald. “It would just be weird to even look over to a guy that you don’t like on stage, and you wouldn’t even know how to respond. With this band it’s different, I look over at Chris when we’re playing and he’s smiling and it’s just like, ‘Yes, this is dope’. It just feels great.”

WHEN LIFE COMES ALIVE THE PAST MOVES ASIDE Where will Audioslave go next? Some fear that Tom Morello will find insufficient outlet for his activism within a band with no overt political agenda. Yet Audioslave made the news headlines around the world with their recent five-day trip to Cuba - the first American rock band to play an open-air show as a guest of Castro’s regime, and for Morello, the fulfilment of a longheld ambition. Some wonder whether the urge to experiment outside rock will eventually overtake Cornell again – or whether he’ll continue to find all he needs in the thunderous resonances and close alliances of his new band. “Chris has a natural gift that is not bound by limitations,” says ex-colleague Natasha Shneider. “If he so chooses, he could do whatever he

wants.” However, at every live show he’s been telling audiences that what he wants is Audioslave – and that they’re in it for the long haul. New album Out of Exile points the way to a coherent future for a band which many wrote off as a one-album cash-in project, and on this tour Cornell has been dedicating songs to anyone who “believed we were a real band from the start”. Soundgarden and RATM both pushed the sonic envelope in a way that perhaps Audioslave doesn’t, and the supergroup tag continues to follow them around. But it doesn’t seem to matter. “Bands like Led Zeppelin came from other bands that had success,” Cornell recently reminded Classic Rock magazine. “Where ‘supergroup’ became a bad thing was in the 80s where you had Power Station and Asia and Damn Yankees, where it seemed a convenient way to remarket the crap that these idiots already did….with absolutely no dedication towards making great music.” Like Led Zeppelin’s, Audioslave’s music is sleek and resourceful, serious in its musical intent; content-heavy, but full of glamour and grace. Perhaps the real key to Audioslave’s survival is that no-one has an ulterior motive. “Everyone is doing this because it’s what they want to do and they want to have fun doing it, “ Cornell told Dutch radio station CCAS in May 2003. “We don’t need the money - we don’t need more pats on the back.” “And no one’s afraid,” Commerford told the NZ Herald. “No fear, no one’s saying I don’t like that, and that’s what prevented us from doing those sort of things in Rage. Ideas come up, we turn them into songs, and then we let them grow. That’s a beautiful place to be.” And for Chris Cornell himself, maybe the secret is that he’s simply gone back to where he started. He’s no longer the wild child who entranced incredulous audiences back in the day, but now he’s past forty, he’s learned to let go once again. To accept all the things he can’t change, to rely on his friends and family to help carry his emotional baggage, and to simply enjoy being himself. Because, like the song says, it’s all that you can do.O

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shops or given to us, we don’t really go spending money”. The real spirit of The Kills begins to shine through with their want to be surrounded by nothing else but their art and each other. They romance over 19th century Paris, small coﬀee shops ﬁlled with philosophers and artists, “we chase after that” Hotel starts with a smile. “I don’t know how hard it is to be like that in modern times but we get lost in the legend of it and that’s what inspires us”. The Kills as a pair have this fervour for maintaining something unique and rich, VV leaps into the conversation thrusting her words “I think we try to invent new places, like going to Benton Harbour”, where they created their latest album, “just going out into the middle of nowhere

you leave out of a song than what you put in a song. And that’s our own little private personal experiment, deconstructing things in that way. To be avant-garde that’s my fuckin’ aim in life you know to be a head of our time” he laughs in unison with VV. “You can never really tell though, I just feel a bit awkward and embarrassed thinking about it like that”. This however, is what appears to give them their avant-garde wings. Keeping to their simplistic ethic for their latest album they moved out to Benton Harbour in Michigan, 4.4 square miles of Middle American nothingness, completing it in 47 days. As Hotel puts it “we just knew that those sorts of bands that make an album over two years just kind of make us ill. I always thought if we were as good as people thought we should be able to make a record in two hours”. Their indelible style comes across as Hotel becomes more animated about the creative process for their latest work. “We thought that we would probably need two months to write the record and then we thought ‘that’s not very long so we said fuck it, lets try and make that into part of the creative process. Lets cut that in half and give ourselves a month to write the record so

Eccentricity through simplicity It seemed terribly ironic on the night, two clubs, polar opposites, jammed next to each other for what appeared to be, the sake of some wicked experiment.

One housing contemporary bohemians, The Kills, as they irreverently battle the norm. Trying to, as Jamie Hince aka Hotel says, “Create four walls with fucking chaos coming out of them”. In the other, thousands of Britons stagger between rooms, guzzling down gallon after gallon of warm beer and cheap vodka, escaping the monotony of every day life. From their first album, Keep on Your Mean Side, The Kills instantly became recognised as a force in the future of rock and roll blues. Now with their second album out, No Wow, their music is beginning to be established as a feverous 21 st century take on the genre. Bone scratching sounds open up their latest album which as Hotel explains “is just our music”, so no hidden meanings or philosophical questions here. “On this record we went out of our way to kind of block out this concept of expectation or what we thought people wanted. I don’t think that there’s anything really deliberate written into it that we want people to read. I’m more fascinated by things that you apply meaning to that never really had any meaning to start with. They were the bands that I always loved, where the lyrics are never clear narrative or they’re not making a bold or obvious statement with artwork. Its much more subtle and its more of a reflection or an observation than a statement”. For this pair of iconoclasts in an age where hedonism is king, going back to the core of their art and music is decidedly important. As VV begins to look through her jet black slightly off cut fringe she says, “I think The Kills definitely has that sort of anthem running through it. Its the only thing that we do, everything around us gets funnelled into it”. Hotel leaning on the back legs of his chair with an undeniable aura of cool around him adds, “I mean if you come down to our headquarters, there really is nothing else, I swear there’s nothing. We bought this incredible 19th century French sofa with amazing carving on it but everything else is art, paintings, photographs, tape machines, guitars, drum machines, there’s nothing else. Oddly enough even our stereos are really crap” he begins to laugh which makes VV giggle. “We don’t fork out for anything, the clothes we normally wear are bought from charity

and claiming this land as your own and saying this is where creativity is happening now ”. As commercialism tightens its grip harder on the world of music it becomes ever more important that bands like The Kills slip through its ﬁngers. Maintaining a creative spirit that is pure, against outsiders and corporate inﬂuences is notably hard. “I am aware of that”, Hotel says, as he and VV both light another menthol cigarette, “We’ve talked at length about how with any artist, whether you’re a painter or a writer or a musician, that’s the total embodiment of the struggle. You want to be recognised and you want to leave your mark and to be appreciated but the more that it happens to you the more self disgusted you feel”. Unfortunately as well as greed there is always the routine generational threat. Instead of Vietnam we have Iraq and the escalating problems coupled with it,

there’s this panic and fear and claustrophobia…” VV interjects with wide eyes, “there was so much panic that we actually wrote it in three weeks instead and then we demoed it just to waste the extra days”. The purity in their personality inevitably comes across in their music. The title of their latest album, No Wow, could mistakenly give off an air of egotism, pinning themselves up as the new wow. But as Hotel says, that notion is far from the truth. “It was more a reaction to us living in a time where theres information overload. Theres no real mystery any more, so you have to try and find that, whats precious and whats mysterious. We were so bored with just being flung information all the time”. Both with a quiet grace come across as inspired individuals. As Hotel pauses for thought you might be tricked into thinking hes searching for a profound statement about his inspiration. Having mainly been

“YOU WANT TO BE RECOGNISED AND YOU WANT TO LEAVE YOUR MARK AND TO BE APPRECIATED BUT THE MORE THAT IT HAPPENS TO YOU THE MORE SELF DISGUSTED YOU FEEL.” instead of the Cold War we have the War on Terror. “I feel you cant help but be a product of your time” Hotel says with a slight shudder, “if that’s what’s going on around you its going to find its way into whatever art your making some how”. But he retorts, “Were definitely not doing it explicitly and saying anything like ban the bomb, I’m more for saying drop the bomb, its more nihilist I suppose”. There is a wonderful modesty from the effortlessly cool pair, both unsettlingly quiet in between questions, there’s no pretentious rock star posing or righteous atmosphere. They both seem natural and content which perhaps unintentionally becomes their style. In a western world where bigger is unwittingly better, their simplistic approach seems to become the beginnings of 21 st century avant-garde. “That’s something that I would definitely take that as being a huge compliment, being referenced to avant-garde movements” Hotel grins. “But generally I don’t think were experimenting in an avant-garde way like La Monte Young or John Cage or even The Boredoms. I mean our song structures are pretty orthodox, I almost think its more important what

on the road for the last two years however he says that it is simply “being in a van and looking out a window”, which is more than enough to give you the impression that in him lies an inextinguishable spark. Looking up he turns to VV “You know, you walk into a hotel room and some people might think theyre not going to get anything from that but it makes my imagination work overtime. Most of the stuff has just been off going round the world for the last year. Were both quite inspired cinematically, not just with films but we see our songs visually you know, we always have some sort of visual stimulus. This time around we thought wed go along and try to strip away the skin and the bone and get to the heart of it”. It is clear how their creativity and inspiration flows through and off each other. Perhaps this is the roots of The Kills as an evolving and weirdly rousing pair of originators, radiating passion in a style that shows no signs of effort. As they both sit smoking gently you could almost miss it if you blinked, but then you would only have to refer back to a live show to see what, as a young hip girl in the crowd put it, is just undeniably “cool”. O

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Spellbound Rambling: Sion Smith IN AN AGE WHERE WE’RE DOMINATED BY COMMERCIALISM AND BRANDING, IT’S HARD TO SEE WHERE THE TRUTH LIES SOMETIMES. THE LAST TWENTY YEARS HAVE CERTAINLY SEEN A SHIFT IN THE MINDSET OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE THE WORLD OVER  ALL OF THEM LOOKING FOR THAT XFACTOR, THE THING THAT MAKES SENSE TO THE SOUL. THE INTEREST IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIES, THE THOUSANDS OF INDIVIDUALS THE WORLD OVER PRACTICING PAGANISM AND RELATED DISCIPLINES AND AN OVERWHELMING URGE TO REJOIN THE PRIMORDIAL SOUP ALL POINT THE FUTURE TO ONE THING  THE PAST… Brian Bates’ book The Real Middle Earth is a prime example of where we’re headed as a race. Believe it or not, us rockheads are more inclined to accept the concept than most. With a long history of being exposed to shamanic and iconic figureheads, tribal rhythms and shall we say, altered states, it sits within the lap of all of us to believe in something other than what is put before the eyes. I explain the brief of what I interpret Z to be – a rock lifestyle magazine in it’s base format. Brian – being the inquisitive soul that he is, turns the interview on its head and gets the cut of where I’m coming from, but eventually I’m able to pull him back on board. We agree that most organised religion is a disguise for power, neatly packaged and delivered to your door like a pizza. All you have to do is buy into it. So what prompted the project in the first place? It’s something I’ve been working on for over 20 years trying to find a path that resonates with me as an English person. For a while I lived in San Francisco and got heavily into Zen Buddhism and then when I came back to England I was struck with the thought that there should be a spiritual path that emanates from this landscape. So I set out on a long journey of exploring and I looked at traditions like Wikka, druidry and alchemy – this is late 1970s, early 80s. I came across a reference to a manuscript in the British Museum which is an Anglo Saxon shamans healing spell book and I got into shamanism. I ended up being inspired by all this and I initially tried to write a book which was telling people in a non-fiction way what I’d find out but I couldn’t bring it alive, so I wrote it as an ‘inspired’ novel called the Way of Wyrd. It sold a quarter of a million copies and I felt like I was a messenger of something that people where looking for. It tapped something that spoke to peoples’ own traditions here in Europe. So to fast forward to now, The Real Middle Earth has been written in this way was to try to connect with people who knew about Tolkien which is probably the closest thing we’ve got to how we lived spiritually 1000 to 2000 years ago on this island. So, it’s saying Tolkien is great, but this is also how people lived their lives back then. I think it’s important for two reasons – one is that we’re spiritually hungry for ways of binding ourselves in spirit that don’t connect with organised religions. Secondly, I’m

“Our lives are pretty factually based and bottom line driven. All those things are important but what’s getting squeezed out is the sense of wonder. It sounds wishy-washy and romantic but it’s central to the way our psyches work.” a psychologist and one of the things I’m particularly passionate about is that we’ve forgotten how important the imagination is in life. We’ve relegated it to simply entertainment, we no longer have drama, music and dance in schools for example and I think that those art forms are absolutely crucial and without them, we will go mad as a culture. We need to bring imagination back into the centre of our lives. It’s a good time for you to do it – the LOTR movies have really caught the imagination and continue to sell and sell. Yes – it’s brought back all that imagery into people’s minds It’s the classic shamanic journey right? Yes and it made me realise that here we are in 2003 in a high tech culture, but what’s making the biggest impact is this huge Lord of the Rings film sequence and at the same time, in the book world, we have Harry Potter selling million of copies the world over. All of these images are just bubbling under the surface.

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The reconnection with magic is very important – our lives are pretty factually based and bottom line driven. All those things are important but what’s getting squeezed out is the sense of wonder. It sounds wishywashy and romantic but it’s central to the way our psyches work, the way are brains are built – we’re forgetting what kind of creatures we are. Sure – what’s odd is that the high tech world is facilitating the transformation though. Just 10 years ago LOTR wouldn’t have been half as good, Harry Potter would have been by-passed in favour of something more mainstream and yet here we are, a year ago able to watch David Blaine in a perspex box on TV for forty days. He’s a magician – it’s the art form that couldn’t get arrested! You’re right – it’s that sense of wonder again. Even though you know he’s an illusionist, you’re willing to believe because it connects. Pushing yourself to death and back again is classic shamanism. The connection with rock music is so close to these ideals, it’s frightening. Many people are living their lives in a very spiritual way without really

ever noticing. Sure they may be worshipping self created gods, but the ideal is there – the willing to believe. There’s always a leader or some kind of God figure and you empower them as much as you want to – you don’t get that with other forms of music. I’ve always felt that too – when Wyrd first came out, I ended up on John Peel’s show and there have been several rock albums inspired by the stuff I’ve been doing. It’s like somehow, the powerful way that rock moves people is quite transforming. It’s very tribal anyway – the culture of the tattoo, painting your colours on your jackets – dance music tried really hard to get the gig but because it was electronic it really couldn’t get you there without some ‘assistance’ if you know what I mean. Rock on the other hand is utterly primal – you’ve got the guy at the back pounding skins with sticks and I think that connects at the most primitive level in those of us who connect with it. It’s such a physical thing too – rock is physical – shamanism

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is physical. What makes shamansim different from the orthodox religions is that it’s really physical. You have to make effort to go into the Underworld, you’re able to get inspiration from below as well as above. A lot of rock music… ..sinks quite low? Yes! This isn’t just mediating on a mountain , it’s a lot of people in one space, great lighting and the way rock musicians project themselves like they have been possessed by spirits sometimes.. Morrison was fantastic at it. He seemed to instinctively know where it was at. I actually teach a course at Sussex University called Shamanic Consciousness – it’s a course about worldwide shamanism but people do individual research projects. There are always a few people who end up doing something on rock music. The Doors, Bowie and this year someone did their project on Bjork. It consistently crops up. Some of the pictures used in the book are awesome. We really don’t make anything even close to this anymore do we. One of the things about life in the real middle earth was that they coloured everything they did with their imagination. They kind of saw life as one long rock concert. They were very moved by the landscape, by animals, seasons and they thought of the land as being populated by these energies which they saw as giants and dragons and we now think of as hopes, anxieties and fears – abstract concepts. It’s actually quite hard to join that mindset now isn’t it? Yes. Rock music works and so does watching a movie like LOTR. After that, you’re turfed back into the world! There’s a picture here of the Yggdrasil from Norway. The whole idea of that is that the cosmos is formed in the shape of the tree, they thought of the entire spirit world as being rather like the shape of a tree and I’m not sure that we have an equivalent in our world anymore – we use metaphors now, but in those times they were really into inter species stuff and understanding themselves through animals or birds. That’s quite a connection with the kabala there that pretty much goes unnoticed. You know as well as people packing in to see Tolkien and rock concerts, people are really going for this kind of material. We are tending to get into a world where everything in the world is focussed into it’s own little perspective – it’s good that you’re leading the magazine in different routes because, outside of being marketed to, that’s the way life really is. I’d like to think so – the whole genre of fantasy though has had a pretty bad rep for a few years and has generally been consigned to the realm of the ‘geek’ – you’ve got your paperbacks with dragons on the front and albums with badly drawn fantasy scenes – it’s only in the last couple of years that

it’s started to achieve any level of credibility. It’s finally starting to move on into a place that we’re not ashamed to be a apart of it. Sure – the New Age thing got ridiculous too ad it’s finally settling down into something a little bit deeper. The Scandinavians seem to have held onto these roots a lot more than we have. We’ve lost a little bit of what it means to be English, because we’re keen on being a cultured society, it’s confused people and we’ve lost a sense of ‘who we were’. I hope that the book goes someway to enlightening people and giving them a grounding. Out in Scandinavia and Germany, they seemed to hold on to it. Maybe we’re a little too closely aligned with the US from that perspective, but it’s nice that there’s no stigma anymore. You’re not weird if you’re a Pagan anymore. It’s turned on its head for me. about nine, ten months ago I was approached by the Ford Foundation in New York and they do a lot of work round the world and they do a lot of nitty gritty stuff like helping developing countries to grow crops – they picked up a project about a year ago which was into worldwide tribal wisdom and they put a couple of million dollars into it. One of the things they’ve identified is 15 tribal healers from cultures like Siberia, Australia, North America and they are all still embedded in their cultures and they’re supporting them because they reckon if they support them financially, help them do their work, it keeps their culture thriving. One of the other things they’re doing is once a year, they bring these people together at sacred sites – next year it’s in Hawaii, the year after Mexico and eventually over here. They came and offered me the job of being the documenter of the gathering, so I travelled with these shamans and they are absolutely fantastic people. Then something else happened – I met some of them and got on well and the Ford Foundation gave them a couple of bits of stuff I’d written about the real Middle Earth and so on, and the tribal elders came back and said, because of the work I’m doing, they would like me to be listed as one of these tribal leaders on behalf of the Anglo Saxons. I was completely awed by this, but I agreed to do it. They wanted to list me as a shaman and I said that to be called one is not really appropriate, it didn’t feel quite right. So they asked me what would a shaman have been called in mediaeval times – and they basically used to call them wizards – which is what I’m now listed as at the Ford Foundation. It’s amazing that an organisation as powerful as the Ford Foundation has said that this Pagan stuff you guys used to do is on a par with tribal wisdom around the world and we want to recognise it. The Real Middle Earth is published by MacMillan and is available now.

What makes shamansim different from the orthodox religions is that it’s really physical.

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ZERO

Music that kicks ass! WHO’S WHO ON THE CD

1. Billy Idol - Scream After what seems like an eternity in the wilderness, Billy Idol returned earlier this year with his best album in years. Devil’s Playground marked a distinct return to form for the archetypal rocker. Rumours abound of a UK tour sometime around November – keep your eyes tuned to www. devilsplayground.tv for more details.

2. Alice Cooper - Run Down the Devil The master returns with yet another fantastic album in the shape of Dirty Diamonds. This is old school Alice delivered with all the enthusiasm of a band still hungry for a slice of the pie. The UK tour with Twisted Sister starts in Brighton on November 5. You’re not going to want to miss that one! Full details available at www.alicecooper.com

3. INME - 7Weeks Their new album White Butterﬂy seems to be giving INME the new lease of life they so thoroughly deserve. Currently on tour all over the UK with extra dates added to met demand, 2005 could well be the year they’ve been waiting for. www.inmeonline. com for up to date tour schedules.

4. Hurricane Party – Roadstar As Hurricane Party gather momentum on the back of the Meatloaf tour, step back in time with us and revisit one of their best songs before the release later in the year of their debut album.

5. The Duke - Used To Be My Kung Fu is Good is not what everybody was expecting from Rich Ward. Pure song crafting drifts out of the speakers and there has to be a good 6 singles crying out for airplay – www.dukerocks.com will keep you clued in on all the news.

6. Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction – Love Will Conquer All The return of the man that spawned a thousand riﬀs. Waaay back in ’87, Zodiac almost succeeded in changing the world the only ﬂaw in the plan was that every time he got his hands on some cash, he spent it all on comics and drugs. Tomorrow still might belong to the Love Reaction! www.zodiacmindwarp.com for more.

7. Forty Deuce – Oh My God (Fucked Up Again) Taken from their debut album Nothing to Lose. Richie Kotzen’s new outﬁt Forty Deuce is a force to be reckoned with. A real rock band so fresh out of the rack, nobody has built a site for you to look at – just go listen to the album instead.

8. getAmped – Think I Care This three piece from Bournemouth have really got something quite special going on. Over at www.getamped.co.uk you can download and trial nearly all of their current material. Why are you still here?

9. SLUNT – The Best Thing Currently making lots of friends over here in the UK with their unique brand of rock n roll, SLUNT have been likened to L7, but this time they’re for real! Make up your own mind. We just think they rock like fuck. www.slunt.net

10. Wednesday 13 – Bad Things It just gets better and better. From the ashes of the Murderdolls rises the phoenix that is Wednesday 13. A groovy slice of dead monster movie zombie mayhem brings Bad Things to your sound system from the groovy album Transylvania 90210. Utterly priceless! www.wednesday13.com

11. Crash Kelly – Waiting for an Alibi A Thin Lizzy classic revitalized for an audience that, unbelievably, might be unfamiliar with it! This track was a UK only EP release, but if you like what you see here, the album Penny Pills, is every bit as good as you think it might be! www.crashkelly.ca for more info and streaming samples.

12. Mike Peters – Zero Ahh. The wild card! Mr Mike Peters – when we asked him if he’d like to submit some new material from his new album for our CD, he said that not only would he like to, but he’d write a song especially for us. So here I stand, ever so slightly humbled! www.mikepetersweb.com

13. Cruciﬁed Barbara - Rock n Roll Batchelor This slice of Runaways rock is just what you need to drop on the stereo in the summer months. Check into www. cruciﬁedbarbara.com to watch the video. It rocks!w

14. Lacuna Coil – Swamped Taken from Comalies, this is arguably the best song Lacuna Coil have ever written. For the faithful.. enjoy! For the uninititated: welcome to the Coil. www.lacunacoil.it

15. Dean Walker – Cliché You know those times when people say “he walks into a room and everybody stops and turns without knowing why”. That’s Dean Walker. Currently shaking up the bag Stateside, stay tuned to this station. There’s more where this came from!

NEXT ISSUE

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_ ∑… _

somewhere but not here Words: Sion Smith. Pics: Simon Clarke

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I was introduced to Porcupine Tree by means of a sheer fluke. Or perhaps not, but I’ll come back to that. For a band that has been around for some ten years, I was almost ashamed that I’d never heard of them, but anything lazily labelled as ‘progressive’, I tend to steer away from as a matter of course.

"I’ve never been But interested in being generic in any way and I’ve never been interested in getting into an existing market. Unfortunately, when you set out to do that, it makes your job a hundred times harder."

progressive is one of those genres that dumb people tend to throw bands into that they can’t find another box for. Where Porcupine Tree are concerned, the phrase doesn’t even tell half the story, for what they really are is a rock band unconcerned with anything but their own boundaries. Running through their (hastily bought) back catalogue, you’ll find that they continually push themselves to find a better sound, to write a better song – and above all else, to be the best band they can possibly be. Individuality is all. Steven Wilson is one of the nicest guys you could want to meet. Considering we come from super-polar-opposites on the slider scale of musical influences, we have a lot in common. A severe disliking for Coldplay, (or anything remotely sheep-like for that matter) and a love of T.Rex are good enough starting points

to get to the bottom of just what makes this incredibly talented trio tick: I’ve never been interested in being generic in any way and I’ve never been interested in fitting into an existing market. Unfortunately, when you set out to do that, it makes your job a hundred times harder. I’ve always said it’s the greatest strength and the greatest weakness. If you’re unique then you can guarantee that your music, or your art, will still be around in a hundred years time. If you’re generic, you may have some short term success, but as any Limp Bizkit will tell you, within three years you can be worth nothing. So, my art if you like, was born out of a love of music. I was always inspired by music but I was never inspired to copy musicians – it was always the ethic behind those musicians that drove me. People like

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Frank Zappa were more inspirational to me in the sense that they encouraged you to explore your own creativity and not imitate someone else’s. I’ve tried to create another unique world and the people who have discovered it have totally gotten into it and are not the type of fickle people who are going to drift off over the years. I hope they’ve discovered something that is very unique that they can keep the faith with, but as you yourself have just discovered us after 8 records, it’s been very hard to get the band out to the people that would like us, simply because we’re not generic. There is no existing media infrastructure for a band like us – there are no magazines that write about us – they just generally touch on us as part of the periphery. It’s been tough because we don’t fit. It’s very much word of mouth, relentless album making and touring! The media tends to still be obsessed with the sex, drugs and rock n roll lifestyle. Really being able to play your instrument and being an auteur is not really embraced in Britain, but they’re more interested in writing

drifted away from music in a sense. That’s the cult of personality for you, but it’s interesting that you should ‘name and shame’ sex, drugs and rock n roll. Ultimately, that’s my department, but I don’t think any of the media do it ‘properly’ if you like. I find that they treat it something like a porn magazine you hide under your bed, but if you get into the guts of it, it is very dangerous, very glamourous and very exciting. It’s all in the delivery – my complaint is that from music being delivered how it is, they killed the rock star. Now, where I’m coming from, I’m able to put Porcupine Tree in the same vein as Kiss because what you’re both delivering is a unique vision. That’s what happens in my brain! If you step back, then yes, we have created entirely our own world and there is a very strong personality present which does make us like Kiss, coming from that angle you’re right. It manifests in the packaging, in the webiste, in the live show – there’s so little of that kind of personality around now. Looking back over twenty years or so, there’s maybe been Jarvis Cocker and The Smiths that pulled it

"When I see, Pete Doherty doing his thing, all i see is a Joe Strummer wannabe. it’s not even their own personality. It’s all about living in the shadow of someone else’s influence." about some waste of space like Pete Docerty. As long as there are 19 year old kids writing for NME or Kerrang, I don’t see that it’s likely to change either. Kids writing for kids, but there’s a whole group of people who have been left out. I guess people have just

off. When I see, Pete Doherty doing his thing, all I see is a Joe Strummer wannabe. It’s not even their own personality. It’s all about living in the shadow of someone else’s influence. To clarify what I said about sex, drugs, rock n roll – they tend to see

people like Lou Reed, Iggy and The Clash – these are the people that if you don’t model yourself on, then you’re not worth writing about. So consequently, Zappa and Roger Waters are written off with a playground giggle. They’re not held in the same esteem, but in Britain, we’ve always had that sort of culture. What I find hard – and it might be pretty stupid to admit this in print, but fuck it – is when you’re looking for people to work with, a lot of writers think it’s enough to voice opinion without injecting style. It’s not just us, it’s global. There’s a reason everybody has heard of Cameron Crowe, Nick Kent and Lester Bangs, no matter what you think of the quality of their work. They had style and passion, but you’d be hard pressed to identify any ‘name’ magazine writer these days. That’s an extension of what we’re talking about. The last wave of great writers were Kent, Paul Morley, Chris Roberts – you could read their writing, they had a perspective and a personality. Everyone is trying to outhip everyone else and be seen to be following the right bands. It’s not good and I’m not interested in the journalists opinion of it – I buy magazines now to find out what’s been released and who’s on tour. Rock music has moved so far into the realm of what a 14 year old kid wants in order to rage against his parents, that there’s no scope for people to write classics anymore. True – but the system itself has triggered a self decreasing circle. There’s no attention span, there’s no follow up and everything is just so hit and run.We like to call it dirty journalism and I’m not standing on a podium here, we’ll be as guilty of it as everyone else – but it’s sad that we’ve come to this point. Rolling Stone used to be the greatest magazine in the world, but now it’s just a shadow of it’s former self – which is kind of sad because they have some good writers and a world of material at their feet, so who knows why… Don’t you think that the problem now is the internet? When I got into music the only way I could out about obscure music was by personal recommendation. That now has been taken to a logical conclusion in that the internet is full of personal recommendation and it doesn’t mean anything. I can go onto the Porcupine Tree forum and all I see is hundreds of posts that say “I think the new album is the best one”, “No, you’re wrong, their last one was the best one”. There’s no discourse, it’s just kids saying “you’re an idiot because you think this” and then you get the retort of “No, I’m not

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Nobody should be surprised at the diversity of Steve Wilson – but a discourse on the state of British comedy? Bring it on: I think there is a natural successor to Morecombe and Wise which would be Reeves and Mortimer – these guys are very funny, but at the same time they’re very surreal and there’s a real dark undercurrent behind what they do – and I like that. I think British comedy is probably healthier than any of the other British arts. You’ve got the Little Britain guys, Chris Morris, Alan Partridge, League of Gentlemen – that kind of dark and surreal aspect runs right through British comedy. The Oﬃce as well, I wish we could say the same about the rest of our arts. Look at the movie industry though – the problem is that the stakes are so high. To make a movie and market it, well just to market it costs millions of dollars. You have to have a hit with your ﬁrst movie because the stakes are so high – otherwise, you’re done.

you’re an idiot because you don’t agree with me”. There’s nothing articulate there at all. But those journalists we mentioned did have the capacity to inspire you. Julian Cope’s a bit like that. I wish he was writing for Q or Mojo because I find them so dull. Quite.We went the opposite way and asked Zodiac Mindwarp to write for us. He has his own style, a big personality and for my money, he’s a small part of the rocket that needs setting off. He’s been sorely missed. Jumping tracks a little – there’s some great stuff out there that has really caught me over the years – it normally comes in pockets and for a reason though. Mother Love Bone for the style, The Tea Party for the sheer audacity, Mars Volta are something else right now and there’s yourselves – despite opinions to the contrary, people as shallow as me do have moments of enlightenment! I like great pop stuff too. I’m not that kind of musician but I’m a huge Bolan fan. People with a big mouth and a big personality – the charisma to pull it off is important in pop, but I recognise that that’s not me. There are many ways to get personality through in your art. …and that’s the key. Progressive rock is such a lousy term to brush you with though. I really dislike genre titles and that one more than most – particularly in your case because it doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. People clutch at straws to describe things. I’ve never used that term either! That comes back to the beginning of our conversation. When something doesn’t fit into a genre people flail

for ways to describe it. That’s what I’ve had to put up with for 12 years! I still love what I do and try to make the records that I would like to listen to or would be excited to discover. Deadwing has sold 120,000 copies so far, which in underground terms is a lot of records but in mainstream terms it’s not. We’ve reached a lot of people and it’s taken us a long time to do that, but I do believe that in 100 years time, people will not only be listening to the band, but also rediscovering them. Things will change but slowly. Mars Volta have managed to have a top ten album in America which is amazing. It doesn’t feel contrived and it feels very natural. There must be so many bands who don’t give themselves the chance like you have, who really need some time to develop. I think the problem is a lot of the time that bands who would be fulfilling that missing part, is that they aren’t allowed to develop over a period of albums, The seventies is the golden era of albums. Some of the greatest artists, their first three albums are not great. Think about Bolan – it took him 5 or 6 albums to hit the stride. Now, if you get to yourt third album on a major, then you’re really doing remarkably well. Over the last couple of albums, we’ve arrived at a point where I feel that everything really has led to that point – most bands never get that far. So in that sense, we’re unusual because we got that far. But like you said yourself, you’ve built your own path and given yourselves that time to grow. Yes. Every album we’ve made has sold more than the last. Most bands peak

around their second or third album and struggle to follow that up. It’s made it easy for us to do what we do. It’s having the confidence to say I don’t fucking care what the media want, I don’t fucking care what’s going on on MTV because this is what I want to do – and we’re in a good position now. We have a non fickle audience and I don’t want to abuse that privilege. Before you go – Deadwing is associated with a film script is that right? Yes. I’ve always been as much in love with cinema as with music – the next level for me was to try and write a movie. We’re trying to get funding but it’s very uncommercial and ungeneric so it’s a real struggle to get people to read it. Is the plot out in the public domain? Not really, but basically it’s a surreal ghost story. It’s about a guy who finds himself in his thirties, very isolated from the rest of the world and the basic idea is that he has a certain point in his childhood where he cheated destiny. It’s very surreal. You’re never sure if you’re in dream or reality or the past, present or future. I hate it when Hollywood explains everything to the nth degree and treats people like they’re stupid. It’s really not necessary! I stand very corrected at this point. I first thought that Deadwing was a great album, but it’s not. It’s so much more than that. Repeated listenings show it up for what it really is. It’s a labour of love, a piece of art and each subsequent listen, it explodes with more and more depth than you ever you thought was possible.

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Dark, black past Interview: Sion Smith Picture: darkimages.com

Some people walk it like they talk it. Welcome to the world of Paul Booth. Black Overlord of the Art and Keeper of the Gallery of Souls . . .

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In your own words – who are you and what do you do? I ask because sometimes what people perceive you to be is often not what you think you do… I’m Paul Booth. I’m a tattoo artist, a sculptor, a painter, a set designer, etc. I’m primarily a tattoo artist, or that’s what I’m best known for. All of my work is focused on macabre, dark imagery. I’m going to title the feature “Dark, Black Past”. How aptly is that applied to you? I think the best way that phrase applies to me is through my own past. Although I find the present to be darker than the past in some ways, I figure I must have some Dark Black Past or I wouldn’t be the way I am now. I know everyone has one, and not that I had anything extreme - just mainly dysfunctional, but my childhood memories are usually dark. I grew up depressed. In first and second grade I was drawing skulls on my notebooks; I always preferred a black crayon. When I was young I couldn’t wait to grow up because I spent most of my time being miserable. Unlike many people the last thing I would want to do is re-live my childhood. My childhood memories are not fond so all the art I made in my youth depicted my dark thoughts. In that sense, my past is a dark one. This seems to be your whole life – you’re obviously committed to it. Is there a light side of you to balance it out – and if there is, what sort of things are in it? Well, for me, my dark side is my light side. I find the darker my surroundings, the more it feels like a sanctuary and the more positive I feel about what I’m doing and where I’m heading. I really don’t look at the things in my world as negative. I fully embrace this darkness. I’m fascinated, preoccupied even, with death and the dark side of human nature. Because I embrace it, I surround myself with it. It’s something that generally makes me feel good. So again, I don’t see it as a negative thing in my life. I guess the closest I can come to a “light side” is my sarcastic humour. A prerequisite to work at my shop is to be prepared to handle heavy sarcasm and be able to dish it out as well. So even our lighthearted humour is sadistic and sarcastic, but we have fun with it. The things that society generally deems as the “light side” I find nauseating. You know, unicorns and all those happy things make me want to vomit. To me, that’s negative because it’s so pretentious and such a façade. Nobody can possibly be that happy. Most people that embrace that stuff, to me, are just in denial. I find it a much more negative thing to be desensitised to the point of being afraid of your own dark side.

Trying to fill your world with happy symbols that are supposed to make you feel good just makes me feel sick. What are the best and worst things about what you do? I guess the best thing about what I do is seeing the effect it has on people. When people are freaked out by my work, or disgusted by it, that to me is the best thing. It’s much like watching a horror movie. I think the more disturbed and unsettled it leaves you, the more successful it is. I feel the same way about my art. My goals in art are to create something that will traumatise people for a long time. If I could put someone in therapy with an image I create, that would be the ultimate accomplishment. Not that that is what all art is about, but for me, the definition of “art” is the ability to pull emotion out from someone. To me, darker emotions like fear and anger are the most powerful ones and those are the things I like to touch on. I also like the process of making the art. I generally don’t enjoy the final product as much as other people seem to because for me it’s more of a venting process. I’m releasing poison from my system, so to speak. I don’t have much interest in sitting there admiring my art because I don’t really find it admirable. I tend to think, “OK, I puked that up and now it’s time to move on to puke up something else.” The worst thing about what I do is probably the self loathing that is involved in the process. I reach the dark corners of my mind when I create and generally you have to turn and face yourself and that’s not always a pretty sight. So I spend a lot of time in the parts of my head that I don’t always enjoy visiting but I’m compelled to nonetheless. So that’s where I enjoy releasing the toxins through the creative process. It can be a painful process at times, but like anything, it’s a double-edged sword, you know? The enjoyment and the pain are simultaneous and it’s really just a matter of jumping back and forth in a schizophrenic sort of way. What did you used to do before this, or has it always been this way? I’ve always focused on art. I think as a child, most positive attention and approval in my life came through my art and therefore I was inspired to continue. I was also the kid who stayed home and drew pictures while all the other kids were playing baseball. I was that last kid to be picked so I was kind of a loner. I was a latch-key child who preferred his imaginary friends over the pretentious school friends that always seem to let you down. I figured if I was going to be let down, it was going to be by myself rather than some other idiot. When I was about a sophomore in high

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school I started my own business doing murals and sign painting. That stuff was generally commercial work, so I wasn’t really exploring my stuff as much as I’d have liked but I was my own boss and that was what I needed. I hated when people told me what to do and I never worked well in an environment where I had to answer to other people. By the time I got out of high school I got into full-scale art work on hot-rods and bikes but the business is hit or miss. One week you’re a rich man and the next you are a poor man, and at that age I didn’t care because I used money to enjoy my hobbies. So, to supplement my income and do something fun, I got involved in repossessing cars. I did that for three and a half to four years, mainly for the rush more than anything. I really enjoyed the adrenaline of Grand Theft Auto. I was sneaking around alleys in Harlem at three in the morning and that’s pretty exhilarating. That was back in my “death wish” days. I enjoyed the suspense though. Then when I was about 20, my daughter was born and I got a tattoo with her name on it. I’m watching the guy put it on and I fell in love with the idea of learning to tattoo. I’ve always been a big fan of learning new art forms and new mediums. I found it so intriguing I felt compelled to learn how to do it. So I bugged the guy to teach me for like 6 months and after 5 grand and a lot of persistence, I was able to become an apprentice. I started tattooing but for the first two years I was doing Tasmanian Devils, walk-in flash stuff. It was a very traditional shop so I cut my teeth in a very traditional environment with hearts and roses, and flowers and even had to do a few Christ heads against my will… but I’ve killed all of them so you won’t see them around. Later, I left my job tattooing in New Jersey and went to California to help my dad who was dying of cancer. With that there was a new found freedom to be able to do whatever I wanted on whoever I wanted. I was finally able to be my own boss which allowed me to explore my art and the tattoo medium with a lot more depth. So I did some larger work on some friends I made out there who let me have free reign. I came back six months later, I’d say, May or June of 1991, and I did a back piece on my girlfriend at the time. At that point I was doing a lot of tattoo parties in basements to make money so I did this back piece with hopes of taking it to a convention and finding a job. People ended up digging the work so much, really to my surprise, you know I thought it was decent but I didn’t expect all the attention it got. I remember at the time, the scariest tattoos were of flaming skulls so I kind of felt there weren’t a lot of people who would be into what I was doing because it was dealing in more extreme imagery. The back piece was a bunch of demons and stuff, my version at least, and I figured a few people would be into it enough to keep me going but it turned out to be fairly popular and the next thing I know, she’s on the cover of a magazine and I’m getting invited all over the place to do guest spots in people’s shops. I think my real, or second apprenticeship started then when I was able to travel and meet accomplished artists. It’s just kept escalating ever since. I went from travelling around the country to travelling around the world, with all kinds of crazy press and media attention and now I’ve ended up with a 2 year waiting list and I have total freedom and all the things I dreamt of as an artist. I feel very fortunate for the road that I’ve travelled. Are you aware of the wrestler the Undertakers passion for tattooing – he’s the kind of guy I would imagine to come to you for work at some point. I’m fairly aware of the Undertaker’s passion for tattooing, I tattooed him quite a few years ago and he’s a pretty cool guy. He has to be, to date, the largest person I’ve ever tattooed. He had to turn sideways and duck to walk into the hotel room where I tattooed him. We happened to be in the same town for a convention and he walked up to my booth and told me he was a big fan and wanted to get some work if I had time. I’m not a big wrestling fan, but of course he was the one wrestler I did enjoy when I saw wrestling. I always enjoyed his character when I got the opportunity to watch him. It was nice to see that depiction of the dark side in the wrestling world. One of the few times I did see him on TV, he did this cool, kind of bottom-lit pose with his hand up near his face and it stuck in my head. When I tattooed him, I did a demon on his bicep that was based on that pose. It was funny, they came out with an Undertaker action figure that stood about a foot and a half tall and whoever did the graphics of his tattoo on the toy, took the time to get the tattoo right. I thought that was pretty cool. Once your art is immortalised on a toy, I guess that’s a step in the right direction. I really tripped on that one. Where do you see tattooing going next It’s become a very popular culture, I hardly know anyone without one. For that matter, do you

“tattoo is the indelible mark on your flesh and a commitment that not everybody is prepared to make. it will always be edgy and always be outsider art, but i like that about it.” think it needs to go anywhere, maybe you think it’s fine as it is… I don’t think anyone really has any idea. We can speculate but I think like anything it’s been trendy, in decline, on the rise, it floats around and pulses in society at different levels and in different walks of life. The thing I really enjoy about tattooing is that it’s the ultimate congregation of cultures. Every culture in the world is represented in the tattoo culture, which is one of the things that make me enjoy it so much. I can explore so many cultures around the world but still stay with my kind of people. It’s a big twisted family in a sense. I think it’s edgy because it’s painful and it’s the ultimate commitment well beyond having a wife or husband; you can always get divorced. Tattoo is the indelible mark on your flesh and a commitment that not everybody is prepared to make. It will always be edgy and always be outsider art, but I like that about it. I mean, I’d like to see it gaining attention and being respected as an art form. That means a lot to me and I always do my part to push for that. At the same time, I wouldn’t want it to become fully mainstream. I think it will continue to rise in popularity and be trendy but I’m not really worried it will go completely mainstream. It is the one trend that will constantly gain momentum because it is constantly evolving. There are so many different facets to tattooing; it’s not like bellbottoms or a current fashion. It is a category like fashion in and of itself and will always be popular to the subcultures within it. I’ve seen trends within tattoo rise and fall. Tribal, biomechanical comes and goes. Traditional came, went and came back. So I mean, it’s its own industry, its own society, its own microcosm. What are your inﬂuences – they’re not something I’ve really ever seen you talk about - do most of them come from childhood rather than being embraced as an adult? Looking at your work, there seems to be maybe some Giger in there mixed with someone like horror guru Lucio Fulci. How far oﬀ the mark am I? Not far off at all. Fulci happens to be my all-time favourite horror director. I’m a big Fulci fan. Outside of my art, horror movies are my life. I have a huge collection of horror movies and I end every day by viewing a couple. I aspire to direct some day. On my list of goals,

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that’s a major one. Fulci has always been an inspiration to me as has Giger. Everyone is a Giger fan one way or another. The things that are really important to me in art are textures and dimension through light and shade and Giger touches on those things so inevitably I’ll always be a fan. His landscapes are totally atmospheric and incredible to me. I’m really a fan of atmosphere; I like things that have it, I like to create it. Joel Peter Witkin’s corpse photography is really cool. Virgil Finley is an old illustrator from the 50’s whose stuff I like and of course, Michelangelo’s sculptures and the work of the masters. The contemporary artists out there, a lot I like but there’s a lot I find pointless. Like I said earlier, I like art that moves me and a lot of this abstract stuff that leaves you to draw your own conclusions generally is just not my thing. I like art that makes a statement and smacks you in the face. So generally, the more extreme artists are the ones I really like. My inspirations are not limited to artists, though. I’m inspired by everything from the fucked up people I see on the street to the little titbits of news I do receive. I would also assume you were brought up on the likes of Alice Cooper. Care to comment? Alice Cooper taught me the significance of shock value. I remember when I was a kid, getting excited about my Alice Cooper soda cup from the convenience store. I just thought the whole concept was beautiful. The theatrics incorporated into the music, the stage performance and the shock value, you know freaking people out with beheadings in the guillotine, I just thought it was beautiful. I was probably in the midst of the KISS army generation, you know? Gene Simmons I thought was pretty cool cause he was so evil looking during the day (back in the day) but I think I really quickly went into Slayer and Venom and things like that. That’s where my heart was back then.

Your private gallery on the web is quite incredible. How big is your collection? Do you have any plans to take it out of the USA – it would storm away in somewhere like London My private gallery will never leave my side. I think as far as it coming to Europe, the risk of losing my babies is too high to bring them on tour anywhere. I really prefer to show them to my guests than make a travelling museum. They are too special to me to want to exploit the collection. The one only way the government is taking them away from me is by prying them from my cold, dead fingers. So they will stay well hidden. The past few years I’ve been focusing my finances on various business endeavours so I’ve slowed a bit on collecting but I’m getting ready to pick it back up again. I prefer human specimens over animals. I have a few dozen fetuses at different stages of growth from different eras. One dates back to 1894 and I’ve got a dozen or so skulls, one of which is Peruvian/Pre-Colombian Indian that’s about 850 years old. I’ve got serial killer memorabilia. I’ve got various human parts in jars and it would suffice to say that I’m about three quarters of the way from being able to assemble a full person (which I plan on doing someday) In closing, give us your top ﬁve ‘dark’ things of all time: 1. Christianity, for the pain and anguish it’s caused humanity since its inception. 2. Hello Kitty, for the corporate brainwashing it induces on the youth of today. 3. Disney, the Christian death cult that it is. 4. Big brother, because, Big Brother. 5. The mental illness I battle on a daily basis. Any last words? “When I grow up, I want to be a serial killer that kills profilers.” O

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Love Reaction High

BigTough Men “Have you heard of a guy called Bobby Sockett Z?” said Cobalt. “He says he plays bass for some band called Blured, whoever they are?” continued the hefty bodybuilding guitarist with his hand over the phone. “What, the boy band Blured?” I said. I was vaguely aware of them, they all looked like students, well, they used to do. I seemed to remember they were quite an old boy band now though and looked more like teachers than students these days. The Wanker, a London literary magazine that I’d been writing for over the past few years had asked if the band wanted to do a gig for their Christmas party. It sounded like a great idea the only problem being that we didn’t have a bass player. Our previous bassist, Tex Diablo, had recently been deported for trying to set up a small import export business dealing in heroin so we were pretty much bassless. “Yeah” said the Stargazer “he said that Tom one of the editors at The

Wanker gave him our number”. “Tell him to come over,” I said, problem apparently solved. “He said he’s a big fan,” continued Cobalt, hanging up the phone, seemingly amused. “Of me!” “Of you? What do you mean, like your guitar playing or something?” I asked, intrigued. “No, the circus shit I do and the wrestling. He’s got all my German porn vids as well” In nineteen ninety four when The Love Reaction decided to close down their rocking operations for a while we all had to try and find something else to do. Cobalt, whose exotic family history had landed him by far the most lucrative and interesting of inter rocking careers. He was from a long line of Italian circus performers, his father The Great Stargazie and his grandfather the original Great Stargazie before him had all been circus strongmen. It was a tradition that had been passed

down the first-born male side of the Stargazie family since 1788 when the first Great Stargazie had performed in the original Stargazie Brothers travelling circus still popular in Southern Italy today. The Stargazie family had been devastated when Cobalt had decided to leave the circus and become a guitarist in a rock band but held no malice or grudge towards there wayward son and were more than pleased when he announced that he would like to wear his fathers leopard skin leotard and carry on in the Stargazie tradition. Circus work was pretty seasonal however so Cobalt had been doing a spot of wrestling work too and had also made several hard-core pornographic videos for the German market. His beefy wrestlers frame being ideal for the many SM shorts that Germany was famous throughout the tugging world for.

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truly, truly superb sir. If I may say so sir I consider you to be the Sir John Gielgud of German Pornography.”

Young Bobby came bursting into the rehearsal rooms carrying a bass guitar that looked two sizes too big for him. The little scamp looked like he couldn’t have been more than fourteen, yet the internationally famous boy band Blured had been dancing for at least ten years. Strange! “Well hi there young fella” said Cobalt in a fatherly fashion, attempting to put the nervous youngster at ease. The little chap was red in the face and had obviously ran all the way to the studio. “So you’re young Sockett then are you?” said Cobalt generously “Stargazers the name son, Cobalt Stargazer” and gave a hearty laugh “And that handsome fellow over there is none other than Zodiac himself. “Hi there youngster” I said, smiling and giving him a friendly wink “And I’m the vomiter said Robbie in his deep manly baritone, before filming a quick roll on his kit “Call me Robb, kid” “Oh my goodness” stammered young Bobby, fanning the air in front of his face and blowing his long floppy fringe out of his eyes. “I don’t know what to say...oh, oh..I’ve been a fan of the Great Stargazie since I was ten years old”

The lad was nervous, saying the first things that came into his head, we all understood and laughed kindly at the young mans predicament. “The Great Stargazie, eh, son?” smiled Cobalt, obviously taking to the open young lads charm instantly and placing an arm around his slim shoulders, “my that must have been some time ago little fella, Old Stargazie hasn’t been out on the road for a while now, not since I got into the movie business at leasts anyways,” he added, ruffling Bobbies hair. “Oh sir you were marvellous!” gushed Bobby, tears of admiration and joy welling in his soft brown eyes. “It was my thirteenth birthday, Papa had taken me to The Stargazie Brothers big top on Bournemouth common. I’d never been to a circus before in my life. It was pure magic sir, the animals, the clowns with their funny little car. The lions frightened me a little, but the trapeze sir, golly, why I thought my heart would just pop right up into my mouth...” The lad caught his breath, before continuing “and then you sir! Right at the end of the show you strode into the ring dressed in your leopard skin leotard sir clutching your iron bars and things. Do you remember sir? The crowd went wild, they loved you sir, with your big curly moustache, the beautiful girl in the spangly costume? She handed you the bag of walnuts sir and you started cracking them between the cheeks of your arse! They were banging away like sticks of dynamite; I’d never seen anything like it in my life! The whole audience were beside themselves with laughter. Even my staid old father who hasn’t laughed once since the end of World War 2

sir, why even he managed a smile sir ” laughed young Bobby Sockett, obviously the Stargazers biggest fan “Cracking walnuts with your arse cheeks Cobalt? I said laughing, “How the fuck do you do that? Isn’t it painful?” “Not when you know how Z old friend. It’s a lot easier than bending steel bars around your bell end though thats for sure” laughed Cobalt, wincing at the same time. “And your videos sir!” Bobby pulled out a collection of Cobalts German porn shit and asked the talented guitarist to sign them for him “Your performance in Bumrunner, truly, truly superb sir. If I may say so sir I consider you to be the Sir John Gielgud of German Pornography. I’ve never seen such emotionally literate examples of triple anal, d.p and double rectal fisting in my entire life!” “Oh its nothing” laughed the multitalented Stargazer “Anyway that’s enough about me” He continued, checking out the youngsters lean frame, eyeing him up no doubt for similar film work in Germany. “Why do you want to play bass for the Love Reaction, I wouldn’t have thought we would have been your kind of thing, what with you being in the internationally famous boy band Blured and everything” said the guitarist handing young Bobby a pair of original Stargazer leathers. “Bought them in 1977, haven’t cleaned them once”

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“SIT DOWN SON, THIS WON’T TAKE A MINUTE, I USED TO BE A HAIRDRESSER IN THE NAM.” wrinkling his cute button nose at the beefburger and onionish smell of the thing. It was black of course with a huge swastika and the inevitable FUCK OFF written through the centre of the

beamed the generous guitarist “they’re yours kid, they might be a little big, but Annie our club seamstress could probably alter them for you.” “Th, Th, Thanks..” was all the horrified Sockett lad could utter, as he realised that big tough men didn’t seem to wear any underpants. “Now what’s this?’ smiled Cobalt pulling at young Bobbys pink skimpy T-shirt, “Twenty four A levels and a Plectrum?” He said reading the flowery logo on the front of Bobby’s T shirt, raising a puzzled eyebrow. “That was the title of Blured’s first album sir” replied Bobby nervously. “Off!” barked the Great Stargazie mock seriously. “Yes sir” said Bobby obediently. The young lad struggled into the filthy torn T-shirt Cobalt handed to him,

Nazi Hakenkreuz . “Looks good” offered Robbie “But he’s still not quite there is he?” The drummer paused a while, chin in hand, before reaching down and whipping out a mean looking bowie knife from one of his heavy biker boots “The hair” he said casually, walking over to the terrified Bobby, taking a hank of his floppy fringe and slicing it off “Sit down son, this won’t take a minute, I used to be a hairdresser in the Nam.” Robbie got to work and within ten minutes had shaved Bobbies

head almost to the scalp with the lethal razor sharp edge of his American Bowie. The transformation was incredible, Bobby wiped the spots of blood from several of the clumsy nicks and looked at himself in the rehearsal room mirror “Blimey.” he said under his breath “I don’t look the slightest bit like a Soho rentboy bumboy any more at all, do I?” We all laughed out loud as Cobalt placed ancient oil and shit covered denim cut off on the lads shoulders. He struggled into a pair of heavy biker boots and tried on a Nazi steel helmet admiring himself and pulling tough poses in the mirror. Snarling like Sid Vicious and hooking his thumbs in his belt loops. “A little fine tuning young fella and you’ll be as big and tough a man as the rest of us, won’t he fellas?” I said to my men. “Sure thing boss!” Said Robbie, slapping Bobby heartily on the back, knocking the breath out of him. “Fine tuning, young Sockett, right here we go, sit down, thats right, make yourself comfortable, Z’s going to show you this one, it won’t take long.” said Cobalt plugging in a TV and bringing out a selection of objects from one of his amp flight cases. “Drink?” I said to the seated Sockett, who sat there nervously.“I beg your pardon sir?” He said timidly.“Do you drink?” I said curtly. “Erm yes sir, a little beer and the occasional Baileys at Christmas” he replied.“Stargazer” I barked at my second in command. Cobalt threw a small table in front of Bobby and placed a bottle of Jack Daniels and a six pack of Tenants super on it… continued in the next issue of ZERO

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Hanging by a Moment Words: Fil Norman. Pics: Scott Cole

The 2005 Download festival saw some amazing live shows from a wide variety of bands across the rock music spectrum. Shows are becoming more visual with stage pyrotechnics, huge inﬂatables and some incredible lighting eﬀects. However, one band pushed the boundaries of live performance to the limit and had everyone at the festival talking. Society 1 took to the stage with a live show like nothing seen before in this country.

If the sinister music wasn’t enough to grab your attention, lead vocalist Matt Zane performed the entire thirty minute set suspended high above the stage by four hooks pierced through his back. After the show we met up with the man with the responsibility of ensuring the suspension went according to plan, professional body piercer and ritual hanging guru, Mr Steve Joyner from CoRE. You are the director of CoRE. What is CoRE about and how did you get started in this line of work? I started working with suspensions in 1995 on more of a spiritual level. I joined a troupe in Dallas, Texas and we were taking it to the stage. Then I left that group in 2000 and started taking it to the theatre. The name of our troupe is Constructs of Ritual Evolution aka, CoRE. Constructs of Ritual Evolution means to ‘change a ritual and evolve it’. It is our intent to create original and physically demanding works of theatre by blending the practice of modern

performance art with ancient rituals of body suspension. We in CoRE have suspended our own concept of physical limitation, pierced the heart of our fears, and transcended the boundaries of social convention in order to further the understanding of the corporeal and spiritual being. Suspension acts combined with traditional performance art and theatre provide us with a new outlet for artistic expression that enables the audience to join us on our emotional journey. By pushing our own boundaries in life and art, we inspire others to explore their own. CoRE is based in Houston Texas and Los Angeles California. We have sixty plus people combined between the two troupes. We have twelve different departments to include Performers Characters, Suspenders, Stilt walkers, Piercers, Riggers, Medics, Costumes, Make-up, Fire, Dancers, Musicians, Technical, Loading/Stagehands, and Production. Can you brieﬂy explain the origins of suspension/hanging and what is the sensation and feeling for the individual being suspended? Suspension dates back centuries. It is done in Sri Lanka for religious reasons and Native Americans (Lakota Sioux) did ceremonies for warrior-hood. There are a lot of other cultures that have placed hooks, cheek spears, claws, etc. for different ceremonies or spiritual reasons. As for the feeling and sensation it is a little different for each person but flying is the overall consensus. Some people have been known to hallucinate or journey into a dreamlike state.

“THE DAY OF THE SHOW MATT WILL ONLY WANT TO SPEAK TO THE TWO INDIVIDUALS THAT ARE PIERCING HIM. HE LIKES TO STRETCH HIS SKIN AFTER THE HOOKS ARE PLACED IN AND THEN HE IS READY TO SUSPEND.” www.zeromag.co.uk | ZERO MAGAZINE | 99

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part in my opinion. To hold a tune and exert oneself while hanging is very intense on the vocal cords and the upper body. How did you come to work with Society 1? CoRE was called up by Joey Strange and Society 1 to perform a show with them in Los Angeles. The show went off great. One of Matt’s piercers, Josef, from that show then joined our troupe. When Matt wanted to suspend again he contacted Josef and that brought us into the picture of doing his rigging, piercing, and over all safety. When can we expect another suspension from Society 1 here in the UK? I don’t know when Society 1 is going to return to the UK but I do know it is being talked about. Our troupe is looking at visiting the whole of Europe to include the UK next year. How can they take it to the next level? He is trying to push his limits. He went from six hooks in his back down to four hooks in his back. We could take it to two hooks...ha-ha. For further information www. wearecore.com and www.society1.net

Obviously a suspension performance is physically demanding, what preparations do you make prior to a show? The first thing is to make sure there is enough height in the venue. Then plan out what to do within the show. For weeks before a show Matt likes to get up early, work out and run. Also the week before the show he has to plan his diet, basically he has to eat really healthy. He also increases his daily water and makes sure he is well rested. Daily meditation is practiced. The day of the show Matt will only want to speak to the two individuals that are piercing him. He likes to stretch his skin after the hooks are placed in and then he is ready to suspend. Do Society 1 perform the suspension at every show? No. Matt has to heal for at least a month in between suspensions. He likes to do the suspension at special shows. Did you have any safety concerns to consider? We did have a specific safety concern with the Download show, the weather. There was a chance of hypothermia. It was very cold and windy. We were

also worried about it raining and jeopardising his health. Fortunately nothing went wrong and the show was great. Are there any laws or legislations that get in the way of such shows? The only laws that hinder us are in the USA. It is illegal to suspend in Illinois and Minneapolis. Other than that we just have to abide by local laws. The download show was done with four hooks and not six as planned how did this happen? People on his on-line forum where talking trash about him suspending. People in the UK didn’t think it would happen so he decided to raise the stakes a little. How is it possible to sing whilst hanging? Actually that is the hardest

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The Invisible Kingdom From the groundbreaking Batman: Arkham Asylum across to the incorrigible team of The Invisibles, Grant Morrison has both reinvented classics and created legions of characters loved and aspired to the world over… somehow, that doesn’t do what follows justice… Words: Sion Smith Pics: courtesy Titan/Grant

nce a comic book fan, always a comic book fan huh. There’s a certain stereotype attached to people who read comics – geeky, glasses, obsessive, not many friends etc.. and to some extent, anyone who has ever been to a convention of any kind will know that it’s partially true. Grant Morrison and myself are hoping we fall into neither category, but comics are still a big part of a lot of people’s lives. You kind of get into things as a kid and just occasionally, you get lucky enough for the genre to grow up with you. With writers like Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and Alan Moore around, the comic book industry turned partially on it’s heels sometime in the mid to late eighties. Some of it carried on as it always had breeding shallow brightly dressed heroes for six year olds, but the other half stuck it’s foot to the floor, became extremely adult, complex and beguiling. This was no place for children. Hell sometimes it was a difficult place for adults to be too. At the forefront of it was Morrison, creating brilliance out of Celtic quirkiness.

Surprisingly, to me at least, it filtered through into the mainstream – but a storyteller in a visual medium isn’t all that he is. So let’s start in a dark place for want of a better location – you’re a practitioner of Chaos Majick… I’ve been into it for a long time now. Right from when I was about 18 or 19, when it was first really taking off, before I had a job or anything. It’s the centre point of my life really. It takes over your life doesn’t it. It took me a long time to learn that when you interject with the universe, some of the things you do, have repercussions you really didn’t expect or want. Sure, if you go in with both boots swinging, the universe likes to remind you that you’re just a small part and it has to kick you in the teeth sometimes in order to help you understand. As far as I’m concerned people and animals have died because of some of the things I’ve done. You usually get what you want in the end but sometimes you end up sitting back and saying ‘Did I really want that?’ My problem with it now, is the terminology people use. When you talk about it with people, they expect you to have a robe and when you lift your hand, lightning comes out of it, and it’s not like

that at all. Magic’s just a word that people used a long time ago to describe something that’s going on between language, observation and the universe. Magic and the movies has as much to do with reality as cops and movies. Gandalf and John McClain are as unreal as each other in the terms of what they represent. You don’t have to be like Gandalf and have a staff to make things happen. Things do happen but they happen in their own way – within the context of the way the world works, across a long line of coincidences. Things have to change in order for you to get what you want and sometimes those changes cause a lot of damage – and sometimes they don’t. I look at all the stuff I’ve experienced that is seen to be demonic or whatever – well, it depends how you deal with it. To me it’s money. I put them in the stories and it becomes money! I like the idea that you put forward that you should live your life like someone will write a biography about you one day. That’s rings big bells with me. I see so many people who are dead already, makes you want to cry sometimes at the waste. I think it’s because people buy what they’re told. I questioned it from very early

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The Best of Grant Morrison: The Invisibles: The Invisible Kingdom Although the last graphic in the Invisibles series, it’s a monster. The one where all ends get tied together – or as together as anything ever gets in Morrison’s world. Batman: Arkham Asylum Morrison and Dave McKean! One of the deﬁnitive Batman novels – not quite on the level of Dark Knight Returns but hell, what is. Pulling together the psyche of Batman and the Joker, it’s a little like watching two rats ﬁght it out in a verysmall space. Superb.

on. It’s not just religion – it’s government and politics, everything. We’re told to believe and most people are satisfied with that. What I like about Chaos is that it strips away all that belief. Traditional magic tells you that you dress a certain way and you can summon up the God Hermes, but for me it was more useful to summon up the comic book character The Flash. What relationship does an ancient Greek God have to my life you know. I’m not Greek for a start – but The Flash is a superfast messenger of the Gods and much more practical from where I was coming from. The human mentality has this unique component which allows it to be very fluent in speech. All Gods and characters are is archetypes which summon up a characteristic of humanity. So when you invoke Hermes or The Flash or whatever, all you’re doing is embracing the idea of being totally fluent in one characteristic at the exception of all others for however long you want it to last. I think Igot a bit off subject there.You’re new book, WE3.. where did the idea for that come from? Well, I’ve always been doing this animal stuff and I get quite sentimental about them. I was interested in the idea of prosthetically augmented creatures and then I read in New Scientist about these rats they were using in military applications, with chips in their heads. So I figured it would be kind of interesting to have the heroes as ‘higher animals’, and they had done this - used modified animals as military weapons to replace human soldiers on the battlefield. I’m really proud of it – it’s basically The Incredible Journey meets Terminator – and that was an easy pitch in Hollywood! I like the fact that NewLine are doing it – they basically see it as a big CGI adventure and I get to write it, so I’m in control – well, I am for now anyway. Talking of movies, you must have checked out Batman – even out of sheer curiosity! Yes! We were invited to the premiere. I really liked it but there loads of flaws in it and the basic idea and first forty minutes are great. Christian Bale I really liked.. but the plot? Anything to do with plot was awful, but all the bits to do with Bruce Wayne were good though. I think movie producers at the moment feel a need to fill the audience in on the background over and over again – it wastes a lot of time. Like who’s going to see a Batman movie that doesn’t know the basic origins. I was reading an article recently that

referred to it as ‘geek culture’ and we are kind of overwhelmed by it right now. I see it as an infantising of the population. The nanny state, watching us, government wants to pry into your knickers and all the time they’re selling us toys and cartoons and games like we’re all children. It’s embarrassing! The problem is you just want a movie with some characters and I don’t want it real, because the moment you try to make it real, I start laughing. Did you get on with LOTR? Yes. Loved it. The first one is amazing, but the last one I’m not so sure. Agreed – and I think the reason the first one is so popular is because it’s full of hope. Not battle scenes. True.The bit where Frodo passes out and she’s riding with him and the riders are chasing her.That’s beautiful, your hearts just racing! Let’s jump back a bit to The Invisibles – it has to be one of your favourites. That was the one comic I was really living. As I was doing it, really strange stuff was happening. I noticed it first when I saw that Neil Gaiman had practically drawn himself into the Sandman and it was working really well. So I got into the comic as an environment, kind of like a natural place, and I know this happens to everyone else I know that writes too – the story starts running away with itself. I began to think the story was actually writing itself – it was developing it’s own series of events, and I think when systems get complex, they start to compute at a higher level. So I began to think like that and one of the ways to affect your environment is to draw yourself into the comic and become a part of the story. So I figured , I’d really implicate myself and I put this bald guy into the comic and I shaved my head – and we wore the same clothes. So when in the story, I wanted the characters to go to Indonesia, I felt like I had to go there too. So I went and I met other people who also ended up in the comic too. We became inextricable. Did it spill back out the other way too? Totally. One of the weirdest things… at one point the character believes a flesh eating bug is eating his face as part of a torture a sequence. Three months after, a bug did eat through my face – it was a strain of the MRSA thing. It was either something in me knew I was sick and it came out that way or else I made it happen, but I ended up in hospital with a collapsed lung and I had all the symptoms I had given the character.

Seaguy: As Morrison himself would have it – it’s just a great story. If you’re into epic romantic heroism on a Zorro type scale, get your trunks on. The Filth: Not for the innocent, the unacquainted or the simple, The Filth is a tremendous work and is utterly compelling.

Did you write yourself better? They told me I was about to die – but there was a moment when thought the MRSA had spread to my heart and they would have open heart surgery, and I was like, ‘Shit”. So I got my stuff and started writing the next issue of Invisibles in which the character was healed – couple of days later they came round and said I was fine and that I could leave. There’s a classic example of the quote “When you look into the abyss… “Yeah… it gazes back! And winks!” So then I started giving him all kinds of stuff – international travelling, lots of women and I started living like James Bond for a few years. It was a completely different world from anything I’d experienced before. The Invisibles was just one big old long magic spell. A lot of people really didn’t get it did they? No, but there’s this thing around now where people have to ‘get’ things. You can go too hard into interpreting things that are designed to give an emotional response rather than an academic one. Sometimes, it’s best just to go along with something to get anything out of it. Like when I did the SeaGuy comic. Shit, it was just a story about a guy on an insane sea voyage but they tried to dissect it too much. It was based on Don Quixote and Celtic wonder tales, and people don’t remember that stuff, and when they don’t have it in their frame of reference, they don’t understand it. When something isn’t like a summer blockbuster, some people just don’t get it. These days with most things, be it games or movies, the majority work to a template and I think it’s always going to be that way. Which is a shame.When we get exposed to great music or art that is out of the norm, it has the capacity to change things for the better.Well, far be it for me to try and change things – it was like this when I found it. Honest. Go read some books…

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t’s true, there was life before the Matrix. There w as Batman and there was Dark City but towing above them all, stands The Crow. I know, it’s hard to see in the shadows but it’s there. Always has been. Born of pain from the mind of James O’Barr and so emotionally brought to life by Brandon Lee, the Crow was so far ahead of its time, the studios that commissioned it, didn’t know what to do with it. During the final stages of filming in 1993, Lee, who was insistent on performing the majority of his own stunts, was tragically killed in a freak accident. Ironically, it should have been as safe a take as he could have been involved in compared to what he had been putting himself through. The movie still found a release despite its setbacks and became a cult global hit and yet for years after, nobody had ever really spoken of the facts behind the media circus that was to follow. Cut to present day... well, as present day as it gets in the publishing world. It’s 1998 and Bridget Baiss, out on a regular lunch date is drawn into the world of Eric Draven...

Would you agree with me that the Crow was the Matrix of the 90’s – it was certainly a landmark movie in underground circles.

Very true. The look of the film stylistically and the subject matter really captured the music of the time. There’s that goth/rock thing going on and also the comic that it came from. Even the way they made it was

Before the Matrix, there was once a movie of far, far superior cool. Now, steeped in movie legend and myth, it rears its head once more to claim its heritage as the forerunner of all things dark. The tenth anniversary of The Crow is upon us. Author dark. There were attempts at copying the Bridget Baiss has spent style but copying… well, it never works. the last few years toiling To my mind, Batman was away at the background close, but still not on the mark as of the movie... far as production values go. Batman came out first, and there was also Dick Tracy, so there were successes with taking comic books and adapting them for the big screen, but everybody knew this was not Batman. A quote that they told me was ‘we decided we were not going to be Batman, we wanted nothing to do with Batman.’ In fact the artistic director for Batman was maybe up for doing it, and they specifically didn’t choose him, and other members of the batman crew who also applied, they just said no. The reason was that Batman was catering for a wider audience and they wanted the Crow to retain its underground quality. In their minds, Batman was dark, but the Crow was truly dark. I don’t think there are any daylight sets in the movie are there?

No. they wanted to create an atmosphere that was real. They decided for a couple of reasons that they would shoot it all at night to keep the mood. They created the world of the Crow and they wanted to stay in it. The crew who normally went home to their families – not the creative guys – they were saying “we can create night inside” and the artistic division said no, everybody should stay in this mindset. That caused a lot of friction. In order to get that low level of light, they were shooting at the very edge of

Interview: Sion Smith. Pics: Courtesy Titan Books

“In order to get that low level of light, they were shooting at the very edge of exposure. In 1993, cameras were largely the same as they are now, but at that point they really were on the edge. The ﬁlm company were saying, we’ll never be able to use it!”

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that would indicate it’s the truth corroborated by a lot of different people. I didn’t know Brandon at all, but I thought of it as my chance to tell a story. I did as much research as I possibly could and I realised there were so many similarities between the story of the making of the movie, the story of the accident combined with whatever legal documents I could get hold of. I began to realise that people were telling me the truth. Everybody told me in some way, the same story…

exposure. In 1993, cameras were largely the same as they are now, but at that point they really were on the edge. The film company were saying, we’ll never be able to use it! All of the colour palette in the film to create that dark world, were red, black and grey. There were no blues, yellows or reds to raise the tone at all. So where do you come in?

I had seen the Crow, I went with a friend as I wasn’t really that keen on seeing it in the first place – when you live in LA, you get a bit jaded over hype, but Brandon had been killed on set, so everybody had heard of the movie and stylistically, it sounded pretty good. I certainly wasn’t a fanatic fan. Years went by and then one day I was having dinner with a friend and we got onto the subject and during the conversation, he said; you know, nobody’s ever written a book about it. If you think it’s a great story, I’ll publish the book. I looked into it and I had a friend who I had gone to theatre school with when I was a child in San Francisco, who was actually the costume designer on the set. So I figured I should start calling around and see who is interested. That was when I found out that nobody had ever really spoken to anyone on the set and asked about it. There was also a lot of suspicion around it too. The more I thought about it, the more I found that it was a

...and it reaches a logical conclusion in the book?

life changing event in these peoples lives – because of the kind of film they were working on, the accident, there were a lot of coincidences… the whole package. When I would speak to people, I realised I was the first person to ask them anything about this. Right after Brandon’s death, the tabloids went to town on the movie even though these people were in shock and it had been a while, but now all the legal, criminal and civil cases had been closed, nobody was under any kind of restraining order. The only people who gave any information out during the event where like the lower level people who said that they had the story, but really didn’t. So I come along so many years later and at first there was a lot of resistance, but then they would call me back and say, you know, the true story has to come out. It took me quite a while and great effort to gain peoples trust. Is there one truth about the accident?

I think so. I think I’ve found a pretty good through line

Yes. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse, but what’s interesting is that it’s hard not to see the incredible facts. There were a series of unrelated, incompetent mistakes that individuals made not knowing anyone else made them – all these circumstances came together to put the bullets in the gun that nobody checked but nobody could have premeditated it as a plan. I guess it wouldn’t have been so odd, or eventful is maybe a better phrase, if Bruce Lee hadn’t gone in a similar way.

Well, Bruce’s death is largely myth, but there was a lot of mystery surrounding Brandon when he was alive because of it. Bruce didn’t die on a movie set and he wasn’t killed by something on a movie set. He actually died with his girlfriend, in Hong Kong. On that day, he maybe had a couple of injuries and was on a lot of painkillers – like you would be if you’re Bruce Lee who did all his own stunts. Then he probably smoked some pot or something, they found traces of cannabis – and somehow he had a brain aneurism. It was a bad

combination that created a blood clot. It was a complete fluke. But all these different reports came out that the Triads had him killed because he was giving away martial arts secrets to the west. A lot of people I spoke to still believe this to be the truth.. Well, Hollywood is good at creating its own myths. Take a look at the Dragon movie where he was killed by some mysterious force from within himself. And that’s even more weird. That movie was actually written and was in production when Brandon was killed. I’m sure they put a few twists on it after Brandon died but, it’s still strange. But if you take a story like Jim Morrison or Elvis, there is a logical conclusion, there always will be, but people will always choose to believe what they want to believe. At the end of the day, you can interpret the facts that are presented in the book however you want even though I obviously tried to make sense of them. People were working at night, they were tired, they were over budget, over schedule – there was a lot of pressure to get the job done and the worst possible accident happened. Despite Brandon Lee’s death, the franchise was set and the idea was milked – and is still being milked today. With the fourth movie in production as we speak, there is obviously plenty of life left in the idea, but none of them have ever come close to the original movies premise. Today, it still remains in the hearts of millions across the world as being the definitive ‘gothic’ movie masterpiece.

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Air Supply WORLDWIDE RADIO: USA:

Indie 103, loud and Clear Channel? Indie 103 is one hell of a radio station. www.indie1031.fm. I don’t like it all the time, every day, and I don’t want to like it all the time. One of its many charms is the unexpected programming which includes Rob Zombie Monday nights 7pm – 9pm, Suicide Girls Show, which is an extension of the worlds most popular burlesque show (check out www.suicidegirls.com ) Sunday Midnight till’ 2am and Passport Approved: Saturday Mornings 10am till’ noon, with Sat Bisla & Mike Savage, which plays the best new music, anywhere in the world. spewing corporate radio”. The people at Clear Channel are adamant that they have absolutely nothing to do with the programming of Indie 103 – they are merely responsible for selling 12 ads an hour,

ll these times are West Coast Los Angeles time, so wherever you are, you’d best work out how far behind or in front you are from your local time. That said, this weird L.A. rock station is often the soundtrack to whatever it is I’m doing on the Mac – I see know how webcast radio may be the future of the airwaves. It’s a hard task, but this sample from an interview that appeared in Wired magazine in the USA goes some way to explaining what makes Indie 103 tick:

“Let’s get the weird news out of the way: Steve Jones, the Sex Pistols guitarist, is now deriving his pay check from Clear Channel. That’s right: The spike-haired symbol of anarchic, anti-capitalist rebellion, the very punk, is sucking avatar of punk, is sucking the teat of the broadcast devil incarnate, the apotheosis of airwave-polluting, Britney-

while Santa Monica based Entravision Communications, one of the largest Spanishlanguage broadcasting companies and owners of the 103.1 signal (KDLD-FM in L.A. and KDLE-FM in Newport Beach), handles programming. I’m sure that Clear Channel doesn’t have anything to do with Indie’s Programming — on paper, anyway. But the context for this deal is kinda funny. Here’s the situation, which is multilayered: Clear Channel operates 91-X, San Diego’s (superior) version of KROQ, Clear Channel owns KIIS-FM, L.A.’s mega Top 40 station. The guy hired by Entravision to program Indie 103,

GIVE YOUR RESEARCH MONEY TO MICHAEL STEELE AND LET HIM CONTINUE TO FOLLOW HIS OWN INSTINCTS. HE’S ONTO SOMETHING,YOU GUYS. THEN, LET HIM PICK SOME GREAT DJS AND GIVE THEM A HAND IN PROGRAMMING,TOO.

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JONES’FIVEDAY AWEEK GIG AS A DJ AT INDIE 103, A CLEAR CHANNEL BACKED STATION IN LOS ANGELES, IS NOT A SIGNTHAT HE HAS PATHETICALLY SOLD OUT HIS YOUTHFUL BELIEFS.

Michael Steele, just happens to be the former music director at KIIS-FM. Radio is probably the most volatile mass medium, and if Indie doesn’t do well enough, it’ll be shuttered in a heartbeat, just like every other station that’s gone up against KROQ. You think KROQ got so big in the ’80s by market research? It did it by giving its DJs and listeners an actual hand in programming. Cut out the freaking middlemen already. Give your research money to Michael Steele and let him continue to follow his own instincts. He’s onto something, you guys. Then, let him pick some great DJs and give them a hand in programming, too. People don’t demand perfection of their radios: They just want some creativity. Weirder still, it’s all cool! Jones’ five-day-a-week gig as a DJ at Indie 103, a Clear Channel-backed station in Los Angeles, is not a sign that he has pathetically sold out his youthful beliefs. And the music on his twohour show bears out his claim. A head-snappingly diverse jumble of vintage punk, unsigned local bands, ancient pop novelties, and a whole lot of vividly alive rock and roll, Jonesy’s Jukebox is, according to Blender magazine, nothing less than ‘the best show on the radio’. More than that, Jonesy’s Jukebox is just possibly a peek at the future of radio itself. Which may be the weirdest news of all – not so much that a Sex Pistol is, once again, helping to shake the dust off rock and roll, but that music radio could even have a future! Check out our full-blown feature on Indie 103 in issue two of Zero. Indie 103/Entravision, 5700 Wilshire Blvd #250, Los Angeles, Ca. 90036

UK RADIO:

Alice Cooper He’s worked with electric chairs, guillotines and boa constrictors, and now he’s come to rip the head oﬀ the Virgin Classic Rock airwaves. Alice Cooper’s shock rock stage antics and famously gruesome make up have earned him cult status among fans of classic rock, and with an impressive discography of huge hits worldwide he’s achieved the status of bonafide rock legend. Born in Detroit and raised in Phoenix Arizona, Alice took his name from his first rock band, and pioneered a new genre of rock, with notoriously controversial stage shows to match. His huge hit ‘School’s out’ rocked the UK charts in 1977 going straight to number

one and he counts Meat Loaf, Dee snider, Frank Zappa and Ozzy Osbourne among his rock comrades. It’s been a long road of heavy metal, copious amounts of fake blood and stage make up, and now Alice makes his debut on the UK airwaves, every weeknight On Virgin Classic Rock from 6.00pm. Turn it up and prepare to rock . . . Virgin Radio Classic Rock: Mon – Fri – 6pm – 10pm http://www.virginradioclassicrock.co.uk/

Don’t Forget Totalrock: 24/7 Rock & Metal Radio! www.totalrock.com Issue II will see us hooking into this London based Rock station getting the low-down, the highlife, the Dj’s, the future, everything u need to know, look out TR is coming!

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Turn on, Tune in, Drop out:

No boundaries... The beauty of The Lock Up is that it knows no boundaries. It is a punk rock show but at the end of the day what is punk? Is a state of mind or a style of music? To me, Johnny Cash and Parliament Funkadelic were just as punk as The Sex Pistols or GBH. It’s about not conforming and having an open mind. I honestly feel like I could play just about anything on the show and get away with it. But I guarantee you won’t be hearing any Busted or Blue. The new time slot... The big difference is that with this new time slot a lot more people will be able to listen and hopefully some of the bands I play will be able to sell a few more records off the back of it. This scene has been going so strong for so long, it’s about time the bands had an opportunity to be heard and taken seriously. As far as the changing the style of music I play or toning it down for an earlier time slot...that’s not going to happen at all. But, it will still be accessible to someone who is new to this type of music and wants to learn more about it.

PROFILING THE TOP UK RADIO DJS:

Bruce Dickinson 6 Music – Saturday Night: 21:00 – 00.00

www.bbc.co.uk/6music Bruce Dickinson is for many the face of British heavy metal. As a rock vocalist he has scaled the heights of global commercial success, and is truly a member of the international metal elite. Bruce cut his teeth in a succession of school bands before fronting Samson. Iron Maiden guitarist Steve Harris was impressed with Bruce’s voice and when former vocalist Paul D’ianno left, Dickinson was the obvious replacement. He’s a published author, a trained pilot and a gifted fencer, and now Bruce has turned his hand to broadcasting. Six records you couldn’t live without? Deep Purple – Made In Japan Rainbow – Rising Jethro Tull – Aqualung Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II A song you wish you’d written? My Way First record you bought? Van Der Graaf Generator – H To He Who Am The Only One Best gig? Rock in Rio First record you ever played on the radio? Highway To Hell A record that makes you laugh? Springtime For Hitler A record that sounds better in the dark? AC/DC – Night Prowler Soundtrack for a long car journey? Kansas – Left Overture

Mike Davies The Rock Show Radio 1 – Wednesday morning 1am – 3am The Lock Up Radio1 – Tuesday 9pm – 11pm www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 How it started... I moved to London five years ago from Los Angeles, California. After working at a coffee shop on Oxford Street for 6 months I became the temporary runner at Radio One. In July of 2001 I went to the Deconstruction Festival with Steve Lamacq and the Evening Session crew. Steve and I hung out all day and talked about punk rock and then when I arrived at work the next Monday, I was called into the office by the big bosses and it turned out Steve had sorted out a job for me on the Session. After working on that for 2 years I was asked to help out putting together a new punk rock show for the station. We worked on the show for a while and then they decided that I should have a shot presenting it. I did a few pilots (test shows) and they must have liked it because The Lock Up has been on the air for 3 years.

Zane Lowe Radio 1: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thurs: 19:00 – 21:00 www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 Zane Lowe took over the Evening session from Steve Lamacq and turned it into alternative heaven, Zane is THE single most talented alternative broadcaster in the UK, FACT! What is your full name? My full name is Alexander Zane Reid Lowe... but you can call me Zane... and in time Zipper... and possibly Zip. But never Zed. How’s your show diﬀerent from other shows? You’ll have to listen to find out ultimately. I guess what I do on the radio is different to what everybody else does, it’s really hard for me to sit down and analyse it because I’m doing it. The whole fun of doing a radio show is ultimately it’s really spontaneous and really live and you don’t have to think about it too much. But I’d like to think that what we will be doing (whether it’s different to anybody else) is just getting behind the music. Pushing the music really hard and making the most of the songs that we have. Making the most of the 2 hours that we have on the radio and just trying to employ this kinda community spirit and bring everybody in on it. I think it’s much better when everybody’s involved. Give us your life story in. 10 seconds! O.K. I was born in New Zealand. I got on a plane. I travelled to America. I drove across the country. I arrived in England. Got my big break at XFM in London, moved to Radio1 FM, I also present ‘Gonzo’ on MTV2. I’ve been here for 6 / 7 years. I love my life, I love my job, I love my wife.

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illegal alien FEAR & LOATHING IN L.A. DAY 1 Well, here I am in the good old U.S. of A, Tinseltown to be precise. Otherwise known as LA LA land and LA LA land it most certainly is. The place is fucking crazy but great. I have a line in one of my songs which goes “You can be who you want to be”. Well here you can do just that. At home in Liverpool, I thought I had seen just about everything but fuck me this is the ‘pool PCP and that’s in the daytime! I booked into the Saharan Motel, a well known place on Sunset, which turns into a whore house at the weekends. Imagine my surprise when on Saturday, I was practising my chops by the pool and was joined by about 20 hookers dressed only in G strings for an impromptu sing-along. I thought I’d died and ended up in a John Leslie porn movie! Awesome. The next day I woke up to gunshots outside my room. I wondered what the fuck was going on. I thought one of those hookers pimps had come to sort me out. I ran to the door only to be told, “stay where you are”, by some guy with a movie clapperboard. At the other end of the balcony was a guy with a camera. The next thing, Harrison Ford comes running out of the next room and jumps over the balcony. Shortly after, I was walking along Sunset Boulevard and fuck me this guy jumps over a car and rolls over in front of me. It was Harrison Ford again! This happened all day, so look out for his next movie. I’ve got to be in there somewhere. DAY 2 Walking along the strip, I was stopped by some girls who ask who I am and would I like to pop inside her office for a couple of minutes. Methinks: here we go - happy days! So I duly oblige and go in. At the other end of the room is a bloke with a camera, a load of geezers with six pack bellies and $30K smiles. ‘He’s the one’ says the guy with the camera, ‘the rest can go’. Next thing, I’m in the Mojavi Desert dressed as a cowboy with a Brazilian supermodel called Bruna doing

test for the Coors Light ad campaign across America. I got the gig. Needless to say I couldn’t do it. No green card. I’m only here on holiday but it was cool anyway. I have only been here a few days, I have been accosted by a horde of hookers, arrested by Harrison Ford, offered the lead roll in a movie, walked away from the Coors Light ad campaign, and photographed as Montgomery Clift in the desert. All this, and I haven’t sung a fucking note yet! I only came here for a chill, write some songs and finish my album. DAY 7 Go to open mic night at the Highland Grounds to see what the sketch is on the local scene. It was pretty cool - some vocal gymnastics and sweet guitar playing. For a laugh, I borrow a guitar, get up and do an acoustic version of All You Need To Know and to my surprise the promoter tracks me down and offers me a gig, I’m playing there next week so I’ll let you know how it goes. DAY 8 I have hooked up with a cool Mexican guy called Omar, a shit hot guitarist and all round geezer, who asks do I want to play tonight at a place called the Top Fuel Café. It’s a sleazy place on the strip which allows smoking and as I like the odd smoke or two I agree. No booze tho’, he says, just coffee. This is my first ever solo gig. I go on about 11pm and after about three songs, the place turned into a full scale riot. The feds even turned up! 5 black and white’s, guns - the fuckin’ lot. I ended up playing for well over an hour and I can honestly say of all the gigs I’ve done, this was the best buzz. Watching people kick the shit out of each other from the stage is an odd experience to say the least. DAY 9 Hook up with two more musos. Guitarist Troy and keyboard player Sven, they think my music is the dog’s bollocks

“The next day I woke up to gunshots outside my room. I wondered what the fuck was going on. I thought one of those hookers pimps had come to sort me out. I ran to the door only to be told, “stay where you are”, by some guy with a movie clapperboard.” an editorial photo shoot for Marie Claire magazine about the movie Misfits. I am an icon - Montgomery Clift! Incidentally, the guy with the camera was Alexander McPherson, U2’s photographer. I took my guitar along we all had a buzz. DAY 3 To the Standard for a beer. End up getting offered the lead role in a movie called The Beneficiary by a bloke who managed Peter Fonda and Sylvester Stallone. “You’re an icon”, he says. I then go to casting agency with my mate Joey. I’m just standing there reading a mag, the next thing I know, I get called in to do a screen

and agree to join Omar in the band that is gradually taking shape. Troy and Sven recently backed Enrico Infuckinglasshouse or whatever his name is. I have a shortlist of three drummers. DAY 10 Play the Lava Lounge again on the Strip. Another top night, with a great reaction from the audience. They seem to love my scouse accent. I like this solo stuff, it allows me to be more rock n roll, go with the flow and get closer to your audience. I might fuck the band off! As I finish and sign a few tits here and there, (do I love this job or what?), I’m approached by a bloke who says he is a

promoter called Wood who says he has got me five gigs. As we were talking, these four Latino kids came over looking pretty menacing. Then they were shaking my hand saying you’re the guy who played the Top Fuel man! You’re fuckin’ brilliant.Your attitude just say’s Fuck! Rock n roll is back! Then they start to call their mates over. The promoter hears this and says I’ll put you on more gigs… I’ll ring you tomorrow. DAY 11 I get a call from Wood, the bloke from last night. He says “you’re on the VIP guest list at the House of Blues, their promoter wants to see ya there!” HE sounds excited so lets just see. DAY WHATEVER Goes to the House of Blues and find it’s the Golden Globe after show party! And I’m on the fucking VIP guest list! I told you on day one this place is mad! I meet the promoter and she tells me she wants me on the What’s Hot in LA night. This place is the nuts. Great vibe, with loads goin’ on all over the building, BUT here’s a warning: if you ever go there and you smell the sweetest of aromas coming from a room - DON’T GO IN! I did, I was offered a toke on a spliff. Two pulls and the place turned into the final scenes of Devil’s Advocate. Talk about paranoia. I even thought I was out to get me, then bliss. I didn’t drive back. I hovered. DAY I HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE Started shooting video. Now this is where it goes really mental. The video consists of, well I think I’ll let you see it for yourself when it’s done, but I think you will like it, IT COULD GET BANNED! Gotta go now, gotta get ready for a gig tonight at Molly Malones, it should be good, a few promoters want to check me out, promoters breed like fuckin’ rabbits over here. There’s loads more to tell you about the visit. The Rainbow and Viper Rooms, my experience in the supermarket with Brian May… and the cars! If you’re into cars like me, well you’re in car heaven. I’ve driven vintage Mustangs and Porches - it’s like being in a 70’s movie for real and everywhere you look there is someone you recognise from some band or other. Oh and the porn convention! I’ll have to tell you about that one. Also, the visit to 29 Palms and the Joshua Tree. Awesome. By the time you’ve read this, I will have played a few more gigs and my single Cliche will be out in the UK. I hear it’s going down really well in the clubs! Bye for now and don’t forget - live for rock and rock will live for you! Dean Walker.

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The Krazy HOUse It’s a hard life. I’d much rather be sitting behind a desk shuffling paper than chilling out here. The girls, the smoke, the beer, the thunderous music. My life sucks.

“If a space ship were to land and the ﬁrst stop was the KrazyHouse, its inhabitants would leave thinking that humans like to listen to great loud music, drink lots of liquid that makes them fall down, perform strange mating rituals as often as possible and smile a hell of a lot while having plenty of fun. How cool is that? Very!" 112 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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History: To be able to know where you have come from to know where you are going to!

Fifteen years is a long time to be at the top of your game, but that is exactly where Liverpool’s longest running alternative venue is at in 2005. Over those fifteen years the cream of metal, indie, dance & rock has passed through it’s doors including Oasis, Moby, Korn, Travis, Stereophonics, The Wildhearts, Stone Temple Pilots, Fear Factory, Super Furry Animals, Placebo & many, many more. Over the same period it has evolved from one floor to three, each offering a unique & exclusive mix of the best in the current scene while taking it’s hat off to the best from the past. In recent years they have added a bar called ‘Fudge’ which is next door to the main club which caters for the more ordinary type of clubber, not that the main crowd that goes to the Krazy House is not ordinary, far from it, like the club itself they can only be described as extraordinary. The Krazy House offers an eclectic mix of music all meeting head on over three floors over three nights; I will try to take you on a whirlwind tour of each: Thursday (Electric) is ‘Nu-Skool’ and the only student led night in the city worth bothering with, while Wednesday’s Club 99 in The Fudge caters for the well dressed visitor to the University, Thursday offers the chance for those who wish to dress down to have a fantastic night out and the music policy of K1 – The Hammer Hitting the Hard Rock trail with 2 Small Paul, ready to molten mosh the floor, K2 – eNMEy, Krusty hits the spot with the current crop of indie heroes, breaking act’s as only he can, future stars apply here, K3-Mixbag, Glen boy brings the best Pop, Trance and all elements of dance to shake the milk on the third floor. Friday (Ambush) is Back 2 Skool’ and takes a step back in time to move forward, ‘Retro Now’ is a term that is often used to describe the night, the club takes you back to learn about where the roots of rock, dance and indie come from. K1 – Classic Rock, Dr Nick welcomes you to his nightmare from Detroit rock city while understanding that Darkness falls. K2 – Word,

The Hunter tracks down the tracks of his years with the Brit pack, the brat pack and sometimes the rat pack, K3 – Wotsits, The Gimp breaks out the cheese with no year left unturned from 70’s platform stars to 21st century superstars, All three ﬂoors of course remember to mix in current champions from each of the genres. Saturday (Loaded) can only be described as ‘Fuck Skool’ and is the big night out; monthly all nighters (9pm-6am) pave the way for the best night out of your life, Loaded has a deﬁnitive attitude and leads the way in rock, metal & alternative. K1 – Kerrang! The Lone Ranger seems to have been spinning the black circle forever, but when you are that good, why change the record. K2 – Rewind! Krusty’s return with a purple haze, born to be wild is the theme tune to this blast

The Score: Thursday Student-Alternative-Nu-Skool K1- Killing Time: Ministry Of Rock With 2 Small Paul K2–Take Me Home: Date Your Indie Heroes With Krusty! K3- Milkshake: A Blend Of Peaches & Cream With Glen. Friday Trashed-Mashed-Back-2-Skool Klass 1- Hostile: Ol’ Skool Vs Nu, Call Dr Nick Klass 2- Android: Get Punk’d On The Nu-Wave! Klass 3- Sugar: Donk Shake Your Booty 4 The Gimp Saturday Metal-Rock-Fuck-Skool K1- Freak On A Leash: Rock The Boat As Lone Ranger Rolls Your Car! K2- Jim, Janis & Jim: Spaceman in Seattle, With An Appetite 4 Destruction! K3- Electric II: Lose Yourself As Steve T & The Kidd Let The Juice Flow.

“The Gimp breaks out the cheese with no year left unturned from 70’s platform stars to 21st century superstars.”

to the past and beyond. K3 – Milkshake, Tilley and Eddie take turns to fuck with your mind and body, hip-hop around the clock via ska in your car, expect the unexpected. Special guest Dj’s such as Sid (Slipknot) Lucio (XFM) Zane Lowe / Mike Davies (Radio 1FM) pop along to take the whole place to a new level. With two separate chill out areas, one of which is a dedicated video lounge with it’s own PA, alongside a games arena where you can just hang out, play pool or drop your coin into the slot, there can be no reason to stay in. In fact just leave the house at 8pm Thursday and return at 4am on Sunday, why bother ever leaving the best night you can have out… anywhere!

If a space ship were to land and the ﬁrst stop was the KrazyHouse, it inhabitants would leave thinking that humans like to listen to great loud music, drink lots of liquid that makes them fall down, perform strange mating rituals as often as possible and smile a hell of a lot while having plenty of fun. How fuckin’ cool is that? Very! So when you throw in the fact that ALL DRINKS ARE TWO FOR ONE.. and we’re talking mainline product, not cheap imitations here, alongside of the biggest album launches from all genres of music, live gigs, friendly door and bar staﬀ, what you get is a night out you will never forget… and sometimes like the best nights out, you may never remember. Further details of all nights can be found by visiting www.thekrazyhouse.co.uk or www.fudge-liverpool.co.uk email: info@thekrazyhouse.co.uk or just pick up the phone & call: 0151-708-5016. DJ Korn

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eThe new Marquee in Leicester Square. Reminiscent of a time gone by?

Marquee Flashback

Words: Sion Smith Pic: Chiaki Nozu

You really had to be there to know just how dirty it really was. Beloved the world over for it’s pivotal role in bringing pure rock to the nation, the Marquee has seen it’s fair share of changes over then years. It’s current new home in Leicester Square though, is right about as close as you can get to the spirit of the original without your feet sticking to the ﬂoor:

eriously – you really did have to experience it for yourself. If you’re not familiar with London, the original Marquee sat in the middle of Soho in Wardour Street with an attitude about itself that spoke volumes. If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you could walk right past it. By the time I paid my first visit back in 1986, the carpet that (probably) once existed had long been replaced with voluntary contributions from members of the public in the shape of gum, beer and cigarette ash. Actually, there were probably a few others additions as well, but you get the picture. When it finally closed its doors in 1996, it had helped launch hundreds of bands – it’s safe to say that the world as we know it today would be vastly different without the Marquee. Originally a jazz club, it opened it 1958 before taking on the then exploding rock scene. From the Stones to the Yardbirds, the Small Faces to Guns n Roses, Bowie to the Pistols and U2, everybody who is anybody launched themselves into the UK from there. Despite Bob Geldof once describing it as “an outside toilet”, there were hundreds of people brave enough every night of the week to take health chances in order to see some of the finest bands on the planet.

“it’s safe to say that the world as we know it today would be vastly different without the Marquee.”

Top 21 ZERO Recommended Alternative Nights out:

Corrosion @ The Wulfrun, Wolves Fuzz Nuts @ The Jailhouse, Coventry Rock City – Nottingham Metros – Cardiff Face / Off @ Escape, Swansea The Corporation – Sheffield Jillys Rockworld – Manchester Rock Kitchen – Manchester Slam Dunk @ The Cockpit, Leeds Rock @ The Mean Fiddler, London Mission @ Studio 24, Edinburgh The Cathouse, Glasgow Subculture – Birmingham, Bristol Get Ya Skates On @ Newcastle Northumbria University Meltdown @ The Waterfront, Norwich Sabotage @ The Zodiac, Oxford Blast Chamber @ The Soundhaus, Northampton Sin City @ The Electric Ballroom, London Freak Scene @ The Cavern, Exeter Rock @ The Tivoli, Buckley The Dirt @ The Sugarmill, Stoke Next issue we’ll be dishing it out at The Dirt in Stoke… smile for the camera!

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The WILD Alternative Chart 1.The Kaiser Chiefs – ‘Every Day...’

“Either Islington was too far away, or thousands of us really do prefer gum and ash under our feet while rocking out.” After that fateful day, it wasn’t long before the club found itself reopened in the middle of Charing Cross Road. When it first opened it was full of hope and new carpets, but by the very nature of the beast, the second generation of carpet killers soon made their own changes and very soon, the venue had a similar air about it to the original. Those were good times – from a personal standpoint, I watched nobodies become somebodies – and just to keep the balance, somebodies become nobodies. It was a fun place to be – particularly that night that the Crue hit town and levelled the joint. Rather inexplicably, although I’m sure it looked like a good idea on

9Nooooo! They just can’t leave anything alone can they! Our heritage now appears to be a cozy block of luxury ﬂats. Still, I wouldn’t live there. I saw what happened under that roof!

paper, this venue was also doomed – and for a while, it looked as though that was the ringing of the death bell for the brand. Then in 2002, enter Dave Stewart – entrepreneur extraordinaire. Complete with Michelin chef and dropped into Islington (in an environment that also included Borders book store and Gap), Stewart and partner Mark Fuller put 500% into recreating one of the rocks most famous brands into something befitting for the millennium. Sadly though it wasn’t to be. Either Islington was too far away, or thousands of us really do prefer gum and ash under our feet while rocking out. There were even real dressing rooms – unlike either the original or its Charing Cross makeover possessed, not unless you were an estate agent anyway. Polish and (gasp) leather chairs were rather unsurprisingly the venues undoing as the rock fraternity stayed away in droves. Just how many times can that death bell toll? Hopefully, that’s the last time the bell rings as the Marquee Club has found a home not a million miles away

2. Hard Fi – ‘Hard To Beat’ 3. Foo Fighters – ‘The Best of You’ 4 Kasabian – ‘Club Foot’ 5. Queens Of The Stone Age – ‘In My Head’ 6. Coldplay – ‘Speed Of Sound’ 7. The White Stripes – ‘Blue Orchid’ 8. Feeder – ‘Pushing The Senses’ 9. Bloc Party – ‘Pioneers’ 10. Interpol – ‘Slow Hands’ 11. Maximo Park – ‘Going Missing’ 12. Soulwax – ‘NY Excuse’ 13. Funeral For A Friend – Streetcar’ 14. System Of A Down – ‘BYOB’ 15. The Tears – ‘Lovers’ 16. Babyshambles – ‘Fuck Forever’ 17. The Subways – ‘Rock N Roll Queen’ 18. Editors – ‘Home’ 19. Gorillaz – ‘Feel Good Inc’

20. Nine Black Alps – ‘Unsatisﬁed’

from its inception. The new venue in Leicester Square is awesome. It’s not quite got that Marlboro/Budweiser feel to it yet, but give it time. Once inside, it’s certainly doesn’t appear to be in the centre of the Square and the stage is perfectly placed to give a new breed of bands the opportunity to launch their careers from and is a pretty hip night spot to be seen just hanging around anyway. In it’s relatively short lifespan, the venue has already seen some top rock acts play – Ash, Breed 77 – and continues to support the thriving community of bands on their way up through the ranks. But there’s more to come – wait and see. Meantime, meet the new boss. Same as the old boss? Not quite, but it’s more than good enough. See you there. O

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wkdred.co.uk

IT’S NEW AND IT’S RED. WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU HAVE CALLED IT? 01 Clubs.indd 117

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Prior to the festival on the Tuesday before, I travelled down to meet up with John Probyn who is the festival site manager to ﬁnd out a little more about what it takes to put together something on this sort of scale.

Download facts: • 19 gallons of water. 9 gallons of beer. 50 litres of suntan lotion, 5,000 staﬀ including caterers etc. • Local people are employed where possible. • At the start there are four people on day one, and 1,500 three days before the fest. • Some crew sleep in mini hotel room porta-cabins on site. • Some New Zealand guys in 2004 turned up one week early. • In 2004, Metallica had some problems and used replacement drummers. • 2005 Download is 3 days for the ﬁrst time. • The campsite opens on Wednesday, 35,000 people camping - they could have sold more camping tickets, but they ran out of land. • Backstage, artists have their own area, which are around 4-5 portacabins with plants, tables etc. They change around over the weekend.

Hardware The

Downward Spiral

TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF COMING TO A BIG FIELD IN THE MIDDLE OF A RACE TRACK, IT’S A FUCKING LONG TIME I CAN TELL YOU! 1980 WAS THE FIRST EVER ‘MONSTERS OF ROCK’ HELD AT THE DONINGTON RACE TRACK, HEADLINED BY RAINBOW WITH JUDAS PRIEST SECOND ON THE BILL, IT WAS THE MECCA FOR METAL! IT DIDN’T SEEM THAT BUSY, BUT NO ONE CARED, AT LAST THERE WAS A PROPER METAL FESTIVAL AND NOT JUST THIN LIZZY THROWN INTO READING TO MAKE UP THE NUMBERS! For the next few years the cream of rock and metal from all over the world played; Maiden, Guns & Roses, Metallica, you name them and chances are they have stepped out onto the stage. Monsters Of Rock became the place worldwide where any metal act worth their salt knew they had made it when they got to play - it lost its way a little in the 90’s when metal seemed not to be cool anymore, Kurt Cobain is still to blame! So come August, thousands had a big hole in their lives. Then at the turn of the new century old promoters, MCP had turned into new promoters Clear Channel and word was that they wanted to create a new Monsters of Rock & the term on everyone’s lips was ‘Download’ - and so from the ashes

shall rise the phoenix… Download was still to be the home of metal and rock, but it was a blend of numetal and old skool metal. Out went the monsters and in came the kids. Sure they didn’t hide from the heritage of the festival, but they wanted to create a festival as opposed to just one day of mayhem… and it worked. In 2003, it was the best thing rock had seen in years. 2004 threw the same shapes, arrived and survived, but come the dawn of 2005 a new twist was about to come into play… The promoters took a chance, adding another two days. To confuse matters more, the first day was going to be more NME than Kerrang! These days that’s no bad thing

John Probyn: Got to really know the audience, not the old monsters of rock crowd but a new breed of ‘rocker’ who are fantastic. They are a young festival crowd. I love to see thousands of people having a good time. I would rather look out from the stage and see a mass of people having a great time than look onto the stage and see four people having a good time! Last year there was massive security due to still feeling the eﬀects of terrorism. This year it will be managed better. There is no drug problem, we have a zero tolerance on dealers. With the number of people that we have here, we take health and safety very, very seriously. We believe in crowd management not control, if you treat them like animals they will behave like that but this audience is so into their music, more so than any other festival. We try and understand our audience - we read the forums and take notice. We listen to what the customers want, like having not enough showers, so this year, we have three trucks on the way from Germany with showers. Toilets are always a problem, but we have more than any other festival. The best and most popular thing is the jobbysuckka! A huge tanker that empties the toilets, the crowd waits for it to arrive and then there is a massive rush to use a clean toilet. We have also moved the Snickers bowl. There is a hole that almost seems purpose made, and it creates a natural

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amphitheatre for the event. It takes a week to set up, Los Angeles based Chris Conrad and Munich based Hans ‘Jo Jo’ Geiger are the two men you need to see. Jo Jo built and designed the bowl in Germany and takes

it where needed. There are two or three built now, the one at Donington is unique because of the added kink and corners, not just a half pipe! Pros only mind! We have some of the best: Tony Alba started the whole thing on Venice beach in a empty dry swimming pool and he’s here this year. There are no major injuries that we know of. There will be the high air contest, the longest grind and there will be up to 2,000 people watching the whole thing, with a stage on one side with artists performing. It’s unique - a lot of the skaters and BMX guys come because of the unique element, there will be around 40 – 50 pro guys using the bowl over the

weekend. The bowl is also made with Skate Lite which is specially made for the job - it’s professional standard, makes for more speed etc. It’s pretty cool and we’re really excited about the quality artists that are coming. The whole event will be so special.

Over the 3 days & nights I caught up with a few of the artists backstage at Download and asked them one simple question: Why the fuck are you here? Joey: Slipknot: This is one of the major festivals in Europe. We love to play here, we always plan to top each show and we’ve brought a lot of stuff to top it this year. It’s just fuckin’ awesome - the kids are amazing! They seem to be asking, ‘what’s your deal’ - from 4 to 40 years of age they just become maggots! Tarja Turunen: Nightwish: There are big really good names playing this week. Our time was short but it was good, we saw lots of familiar faces, our fans could not wait to see us here at Donington. I’m classically trained and my voice is very melodic and mixed with bombastic heavy metal, it made for a unique partnership with Download 2005. Rock n roll is a very male world, but this year there are plenty of female artists. Cristina Scabbia: Lacuna Coil: I am right at home here. It’s a rock festival and we rock. It’s great to get the attention as a musician. We know that it’s about presentation and image is important but I’m not just a pretty chick saying hi! I have something to say and I rock while doing it. Simon Neil: Biffy Clyro: Well we seemed to get away with no bottles of urine being thrown, or any goat’s heads which is always a good thing, we are just really happy to be part of it. Phil Campbell / Lemmy: Motorhead: Phil: ‘I was mowing the lawn and the phone went. Someone said you got a gig tomorrow in a big field somewhere, and I didn’t fancy doing the strimming so here I am’. Lemmy: ‘The earth moved for me, the crowd saved us. When we went on, I couldn’t even hear the snare drum, but no matter if it’s a shed or a festival, an arena or one man and his dog, I play the same show’ Lordi: Lordi: Its totally awesome to be here, it’s huge, known around the globe. We come from Finland and we have heard of it – we are trying to bring back the whole essence of hard and heavy rock. It takes 3 hours to put on our make up and costumes. You start from scratch each time and at the end you feel like a monster, right here at the Monsters Of Rock! (News of the change of title for the festival obviously travels slowly in Scandinavia then. Ed) Lordi: Well chuffed! Travis Smith: Trivium: The hype around the band seems to have grown. We were on the smaller stage and we got bumped up, so we gladly took the offer! It turned out to be such a great vibe, one of if not the best gigs ever. Our fans loved it and we seemed to win over quite a few new ones – just hope we get invited back. Howard/Adam: Killswitch Engage: My testicles are in my throat cause that was such a huge kick in the balls! Matt Tuck: Bullet For My Valentine: I have been here so many times as a fan, seen Metallica and so many other great rock acts on that stage, so to be back here playing is just amazing. Matt Davies: Funeral For A Friend: It’s a legend - to be part of it twice now is amazing. Henry Rollins: Morning service with me, was amazing. I wasn’t sure what to expect, the last thing I wanted was just some yelling kids, but when I walked out and there was a sea of people. I thought it will be shit or awesome. It was not shit… Brian Marshall: Alter Bridge: This is the biggest crowd this band has played to and it rocked for sure! We tried to take it a notch up from what we do, tried to give 200%! Kerry King: Slayer: We got so much energy from the crowd. This crowd was sick! They started a mosh pit to the tom tom intro to Reign in Blood, which just has never been seen before at a Slayer show. We turned up the heat on every band on the bill today. It was funny when Tom asked the crowd ‘who wants to die’ 50,000 hands went up in the air, ‘no you don’t’! Jeremy Talley: The Bled: Parts of the Guns and Roses video to Paradise City are from this festival and for us that’s mind-blowing! We’re just five guys from a little town in Arizona who wrote some songs, so to bring that over here to the premier British rock festival is just… amazing! Shavo: S.O.A.D: When I was younger, this was just a festival on the other side of the world that Iron Maiden would headline to over 100,000 fans and I just wanted to go! So to then be in a position from flyering around L.A. playing the clubs, getting signed, playing the UK a few times and now to be closing the festival is just, unbelievable! This year is shaping up to be the best year ever for this band. When you are a kid it’s magical, then you see the backstage, it takes a lot of the magic away, - but when you step on that stage in front of that massive crowd, that magic comes flooding back. 3 days and nights is a long time to wait to see your favourite band, but our fans waited and the show was for them. We thank them for making it so good.

SPECIAIT’S NOT ANYONL ANYMORE E CAN P . JUDGIDNOWNLOAD.LAY I SAW, TG FROM WH TO PLAHYE CRITERIAAT TO BE IN IS JUST A BAND .

and they were also moving the skate bowl, making it bigger and better, more stages, the Snickers stage and the Napster stage would add fresh new talent to the establishment of the main stage, the latter being rather apt in title for the festival! More camping, more people in general. In fact, more of everything! Over a hundred bands playing over 3 days, was it a step too far? Yes! It’s not special anymore. Anyone can play Download. Judging from what I saw, the criteria to play is just to be in a band. Many of the acts on were not fit to clean up the festival site never mind play on a stage. When you look back at the history of the festival, you can count all the great bands that have played, but over the last few years… well, try it! Also three days is too freaking long! Friday I was fresh and ready to rock, but the rock was thin on the ground, except for the indie kind. Saturday came and I was still ready to rock and somehow I felt slightly let down. Sunday, Download was ready to rock with the strongest of the three day line up but I was ready to go home. I’d had enough of the bottle fights, the wayward sound that seemed to clear up for the headliners, the liggers, the walk between stages… fuck me it’s miles, (and the rest! Ed) I can tell you that 25 years, give or take a few is plenty enough time to have been coming to this big field. It’s not Reading, it’s not Leeds - it’s ‘Monsters of Fucking Rock’ at Donington! It now rocks too much, it’s a young mans game for sure, get pissed, slam, throw shit, be sick, go to sleep, get up and do it all again. I tell you, I’ve done it enough! So were any of the bands any good? Basically, they fell into two simple categories, Awesome and Shit. 16 out of the 100 plus acts named below were awesome! All those not listed, you work it out… Biffy Clyro, Trivium, Velvet Revolver, Him, System Of A Down, Slipknot, Lordi, Billy Idol, My Chemical Romance, In Flames, Bullet For My Valentine, Funeral For A Friend, Lacuna Coil, Paradise Lost, Dresden Dolls, Feeder. Done. Maybe next year…

JJ Haggar. (With thanks to Cat Turnell & Dan Walsh from LD Publicity)

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Hardware

Master of Puppets Mike Showell is master engineer at Metropolis. Based in West London, the media group have 5 recording and mixing studios and 5 production rooms and is the largest independent recording facility in Europe. Providing facilities for music video, documentary and multi-camera concert production, we thought it would be cool to see just what goes on behind the scenes in a studio – after all, what you normally get to see is random footage of a guy behind a desk either tweaking knobs or playing air drums. So Mike, bring it on brother:

When, how and why did you get mixed up in becoming a mastering engineer? That was an amazing piece of luck. I was 18 and had just finished school, couldn’t find a job so was (reluctantly) going to go to college to do electronic engineering. However, in typical youthful arrogance, I was sick of learning stuff (like most 18 year olds I thought I knew everything) and I was less than thrilled about studying how to mend broken televisions. At the time my father owned a record shop, and one Wednesday in mid August 1984 we popped in to pick up the trade magazine (Music Week). In the classifieds was an ad that ran: Utopia Studios require a trainee disc cutter / tape copier. I knew I did not want to be a studio-recording engineer as I didn’t fancy the hours but disc cutting (as mastering was then known) seemed far more civilised. Fortunately for me I was very interested in hi-fi so I had read quite a lot about cutting in the hi-fi mags of the day, so I at least knew the basics of what they were doing. Anyway, I called them, they said I was the first person to call, I decided I should be the first person they should interview hoping that I would be easily remembered. So the next morning I was there (very overdressed in a suit which was the source of much piss taking later, but I didn’t want to seem too over casual). Once I had one look at the place I knew this was for me and went all out to sell myself. I managed to convince them that I was familiar with reel to reel tape machines as the hospital radio station that I worked on had one (somehow I forgot to mention that the machine had died just before I started and in reality all I had ever done was look at a broken machine). In all they had 48 applicants; these were immediately whittled down to four, then down to two. As no one could decide who was best, a coin was tossed and I was the lucky one. So my whole career started with a series of lucky chances and the toss of a coin. I learned the basics of mastering in the five years I worked at Utopia, and I consider myself to be fortunate that analogue tape machines and techniques reigned supreme at that time; as I acquired a solid analogue foundation upon which to build digital mastering techniques. Many of the younger engineers who are coming up do not get the this luxury and I have heard many stories of young engineers just using the DAT copy because they were scared of or did not know how to use the analogue tape machine. Despite the advances in digital recording, a wellmaintained analogue machine will very often beat its digital counterpart (even if technically it may not be as good, it will probably ‘sound’ better). So if there is a choice of sources, it is really important to audition them all before starting. After leaving Utopia I worked for eight

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years at Masterpiece before being invited to join the team at Metropolis in 1997. Where do you see your skills in the overall scheme of things in making a record and how does it affect the overall quality of sound etc, do you have any particular theory behind what you do? Mastering is the final part of the recording process. It’s the last chance there is to manipulate the overall sound of a record (think of it as a glorified graphic equaliser all over the record, it is more involved than that but it will give you a good idea). Once the mastering is done and the CD (or vinyl) master has been made it goes off to the factory and is mass produced, so it is important to get it right as there is no going back once you are at the manufacturers. Quite often, when an album is being assembled, the first time it is heard properly sequenced is in the mastering studio. This is fine if the same engineer at the same studio recorded all the songs in the same way. However, very few records are made that way. Almost always, an album will be complied of tapes from several different producers and will all sound different. It’s the job of the mastering engineer to assemble the album so that all the songs sound as if they are part of a whole. In a nutshell what I can do is add all sorts of equalisation (EQ) and compression (level control). I have 6 different equalisers to hand in the studio, they all have their own individual character, and the skill is to use the one that will suit both the music and the performance best. As far as compression goes, this is a bit of a black art, it is a type of artificial level control, where you can make the quiet bits louder and the loud bits quieter, allowing you to offer up the whole track at peak or near peak level more of the time, thereby making everything appear louder. This is used extensively on commercial television

when the adverts sound louder than the programs. In reality they are not louder than the absolute peak of the program but they are at peak all the time whereas the programme will hit peak maybe only once or twice in the whole show. Having said all this, compressors are dangerous things, there is no one size fits all setting, and if you get the compression wrong, there is no undo button. It is really easy to overdo the compression and ruin a recording. Too much compression will sound immediately impressive, but will fatigue the listener pretty quickly (even though the listener may have no idea what compression is). The radio industry has discovered this (nearly all radio is pretty heavily compressed), for years they would fight each other to be the loudest on the dial, but some of the smarter stations discovered that when the compressor was backed off a bit their listener hours went up - basically people were less fatigued by the sound of the station and listened for longer. Lots of people come to me and ask me to give them the loudest record possible, if they really want it I can do this, but all you will get at the end is a distorted unfocused mushy sounding record (a lot of American hip hop tracks sound this way, if you listen closely all the bass drums distort.) My approach is to make the recording as loud as possible but also clean. If I can hear the compressors and limiters working then it is too loud. There’s a good reason all hi-fis have a volume control, if the listener wants it loud then they can always turn it up! Most clients I explain this to are happy with this. But ultimately if the person who made the record and who pays the bill wants there album mastered at eleven (to quote Spinal Tap) then who am I to tell them otherwise. When I am mastering a record, I tend to try and visualise the situation in which it is likely to be played and think about what I can do to make it sound better in that situation. For example if it is a dance track, it needs to have a good tight bass end and clear drums and percussion to make want to dance to it in a night club. If it is a rock song, it needs to be upfront and in your face with loud guitars and strong vocals. If it is an all out pop song it should have clean bright high frequencies and clear vocals. If it is a delicate acoustic track, it should sound warm, subtle and unforced so it can just wash over you. A very important part of mastering is knowing when to do nothing; sometimes a tape will come in which will sound beautiful. The trick is to be a man and to say I can’t bring anything to the party here, so I will transfer this beautiful recording to the CD master in the most

transparent way possible. Luckily for me this does not occur too often, or else I wouldn’t have a job! …and Metropolis is the place to be? It really is the best designed, equipped and maintained mastering facility in Europe, and easily a good rival to anything in America. Most people who are employed in mastering will at some point dream of working at Metropolis. There is a real passion here for the art, from the founding engineers through to the technical staff. All of us strive to do things just that bit better than the guy down the road. Nearly all of the equipment here has either been built or designed in-house or modified by our technicians. The idea being that everything is just that tiny bit better, and all those tiny bits when added together will make for a better end result. To be a mastering engineer takes a curious mix of audio engineering, electronic engineering, anal retentiveness and being an old woman. You need to know what the equipment is doing, how it is doing it and be happy to play around with it even if nobody else knows why you are doing so, and, to always strive to find other and possibly better ways of doing what you do. Thankfully anal is my middle name - not very nice of my parents, but there you are. What famous or infamous acts have you worked with, dodgy moments etc, anonymity assured. Famous acts: Dido, Mis-Teeq, White Stripes, Doves, Primal Scream, Underworld, Gabrielle, Queen, Everything But The Girl, Dean Walker, Travis, Morcheeba, Robbie Williams, Beth Orton, Moloko, Norman Cook, Pet Shop Boys, Craig David, Elton John, George Michael, Starsailor, Groove Armada, Faithless, Ash, The Libertines, Dodgy Moments: Aside from teasing the assistant engineers (can you go out and get me some black light bulbs, not too dark about 60 watts, or the Vinyl cutting lathe needs some more KY jelly, go off and get as much as you possibly can) this usually involves clients asking for the impossible. Somebody once asked me if I could make their record more “Egg shaped” Another client came in and said this record is total shit, I don’t care what you do I’m off down the pub. One of my colleagues here was asked mid track if he would have sex with the client, he politely declined. More often than not people want me to make their record sound like Dido’s album, which is fine if you give me a pop record, but more difficult if it’s a rock album. Michael Anthony Metropolis Group Limited 70, Chiswick High Road, London W4 1SY

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v HARDWARE

Hardware the Dave Kushner signature Fernandes Ravelle Elite

Fernandes Guitars may be one of the youngsters on the block but they are fast building a reputation as one of the ones to watch. Having started out in Japan in 1969 making flamenco guitars, they soon expanded to acoustic guitars, then electric and basses before becoming one of the biggest guitar manufacturers in Japan and in 1992 expanding and opening its doors in America. Since then Fernandes has gone from strength to strength and is fast becoming the guitar of choice for consumers and artists alike. One such artist flying the flag for Fernandes is Dave Kushner of Velvet Revolver. Being the second guitarist in one of the biggest selling and most successful rock bands of the last couple of years would be hard enough but when the other guitarist is none other then Slash, one of the finest and, unquestionably, one of the most famous guitarists of our generation, it ups the ante tenfold. But it’s a job that Dave handles with ease and a job, armed with his Fernandes signature guitar, he does with class. Dave Kushner hails from LA, California and believe it or not, actually went to high school with his future band mate Slash. In the past he has paid his dues as a session guitarist as well as being a member of 80’s hardcore punks WastedYouth, Infectious Grooves, Danzig, Dave Navarro’s band and fellow Revolver Duff McKagan’s Loaded. His relationship with Fernandes started over ten years ago. A huge fan of Fernandes guitars in general, Dave in the past has played the Fernandes Vertigo model and the Fernandes Monterey model but his love for the Fernandes Ravelle model resulted in an endorsement deal and so the Dave Kushner signature Fernandes Ravelle Elite was born.

Some of the features on the Dave Kushner signature are: · Maple Top · Mahogany body with a thru neck · Seymour Duncan Custom Bridge humbucker · Fernandes Sustainer system · Grover tuners · Gotoh Tune-o-Matic fixed bridge · Graph Tech nut As mentioned it features the now legendary Fernandes Sustainer System, giving you the power of infinite sustain yet with total control. Top this off with a forest green metallic finish and you are walking away with the very guitar that Dave plays on the biggest stages throughout the world. Add to that a moulded hardshell case and the lot is yours for £899. So check it out, you can look like a rock star, sound like a rock star, but don’t need the bank account of a rock star to do so… now that I like! DE

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ZERO Soundbite THE LATEST CDs

Mend, the intimacy of Friend of a Friend and the soothing Another Round. On paper, this album should have as much chance of working as Liverpool had of lifting Ol’ Big Ears for the ﬁfth time - but like the European Champions, In Your Honour pays no attention to the rulebook. KJ

Nothing to Lose Forty Deuce ✪✪✪✪✪ Frontiers Records

Smaller record label albums always manage to slip through the net, but over my dead body will this one slip away from you! All albums should come with a “What are you bringing to the table” rating on the cover. That way we could all make a judgement call on the content. In this instance, Richie Kotzen, as vocalist and guitarist, moves another step on from his fantastic solo album of last year, brings everything to the table and joins some equally talented guys in his new band here, Forty Deuce. Ignoring the completely pointless intro track of 20 seconds, Nothing To Lose pulls the trigger and storms out

In Your Honour Foo Fighters ✪✪✪✪✪ RCA Football, apart from being a funny old game, is a game of two halves. Take the Champions League ﬁnal (European Cup in old money). Both Liverpool and AC Milan fans prefer to remember just the one half rather than

of the drains with Oh My God (Fucked Up Again) – hell it’s been a long time since a song just made me want to strap on a guitar and actually play. Jealous? Hell yeah! I wish I’d written the damn thing. Moving on into I Still and Start It Up, the album swings from balls out rock to more balls out rock. Absolutely unafraid and unashamed to be just what the hell it is, it surfs on the waves of it’s own juice and doesn’t really run out of steam until the last song which is the title track… but it might grow on me! I can live with one below average song at the end of an album when 99 per cent of it has the sheer audacity to rock like fuck. Floored! SS

the whole match, and so I suspect it will be with Foo fans and In Your Honour. Disc 1 is the definitive Foo Fighters ‘rock’ album. More focused and more energised than All For One, it tears along at a frantic pace – battering you about the bonce with more killer riffs and catchy choruses than a band has the right to muster on one album. With all of the ‘slow’ stuff on disc 2, Dave Grohl and the boys stick their foot to the floor and race off from the start. In Your Honour is the perfect opener, while No Way Back, Best of You and DOA all fall over themselves to be the song which sticks in your head the most. In the second half (otherwise known as disc 2), like the Reds’ back four you’ll be ready for some respite – and Dave obliges by gently crafting 10 acoustic tracks which are as different from disc 1 as Liverpool’s second-half showing was from their first. There’s the gentle lament of On The

Mighty Rearranger Robert Plant & Strange Sensation ✪✪✪✪ Sanctuary Ol’ Planty’s a funny bugger. Spends years trying to pretend Zeppelin never happened (Pictures at 11 for example), and then decides that having once fronted the biggest band on the planet wasn’t all bad and starts acknowledging his past (Fate of Nations). Now, having hopped in and out of projects with his old sparring partner Jimmy Page and looked back over his solo career, he’s back at his glorious, pompous best. It’s loud, it’s quiet, it bombastic, it’s not taking itself too seriously. From the swagger of Another Tribe through to The Mighty Rerranger and Brother Robert (via the simply sublime Dancing In Heaven), Plant sounds like he hasn’t had this much fun in years. Finally, he’s embraced his legacy, dug up his roots and blended them together to create something which is as relevant now as it is reverent to then. KJ

Everything Is Nine Black Alps ✪✪✪✪ Island Nirvana. There. I’ve said it. Every review/interview/piece of gossip concerning this Manchester-based four-piece seems intent on likening them to Seattle’s ﬁnest. And while that’s bollocks, I didn’t want to miss a passing bandwagon. Such comparisons are lazy,

however. These guys have more than enough about them to stand on their own without bone-idle music hacks looking for the nearest simile to hold them up with. Everything Is is possibly the most exciting debut of the year – it’s fast, furious, snotty and loud, all things that have been missing from Britain’s music scene for far too long. Get Your Guns gets the ball rolling, and before you know it you’re making a new friend every time a new track blasts out of the stereo. Listening in the shower? You’ll be dancing. Listening in the car? You’ll have dented the steering wheel by the time Unsatisﬁed grinds to a halt. Granted there are a couple of weak spots – in this case, Behind Your Eyes and Intermission (both slow, acoustic numbers) are too similar to warrant inclusion on the same album – but hey, this is a debut. There’s allowed to be the odd fuck-up. It doesn’t stop Nine Black Alps announcing their arrival in ﬁne style. KJ

Escape Terra Nova ✪✪ Frontiers Records I’m afraid the shoes that AOR bands try to tread in are far too big to ﬁt anymore. How does anybody ever follow the likes of Journey at their peak – many have tried, some even got close. Crown of Thorns, Tyketto to name a couple. Sadly, Terra Nova just has too many foibles to be thrown into the same grouping. The album is so overladen with keyboards for a start that the songs never get a chance to shine through without this incessant ‘stab stab’ of the instrument of the damned rubbishing everything in sight. I could also pick holes in the falsetto harmonies too, but I think that’s enough for now. Lovers of the genre will no doubt lap it up as the next big thing, until the next one comes along. On the assumption that their best three songs came first, I have better things to do than give any more time to this. Sadly, and the same goes for many others in the same vein, AOR needs the equivalent of a Nirvana to enable it to move on. SS

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“IAMNOTALEAD SINGER;IAMAVOCAL STYLIST.ICOMEFROM THESCHOOLTHAT BELIEVESYOUNEED VOCALSTOTAKE UPSPACEBETWEEN GUITARSOLOS.” Joe Perry Joe Perry ✪✪✪✪ Sony/BMG Heroes are peculiar things to have. Joe Perry is old enough to be my dad. Hell, I wish he was, and so does my mother! This third outing by himself – although with a few years between them, 20 to be exact – is not what the average Aerosmith fan will expect or indeed, even like. But so be it. Perry is ﬁrst and foremost a guitarist and although the album lacks the dynamics of Aerosmith as a unit (how could it not), Perry plays everything himself here bar the drums (provided by producer Paul Caruso) and has delivered a well rounded album fort those with the attention span to deal with it! Lead track Shakin My Cage is easily one of Perry’s best songs. Sounds like he’s been holding back some riﬀs for this very moment. There’s also a pretty cool cover of Crystal Ship (do your own homework). Pray For Me is a real kicker too and the curveball that got me was the cover of Woody Guthrie’s Vigilante Man. Freakin’ killer. Say what you like about the album. On a commercial level it will bomb l.a.m.f. – on an art level, there’s not been anything to hold a torch to this in years. Bottom line? This is an album about guitars doing what they do best. There’s nobody better to lead the parade. SS

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ZERO Soundbite THE LATEST CDs

The track Take Me is the real winner here though. Reminds me a little of one of my favourite all time bands – Stabbing Westward – little less suicidally manic perhaps but in the same mindset for sure. Also up on the pedestal for a ‘great song’ award is Getting Away With Murder. Next single? Got to be. It’s just dynamically built to take your speakers apart. Nice – real nice. So, couple some great songs with a little adventure in the production stakes and you got yourself a big time winner. Fuck, it’s great to be surprised once in a while. I seriously can’t believe how good this album is. Leave your preconceptions at the door. Right now, Papa Roach are on ﬁre. SS

Red, White & Crue Motley Crue ✪✪✪ Motley Records It seems like they’ve been around forever. For as long as I can remember, Motley Crue have been raising hell, making noise, and creating waves (in America if not the UK). And now comes the chance to revel in all that’s mad and bad about LA’s gutter kings – a double album covering their career, warts and all. No stone has been left unturned to bring a complete overview of their

Getting Away With Murder Papa Roach ✪✪✪✪✪ Geﬀen Wow. When maturity strikes it strikes hard. Not what I expected at all. Well, sonically it’s exactly what I expected, but lyrically and musically, Murder

impressively lengthy career to the world’s attention – starting at Too Fast For Love, and ending with the new songs on this collection. Ordered chronologically, disc one covers the stuff everyone will know (Live Wire, Shout At The Devil, Smokin’ In The Boys Room, Wildside, Kickstart My Heart), while disc two takes you down a path few will have trodden before. The criminally underrated John Corabi-fronted Motley Crue gets two chances to shine (Hooligans Holiday and Misunderstood), while the reunions with Vince prove themselves to be more hit than miss (there’s a reason why Generation Swine and New Tattoo didn’t sell well). Until the new stuff, that is. If I Die Tomorrow and Sick Love Song show a new depth and maturity (relatively speaking, obviously) to Da Crue’s writing – helped in no small part by the fact they have to play in a lower register these days to give Vince a fighting chance of being able to sing the songs! Treasure disc one for what it represents (a band at its peak), be selective with disc 2. KJ

Beat Me

has moved Papa Roach up a good few notches in my estimation, and should do the same for them in the global market. After all, what goes on in my head ain’t gonna make a bit of diﬀerence to them! Blood and Not Listening were really good choices to start the album with and set the rest of the album up to be, what has to be one of the better albums to come out this year. So, what did I expect? To be honest, a lot of griping and whinging and a bunch of guys pretending to still be angry. Preconceptions huh . . . gotta love ’em. Wiped the smug smile oﬀ my face I can tell you. What you have here is a great album from a bunch of guys living in the real world. Dare I say it, they might be one of the only bands around at the moment to actually be growing up with their fans.

Screaming Trees

Electric Eel Shock ✪ Demolition I’ve heard a lot of people rave on and on about E.E.S. – blah blah Backyard Babies, blah blah Hanoi Rocks. How about this: blah blah over-rated. Some guys can master broken English and turn it into something beautiful – HIM, Hanoi – hell, even Lordi can manage to make it sound great, but Eel Shock ain’t one of them. Sorry – can’t give this one any more time. Too much good stuﬀ to listen to! Believe me, I’m being kind by walking away now. Later… SS

of the band in a nutshell, Dying Days provides an sonic commentary on the wastage of Seattle musicians to the great Horse God in the sky. Sadly, Screaming Trees were never given the push they so thoroughly deserved from Epic – if they had been, it would have been game over for many. This collection proves that good music never dates and Screaming Trees are as relevant now as the were back in the day. On the plus side, Mark Lanegan is still performing – go check him out. A more hypnotic version of Jim Morrison, he populates the Screaming Trees sound with dynamic lyrics and a voice to die for. If you want to pretend you didn’t miss the boat ﬁrst time around, Dust and the seminal Sweet Oblivion are a good place to start. In-ﬁghting and career decisions aside, this is one essential album from one of the most under-rated bands of our era. SS

Out of Exile

Ocean Of Confusion – Songs of Screaming Trees 1990-1996 ✪✪✪✪ If ever there was a band that, not so much missed the boat, but just never got on it, it was Screaming Trees. Supremely talented and labelled with the grunge tag 2 years too late, (which might be a good thing in hindsight), they were a law unto themselves and produced some of the greatest rock of the early nineties. This belated collection pretty much does what it says on the tin and is a good place to start for those who ﬁnd themselves on virgin soil. The immaculate Nearly Lost You is probably the most well known of the tracks, but to skimp over Butterﬂy, Shadow of the Season and Paperback Bible would be plain dumb. For a hint

Audioslave ✪✪✪✪ Interscope/Epic 02498 82468 Back in 2002, few industry observers believed that Audioslave would survive their troubled beginnings to become a fully-fledged artistic force. Management problems, personal upheavals and the pressure of welding two 90s legends into something cohesive threatened to scupper the band before it ever really got started. A multi-platinum debut album and a successful world tour helped silence the doubters, but despite their power, the first clutch of songs seemed transitional and many critics remained sceptical. Wasn’t this just Chris Cornell wailing over a bunch of Rage riffs? There was far more to it than that – but for a while, it seemed Audioslave would never succeed in shaking off its divided past. Out of Exile is a more adventurous piece of work, drawing its colours from a wider sound palette and its strength from the band’s increasing personal and musical cohesion. The band seem happy with their coolly retro image, resurrecting Beatles/Stones/ Who photographer Ethan Russell to construct their cover art and happily drawing inspiration from the classic

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rock acts of the 70s. The metallic swirl of The Worm recalls Zeppelin’s Black Dog, while the gorgeous Heaven’s Dead has the powerful wistfulness of their Ten Years Gone. The pelting chorus of opener Your Time Has Come could come from The Who By Numbers and horny hymn-to-appetite Man or Animal has a mouthy, 70s punk energy that recalls The Clash. It’s on the slower, more chordally based songs that the genuinely new ground is being covered, though. Doesn’t Remind Me continues where the doomed country-rock of Like a Stone left off, its cautious optimism lighting out a path into new territory: fervent love song Yesterday To Tomorrow sees Morello take flight with a ringing, romantic solo The Edge might be proud of; title track Out of Exile combines a yearning Irish melody with a harmonically complex chorus and some of Cornell’s best-ever lyrics. The standout track, though, is #1 Zero: a sinister, circling pursuit, its sinuous Cornell vocal sliced through by a jagged, mad-scientist Morello counterpoint which lifts the track clear into 21st century blues. This is music which adds up to far more than the sum of its parts. But excellent through this album is, there’s the feeling that this band are only beginning to catch hold of the edges of what they may be able to do in the future. Radiohead took three albums to hit the top of their game with OK Computer; it might well be that Audioslave’s next outing could turn out to be the first real rock classic of the century. CoB

Means to an End

Discovering the Waterfront Silverstein ✪✪✪✪✪ Victory Here’s a bolt out of the blue. A world class band just waiting to break your face open given half the chance. To say that they were in the vein of Chemical Romance/Lost Prophets would be unkind to Silverstein and very lazy of me, but for want of an ugly analogy to make you sit up and take some notice, those two bands will do just ﬁne. With a batch of 11 great songs, this album could stratosphere in a matter of seconds given half the chance, a little airplay and a well timed tour. Their recent shows have been a success and the fact that there’s a real buzz about them on the underground goes some way to back me up.

“YOUNG BANDS SEEM TO FALL INTO TWO CATEGORIES AT THE MOMENT. THOSE WITH A FUTURE AND THOSE DOOMED TO GET BACK IN LINE AT MACDONALDS.” There’s at least 6 songs here just primed for single/ video release – Smile in Your Sleep, Ides of March and Discovering the Waterfront imparticularly, all show signs of radio friendly hits, whilst the remainder of the material is hard enough to satisfy those who like their bands harder edged. Young bands seem to fall into two categories at the moment. Those with a future and those doomed to get back in line at MacDonalds. Would you like fries with that’ won’t be coming from the mouths of these guys. Destined for very great things. I promise. DO

Biohazard ✪✪✪✪ SPV At last. If you’re gonna be angry and jet propelled, fill the first 20 seconds of your album with drums and sirens! I’ve always liked Evan Seinfeld – he’s quite possibly the only man in his field who can do the shout/growl thing properly these days. It’s an art form that millions seem to try their hand at and most just suck. Even has a knack of letting the song play out while he’s doing his thing, so that people like me (who don’t normally drive their car to this style of music) can get to the end of the album without throwing it out of the window. So, I got to the end, and it’s pretty hot. The Fire Burns Inside is going to be sure fire floor filler in the alt-clubs. Some of this album is even a little bit (dare I say it) Faith No More? Well I said it anyway. Long termers might be disappointed, I wouldn’t know, but for now, this is pretty good and I’d even go so far as to check them out live on the basis of this. DO (Why did I give you this album? Ed)

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ZERO Soundbite THE LATEST CDs

Storms Over StillWater

Transylvania 90210 Wednesday 13 ✪✪✪✪ RoadRunner

Knock yourself out Wednesday! Scary rock, shock rock blah blah.. they can call it what they like, but all you want to do when you hear this is either get in your car and press the pedal to the ﬂoor or hit the pit and lost your mind for an hour. Swinging somewhere between White Zombie and (natch) Murderdolls, guitars grind, basses pounds and vocals screech the message that the dead are back and loving it. What drives Wednesday to stand above the others is that’s he’s brought every cool rock inﬂuence you can think of to the table and used them all sparingly. You can hear Love/Hate and Faster Pussycat crawling out of from between the cracks in the darkened room. Despite a couple of forgiveable

Greatest Hits The Oﬀspring ✪✪✪ Columbia They may be awkward, unhelpful, prickly egotistical So-Cal Arseheads (trust me on this one!), but The Oﬀspring do know how to pen a spiky Pop-Punk tune or two – as this

ﬁller tracks, on the whole, Transylvania 90210 is a well rounded album. Bad Things is quite awesome in it’s lyrical delivery. Funny as hell in that old Twisted Sister tongue in cheek style, it roars all over the show –somebody, please put this on MTV! Haunt Me is also screaming out for a wider audience. Go see the band, check out the spooky kids at the front. Of course, there’s a little bit of the Manson’s about the band, that can’t be helped by it’s very nature, but it’s Manson dressed up for the ToxicToons generation and it works so well on the same kind of level. May the gods have mercy on your souls when 13 gets some money behind him. Game over. DO

collection well proves! Featuring 13 ‘classic’‘Spring tracks (one - “The Kids Aren’t Alright” -is newly remixed), and one new song (“Can’t Repeat”), the rest, I’m 99% certain, you’ll know pretty well. Amongst this compact collection you’ll ﬁnd the likes of “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)”, “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)”, “Why Don’t You Get A Job?”, “Want You Bad”, “Self Esteem”, “Original Prankster”, and “(Can’t Get My) Head Around You”. Whatever your views on the So-Cal (Pop) Punk scene, Dexter Holland’s aging but sprightly crew should prove suitable entertainment for a summer BBQ/Party... They may never have the class, style or longevity of The Ramones, but this spiky haired outﬁt are certainly worthy of checking out – even if it is only once through a compilation. SGG

Mostly Autumn ✪✪✪✪ Self-Released I am genuinely, and hand on heart, a true Mostly Autumn fan, having reviewed their albums, reviewed them ‘live’, and interviewed them for 5-6 years now, so this is a gutwrenching critique to write. So he we go anyway…Finally freed from the oppressively manipulative shackles (as seen my a majority of objective MA fans) of their former label (who shall remain nameless), now is seemingly ‘make or break’ for Britain’s premier female-fronted Prog-sters well, in the absence of the Rachel Jones/Anne-Marie Helder fronted “classic” Karnataka (new Karnataka Ian? Oh come on!) – so which will it be? Frustratingly, “Storms Over Still Water” doesn’t seem to indicate either, it’s more a ‘mish-mash’ of ideas and styles that’s musically solid but yet is curiously lacks any real innovation or genuine inventiveness…hence is solid and stolid in one. Seemingly unable to decide if they’re Genesis, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, or even Within Temptation(!), the Yorkshire crew seem to be struggling to remember who they truly are, and to this critic, that’s a crying shame. Things (to this outsider anyway) appear to have become destabilised since the departure of (ex) drummer Jonathan Blackmore, his replacement (in a ﬁtting symptom of MA’s creative malaise) is also solid but stolid, and equally uninspiring. To my mind, album opener “Out Of The Green Sky” is a weird, misshapen piece, curiously lumpen, a much more inspired choice would have been “Broken Glass”, an inﬁnitely stronger song. Far heavier, more ‘modern’ and (I guess) trying to be more experimental than even the pretty heavy “Passengers”, “Storms…” lacks (in my opinion) many classic tracks, with only the aforementioned “Broken Glass”, “Carpe Diem”, “Heart Life” (where gorgeous vocalist Heather Findlay shines gloriously!), and the epic “Candle In The Sky” truly resonate with any lasting clarity…and for a band of MA’s previously splendid musical standing, such a confusing musical miasma is simply not good enough. They will do better next time…they just MUST. SGG

Touched By The Crimson King Demons and Wizards ✪✪✪ SPV What’s this? “The Immigrant Song” for Deities sake…WHY? What a stupid and crass way to conclude an otherwise fine sophomore album, particularly after keeping us waiting for something like 5-6 years too! In case you’re not au fait, D&W is the side project for German metallers Blind Guardian vocalist Hansi Kursch, and the charming, thoughtful, and passive tempered (HA!) Jon Schaffer: the flame-haired (founder member of ), and guitarist for cult North American Metallers Iced Earth. So that’s the history lesson over with. The big question though, is it actually any good? What do you think? I guess you’d define them as being European Symphonic Power Metal, a case of “not overwhelmingly original but pretty bloody good anyway!” Taking the best elements of both bands, but streamlining and stripping away the excesses of both, leaving a compacted yet powerful framework to build around, this will appeal to both fans of ‘Trad/True’ Metal, and those whose heart’s are rooted in the Euro Symphonic scene too. Schaffer’s blazing fretwork is highly impressive, a veritable ‘riff-fest’, over which Mr Kursch’s vocals swoop and soar with elegant poise and power. Their D&W band is completed by drummer Bobby Jarzombek, guitarist Jim “Morrisound” Morris, bass guitarist Rubin Drake, pianist Howard Helm, aided and abetted by assorted backing vocalists…and a cellist too! Produced (for obvious reasons) by Jim Morris, alongside Hansi and Jon, it’s got a crunching, guitar-strafing “foot-on-the-monitor” type motif to proceedings, kind of ‘Maiden-esque in places I guess? The tracks that ‘push my buttons’ in particular are “Crimson King”, “Dorian”, and the very wonderful “Love’s Tragedy Asunder”, all the songs are good, but it’s these three in particular that are the true ‘standard bearers’. It’ll probably be 2011 before we get a third album, but in the meantime, this will keep all true Heavy Metal fans contented. Cool. SGG

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Robot Hive/Exodus

Full Moon Collection Bad Moon Rising ✪✪✪✪ Frontiers

If you were to believe the ‘romantic’ story, Bad Moon Rising vocalist ‘Kal’ Swan arrived out of nowhere to front NWOBHM Titans er…Tytan, before hitting (slightly) bigger things with Lion, then hitting (what should have been) Superstardom with BMR. But that’s NOT the whole story…OH NO…NOT by a LONG way! Is it NORM??? hargh! HaRgH!! HARGH!!! Laydeez ‘n’ Gennulmen…Let me introduce you to NORMAN “STORMY” SWANN (yup…two ‘n’s) of Tamworth (Staffordshire) terrors LEDBELLIES! (& I have a black and white photo of the band rehearsing to prove it!) Does the name Dave Ford ring a bell Norm? It should! Ho! Ho!! HO!!! He also worked for William Tolson Ltd in Fazeley, Staffordshire (a narrow fabrics textile company). Howdy Norm! Happy memories eh??? Smirk…and to think he believed all this would never come out? Oh I AM bad! Moving (very) swiftly along…(sigh), BMR were purveyors of classic Transatlantic ‘Trad’ Metal with a melodic edge. Early on, as I remember, they were formed from the ashes of a Kal Swan (post Lion) project in 1991, which found Kal asking Doug Aldrich (then a member of House Of Lords) to help finish the project with him…thus was born BMR. Aided by Ken Mary, Chuck Wright, Fred (REO Speedwagon) Mandel, Michael Schenker(!), and other AOR/Melodic Rock luminaries – the self-titled album is a storming and passionate piece of work, and if truth be known – it should have been a multi-platinum seller a la Whitesnake “1987”… shoulda woulda…coulda…With songs as monstrous as “Dark Side Of Babylon”, “Old Flames”, “Wayward Son”, and “Hands On Heaven”, the sheer injustice of it’s ‘cult’ status is staggering! The album was successful enough to warrant the

burgeoning Swan/Aldrich creative axis forging forward with a second album…to be known as “Blood”. Now a ‘proper’ band, BMR was rounded out by the rhythm section of Ian Mayo and Jackie Ramos, on bass guitars and drums respectively, and this Swan/Aldrich/Mayo/ Ramos unit would remain firm until the demise of the band in ’96. Although the Grunge phenomenon was in full swing by now, BMR stuck to their guns, with the then (quite correct) view of “If it ain’t broke... Don’t fix it!” If anything, ‘93’s “Blood” was more streamlined, assured, and featured such premier flight extravaganzas as “Servant To The Sun”, “Remember Me”, “Heart Of Darkness”, and “Till The Morning Comes”, once again the quality was impeccable, but worldwide success remained intriguingly elusive…Rock fans? it seems, we truly are a fickle audience. With their Japanese label now panicking, and desperate for the band to gain far wider success, BMS were pretty much forced into a ‘staring contest’ with their label bosses. Sadly, the band ‘flinched’ first, and were forced into a more contemporary direction, leaving behind their shimmering ‘Arena’ sound, and mostly dispensing with Doug’s trademark guitar solos altogether – a misjudgement that Rock Gods Rush would repeat with ‘04’s injudicious “Vapor Trails” release (UGH!). I remember listening to this in “S.T. Records” in Dudley…and feeling utterly disconsolate. Ten years on, and listening with fresh ears, I can hear the band touching upon rudiments of Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, King’s X, Galactic Cowboys and other more ‘current’ acts, with Kal singing in a far lower, (and to my mind – less adventurous) range. Oh dear. I can’t truly find much to commend in the ’95 release, which I believe saw the band a pale shadow of the former glorious selves, and just a few months later…it was all over. Congrats anyway to ‘Frontiers Records’ for putting out such a long overdue, and very welcome complete anthology. Buy this, if only to have the first two albums in your collection. Incidentally, does anyone know where Normy…Oops…I mean Kal is now or what he’s up to? Just a thought really.

“CONGRATS ANYWAY TO ‘FRONTIERS RECORDS’ FOR PUTTING OUT SUCH A LONG OVERDUE, AND VERY WELCOME COMPLETE ANTHOLOGY. BUY THIS, IF ONLY TO HAVE THE FIRST TWO ALBUMS IN YOUR COLLECTION.”

Clutch ✪✪✪✪ DRT “Welcome To The Groove Machine!” Yes, I know that’s a King’s X lyric, but it could have been expressly written with Clutch I mind, such is the natural rhythm Neil Fallon & co lock into as almost an afterthought these days…if only everyone else could make it sound so organic…so easy…so simple…so cool. Welcome then, to the musical Rock Bible according to Clutch! Expanded to form a permanent quintet (more on that in a minute), the guys now have all the ‘promise’, feel, and power of an “Unstoppable Juggernaut” (yes X-Men fans…little pun intended!). I’ve been blasting this on my ARfm radio show for weeks now, I honestly believe it will be the album of the year for ’05. “So what’s different?” you cry, “Why the excitement?” Good questions both! First, I had no idea that Clutch were fans of Southern Rock, now I’m a major collector of that classic genre, having one of the largest vinyl and CD collections in the UK, only equalled (I’m told) by those of Steve Price (Z-Roxx Mail Order/ARfm Radio Presenter), and Paul Chamberlain (another ARfm Radio DJ/Presenter), and even they’re freakin’ out when confronted by “Circus Maximus”, because oh baybee…does it ever groove ‘Suvvern Sty-Lee”! More please Guys! The Jean Paul Gaster/Dan Maines rhythm section is the tightest and coolest kick ass beat combo this side of ZZ Top or Rush! This leaves the twin six-string attack of Tim Sult/Neil Fallon to weave their blistering attack, which they do with style, ease, and true élan! Fallon’s in fine voice, his voice is sounding more ‘whiskysoaked’ than ever, in fact, the band has never sounded more cohesive or glorious! I love this band! This ‘Force Majeure’ of an album clocks in at just short of an hour, features 14 songs, with nary a weak link in sight…thank you very much! From opener “The Incomparable Mr. Flannery”, to coda “Who’s Been Talking?”, here is an album that will be the landmark and set the standard for Rock in the 21st century! Utterly Magnificent, and a COMPULSARY purchase! SGG

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ZERO Soundbite THE LATEST CDs

The End Of The Beginning

Hollywood Rocks! (4 Disc Boxset) ✪✪✪✪ Deadline/Cleopatra

Wow! Now this is one mightily impressive collection, 76 bands, 78 songs, with loads of original, rare, or long lost recordings, accompanied by an extremely informative and colourful 72 page book, and completed by a laminated ‘backstage pass’ and pin badge, all presented in a very nice black/gold box – this is surely “THE Bible” for fans of big hair satin, ‘n’ spandex, cowboy boots, and (of course) “Max Factor”! Now I was never the biggest fan of this type of music – my ‘80’s was more about tight black jeans, “Hi-Tops”, denim “cutoﬀs”, and… er…mullets! Yup I was a “Thrasher”! BUT…this excellent collection clean blows me away! You want a “Who’s Who” to savour/slaver over? Okay, here goes: The discs are chronologically ordered, so starting with: Disc 1 “Early ‘80’s - (1980-1985): Hollywood Rose, Hellion, Mickey Rat, (2nd “t” removed for legal reasons! Not a typo!), Plain Jane, Candy, Steeler, Dokken, W.A.S.P, Black ‘n’ Blue, The Joneses, The Zeros, Quiet Riot, Armoured Saint, Rat (2nd ‘t’ removed for legal reasons! Not a typo!), Bitch, Kerry Doll, Warrant, Sin, Xciter. Disc 2 “Mid/Late ‘80’s – (19851988): Poison, Lizzy Borden, L.A. Guns (w/Paul Black), Stryper, Great White, Demolition Galore, Harlow, Slut, L.A. Guns(w/Phil Lewis), Decry, Nitro, Faster Pussycat, Rough Cutt, Tuﬀ, Odin, Salty Dog, Sound Barrier, WWIII, Rock City Angels, The Seahags. Disc 3 “Late ‘80’s”: Keel, jailhouse, London, Cherry Street, Junkyard, China, Bang Tango, Black Cherry, King Kobra, Motorcycle Boy, Tommi Gunn, Stars From Mars, Cats In Boots,

Lions & Ghosts, Angora, Virgin, The Hangmen, XYZ, Kills For Thrills, D’Molls. Disc 4 “Early ‘90’s” (19901992): Electric Angels, Burning Tree, Jetboy, Big Bang Babies, Lypswitch, Syanide Kick, Darling Cruel, Saigon Saloon, Rebel Rebel, Spiders & Snakes, Hardly Dangerous, Skull, Yesterday’s Tear, Pretty Boy Floyd, Blackboard Jungle, Love/Hate, Mondo Cane, Fizzy Bangers, Alleycat Scratch. Now, as I say, I’m no expert on the Glam/sleaze scene, but that strikes me as being (almost) as comprehensive as it gets, but (and correct me if I’m wrong here) but from memory alone - shouldn’t Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cherie Currie, Vicki Blue, Warrior, Hurricane, Dirty White Boy, London, Britton, Spiders & Snakes, Hardline, Vixen, Little Caesar, Brunette, White Sister, Keel, Signal, Asphalt Ballet, House Of Lords, The Bulletboys, Giuﬀria, Johnny Crash, and MOTLEY CRUE all be included in here too? A minor ‘niggle’ maybe… but nonetheless… Finally, the book copy notes are mainly credited to the incredibly industrious Garry Sharpe-Young (he of the “Rock Detector” book series. However…if you are a fan/admirer of various ‘Elder Statesmen’ Rock journalists (and I am just that), then you can’t fail to notice that the writing style is not typical of Mr Young’s usual style, but instead bears a startling resemblance to that of a certain Dave Reynolds! What say you Gentlemen? Qubbles aside, this is an excellent release, and I commend it to you most sincerely! SGG

Judie Tzuke ✪✪✪✪ Big Moon I am unashamedly a COLOSSAL fan of the divine Ms Tzuke, and have been so since ’78/’79, avidly collecting everything and anything JT connected – I’m always evenhanded when it comes to doing magazine reviews though, so let’s take an open minded look at Jude in ’05. Self-recorded, self-produced, and strictly only available via the www. tzuke.com website, here is an album recorded and produced on a tiny budget, yet sounding like a million dollar major label priority release! Produced to pristine perfection, yet retaining a refreshingly organic quality, “The End…” is a mature, elegant, svelte, shimmering album, glistening with jewel-encrusted qualities, the songs being heartfelt, soulful, and the instruments gentle, lilting, and perfectly reﬂecting the emotion that pours from Jude’s gorgeous voice. There are 12 songs to lose yourself in, I immediately fell for both “The Written Word” and “Jerry McGuire”, I ached as I surrendered to the sheer drama and passion of “Imagining”, while “Here & Now” holds me spellbound, entranced by the sultry atmosphere…Oh my Gods. “I Will” was introduced in the tour prior to the recording of “The End…” so anticipation was high for the studio version, and it doesn’t disappoint in any way…Glorious. As a treat, the song is repeated ‘live’ as the album’s coda…& boyohboyohboy – it simply smokes in the concert arena! Jude’s voice remains as lusciously ethereal and dreamy as ever, how she’s not bigger than God is a travesty of justice! Her sparring partner/ creative foil…and strong right hand – guitarist David P Goodes remains by her side, and remains the most underestimated and (as yet) genuine guitar heroes of recent years…. one day Mr Goodes…one day! This album is as good as it gets, and Judie Tzuke remains the UK’s best kept musical secret…So can you aﬀord not to buy into her legacy? No! I thought not either! Just buy this! Okay?! SGG

World Play Soul Sirkus ✪✪✪ Frontiers Surely (at one point) ‘THE’ most eagerly awaited ‘supergroup of recent years, yet curiously enough –one o the most divisive too. Anyone expecting a ‘pink ‘n’ fluffy’ AOR act must feel shell-shocked by now! Take elements of HSAS, Hardline, Talisman, Led Zeppelin, Glenn Hughes/Trapeze, and King’s X, fuse them seamlessly together, stir gently…eh voila…Soul Sirkus! Just in case you’ve been living in a cave on mars, eyes closed tight, fingers jammed in your ears…humming loudly, allow me to introduce the band: Jeff Scott Soto – vocals (Axel Rudi Pell, Talisman, Eyes, Humanimal, Boogie Nights, Human Clay ete), Neal Schon - guitars (Santana, Journey, HSAS, Bad English, Hardline etc), Marco Mendoza – bass guitars (Ted Nugent, Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy, Blue Murder, Ozzy Osbourne, Al Jarreau, Tower Of Power etc), and Virgil Donati – drums/percussion (Steve Vai, Planet X, Mark Boals, Ring Of Fire, Freakhouse, Southern Sons etc). So what we’ve got here is a veritable ‘melting pot’ of talent and creativity…and the resultant album is utterly splendid too! The music is fluid, it moves, grooves, sways and grooves with seasoned sass and elegance, Mr soto’s vocal performance is glorous, will this be the album that makes him a household name? It bloody well ought too. Neal’s fretwork is a dazzling masterclass of style, passion, virtuosity and inspired soulfulness, and the Donati/Mendoza rhythm axis? These boys must be telepathically linked, because they are so naturally synched into each other – ces’t encroyable! There are 18 songs to ‘devour’ here, I don’t have the space to dissect them all, so I’ll simply direct you to “Periled Divide”, “Highest Ground”, “Soul Goes On”, “Friends 2 Lovers”, “Coming Home”, or the epic title track…you can’t go wrong with tracks as timeless as these…trust me! Melodic yet satisfyingly heavy to boot, “World Play” makes for a fine addition to any self respecting Rock fan’s collection… SGG

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Texas Diving For Pearls ✪✪✪✪ Atenzia 1989 saw the release of one of the greatest AOR/Melodic Rock albums EVER! Period. What was it? Well fairly obviously it was the eponymous debut by New Yorkers Diving For Pearls. Now, 16 years, many rumours and false starts later, they’re back with their sophomore offering. So can it possibly live up to the ‘immortal’ status rightly bestowed on it’s predecessor? Hmmm. Essentially, what you have here is DFP with a modern ‘twist’ – If that makes any sense. Less polished, more organic, slightly rootsier than we might have expected, “Texas” is a fine album in it’s own right , but in my opinion, can’t live up that timeless debut. If you played this not knowing you were listening to DFP, then you’d be thrilled at the quality, even if Danny Malone’s voice would give the game away immediately, but as it is, welll…you get the picture. My promo copy comes minus any notes at all, but Danny is definitely the singer, and despite taking a more modern approach – the guitarist is unmistakably Yul Vasquez. From here on in I don’t know who’s in the band of ’05, whether Jack Moran, David Weeks, or Peter Clemente (keyboards, bass guitars, and drums) are still onboard is a mystery to me…though I’d like to believe it is them. Original producer David Prater (Dream Theater etc) has returned to active DFP duty, as I say, removing some of the glistening sheen that was their trademark in ’89. SGG

Big Guns The Very Best Of Rory Gallagher ✪✪✪ Capo/Sony-BMG And NOT before ruddy time too! Finally, about 10 years(!) after the

legend’s death – a greatest hits collection! GRRR! Rory G was only 47 when he died, yet he was revered as a legend already,and his loss was crushing to Rock fans everywhere. Alongside Frank Zappa, Jerry Garcia, Billy Gibbons, Steve Gaines, Paul Kossoff, Ry Cooder, Randy Rhoads, Dave Gilmour, Lindsay Buckingham, Mick Ronson, Edgar Froese, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen, “Diamond” Darrell, and an elite few others, he represented the best in style, flair, innovation and élan that most guitar players could only ever aspire to. This collection finds 24 songs all remastered in 5.1 surround sound, mostly they’re Rory G solo standards, but three: “Born On The Wrong Side Of Time”, “What’s Going On?”, and “Sinnerboy” are plucked from his career with the vastly influential and much loved TASTE. There are also two previously unreleased (and very tasty) ‘live’ takes of “Bullfrog Blues” and “Messin’ With The Kid” that have been unearthed here, dating back from his ’74 UK tour. Nice. There’s a 36 page booklet to muse over, nicely researched too, replete with a raft of intimate and rare RG photos – nicely done chaps. Now how’s about a proper multi-disc boxset eh? Me? I’m off to listen to Rory’s screamingly brilliant “Stagestruck” ‘live’ recording! WOO-HOO! SGG

Experience

Paradise Lost

Young For Eternity

Paradise Lost ✪✪✪✪ Fuck it. I’m not supposed to like stuﬀ like this. It’s heavy as hell, doom laden riﬀerama. To be frank, I’m impressed. Hauling in a production not unlike that of Type O Negative helps a lot and there’s genuinely some serious and grandiose song writing going on too. I was expecting an unlistenable mess and instead got a well thought out and powerfully delivered album Maybe hardcore fans are disappointed, but I’m good with this. Unacquainted as I am with the band, I’ll desist from commenting on the pros and cons and where they’ve moved from and too – all I can tell you is that, on a gut reaction level, this is on hell of a good album One for the rack instead of the bin. Always a good sign! DO

The Subways ✪✪✪ WEA There seems to be a lot of bands around at the moment who are labelled ‘guitar’ bands. Keane are one. Coldplay are another. So welcome a band who actually DO play guitar. Who sneer into the microphone, beat the shit out of their drums and just don’t seem to give a fuck. You’ll probably have heard Rock n Roll Queen already, with it’s raw riﬀ and screamed chorus, and the album has plenty more of the same. Opener I Want To Hear What You Have Got, the title track, Oh Yeah, City Pavement – all are ripped from the same bit of cloth (probably bondage trousers). The trio of guitarist/singer Billy Lunn, his girlfriend, bassist Mary-Charlotte Cooper, and his

Micky Free ✪✪✪✪ Sub standard packaging isn’t helping you know. The amount of effort that’s gone into this is hardly likely to spur people on to snap it up off the shelves – it’s a good thing we have prior acquaintance otherwise it would hit the skids. Below the surface though is an album seething with Kravitz/Hendrix style. Those familiar with Micki Free from Crown of Thorns won’t be surprised to hear that there’s a whole range of styles he’s capable of playing and he calls on almost all of them throughout the duration of the album. Euphoria Blue so badly needs some airplay that we all know it will never get, that it’s almost worth starting up a radio station just to play it. The Dan Reed-esque Callin’ an Angel and Love Child both swagger with that Kravtiz feeling, but if there’s one thing the album is missing it’s a really strong vocal. Free isn’t a bad vocalist by any means but having born witness to the magic that was Crown of Thorns, well, let’s just say that Beauvoir’s voice could melt an iceberg and would fit over this so well. Guys, if there’s ‘differences’ get them sorted. You know it makes sense. Meantime, this will do just fine. DO

brother, drummer Josh Morgan are tight, slick an ﬁred up. This is the kick up the arse the British music scene needs.

It’s spelled C.A.T.A.W.O.M.P.U.S. Catawompus ✪✪✪✪ Halycon Music SHEER GEE-KNEE-US! UTTER PERFECTION! Gods & Goddesses I’m just in lust! A few years ago this most excellent and deserving crew released a wonderful debut album, called “Well, It’s About Time!”, it was a swaggering rifest that bought to mind The Black Crowes at their grooving best, it seemed that world domination was just a matter of “when” NOT “if”. Then it all went horribly bullock shaped! Why? They ‘removed’ their smokin’ singer, and released an album of turgid, country cowpats, so bad it was shameful, so crap it was useful only for driving over repeatedly! The low point came with a ghastly, inbred redneck pile of poo called (& I kid you not) “Swang That Thang”…and Suvvern Rokk (© Xavier “Yee-Haw” Russell!) fans everywhere almost gave up the will to live… However, all is now forgiven...and more! Back with the splendiferously marvellous “It’s Spelled…” , this is a way cool, swaggerin’, stompin’, infectious as herpes (allegedly!) collection of gorgeous songs, each as brilliant as the next, executed with genuine warmth, heart, passion, and sincerity…Damn-it, no-one has the right to make an album this good, not without being praised and lauded all around the globe without hesitation anyway! The guys: Doug Gery (guitars), Chris Howell (guitars), “Cletus” (bass guitars), Ruben Garces (drums), and vocalist Johnny DeLucia have crafted a wonderfully American, Southern Rock Tour De Force, soaked in Black Crowes bluesy magniﬁcence, and perfect for playing whilst cruising in an open top car - alongside the last albums by The Ghost Riders and The Sulentic Bros Band, this clearly shows that there is vibrant life within this fabulous yet much maligned musical genre. Simply outstanding! SGG

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ZERO Books THE LATEST OFFERINGS

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince JK Rowling ✪✪✪✪✪ Bloomsbury The wait is finally over, the secrecy and hype is thankfully behind us too, and what we’re left with is a 607 page book to ponder on. So without any further ado…is it actually any good? Oh Gods YES! It doesn’t matter whether you’re seven or seventy, as JK Rowling’s sixth Potter story will work perfectly for either audience. I devoured my copy in 48 hours, reading it during two marathon sessions – it’s that kind of book… “Unputdownable!” It’s also a true epic, action-packed, rammed to the rafters with plot twists and turns (quite a few nasty ones too unfortunately), beautifully constructed and written, it is (and you’ll have to pardon the pun) –“Spellbinding” stuff! To answer the biggest question first…YES, another very major character does indeed die (actually two ‘characters’ die, but one is not so “important”!). It’s not the character’s (not entirely unexpected) death that’s the shock, more the nature of its occurrence, and the murderer’s identity is (I think anyway) the biggest shock of all…throwing the balance of good vs evil out of kilter once and for all…and equally as skilfully unravelling one of Rowling’s/Potter’s great mysteries at one and the same time. JK’s beautifully emoted and lovingly crafted ongoing story still has the magical touch that can dazzle and charm yet also to shock and chill almost simultaneously.

I mean to say…that final chapter? WOW! Many ‘loose ends’ are tied up/tidied up here too, with a greater emphasis placed on the bonds built between the true ‘key’ characters being far more forcibly explored. Several previously ‘semi-important characters take more of a ‘back seat’/ become ‘bit part’ players. Harry himself doesn’t make an appearance until page forty-something…which is a huge surprise, His first ‘real’ relationship (with all it entails) is a nice touch, and the closer bonding at “Hogwarts” of his closest friends is utterly believable too, oh, and it’s not ALL doom ‘n’ gloom – there’s plenty of the ‘usual’ humour to savour! Who says Ms Rowling is just a “childrens” author? Not true! Not by a long shot! Of course that peculiarly “British” thing known as “Building ‘em up to knock ‘em back down” has swung into full effect as regards JKR. So what’s wrong that this book will make her wealthier still? Surely it’s money hard earned? So what if she’s secretive when it comes to launching each book? Wouldn’t you be? in her position? So what if she’s not keen on giving out autographs? It doesn’t make her a bad person! Isn’t it enough that she (a) makes millions of people very happy, (b) makes the idea of ‘magic/magick’ less threatening and evil than the Catholic church (in particular) likes or wants. MOST IMPORTANTLY (c) JKR has reintroduced the seemingly long-lost art of reading, to (arguably) millions of children who might otherwise not have bothered! The seventh and final “Harry Potter” book will now be awaited with breathless anticipation by her millions of fans…as it is, “Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince” is yet another flawless example of JK Rowling’s extraordinary writing ability and seemingly limitless imagination. A work of true wonder…and of course, there’s that new film later this year. Hmmm… SGG

Silent Bob Speaks The Collected Writings of Kevin Smith ✪✪✪ From the director of Clerks comes a collection of ramblings about ‘stuff’. Does it work? Sure does. Bottom line is anybody who isn’t into Kevin Smiths material is not going to pick this up on curiosity value alone, so as a fan, you’re onto a winner before you even start. It’s packed with ramblings about casting his next movie, what happens at the casting sessions, what happens in his bathroom . . . Sound like inane drivel? Yup, but that’s what he does best right? It’s over the top, over zealous and smacks of arrogance and self deprecation in all the right places. It also includes Smiths own interviews with Ben Affleck and Tom Cruise and some great reprinting of his the articles he wrote while at Arena. Not a sit down and gobble it up book but definitely one for the bathroom or the train. SS

complement. How do you follow the guy who wrote the screenplay for The Birds? After three novels as a private detective, The Closers sees Harry Bosch reattached to the LAPD in the cold case unit alongside his old partner Kiz Rider. He winds up working a bi-racial murder from the 80’s – but as you would expect (and you should always expect the unexpected around these parts), all is not as it seems. Has Bosch been reassigned for his talents or to be someone’s patsy in a political game? If you’re a regular, it’s probably been a long twelve months since the last one, ﬁlled in by wannabes and pretenders, and The Closers doesn’t disappoint. The last few Bosch novels, although superb, have seen Connelly concentrate on Harry’s own problems, which have detracted slightly from the plots. Something that Connelly was probably only too aware of as he brought him back into the force. With a friend onside and the rest of the world against him, Bosch is formidable as both a detective and a character, in fact, for a crime novel, The Closers is pretty damn near as good as it gets. A little delicately balanced maybe but all the better for it. Quite superb. SS

Twenty-First Century Grail: The Closers Michael Connelly Orion ✪✪✪✪ Next to Ed McBain, Connelly is without doubt the greatest living crime writer of this generation – and I think he would take that as a

The Quest for a Legend Andrew Collins Virgin Books ✪✪ Back in the late eighties, Andrew Collins self published a number of titles on what he endearingly termed ‘psychic questing’ – the most popular being a book called The Black Alchemist...

Riddled with supernatural attacks on his physical body, hidden artefacts, psychic huddles in country pubs and no small amount of research and action, it read like a supernatural National Treasure. So successful was his self publishing venture that the book was picked up and put into the chain stores to be closely followed by The Seventh Sword and The Second Coming, causing quite some interest in his ever expanding empire of psychic treasure hunters. Then, for some reason – one would suspect integrity – Collins jumped tracks and released a batch of well written non fiction books on crop circles, Egypt and Atlantis - which was all well and good, but what we were all really waiting for was more of the Alchemist variety! Cut to present day and Twenty First Century Grail heads back to what he does best. Or rather, did best. All the elements of a good psychic quest appear to be present, what we’re lacking here is some enthusiasm. It’s a bit like buffing Star Wars up against Clones – and I would venture that a similar percentage will fall for it too, but it’s just not right. Whilst Twenty First Century Grail is researched meticulously and certainly can’t be faulted for that, there’s just no suspense or action to carry it through. For a book that has the spirit of Crowley looming amongst its pages, it’s a pretty lame attempt at recreating what was once a truly original and exciting new way of writing. As a true story, maybe there just wasn’t any action to speak of. That said, Collins once used youthful exuberance in his subject to carry it through. Now, he chooses to revert to well researched facts. Sadly, we’ve all read Holy Blood, Holy Grail and whatever that book left out, The DaVinci Code filled in. Too little, too late – but if you’ve a thirst for the subject, you’ll read it anyway. SS

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Watch

every week on www.thq.co.uk

© 2005 THQ/JAKKS Pacific, LLC. Used under exclusive license by THQ/JAKKS Pacific, LLC. JAKKS Pacific and the JAKKS Pacific logo are trademarks of JAKKS Pacific, Inc. Developed by Yukes Co Ltd. Yuke’s Co Ltd and it’s logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yuke’s Co Ltd. Studio THQ and the THQ logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners. TM, ®, and the Nintendo GameCube are trademarks of Nintendo © 2001 Nintendo. The names of all WWE programming, talent, images, likenesses and logos are the exclusive property of WWE.

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ZERO Eye Candy THE LATEST DVDs

White Zombie Released: August 22 ✪✪✪✪ After a long wait, Redemption have finally got round to releasing this 1932 horror in which Bela Lugosi plays the mysterious Murder Legendre, a zombie master who commands a legion of walking dead. When John Harron arrives on the island of Haiti with his fiancée Madeline, a wealthy fellow traveller named Charles Beaumont offers his lush plantation home for their wedding service. Unfortunately,

Jurrasic Park Trilogy Boxset Released: August 29 ✪✪✪ Every 10-year-old’s favourite ﬁlm, the ﬁrst Jurassic Park is one of the highest grossing movies ever, and there’s a very good reason for that. It’s big, loud, fun and scary, and it involved Spielberg purging himself of adventure and silliness before tackling Schindler’s List. As ridiculous as it was, Jurassic Park stormed the planet, and it was only a matter of time before the studio asked for a sequel. Once again, Spielberg climbed aboard the dino money train, but his continuing involvement with his Holocaust epic

Beaumont has swiftly become obsessed with Madeline and enters into an unholy alliance with Legendre to win possession of her - undead or alive. The duo arrange for Madeline’s death, and her subsequent resurrection as Charles’ zombie love slave Filmed on sets left behind from Universal’s Dracula and Frankenstein, the surroundings are suitably macabre. Director Victor Halperin allowed the cameraman to play with the visuals, with the result of some incredible cinematography that belies the film’s date. Particularly memorable is a shot of a hillside graveyard complete with zombies lurching across the horizon. Bela Lugosi is as fantastic (or ridiculous) as ever, and this curio will either bore of captivate the viewer. This is a welcome return for a visually fascinating film, and the great-greatreanimated granddaddy of zombie flicks. MS

meant much of his direction and editing was undertaken remotely. As a result, The Lost World doesn’t feel like a complete movie. It is far too skittish, and becomes increasingly outlandish, without retaining the allure of the first. Only the presence of Jeff Goldblum stops it from getting any worse. Jurassic Park 3 is a serious test of patience, and does away with any real fear, and suspense, instead opting for cotton wool clad, kiddie-friendly fluff. This boxset is only for completists, and those interested in the movies should stick to parts one and two, and try to forget that part three ever happened. And if the latest ‘adventure’ wasn’t wanky enough for you, then there’s not too long to wait for Jurassic Park 4, which is based on aquatic dinosaurs… hooray. Extras: Arrrrghhhhh! No Spielberg commentary… again! There are however, ‘making of’ documentaries, interviews with Spielberg and Michael Crichton, and various featurettes. MS

Exotica Released: August 1 ✪✪✪✪ Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s taut, psychological thriller finally gets the DVD release it deserves. Based in an up-market strip club called Exotica, this is a tense and moody study of one man’s obsession and ensuing guilt. The circular storytelling is challenging and can become tiresome, but it is ultimately rewarding, with the many story strands becoming woven together intricately as the plot progresses. Exotica is beautifully shot, and has a suitably gloomy soundtrack that is the perfect accompaniment for the actions and emotions of the mixed-up characters, who are fully fleshed-out by a great cast. Bruce Greenwood and Elias Koteas both turn in firstrate performances, while the real star is Mia Kirshner as a stripper with an extremely popular schoolgirl routine. Watching a film made over 10 years ago, it’s a shame that her star hasn’t risen as much as this early movie promised – let’s hope that the reviews she’s receiving for her role in The L Word get her the parts she clearly deserves. MS

The Ring Two Released: August 29 ✪✪✪ Ringu was amazing, and as well as being both innovative and frightening, it was the title that kickstarted Hollywood’s love for Japanese horror. Even the US remake, The Ring was alright, so what of this sequel? Two years after escaping the video curse of Samara, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan have settled in a small town - but spooky

Constantine (15) ✪✪✪ It’s time you fanboys stopped crying over your Dangerous Habits’ graphic novels and accept this film for what it is – a decent, albeit different, spin on the cult Hellblazer comics. Okay, Keanu Reeves isn’t a blond scouser (like he needs the extra challenge), but transplanting the chain smoking magician to America actually works. Doomed to eternity in Hell after a failed suicide bid, John Constantine tries to con his way into Heaven by trawling the seedy shadows of Los Angeles, booting every demon he finds back to the underworld. Unfortunately there’s a prophecy brewing (isn’t

Samara returns, intent on possessing Aidan, with the aim of making Rachel the mother she never had. As she battles to save her son, Rachel digs deeper into the ghost’s origins and turns up some surprises. The Ring Two is not half as bad as you’d expect, and it has plenty of jumpy moments to keep the casual viewer interested. Naomi Watts does her best, and a lot of fun can be had in trying to decide whether David Dorfman (as Aidan) does a good job as a freaky kid, or is laughably bad. Ultimately though, The Ring Two suffers from Sequel Syndrome. As a stand-alone movie, it would fare much better, but not only is it a requirement to have seen The Ring, but the memory of the first (and far superior) film, means that this leaves

there always?) not too mention the fact he’s dying of lung cancer. The supernatural shit really hits the fan when the twin sister of Catholic cop Isobel (both played by Rachel Weisz) utters his name before jumping to her death from the top of a mental hospital. Together he and Isobel must unravel why demons are crossing over before Satan’s spawn is born on Earth. You may remember Reeves and Weisz’s last outing together – Chain Reaction – was hell enough. Thankfully the chemistry’s working this time, making for an entertaining thriller which straddles the line between noir character piece and monster ass kicking action ﬂick nicely. Reeves can do this type of wry one liner role in his sleep, something he’s been accused of doing by some, and there’s great support by Tilda Swinton as the archangel Gabriel and Peter Storemare as Satan. The one disc version (why do people buy these?) just has a commentary while the two disc version oﬀers the usual collection of documentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, etc. MS

you slightly disappointed, and missing the creepy atmosphere that made the ﬁrst so popular. MS

24 Series 4 Boxset Released: August 8 ✪✪✪✪✪ DVD was invented for 24. The tension that builds up when you have to wait a week for the next episode can

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Born To Boogie Marc Bolan And T Rex ✪✪✪✪✪ What took everybody so long? I’ve owned about 4 copies of Born to Boogie – from the worst bootlegs in history to hastily banged together ‘official’ releases, and, like bastard children, I’ve loved them all. This however, is a different beast. Directed by Ringo Starr, Born to Boogie is a surreal trip into the legend that is T.Rex. Based around the 1972 Wembley show, the film itself is basically a few guys having some laughs – in this case, those guys

become too much, so being able to watch them one after the other, whenever you need a Jack fix, is ideal. 18 months after day three, CTU has a new leader, Erin Driscoll, a hardnosed government agent who made firing Jack her first priority. After an explosion on a commuter train, Jack suddenly finds himself heading back to CTU for a meeting with Driscoll, and he believes that the train explosion is a prelude for bigger things to come. For those new to 24 (what’s wrong with you?!), pay attention. Starring Kiefer Sutherland, 24 is a stupendously successful US show, where the entire series takes place in one day. Each of the 24 episodes covers one hour of the day, and the action plays out in real time. Good idea isn’t it? With no Reiko Aylesworth or Elisha Cuthbert, fans were worried about whether series four could possibly be as good as the first three, but although it takes a little while to get going and truly

happen to be Bolan, Starr and Elton John at various points either dressed as mice, driving Rolls Royce’s or chilling out at the Mad Hatters tea party spouting cosmic poetry. Love or hate him, Marc Bolan owned the whole world for a time, and this is testament to those times. For the uninitiated, self confidence can often be misconstrued as arrogance and Bolan is the epitomy. While Kiss where developing embryonic themes to conquer the globe, Bolan was stomping his template over the future – the repercussions of which you can still feel today if you stand still for long enough. This unmatchable 2 disc set, film aside, also features the only 2 full concerts ever filmed, more interviews than you could possibly ever want, trailers, featurettes… the list is seemingly endless. You’ve really got to be pretty dumb not to have this stacked next to your DVD player. SS

drag you in to Jack’s world, this series is easily as good as any of the three that have gone before it, and the new characters ﬁt in perfectly. The only problem you have is this: Do you watch the series leisurely over a long period of time, or do it all in one go? You know what Jack would do. MS

The Interpreter Released: August 15 ✪✪✪ Despite the appearance of Oscar winners Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack’s The Interpreter is little more than an old fashioned political thriller.

Jaws 30th Anniversary Special Edition Released: August 29 ✪✪✪✪ Finally, Spielberg releases the movie that made his name and became the biggest box office success ever when it was released in 1975. With Jaws, Spielberg single-handedly managed to give gave sharks a bad name, and it’s not hard to see how. Precise memories of the film may fade over time, but flashbacks of the semi-chewed leg, Quint’s harrowing monologue about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and subsequent shark massacre, and John Williams’ score continue to haunt many who were unfortunate enough to see

the movie as a youngster. Not only is the movie a crowd-pleasing action-horror hybrid, it also contains some top-notch characters, and the rapport that eventually develops between the unlikely trio of Brody, Hooper, Quint is a wonderful example of acting chemistry. Despite being 30 years old, Jaws remains one of the most entertaining and thrilling movies ever made. Extras: Once again, The Beard didn’t feel like providing a director’s commentary, which is especially disappointing in this instance. On oﬀer instead are a 1974 Spielberg interview, a superb two-hour long documentary, gallery, story boards, deleted scenes and outtakes. MS

provide a great introduction to writer/director Richard Kelly’s fucked-up world. Unfortunately, the original theatrical release is far better than this director’s cut – which explains too much and demystifies much of what made Donnie Darko so special. Although the film just doesn’t have the same magic as the original, it is still better than almost anything else you’ll see this year, and still deserves five stars. Extras: The real bonus here is the inclusion of a Richard Kelly/Kevin Smith commentary that manages to be informative and entertaining. MS

Doctor Who After UN interpreter Silvia Broome (Kidman) overhears a plot to assassinate the leader of her home country, hardened US Secret Service agent Tobin Keller (Penn) is brought in to investigate – but all is not as it seems… You need to pay attention to this film - the story’s confusing enough, but the web of plot holes will completely throw you off track if your concentration wanders for a second. Pollack was clearly hoping to make a serious statement about the planet’s current political climate with this film, but what could have been an extremely polished and intelligent thriller is marred somewhat by the constant inconsistencies. Penn and Kidman are as good as ever, doing what they can with the material, and their dialogue-driven scenes are what stand out in the movie (although Kidman’s quasi-South African accent seriously grates). More intelligent than the majority of Hollywood’s output, The Interpreter is a wellmeaning film that doesn’t hit as hard as it would like to. MS

Donnie Darko Director’s Cut (1 disc) Released: August 8 ✪✪✪✪✪ Another month, another version of Donnie Darko is released. As time goes by, more and more people and getting wise to the cult of Darko, but it’s hard to imagine who this version of the movie could be aimed at, with a number of editions already available. However, this is one of the best ﬁlms released this decade, and is up there among the best of all time, so having a budget-priced, single-disc director’s cut released is nevertheless a good thing. Musing on the nature of religion, time travel and free will, if you don’t already own Donnie Darko, this will

Volume three Released - August 1 ✪✪✪✪ Episodes: 7. The Long Game; 8. Father’s Day; 9. The Empty Child; 10. The Doctor Dances: No one was quite sure how well Christopher Ecclestone would take to being the Time Lord, and Who-fans were even more nervous about how ex-pop puppet Billie Piper would fare as the Doctor’s assistant, but all fears were laid to rest when this series ﬁnally began. Not only did the Doctor easily meet our expectations, but Billie’s Rose Tyler was arguably even better, and nothing shows oﬀ the talents of the two stars more than the four episodes available on this third disc. The stand-out on this disc is The Empty Child - the episode that featured the unearthly gas-mask wearing child, terrorising wartime London, and which got mums and dads all upset at the Beeb. Horror doesn’t have to be Japanese, headspinning, liver slicing gore, and this chilling episode demonstrates that perfectly. MS

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ZERO Games

THE LATEST CONSOLE GAMES

Batman Begins PS2 ✪✪✪✪ Batman Begins is unlike previous Batman games – mainly because this one is actually very good and tries something a little diﬀerent. Stealth is a major part of the game, and is reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell (only with added pointy ears and a cowl) The game follows this summer’s movie as it explores the origins of the Batman legend and

Tekken 5 PS2 ✪✪✪✪ Can this latest version of Tekken revive the flagging series? Tekken 5 brings back the popular cast of characters from the previous games along with three new characters for a total of 20 default faces, with even more to unlock as you progress through the game. The game allows players to use fight money to customize their characters with various accessories such as hats, glasses and an assortment of different. Each of the new

the Dark Knight’s emergence as a force for good in Gotham. After witnessing his parents’ murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and bring fear to those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and begins his crusade, using his strength, intellect and an array of high-tech gadgets to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city, across 14 Gotham City locales. You get to play as both Bruce Wayne and Batman, with many cut scenes from the movie in between levels. The game does not purely involve sneaking though, and has some old fashioned fighting and driving levels as well. The graphics are awesome, as is the voice acting. Finally a console game worthy of the Dark Knight moniker. JM

characters is equipped with a variety of deadly techniques, and the returning characters have been updated with new moves and combos. Then there are the extras, which are the best ever in a Namco ﬁghter. The arcade versions of Tekken, Tekken 2, and Tekken 3 have also been shoe-horned onto the disc, and the other major extra, a single-player adventure starring Jin - although not as exciting - is the best attempt yet at turning Tekken into an action ﬁghter. This time round the graphics are the best yet and Namco have outdone themselves in their slick presentation. Although not as good as Soul Calibur 2, this is a marked improvement on recent Tekken instalments. JM

Destroy All Humans! PS2 ✪✪✪ Remember the movie Mars Attacks? Okay, so it’s not the greatest Tim Burton ﬁlm ever, but the bit where the aliens ran around shouting “We come in peace”, while evaporating everyone in their paths was superb, and now you too can do the same!

In Destroy All Humans! you play as Crypto 137, an alien who is ﬁghting to save his people, unfortunately for us the only way to do this is to harvest human DNA. Crypto has a pretty substantial arsenal of weapons and abilities to help him deal with the puny Earthlings that get in his way, with weapons including the zap-o-matic, quantum deconstructor and the always-entertaining anal probe gun at his disposal. As in games such as Second Sight and Psi-Ops, psychokinesis can also be used to throw humans around like rag dolls, and for those times when he feels the urge to cause some

X-Box ✪✪✪✪✪ Jade Empire is an epic video game reminiscent of movies such as House of Flying Daggers and Hero. It transports you to the ancient, mysterious world of mythical China where you train to be a kung fu master. Before long you are required to travel across the world, taking on all challengers. BioWare, the team behind the popular Knights of the Old Republic, have

overhauled the Star Wars game’s hit-and-miss fighting system and incorporated an innovative, real-time technique that allows players to upgrade their combat technique or learn entirely new styles as they progress, depending on their gameplay preferences. Players can learn more than 30 different fighting styles, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. You are not alone in Jade Empire, and during play you can team up with other characters who will aid you in battle. You can assign them to help you in combat or to take a support role, and everything is done with such flair and passion that you cannot help but be taken in by the game’s world. The graphics are some of the best seen on this console, and the whole game is amazing. It’s massive and keeps you going to the very end. Simply one of the best X-Box games ever. JM

major property damage, Crypto can also hop into his ﬂying saucer. Graphics are top drawer, as is the voice acting, while gameplay is kept entertaining with main missions and subquests all executed with the ﬂair

we’ve come to expect from Pandemic Studios. With plenty of 1950s sci-ﬁ references, and a wicked sense of humour, this game is elevated from being merely average to something well-worth spending some time and money on. JM

Jade Empire

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ELECTRICHEAD

by Sion Smith

hen I first dreamed up the concept for this magazine, Kurt Cobain was still alive. I always had a begrudging respect for the man. Apart from the fact that he killed off everything I ever held sacred, he did what was in his heart. What happened next wasn’t so much his fault, but rather a domino effect. What annoyed me most though was everybody else’s inability to respond in the aftermath. The “Seattle movement” killed off the rock star absolutely. Suddenly, my whole world was populated by guys with guitars telling me what I already knew – they were normal! I couldn’t drive fast to it because I would have killed someone, I couldn’t get drunk to it because I would have fallen apart, and you certainly couldn’t make out to it – well not unless you weren’t fussy and didn’t mind sleeping with a dysfunctional self harmer. I kind of hoped that in time the ‘concept’ of the rock star and escapism would resurface, but

“THE UNSEEN FORCE THAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT FROM EVERYBODY ELSE. ARE WE SO FUCKED THAT CHARISMA IS WORTH NOTHING ANYMORE?” bar a few sporadic pockets of genius, (Manson, Zombie.. that’s about it really!), it’s still a desolate wasteland. Which means one of two things. Either a) musicians are now in it for the music and not the women/drink/drugs* (delete as applicable or not), which is a good thing aurally or b) people just can’t be bothered to amp it up. I don’t know about you people, but I have more than one sense that needs feeding. I’ve got eyes that like candy, I’ve got a heart that feels multiple emotions and a brain that can put things in the right perspective, but maybe the world doesn’t need rock stars anymore. Maybe good songs are enough now but I’m positive that can’t be right and it would be a sad day if that were the case. We’ve gotten to the stage where everything is OK - everything gets

by just fine without too much extra effort. I kind of liked my rock stars to be hedonistic. Nobody has to wear make up and blow shit up to pull it off, (although that would be cool). Look at Hendrix. Bar a little fire here and there, he was first and foremost a musician… but still a bona fide rock star. I guess it has something to do with how you hold yourself, what you believe in and so on. When you posses certain x, y and z qualities, it manifests itself as charisma. The unseen force that makes you different from everybody else. Are we so fucked that charisma is worth nothing anymore? As Chuck Klosterman points out in his rather excellent book, Fargo Rock City, “all the people who secretly loved metal back in the 1980’s are now too old to worry about being cool. Meanwhile, 17 year old kids are buying Appetite for Destruction because they’re too young to know it’s unfashionable”. This goes some way towards explaining why this is the way it is today, but just because you know the reasoning behind something, doesn’t make it OK. It filters down and when it filters down it gets watered down too. In a few years time, maybe bands will just post songs and pictures on the internet and that will be all they have to do for everyone to be happy. Maybe that’s how close we have to get to the bottom of the barrel before somebody breaks out… then again, maybe it’s happening already. Until then, I’ll content myself with the fantastic quality of bands that are around at the moment because let’s face it – there’s great music out there. But I live in hope that somebody will one day come out of the blocks like Godzilla and the world will stand corrected. There’s real life and there’s the other life. We know what real life is like. Why does the other life in rock music mirror it at the moment? Have we all become so lonely that we need to find other people who mirror ourselves to make it alright? Pretty soon it’ll be like putting two mirrors in front of each other. It’s bullshit – and you know it. If the torch is too heavy for you, I’ll carry it for a while. Let me know when you want it back.O

138 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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