Andy Wickett - The Hidden Star

The13th AÑO: 4 | NÚMERO 43

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

ANDY WICKETT THE HIDDEN STAR

[ Interview With Andy Wickett by Diego Centuriรณn. ]

THE HIDDEN STAR

Word has it that there was life before Duran Duran’ssuccess and that there were other actors who started the band on its path in search of an ideal. It is often said that history is written by those who win. But the story we present you today involves one of the band’s first actors, who wrote one of their best known songs and then went on to conquer the world without him, one fan at a time.We will begin by introducing you to a legend, although he was not a member of the group at the time they came to be a household name. This man has written one of the best songs known in the New Wave realm. Ladies and gentlemen... meet Andy Wickett!

Hello Andy! Thank you for agreeing to chat with us today.

Let's start from the beginning and your postpunk band ‘TV Eye’. Tell us how your trio with Dave Kusworth and David Twist came to be.

Dave and me went to Moseley school of art together. Dave Twist joined later.

How did you originally hook up with the members of Duran Duran and eventually come to join the band.

The Durans used to come and watch us. They loved our look and sound.

I left TV Eye and joined Durans and Steven Duffy left Durans and joined TV Eye to become the Hawks.

From your ‘TV Eye’ music, you brought ‘Stevie's Radio Station’ with you into Duran Duran, which would later become adapted into the song the world today knows as ‘Rio’.You also composed ‘Girls on Films’, although your version is more oriented to the darkness of the stars as I understand that it was inspired by the 1950 movie ‘Sunset Boulevard’, where Gloria Swanson plays the role of Norma Desmond.What do you remember about this period of your life?

Yes It was influenced by the old black and white stars. A lot of tragedy behind the glamour and gloss. The room where me and the Durans rehearsed was painted black although I later painted it white again because it was too dark. There was a lot of drinking and drug taking. I read a lot of books at the time.

Speaking of Duran Duran, I understand you

were pressured to sell your rights to these songs for very little money and that you also had to give singing lessons to Simon Le Bon. Please tell us about both of these developments.

Yes. I was told to phone my solicitor when I was at the Durans management office. He told me sign the waiver and take the £600 offered as this would be proof that I had involvement in writing their material. Later I went to see him and he said EMI would buy me out of court. A bit of a stitch up really.

The management payed me to give LeBon singing lessons when I went to the Rum Runner club where they were based. They wanted me to show him how to sing like me.

Cleopatra Records has just released the ‘Girls on Films 1979 Demo’ EPwith four tracks you recorded in that period. What do you remember about that recording?

It was at Bob Lambs studio at his flat in Moseley.

He had a mixing desk and tape recorder underneath his raised bed and a recording room with egg boxes on the walls. He played us a tape he was working on that was UB40’s first album.

I have a friend (Pablo "Mambo" Rivas) who says that the song "Working The Steel" is the best post punk song in history. He’d like me to ask you whether there was any difference in being punk and post-punk in Birmingham in relation to everything that was happening in London?

Thanks Pablo! I think we were kind of separate from the punks. We were into electro and glam as well as Iggy and the Stooges.I think there were si-

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milar pockets of people in other cities.

asian artist to create a remix album.

After Duran Duranpaid you for those songs, word has it that you bought a keyboard and then created The Xpertz. That’s a radical change. Please tell us about these years.

I had just discovered Dub. I was experimenting with it at the same time as I was in Duran.

Ranking Roger who would later join ‘The Beat’ showed me how to play a dub beats on the drums.

I used to spin Dub cuts when I was Djing at the Punks nights at the Crown pub and Rankin would toast over the top while I played harmonica.

Returning to the musical plane, you also collaborated with Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth, among others. Is there anybody you would like to collaborate with that you have not worked with?

I would love to work with Iggy Pop.

What did you feel when you saw what was happening with your old bandmates?

I felt a bit miffed reading about them in the Sun newspaper whilst standing in the dole queue.

Then came "World Service" and we know that "Creatures of Love" is coming in March.

Tell us about this band and the new album.

World Service began when I was asked to record with a band. The session tookplace at the BBC Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham. There have been many lineup changes over the years.

In 1990 the band crossed the Sahara to tour Algeria.In 1996 another line up supported the Durans on their UK tour. The new album is a mixture of my influences up until now.

I know of your dedicated work in digital animation. Can you tell us about this and especially your experience working with the great NusratFateh Ali Khan.

I worked with the music of Nusrat and other

Today, when reflecting on your many years in the music industry and your many decisions taken, do you have any regrets and what do you see as your biggest accomplishments?

Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention. My biggest accomplishment is my becoming a sex god of the Sahara.

Where can readers find more of your music and information about you? www.andywickett.com https://www.facebook.com/Andy-Wickett-356361854475204/ New album available on CD or download on Spotify, iTunes, amazon & google! https://itunes.apple.com/…/al…/creatures-of-love/1301595207…

To finalise... are you planning anything in particular in 2018?

I’m planning a tour of the States and have begun recording my second album.

Thanks Andy!We look forward to the release of your new album.

Thanks Diego!

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