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Soft Secrets
Interview
a hooded top. I think the state, on the back of this terrorism phobia they’ve all got, everyone’s going to made, in some way or other, outlaws. For us, we can’t help our Soprano’s connection but I like to think that wer’e aware of the melancholy that goes with crime, it’s not all about glamour. Kids are affected for instance and I think the album reflects that vibe. I don’t think there’s any other band quite like us with our cult outsider staus, we are the hole in the soul gang. Have things changed much since the band began around ten years ago? Not really no, the skunks just got a lot better. We’re coming up to our tenth anniversary and I’m pretty proud that we’ve kept things together that long. We haven’t had major chart success bit we’ve built up a cult following enough to sustain us on the road. Last year, the Guardian gave us five stars for a gig and said that we were the best live band in the country. Record sales are not everything, with the state of the industry and people downloading, this is bound to happen. Come on kids - illegal downloading all the way. Fuck the BPI! It’s good, on our travels we’ve found a vast constituency of people who choose to live outside the law but remain honest.
An interview with the Alabama 3
Love is the law With a fantastic live show that excites a religious like fervour, South London (dis-) order of celebrants, goddesses, comrades, brothers and sisters - Alabama 3, hit the road again to promote the recently released fourth album, “Outlaw”. SSUK spoke to front man extraordinaire, Larry Love, for a little of the gospel. SSUK: Brixton is the Alabama 3 homeland and for many years has been at the frontline of the cannabis issue, with the stop and search laws and riots of the early eighties to the recent experimental legal changes regarding possession of cannabis. Does the Alabama 3 or you Larry Love have a position on this subject and what are your feelings relating to it? LL: Whilst I recognise that certain people can have an adverse reaction to cannabis and that no way should these people smoke it because of psychotic episodes, about which there’s a big panic going on at the moment in the national press. I think for the majority of people that smoke cannabis, it’s generally a peaceful, recreational narcotic. It’s a lot better than fuckin’ Prozac and Largactyl and Methadone. We’ve always been involved with the cannabis festival and yeah, it’s great. Roll em’ up and let’s get stoned. The Alabama 3 have always headlined at the cannabis festival, taking place in the Brixton area over the past few years. How do you feel that it’s not going to happen this year? Well, I’m not surprised really because it probably scared the shit out of the establishment and it’s not something that Lambeth Council want to be associated with. It’s quite funny that they’ve got this posh festival going on down there in the park and we’ve done all the ground work. It’s been hijacked by the establishment - sponsored by Bacardi Breezer - it’s just a load of corporate wank basically. Have you been asked to play? Yeah. We told them to fuck off. Would you like to see Dutch style coffee shops in the UK? I think so because the more it’s out in the open, and this is the kind of red herring about saying cannabis
If you had to sum up the essential message of Larry Love, what would this be? There’s no point looking for answers, just ask the most important questions, baby! By Kaz Peet
causes this and causes that, the more it is out in the open, the more facilities will be there for people who do have an adverse reaction to it. Many of these people, in terms of class polarity, are those who are having a tough time living in bed-sits or squats. It might be self-medicating but that’s what gets them through the day - help’s them make it through the night as John Lennon said. I think it’s important to recognise that because it’s true. What’s your favourite puff? A.K.A. 47 and Bubblegum, yeah and White Widow but I’ve not seen much of that lately. Do you compose, record or play when you’re stoned? All of the above. It’s like the reggae thing, I’m not a rasta or anything but I do believe that there’s a major connection between marijuana and musicians. I couldn’t sit in the studio listening to music without a joint in my hand. Maybe that’s me having a monkey on my back but I like it chirping along to my songs. It’s nice having a monkey on your back because they can do vocal harmonies. You are about to embark on a pretty major UK tour to launch the new album, tell me about this. It’s called “Outlaw” and it’s very much enshrined in Bob Dylan’s famous quote “to live outside the law you must be honest.” One thing I realised when I first had a conversation with Bruce Reynolds at the Clerkenwell literary festival and I was fairly impressed, when he was on the run from the Great Train Robbery he went to all the sacred sites of the bank robbers of the wild west, Jesse James and all that. There’s a long tradition of celebrating outlaws in American culture. Bruce Reynolds told me about a song made in 1967 called “Have You Seen Bruce Richards Reynolds?” and we found out on the Internet and did a cover version. Journalists have commented that there’s a certain melancholy on the album and I’m not into celebrating gangsters per se but when you bear in mind the way the populations going, in ten years time everyone’s going to know somebody in prison or an electronic tag on their ankle or a teenager that’s been banned from a shopping centre for wearing
What or who has been your greatest influence? Probably the Mormon religion for giving me something to kick against. I was brought up the son of a preacher man, and secondly, John Coltrane. You’re playing at the Glastonbury festival this year with its massive crowds. How does the Alabama 3 thing go down compared to the more intimate atmosphere of the pubs, squats and parties where you began playing and still obviously enjoy playing at? As son of a preacher man I’ve always been used to big congregations, we used to have these conventions in South Wales with thousands of people and I used to do a bit of preaching. It’s the way I was brought up so I actually like it. With the Alabama’s, what we’ve got as the constituency of our fans has developed, is a kind of twisted family atmosphere. We have Hells Angels there, lots of ravers, grannies with their sons and girls. Once people break through the smoke screen of us having a laugh pretending we’re from Alabama, our songs are generally about something. Coming from a South Wales mining community you have a great concern about protecting the community. I’m not into individualism, I like the crowd, and I like being part of something bigger than my own sordid ego. We can whip ‘em up or whip ‘em down according to where we are. What’s next for the band? What projects are in the pipeline? Well, today I’ve just spoken to Ken Russell who’s got a new film coming out and he’s looking for four tracks of the new album. I like getting into the film stuff. The Alabamans have always made a bit of a living out of the publishing - we were in “Gone In Sixty Seconds”, “A Life Less Ordinary” and “The Sopranos”, we seem to fit in well with the televisual vibe. I’ll have a top ten hit but I don’t know if that’s going to happen. Yeah really just keep on keeping on! Is there anything you would like to say finally to Soft Secrets readers? Let the E be with you, and I don’t mean the love drug I mean Elvis!
