Cool or not, Suede are not what you might call commercially successful in this part of the world. The band has a small but loyal fan base, but they're not as popular as other British acts like Oasis or Blur.

Vocalist Brett Anderson does not really have a theory for this poser, but reckons it might have something to do with the extrmely British lyrical content of Suede's lyrics, written exclusively by him. Especially in Suede's first eponymous album, his lyrics are " virtually incomprehensible if you live outside London, " says Anderson speaking from London in a telephone interview to promote the band's 4th album as well as announce its plans to visit Malaysia in October.

He adds that ultimately though, like everything, Suede's poor sales in theUnited States (and South East Asia ), is due to poor marketing : "We're not on the radio & not on the TV & that's the end of that."

It's true enough that Suede's singles, although complete with big choruses & infectious melodies, do not get much, if any, airplay on Malaysian radio. The videos from their last album, Coming Up, were on every 10 minutes on MTV Asia & Channel [ V ] though, & to date that's been Suede's most successful album. In Singapore, it resulted in a sold-out concert in 1997, which Anderson says is " my favourite gig ( of all) we've ever done. The crowd was fantastic. I could have played for 10 hours & that's one of the reasons we're coming to Malaysia. "

Suede's 32-year old vocalist is very excited about performing in this country. " More than anything," he says, " I like playing somewhere we haven't played before 'cause the feeling of expectation can make it really, really special. There are a lot of places that we've played 10 or more times before… like Stockholm or Manchester or New York… & it can become almost like a social event….not in a bad way, but oyu see people you've seen about 10 times before and…they love it, but it doesn't have that sort of edge to it. When we played Singpore, we'd never played there before & everyone knew they probably wouldn't see us for 2 or 3 years & it just increased the…I suppose…pressure."

Come October, Malaysians can expect Anderson & his cronies ( bassist Mat Osman, drummer Simon Gilbert, guitarist Richard Oakes & keyboardist Neil Codling) to perform tracks from their latest release, Head Music, with a generous sprinkling of hits from Coming Up, but, apparently, not from their first 2 long-players. ( Me- Too bad , the concert is being cancelled because of Codling's poor health ) Word has it that there's a conscious effort not to perform material penned by Bernard Butler, the guitarist from the original Suede line-up, who left the band in a bit of a huff during the recording of its 2nd album Dog Man Star.

It does seem a bore for Oakes & Codling, the 2 post-Butler members, to keep having to play these songs that they had absolutely nothing to do with - rather like being in a covers band surely.( Me- They wouldn't mind, right ? ) Nevertheless, we might still be treated to past favourites like Animal Nitrate (from Suede) & the gorgeous , ever-popular The Wild Ones (from Dog Man Star), plus handful of B-sides, perhaps. ( Me- unfortunately, they didn't in Singapore )

Head Music, which sees Anderson returning to his favourite subject of alienated, dispossessed youth leasing dooemd, decadent lives, is perhaps the most commercial album from Suede yet, featuring blatantly pop tracks (Me-agreed !) such as Savoir Faire & the current single, 2-chord hummer She's In Fashion. The album's release & Anderson's increasingly frequent declarations of admirations for acts like Billie & Backstreet Boys, not to mention fan-mail of the " I-want-to-have-Brett's-baby" variety from teenage girls, seem to point to the very real danger that Suede is descending the slippery slope to boy-bandom ( Codling's youthful beauty surely plays a part too).

(Me- We all hope not) There is, in fact, a Suede website run by a Singaporean fan, with a bit that explores the whole phenomenon of the real or imagined transition from credible rockers to cute blokes with catchy songs.

Anderson isn't worried about such a label though. To him, it's becoming more & more important to write songs that are all about making music that " almost everyone could play, nothing show offish…but…incredibly moving." (Me- No ! We want Suede to show off ! And what do the others think?) He says that for Head Music, "we'd start off with something really simple like a verse or a drum pattern or a bass-line &, after a couple of days, we'd work it up to a song. ( As a result) it's the rhythm tracks, the drum & bass, that are more important than they ever were because we'd start there & work up instead of starting with a song & working down."

There are already plans for Suede's 5th album, which Anderson hopes will be "very sleek, &…funkier…& really simple. I think when you make your firstt record , it's impossible not to want to show off, (but) there comes a point when you don't want to do that anymore, when you're not really interested in impressing people. It's impossible not to be like that when you're 23 & you're making your first record, (but) when you get older you just want to communicate with people." (Me- Sigh…where's the old magic ? We want you to impress us !)

Although Anderson has donesome one-off work without his band (teaming up with Raissa on Noel Coward's Poor Little Rich Girl for 20th Century Blues, an Aids charity compilation & singing Les Yeux Fermes with Jane Birkin on her greatest hits album) (Me- Daphne got it wrong there, that Noel Coward project was done with the rest of the band), he has no plans to embark on a solo career.

Every now & then someone says,would you like to do this film score or whatever & I think that would be cool & then I think oh, but I could be doing a Suede song. I really like being part of Suede & I don't want to waste any time not doing Suede stuff."

But don't expect to see the band coming up with albums indefinitely,like the Rolling Stones & other rock dinasaurs. Says Andrson, " There's a way of growing old gracefully & some people can do it & some people can't . I look at someone like Brian Eno & the fact that he's over 45, over 50, is irrelevant because he's managed to change & do stuff that's he interested in & that's entirely laudable."

Another artiste Anderson admires for similar reasons is David Bowie, an early influence whom Anderson is often compared to for his vocal & lyrical style : " I think it's really cool when I look at ( Bowie's) contemporaries who've just settled for this role that's kind of (like a ) grizzled elder statesman just going round & round in ever decreasing circles, (whereas) he still has a kind of teenage enthusiasm for what he does & is quite prepared to stand up & be ridiculed for doing stuff just because he finds it interesting."

However, no matter how inspiring Bowie is to him, Anderson doesn't see himself being the inspiration, as Bowie was, for a movie, like Velvet Goldmine : " It'd be a pretty boring movie, I can tell you. I can't really imagine it, but you never know till after, do you ? I'm sure when Bowie was living those years of his life it seemed pretty normal. Perhaps in 20 years I'll look back on the 90s & think, God, it was a crazy scene, man. But I don't think so. We're a bit more normal than him. In the nicest possible way."