Warm Jets, 14th April 1997
From the casually classic debut e.p. "Autopia" which boasted four
effortless pop songs with the angularity of Elastica at their best and
the languid ease that comes from the knowledge that quality will out,
through the Kraftwerk cover from the "Never never" single and on to
the confident and stylish 3 minutes of exquisite guitar tuneage that
is recent single "Hurricane" the Warm Jets---name procured from a
Brian Eno LP, fact fans---have the class to worm their way into your
hearts and lodge themselves there for the duration. "I see us as
early Pink Floyd and late Beatles, a pop group but experimental" says
singer Louis, "the missing link in 1997". And he's not talking
Neanderthal Man, this is a forward-looking link, backed up by the
album "Future signs", to what might be if only a few more bands would
start thinking for themselves instead of taking their lead from the
boneheads who retro their way into the charts.
Backstage at the Cambridge Junction, on tour with the Wannadies and
West Pier, Paul (guitar) is in an expansive mood "..it's been great,
the bands are good, the Wannadies are very nice, they have rituals
though: burning Viking longboats in the sink, well, small models of
longboats, it's still pretty impressive" and the rest of the
band are very much into the idea of being interviewed by a Magic Robot
boardgame that generates Clint Eastwood-related questions. Which is
something of a relief. A fistful of answers from Paul, Louis, bassist
Colleen and drummer Ed.
What makes your day?
C: Sun.
L: Good paper that is..when it swung left I was surprised, but fair
enough.
C: Can I be really boring? Playing a good gig..
L: ..but that makes your night.
P: Playing a festival could make your day. Not being at the mercy of
mud and piss.
L: Yeah, not wetting the bed, that makes my day every morning..what a
glorious day, dry as a bone!
Who is unforgiven?
L: I know who's unforgiveable..
E: ..Phil Collins..absolutely unforgivable..
P: ..Prog Rock..
L: But what about early Genesis?
P: Even worse.
L: There's a few exceptions though..
P: ..King Crimson.
L: "Another green world".
P:..that's not prog.
L: But Collins plays on it.
Me: But one right doesn't forgive a whole career of wrongs.
Do you feel lucky?
P: Yeah..but I can't say why.
All: Hmm..
Me: Do you feel luckier with this band than your previous ones [Paul
was in Eat, Colleen was in the Pale Saints]? I mean, do you think you
can go further or be better or whatever your yardstick is this time?
P: I dunno..I think this is the..I don't know. I don't believe in luck
as such, but I think this band has made its own luck. It's a nice
outfit, friendly and amiable..people like us.
Which fairground attraction turns you into a Pale
Rider?
L: Anything fast..Rollercoasters, I don't even have to go on them, but
I'm generally Pale anyway..in fact tonight I'm the Pale Ale rider.
P: How about Eddie Reader?
L: Well she can come and have a go if she thinks she's hard enough.
Name the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
L: My mom, dad and brothers.
P: That's very deep, I didn't think this game would be quite so
therapeutic.
L: I feel much better now..although actually my dad's not "bad", he's
just baaaad.
E: I think we're good, but the bad and the ugly is Phil Collins.
L: So that's the Jets, the Collins and the Collins? You're really
having a go at him tonight.
E: Well he pisses me off.
What was your narrowest escape?
C: Escape from Alcatraz?
P: I was in that.
L: It's a horrible club isn't it? Southend. I'm not playing the
Alcatraz again.
E: Dundee, Lucifer's Mill.
P: That was a narrow escape..the gig was double-booked with
the 18th birthday party of two inbred cousins and all their mates had
come. Basically the gig was full of hillbillies..
C: ..puking up..
P: ..over the mixing desk and pulling the support band off the stage,
heckling, throwing things and fighting. At one point I went out and
the place was full of smoke and five people were beating each other
up..it wasn't much of a gig, but it was a great night! And when we
left a load of Scottish Nationalists tried to break into our bus,
they were shouting about William Wallace!
Do you talk to the trees?
C: I talk to the trees, but they don't listen to me..
P: Ah, from "Paint your wagon".
L: Was that a musical? I hate musicals!
C: But do you?
L: What? talk to the trees? Well, I talk with
marijuana...does that count?
It counts in our book, although he seems to do pretty well without it
as well. In fact the whole band completely fail to come across as
jaded and bitter at the industry as you might expect, having been
through the mill in other bands. It turns out they'd rather not have
to talk about their music all the time anyway, side-stepping the
hackneyed old faithful "we'll let our music do the talking" trap
with consummate skill: "they ask you all sorts of questions in Europe,
like what's your favourite comic? or what do you think of
disco?". For the record, Colleen is into Hate and old-school
Robert Crumb ("he's beginning to lose it now that he's moved to
France") and Paul thinks that disco is "Brilliant! it's one of the
greatest modern musical forms..it's like pure.." Sex? "..there is
that, but it's more abstract, like pure primal..stuff. And I like
that." And you'll all like the Warm Jets, not exactly primal sex, but
certainly a luxuriously-extended foreplay.
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