"We did a demo tape, sent them out, got quite a bit of interest from various indies - God knows why, we were so f***ing awful. Majors come down to our gigs and left after two minutes. Then we sent Robin (Guthrie) a tape, and eventually one reached 4AD. They took quite a while to decide about us, because at 4AD they like everyone at the place to be into a band. And Howard Gough who worked for them then, said 'This is the worst band I've ever seen. If you sign them I'm leaving the label.'
"Finally, after a few gigs, he grudgingly admitted that we'd 'Got a bit better' and then we were signed. Howard f***ing manages us now."
Lush have never exactly revelled in the sepulchral atmosphere surrounding 4AD.
"It still surprises me. I went round to Ivo's new flat once and he opened the door and there were these Gregorian chants coming off the stereo and I said, 'My God, you're such a f***ing cliché!' I dunno what I expected, turn up and find him playing The Bay City Rollers or whatever..."
Lush quickly dispelled the fragrant aura of winsome fragility that initially surrounded them. Ethereal, flame-haired Miki cusses like a footballer, and drinks above and beyond a sherry on Christmas Day. Were you initially regarded with a sort of holy devotion by fans and critics?
"We don't really get it much now but we did when we first started, all the time, it really pisses us off. 4AD does colour it's bands with some sense of artiness. If The Pixies had been, say, on Creation, no one would have thought of Black Francis as being particularly arty or intellectual. But once you've carved out your niche you're all right. I know that when we first started doing interviews, we'd get asked about our 'musical motivation' and all this sort of bollocks. That quickly evaporated and now they ask us about Tottenham Hotspur and we've got to do interviews like we're the Frank & Walters."
At one point, in 1990/1, Lush seemed to be ubiquitous, permanent weekly fixtures in the music press. The came "Spooky", extensive touring and the agonies and ecstasies of Lollapalooza. After The Scene That Celebrates label/stigma, perhaps it did them good to lie low over here, at any rate. Only now are bands like Chapterhouse and Slowdive peeping out of their bunkers, hoping to find acceptance in a new context.
Lush's new album, however, won't be out till 1994.
"It couldn't have been done any quicker," insists Miki, who after two big tours on the trot doesn't feel that Lush have been "lying low" at all. Er, will there be a change of musical direction on the new album?
"Naah. A lot will depend on who produces it but we'll have more to do with that this time. I mean, it's not gonna be drastically different. We got a lot of slagging with 'Spooky', people said, 'Oh, it's just more of the same'. But what did people expect? It's a bit weird to expect someone to change their musical direction completely. You can do it if you're U2, and you've sold a f***ing billion records, you've got the luxury and the money to take that sort of risk. There'll be an element of difference, but a band is always gonna sound like itself to a great extent, like New Order or The Cure. So no, we're not gonna make a rap record."
Lush will be showcasing some of their new stuff at the ICA Rock Week. How will they cope in this post-Riot Grrrl age?
"Oh God, f***ing hell, what an absoloute f***ing joke that was. All these bands taking themselves deathly seriously, talking about the f***ing revolution. Lighten up! I can understand people feeling all politically self-righeous when you're about 15, but a lot of these people playing it were a lot older than 15.
"If it inspires people to play, then great. I mean, we were inspired to start out not by bands that couldn't play but by bands that could. But when Polly Harvey gets called a 'gender traitor' for not declaring herself a feminist it gets a bit fascistic. They were like some Sun parody of the Loony left. 'Oh, you're wearing make-up, you must be on the other side.' F*** off! We used to be slagged off for not being Wendy James. Now we get slagged off for not wearing flat shoes and talking about feminism.
"It always bugged me that the people they were hardest on weren't the rapists, the porno merchants, the wolf-whistlers on building sites, but...other women in rock. PJ Harvey. Belly. The ones that made it."
Either them, or the timid liberals of the music press.
"Exactly. And they're not the people you get grief off. But yesterday, I went out on my own, and from start to finish I got hassle. I got these blokes leering at me on the bus, some bloke sitting next to me on a train following me off it, then I get to Brixton and I'm at traffic lights and this massive guy sidles up to me and whispers 'Very nice!' F*** off! Now I don't get that sort of grief from Chapterhouse fans."
Here are some more snippets about Lush from the 13-Year Itch story:
Lush "Gala" (Dec 1990):
Fairy tale success story followed a particularly excruciating Roberts review at The Oval Cricketers. Survived the scene that sedated itself with a nice line in Bukowski/Miller titles and much phototropic guitar. have a reputation as enigmatic reclusive hermits.
"Pretty soon the band's cosmic splendour enshrouds me like an interstellar womb, and I'm free-falling through a luscious amniotic void."
Jon Wiederhorn on Lush (and drugs??), 1992.
"They consistently effect a kind of dynamic narcosis, as if they're vigorously clambering through their songs, only unconscious."
Paul Lester on Lush, 1990.
"'Who's the ideal man/woman in 1989?'
'Flamethrower.'
'Flamethrower?'
'Flamethrower??'
'I thought somebody just said flamethrower. Didn't somebody just say flamethower?'
'No. Nobody here said flamethrower.'
'Oh hell.'"
Chris Roberts develops instant rapport interviewing Lush, 1989.
"I have a friend with an odd surname who saw Lush by accident and told me they were 'the ultimate Roberts band.' I have another friend who rents television sets and then emigrates every three months, but he hasn't seen Lush."
Roberts scales new levels of congruity, 1989.
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