This
is the full transcript of an interview between Nathan X and Little Stevie McCabe
which was being filmed for the forthcoming documentary on kiwi rock legend and
film-maker Ritchie Venus.
The pair toured th US in 1988 or thereabouts as "Venus & McCabe",
and LSM's "Rock'n'Roll Hound-Dog" album
was later dedicated to Venus.
Questions are by Nathan, answers by Stevie.
A: I may not be the young one very long. Ritchie's son may some day take over that mantle.
A: I just picked up my guitar one day and played. Just like Ritchie said.
A: A guy called Venus, yes that's quite a paradox. I just immediately thought, [sings] Hey Venus...! The spectre of a Venus in Furs also went through my head, but acouple of months of therapy soon dispelled that.
A: Hey didn't strike me at first, that only came much later. I guess he pretty much struck me as the archetypal hard life on the road all round rocker type, kinda sassy, kinda take me as I am. A real smooth-talkin' slicked back ready-for-action rock idol, right there in my living room.
A: It was a longer ride than you may imagine - we actually travelled from L.A. through to Boston via Las Vegas and Graceland (of course), then back with stops for Ritchie at New Orleans and the Alamo, and later to Mexico when the money ran out. We got a mixed response, but generally positive, some planned gigs fell through so we only played a couple of times, once on each coast.
A: No, it was a fairly chaotic time for both of us, what with gigs being scheduled, re-scheduled and then blown off completely. The states is a big place with a lot of small-time hustlers lookin' to make it big, always lookin' for the next big thing, and what that big thing may can change in the twinkling of a gig promoter's eye. But we had some good times, caught a few good acts, met up with Jello Biafra (now a converted Ritchie Venus fan) and so on.
A: We got stepped out of the bus and frisked on the way back from Mexico - Ritchie had gone off in some Tijuana taxi in the dead of night and came back with some prized switchblades, which are technically illegal stateside. Being Ritchie, he couldn't help playing with them all the way through Texas, and the lady in the seat in front of us heard him, and told the bus driver, who goose-stepped us outside, got us to assume the position and frisked us. Ritchie had managed to slip them away in time however, but I believe they were taken from him when we came back home, having been screwed down under the pickups of his guitar. As for me, I just passed out drunk a few times in bus stations and at some gigs.
A: On the East Coast, we met up with some college radio dudes I knew in Lowell, Massachusetts. They were pretty cool, stone broke waiting for big cheques from their parents, but they had free invites to every record release and radio promotion in town, so we always had stuff to do. On he west coast, we met up with some small time promoter in San Francisco who let us stay with him for a couple of weeks. The rest of the time we slept on the Greyhound, or occasionally we'd hole up in a cheap motel for a night or two. And when the money was running out, we crossed the border and lay low. Ritchie's a fairly thrifty guy, however, and he managed to stay on a few more days, ostensibly to see an upcoming Bob Dylan show.
A: Yes, excellent. Those Rock'n'roll parasites really know how to live.
A: I wouldn't call them glamorous, but we did some college radio shows which seemed to be pretty well received.
A: No. Jostled, yes, mobbed, no. But we didn't get robbed either.
A: Personally, no. Ritchie did, however meet his future wife and later the mother of his son, at the aforementioned Bob Dylan concert after I had left. In retrospect, I think Ritchie was on the prowl the whole time, the dirty dog, but I may be wrong on that count.
'Candy'
'You Don't Own Me'
'Forbidden Planet'
A: Memories of a wild-eyed kid trapped in a full-grown man's body. I truly believe Ritchie is unaware of the awesome power of his naiievity and freshness, and that Rebel Blood truly does run in his veins.
A: There's nothing more Ritchie appreciates than a good, raw rock'n'roll song, so I thought that writing him some songs would be the best way to show him my respect. He's like a Godfather to me, and he needs to be showed respect and paid homage, each as they can, in their own way.
A: I believe he tired of the name Ritchie Uranus and had it changed by deed poll, probably before I was born. In any case, he was Ritchie Venus long before I met him, and that's how he signs his cheques.
"Venus rhymes with penis, so that bothers me. It's a big fat male word when it's supposed to be feminine"
She was talking about a guitar she designed, she didn't name it that, but is there some weird connection between Courtney's guitar and our man Retch bubbling out from the psychic mucus?
A: First of all, I wouldn't analyze anything Courtenay Love said too deeply - After all she also reportedly said "I love you" to Kurt Cobain. If you want to extend her point, however, so to speak, you could just as well say "Presley rhymes with Leslie, an androgenous name which suggests someone who could be of either genre, or perhaps both." - but that doesn't make Elvis any less of a man.
A: Aside from the switchblades, he also had some comic books confiscated off him when he came back into the country. They were deemed 'pornographic' by the customs officials, and apparently involved barnyard animals. Having his heckles raised by this seeming outrageous injustice, he wrote to the Customs minister, I know because he asked me to attest to his character. He duly received an admonishing letter back from the minister and necer got his comics back.
Another one that springs to mind is his refusal to provide a copy of his thesis to the National Library for free on a matter of principal. He apparently ran a letter-writing campaign for several months which probably cost him more than his thesis cost to publish. I think this shows he is a determined man when his rebel blood is roused, and this kind of thing is bound to raise it.
He also tripped over his guitar lead and fell off the foot-high stage while duckwalking at the Boston gig.
A: I personally have only done one wedding, John and Alison's, although I have played plenty of after-match functions and parties, but I don't have any particular aversion to weddings. I believe Ritchie has been known to do a mean wedding however.
A: What can I say? Like Ritchie, Elvis represents the rebel in all of us. His rise to the top, and his tragic downfall (I'm talking about Elvis here), all the time doing it his own way is both an inspiration and a warning to the rest of us of what can happen in the wild world of rock'n'roll. I think we can learn a lot about how far talent and attitude can take you from examples such as these.
A: Yes, several times in Las Vegas.