PART TWO
MB: Did you have a name?
PM: We were the original White Stripes basically.
MB: (laughing) Oh really. And which one was the girl?
PM: Me obviously. Me... I was the girl. I had long blonde hair.
MB: (cracking up) Did you wear the short little skirts and everything?
PM: Yeah, but... I don't wanna talk about it.
MB: Oh right, sure, sure. Very sorry.
PM: We used to listen to bands like The Southern Death Cult and The Cure and sorta Hanoi Rocks... do you remember Hanoi Rocks?
MB: Of course.
PM: So we were like sixteen, seventeen, we looked pretty ridiculous. Pictures now... my Mom, when I get ya know... my girlfriend, ya know, I've got a girlfriend and my Mum always gets the pictures out and me... I'm like at a wedding and I said one day to my Mum... I said I'm only going to the wedding if you let me wear what I want to wear and wore leather trousers, Chelsea boots, a leather box jacket and I had my hair crimped and standing up.
MB: Alright! Fabulous.
PM: I was like seventeen. You should see the photo... I look like... me Dad's like got this suit and he's got his arm around me... it's fucking hillarious!
MB: That's fantastic.
RA: Not the kind of photos you wanna look back at.
PM: Nah, it's embarassing now. Well, I still look pretty ridiculous.
MB: Did you wear make-up?
PM: Oh yeah. I mean..
MB: Like black eye liner and...?
PM: We wouldn't go to the Seven Eleven without eyeliner on at eight o'clock in the morning!
MB: Right. Absolutely. Mark, what were you like as a kid?
MS: I was really nice.
MB: Were you? A nice young little gentleman?
MS: Everybody wanted to be me.
MB: (we both laugh) Oh okay. So, were you shy or...
MS: No, I was always very... I talked a lot.
MB: Oh, so were you like the class clown? Did you get in trouble much?
MS: No, I used to have like... I used to make sure I had really big friends when I was in school. (I laugh. Mark is very charming and funny) And then they used to go out and I used to be the dorky one and then, yeah, I was... eh, I wasn't very good at anything else apart from talking really. I was terrified of getting told off at school so I used to work really hard at that.
MB: So, you did get good grades then?
MS: Yeah, I got really good grades, yeah, I've put my education to really fantastic use. (He laughs. He really enjoys himself and his laughing is contagious... so I laugh too.)
MB: (to Dave Hill and Phil Payney) And what about you guys? What were you like?
DH: Uh, mischievous I would've said.
MB: "Yeah? Got in a lot of trouble?
DH: Yah, getting into trouble, but harmless trouble.
MB: Ya ever been arrested?
DH: No, not that kind of trouble, but kind of uh, more uh, life threatening trouble... like going through railway tunnels and uh, just getting into trouble you know...hurting myself. We used to blow things up-my brother was into chemistry. My brothers are both older than me and they used to beat me up a lot for being small and just cuz I was around annoying them. And my middle brother used to add chemicals to each other and destroy things. He blew me through the garden fence once and I lost my eyebrows and my whole fringe.
MB: You're kidding!
DH: He blew the kitchen window into the sink while my Mom was washing up.
MB: Oh, your poor Mom.
DH: Poor Mom? I was the one who got blown up.
(laughter)
DH: We kind of, what I always found was, me and my brother- my older brother is a lot older than me so he didn't really kind of... I can't remember him with... but my middle brother and myself... I think we smashed every window in the house... by various accidents. Yeah... he threw me through one, I pushed one of my neighbors through the back door, and a lot of things, really.
MB: Wow.
DH: Yeah, so mischievous.
MB: Yeah, I'd say so. And what about you Phil (Payney), you have anything to say?
MS: Not guilty (everyone laughs).
PP: Uh, I grew up on an adventure playground. Um, as you looked out my flats, there was just a big massive adventure playground where you could go and do whatever you like.
MB: A "what" playground?
MS: "Adventure"
PP: Adventure... it's like uh, it was run by play leaders... and ya know troubled kids could go and...
MS: A great field with a big swing in it.
PP: You could go and do pottery and engrave stuff.
MS: And teach you how to steal cars and stuff.
PP: Yah, teach you how to steal cars and stereos out of cars and...
MS: Payney was probably the... well, from what I've heard, probably grew up pretty um... how would you describe it Payney?
DH: He enjoyed it.
MS: Pretty uh, rebelious?
PP: The naughtiest one I guess, the one who got in trouble with the police the most.
MB: Oh? So you've been arrested then?
PP: Yes.
MB: It seems like people I keep meeting from London... guys.... that so many of them have been arrested it seems.
MS: I got arrested outside The Who once.
MB: Did you really? What for?
MS: For about twenty four hours.
(everyone laughs, except Phil Morris, who didn't hear him.)
PM: What did you do?
(Mark is too busy laughing to answer him.)
MB: Look at him laugh! He's cute!
(Someone says: "He always laughs at his own jokes.")
MB: That's good. (Once I control my laughing, I continue) No, what was it for though? What did you do?
PM: Apparently it's proper law... it's in the law that if you've got to go to the toilet and you're not allowed to piss in the street, remove a policemans helmet and piss in it.
MS: He has to offer his...
PM: He has to offer his hat. And that's the God's honest truth. God's honest truth. But that wasn't what he got arrested for.
MS: It was a case of mistaken identity. I was tippered. This friend of mine was waiting and he kicked the back of a policeman's car and all the lights broke and he ran off...and I was walking along in the background and he comes out and arrested me.
MB: Oh my gosh, wow.
(then a bunch of laughter insues as a loud blowing sound can be heard and everyone looks over at the noise, which is coming from Dave.)
PM: Oh Dave! (Dave has a napkin up his nose, as he is caught in mid blow) Go away when you blow your nose! (everyone is laughing now at poor Dave.)
PM: Why don't you show it to everyone like you did the last time.
DH: Oh, don't say that. Now what am I going to do? (he still has the napkin to his face.)
(more laughter and then his mates help him out a bit with the situation and there are a few "cheers" and Dave says thank you and there is another "cheers" and a "ta.")
MB: I'm really curious how you guys have stayed so completely positive and motivated with all of the problems that you've had with Creation and then Alan McGee and all of that hoopla?
(Brief note of the bands history for those who may not be as familiar with the story as others: they were originally signed to the much admired label Creation (which launched the careers of Oasis, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, etc.), which after a demo called The Barn Tapes and the first full length CD "Hillside", unfortunately Creation closed. They recorded again with McGee when he started up Poptones and produced the wonderful Bahama CD, however McGees second label folded as well. But not to worry... the current E.P. is I think some of their best work and they have by no means lost momentum.)
PM: We write songs about it.
MS: You want us to comment on that?
MB: Yah. I think I'd be bitter and angry and kind of, I dunno...
PM: I am! (he says playfully)
MB: Yeah?
PM: I really am. (still being a bit playful) I dunno... Saxby should explain really.
MS: Uh yeah, it's cuz we can't do anything else really. The band keeps writing songs and getting on with it, so we might as well just go on with it.
MB: That's so wonderful. You weren't totally devastated.
PM: Creation was the worst one. Cuz we'd been well looked after and we, I felt that we were be, ya know, quite successful. And for that whole leg to sort of fold up, without any real explanation was, uh, a bit of a low. The Poptones thing was slightly different really cuz we knew it was gonna be such a small label anyway and...I mean...
GK: We left before Poptones really closed so...
MB: Oh, okay.
PP: We walked from Creation as well...
(And now I got a bit of a verbal hand slapping from their very protective and somewhat fatherly figure manager, Graham.)
GK: I just wanna keep as much of the Creation stuff as not a part of the issue anymore. Cuz it's kind of behind us now and so, that's all.
MB: Yeah, that's understandable.
PM: Yeah, it was a bad time, but we're here now.
GK: We have a lot of interviews that talk about the Creation days and uh, I think it's been said. There's so much more going on with the band now that that's really where the focus is these days and uh, coming out of Poptones on a positive note and then moving on to this tour and then going back to London... I mean the energy is really high.
MB: Is the next CD going to be put out by Luckie Pierre? (That's Grahams management company, who had put out the current E.P.)
GK: Uh, it may be put out by us, it may be a conjunction with an English label as well. Uh, maybe with a US label as well, we just uh,... that's why this trip is real important to that part of the process. I mean Luckie Pierre will release whatever we can and on a large scale as with a CD... we are talking with people about that actually.
MB: Yeah, because I read in the press thing that um, a CD is expected in the fall...
GK: Well, we wanna keep these guys releasing stuff and there's no point in having it not being out there for the people and the distribution is gonna be the breakway for it and there's no reason why ya know, Luckie Pierre can't keep releasing stuff for them, but I think it's gonna be a conjunction with a major label here as well as uh, a major label in the U.K. Very shortly.
MB: Uh huh.
