Thee Teenage Vampire Interview

August 1996

Teenage Vampires
PO Box 10049
London SE15 1ZB
Contact: Sepas

TV: What were you doing before the Pop Rivets?

Billy: Well... I was I... left school when I was 16, then I went into the dockyards when I was 16, working in the dockyard, and then when I was... must have been about 17 I was in the Pop Rivets. So I went into there... just getting into punk rock.

Billy: The Milkshakes already sort of existed in some form, which was, like it was a group Mick started and they used to sort of do little supports with the Pop Rivets. And we sort of like, we changed to the group that I like better because me and him were both really into Rock N Roll and bored with punk rock and going so sort of techno (laughs) or whatever you call it.

Billy: Yeah, I played a bit of rhythm at

the very end cause like Mick, Bruce and Russ basically taught me how to play guitar.

Billy: Er....

Billy: Well, with the... I was really young in a band in the punk rock days when I was 17, I've not been a fan since then. So you know I found it really exciting to see all those... to see all the groups. Well I suppose gigs have become a bit more sparse, you know, and it goes through different phases you know, sometimes its more cynical. At the moment I think its probably... I like it better now than ever before with groups like Guaranteed Ugly. The hardest time was the Milkshakes, we were going right against the grain, because we were right in the middle of Spandau Ballet and people like that. We were the direct opposite. Then the Caesars was tough because nobody really liked the Caesars and we were working without even fans in the Caesars. And then the Headcoats has gradually turned around, and like, since the Caesars then going into the Headcoats, there's lots and lots of groups that we've influenced round the world with our crap music and there's a sort of much more healthy underground scene in crap R'N'B music.

Billy: Well they don't really copy what we do. I think we just inspired some other people to do the same thing. I mean we copied people all the time. It's not a matter of originality, it's a matter of doing it. And the most important thing is having all these little labels doing little vinyl releases and things. And that's sort of like, more like what punk rock should have been like and it's happening now. It's just that it's completely absolutely ignored by all the mainstream and all the...well... everybody really. The music press, everyone. The fact that there is a really healthy scene going on and it's all home made, and they just sort of like to write it off as retro.

Billy: Yeah, well that's probably one of our strongholds...the US and the west coast. And they sort of like, you know, and we get a much more positive response from everybody there. And they understand us in the context of what we're trying to do, rather than here people think that we wanna be like Phil Collins but are somehow failing.

Billy: They just came round and they wanted to record on the half track in my house. So we just did it! (hey I was just curious okay)

Billy: That's right, it went bust really.

Billy: No it was just sort of like, well it was done as a, it wasn't a commercial label. And the distributor was into it at first and then hated it and then they became much larger and they only wanted commercial...

Billy: They were Revolver and they changed into... I can't remember, they're a really big one now. And they were sort of like... can't remember who they are now. But they were very very petty and nasty about the label, because I didn't want to do CDs or turn into a commercial label. Now we do Hangman's Daughter and that's run on a slightly more commercial footing. But only... by most peoples standards completely un-commercial.

Billy: Well my influences when it was... It's really funny, my influences and what I actually listen to are totally different. My first influence, when I was a... would be the Beatles, when I was a kid. That's what I really liked when I was about three or four years old, and the Stones and the Kinks. And then the Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols, Clash when I was 17. But what actually really... I don't try and emulate any of those people. The stuff I'm influenced play wise is stuff like Bo Didley, Lint Ray. And another one, one of my greatest heroes is Jimmy Hendrix. But I don't sort of like have any... sort of like... don't try to be like (laughter all round) I don't wanna be like the Stones or anyone.

Billy: No it's not that. It's just that I can't fucking play guitar (laughter again - this time just me). My influences are really just sort of like home made music really. I really like Blues stuff. I got into the Blues being interested in Jimmy Hendrix when I was about twelve or thirteen, I was a big Jimmy Hendrix fan. And then I didn't like any of the 70s music, up until punk rock. And then I've not like music since then. And I've got... really after the punk rock is when I got into the good ol' rock n roll stuff and really good blues stuff. So I found out more about that... about music that I identified with more. The other stuff that inspired me when I was a kid, you know, like I think the Sex Pistols recording are awful, most of them, and I don't like much of the Beatle's output.

Billy: I listen to er... there's music... I think they're called Raggaas (???), it's sort of like Indian music that you then play according to the time of day. It's music for specific periods of the day. But it's just like the traditional Indian music, like with the, like the Sitar or Tablas or I like Flute as well. And that's what I listen to. Well I don't sort of sit and listen to it, I have it on, and that's what I enjoy cause I like...

Billy: Yeah I can't sort of stand any other form of background noise. I'd rather have silence. And if I specifically listened to something, then I'd put on some Blues stuff or... but that's very unusual. I don't really listen to music or... and I don't watch telly and I don't read papers or anything.

Billy: No I sit around... yeah I write a song or I write some poetry or I do some cooking. I really like cooking. Or I walk down to town and walk back just so like.... I don't go to gigs or anything like that, never have done since '77 or '78. I did spend about 10 or 15 years drunk as well but I don't do that any more either.

Billy: No, not for three years.

Billy: No I don't smoke. No I stopped about three years ago. I do everything... I'm totally straight with everything.

Billy: No I haven't been eating meat for quite a few years. It's also... It sort of changed with taking responsibility of things. That's why the music is a lot better now, it's not so slobby. The thing is when you're young and drink alcohol, it fires you up and you do more. When you're older and you're drinking alcohol, it turns you into a jaded old fool. And actually the energy is being sapped up by the beer. So the energy now, is sort of like, much stronger.

Billy: Oh definitely yeah.

Billy: I'm a painter and a writer. I've got a novel coming out in the summer.

Billy: It's called My Fault (or Michael or something ???... TDK tapes suck!!!) I've been writing that for about 13 years. And I've got a large selection of poetry coming out in America. Selected Poems '85 to '95. And that's coming out on Sympathetic Press in summer or autumn as well. And then a German translation is coming out this year as well.

Billy: I do readings occasionally yeah. I get invited now and then.

Billy: Yeah, I read a lot yeah. I'm reading Dostoyevsky at the moment, which I... I'm reading Crime and Punishment because I tried to read it about 4 or 5 times over the last 15 years but I always put it down cause I get so hacked off with all this fucking.... I can't work out who's who with all the names. But I'm getting on with that alright. Then I read Martin Eden which is a Jack London book which is sort of ok. I read it... you know... just an American geezer told me to read Martin Eden and I told him to read Hunger which is by Knut Hamsun. And Hunger is a really fucking good book and Martin Eden is ok. So I got the bad deal. I really like certain aspects of poetry and literature. I've been reading a lot of Walt Whitman, he's a poet... he's good. But it's sort of like, if you play music and then you talk to people about writing and literature, they sort of like think it's a load of poncey shit. And most of it is, but some of it is brilliant. It's the same as music, I mean, most music is a load of poncey shit, some of it is brilliant. And you just got to get... same as painting, cause I'm a painter as well, and you just sort of like, you just got to cut through all the bullshit and find the bit that you can relate to.

Billy: Since I was a kid. I paint all the time. Well, when I say all the time, every week.

What do you think of this Sex Pistols reunion thing?

Billy: Well I don't... I saw the Sex Pistols play in 77, their last gig in England I think, and I really wanted to like it cause I was big fans of theirs, and I made believe I did even for years after. It's only in the... it only came to in the last few year really what a pile of shit it was then, and it was pointless. So if it was pointless then, fuck knows what it is now. I mean these... John Lydon, who is someone I really admired when I saw him interviewed when I was a kid... I mean... he had a lot of energy and they were a really good rock n roll group for a while. But I think that they're very very cynical. Cynical as the stuff... and I mean cynical in the terms of all rock music. You know, like the stuff they come to push aside supposedly, or are reacting against, they are as cynical as. I don't mean cynical as saying like... people say I was cynical in my statement - I mean cynicism in action. Cynicism of fucking taking people to the cleaners and producing shit. You know, ego mania. Ego mania. Without any of that youthful charm that is so important, and the thing is you got that youthful charm in ego mania and by accident you can do something wonderful and creative. And then if you don't fucking learn and realize that what you should be actually dissolving is that ego mania, and going into the work and trying to include rather than exclude people, then you're into a major fuck up. And I mean like... I mean it is... It doesn't even bear me wasting words on really. I mean it's gonna be so awful isn't it.

Billy: It can not, it can NOT be good. I mean I'm in the milk... I was in the Milkshakes. We've done some little reunion gigs cause we wanted to. Not for any great amounts of money which we could have done. And we all felt the same, and we could play the songs the same and do them with the same spirit, and we had the same gear and we did it small, and we didn't do it, you know, through big PAs and shit, the way we always did it. And even... and that was pointless to a large degree. But if it was pointless when you do it really well, what's the fucking point when you know it's gonna be dog shit.

Billy: Well I saw a bit of Oasis on MTV when we were playing in... When we play abroad people put us in hotels and then we see television. And I saw that and I thought it's very lifeless and dull. But I didn't really hear much of it. But it seems sort of sub-Beatles. And Beatles at their worst at that, you know the worst period of the Beatles. Post Sgt Pepper. Cause I mean the Beatles, if they had anything, it was in the Star Club album and gradually it was dissolved until you got the Sgt Pepper. And you're getting very... they're firing on not many cylinders by my opinion. I mean yeah, great production techniques, but I mean like, fucking hell, so what.

Billy: Well I... I don't know... I don't agree with that . I agree that the... I mean the Star Club album is punk rock. It's as good as punk rock. But I heard Lennon in an interview once and he said all the best stuff they ever did was never recorded, you know, the gigs they used to do in the early days. He said that's when they were at their best. And this was when he was in prime Beatles, you know, like their most successful period. And he made that observation then, so obviously he had a little bit of intelligence, and I'd be inclined to say that he was right in his ...in his... in what he says.

Billy: We're supposed to be going in August. It's sort of like 90%. You know, we'll know we're going when we got the air tickets. But we're only going for a couple of dates up the West Coast and in Colorado.

Billy: We got a Jimmy Reed tribute album we did, like 10 inch with us doing his stuff over my gaf, that's coming out in America. We've got two of our best albums coming out, one on Hangman's Daughter and one on Birdman in America, and they're two of the best albums we done. We got two Headcoatees albums we're doing, which I don't know what they're gonna be like cause I haven't recorded them. And... what's that other one... We've done a Headcoats Sect album with the Downliner Sect which has got a couple of really good tracks on it. It's nowhere near as exciting for us as our own stuff though.

Johnny: (who has just joined us) I'm looking forward to hearing it.

Johnny: I haven't heard any of it so...

Billy: What? (The drums are pretty damn loud now)

Billy: Where? (see what I mean)

Billy: Lately we've been using ToeRag down in Bells Studio down the road. We either do it there or at home.

Billy: Probably. Probably a load of shit as well. (Laughter). But we're doing a... otherwise we record backing tracks in my house on the half track and then put vocals on down at the studio.

Billy: Well we did the Jimmy Reed album there. Then we took it down to the studio and dubbed the harp on it, cause Johnny plays lead guitar on this thing and harmonica. I mean... even though he's a clever little sod he ain't quite clever enough to... Johnny considers himself a wall of talent. (Johnny does the ooh you're embarrassing me [NOT!] laugh).

Johnny: Yeah, I'm taking up the cello as well.

Billy: He's a...Without him I'm nothing. Without him and Bruce. They're the wall of talent and I'm a... (to Johnny) what am I?

Johnny: Well I don't know. You're sort of... like...

Billy: Gibbering idiot.

Johnny: Yeah like the face...

Billy: I'm the good looking one. HA HA HAHAHA.

Johnny: HAHA HAHAHAHA. Well you got the hat.

Johnny: Not the hat though. (conversation turns to something about Billy's hat and someone mentions Downliner sect...)

TV: I heard you got your name from Downliner Sect cause they used to wear Headcoats.

Billy: Well, yeah, this is a mis-hearing on Bruce's part. Cause in one of the songs...er... Leader of the Sect, he's... cause... a deer-stalker is the stalk deers (!), like young ladies, and he has to get down on his knees cause this girls been hit by a bass guitar and she's dying. So he wants to show that he's sincere so he takes off his hat cause it was a deer stalker. But Bruce thought it said he took off his headcoat, it was a deer stalker. So we decided that dear stalkers were called Headcoats. So, and that's the story. But you have to take them off if you're trying... if you're pretending to be sincere to dying women.

Billy: HAVE FUN.