Zero Magazine Issue 2 by Mike Shaw

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Time To Make

Some

Noise… No-one gets out alive…

“All of us with nerve have played God on occasion, but when was the last time you created a generation? Two weeks ago maybe?” GENERAL ENQUIRIES Jazz Publishing, The Old School, Higher Kinnerton, Chester, CH4 9AJ, UK. Tel: 01244 663400 Fax: 01244 660611 info@jazzpublishing.co.uk

www.zeromag.co.uk EDITOR Sion Smith – editor@zeromag.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 Ext. 338 MOVIE EDITOR Mike Shaw – movies@zeromag.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 RADIO / CLUB EDITOR JJ Haggar – clubs@zeromag.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 REVIEWS EDITOR Kahn Johnson - reviews@zeromag.co.uk ART EDITOR David Gamble – design@zeromag.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 Ext. 313 PRODUCTION MANAGER Justine Hart – production@zeromag.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 Ext. 335 ACCOUNTS Emma McCrindle – accounts@jazzpublishing.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 Ext. 307 ADVERTISING MANAGER Arun Parmar – advertising@zeromag.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 Ext. 302 ADMINISTRATION Jan Schoﬁeld – jan@jazzpublishing.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 Ext. 319 Clare Wilson – clare@jazzpublishing.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 Ext. 324 SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES Katy Cuﬃn subscriptions@jazzpublishing.co.uk backissues@jazzpublishing.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 Ext. 320

Yeah – I wish I’d said it too, but I didn’t. It’s taken from the introduction to Jack Kerouac’s Desolation Angles by Seymour Krim, but I wish I had thought of it. It’s a good line. I’m impressed at the amount of mail we’ve had since the launch of the first issue. More to the point, I’m impressed by the contents of the mail. In a nutshell, it seems to me that there are a lot of people out there who feel it’s time for a change too. That’s good. I’m not sure if we’ll create a generation – that sort of shit was so much easier in the sixties – but let’s go with the flow. Hell, what else can you do? (I’d also like to point out that I’m guessing it was easier in the sixties – I’m not that freakin’ old). Some of the mail we received was from teenagers and some from ‘grown ups’, but even with my lousy math I can tell that at least 95% of it was positive about the direction we’re taking. Just don’t get complacent about it OK, keep it coming. Feedback is always good, and if we don’t agree with your comments, rest assured, it will get read before it goes in the bin. Enough of the small talk. I’m busy and I’ve only got a few weeks to figure out how the hell I’m gonna burn an X on my head for next months ‘bring your psyche to work’ day. Later

“I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.” Marilyn Manson, “Irresponsible Hate Anthem”

Cover Photography: Chiaki Nozu Covermount Illustration: Woody

Be cool to

each other…

PUBLISHER Stuart Mears – stuart@jazzpublishing.co.uk Telephone: 01244 663400 CONTRIBUTORS Tom Canning, Curt Evans, Simon Gausden, Andy Lye, John McMeiken, Johnny Messias, Clare O’Brien, Jack Rawstone, Katie Roberts, Dave Shaw, Louise Steggals, Rachel Wilson PHOTOGRAPHERS Scott Cole, Lee Garland, Chiaki Nozu, Tony Porter, Paul Townrow, Tony Woolliscroft.

SION SMITH – Editor This issue has been brought to you by Black Label Society Hangover Music Vol 6, Papa Roach Getting Away With Murder and Goo Goo Dolls Gutterﬂower.

PRINTING Warners Midlands plc DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Henry Smith – henry.smith@mmcltd.co.uk Telephone: 01483 211222

HAVING TROUBLE FINDING ZERO MAGAZINE IN YOUR NEWSAGENT? Please contact our distribution company for your nearest outlet 01483 211222 or log onto: www.mmcextranet.co.uk/queries.htm

ISSN No. 1747-4388 The views expressed in this magazine by the contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers. While every eﬀort is made in compiling Zero, the publishers cannot be held responsible for any eﬀects therefrom. Reproduction of any matter contained in Zero is prohibited without prior permission.

…HELLFIRE! DON’T MISS OUT…

SUBSCRIBE!

AND GET 3 ISSUES FOR £3! LOG ONTO www.zeromag.co.uk

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IVE S U L C EX

INSIDE

EVIEW R M U ALB 08

Oct 05 Issue 2 8

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

A bunch of stuﬀ to ease you in. Simple but eﬀective we thought…

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FROM RUSSIA WITH BLOOD Nightwatch. Remember the name. It’ll be on your lips for a long time. The greatest ﬁlm ever to come out of Russia is coming to blow you away.

SOUL SURVIVORS

STANDING IN THE SHOWER… THINKING

THE POINT MAN With a truly spooky storyline, we take a look at the low key release of R Point. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

REANIMATOR Tim Burtons latest foray into animation sees him come up with the goods in The Corpses Bride. Damn, this magazine is good fun to put together.

THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE Marilyn Manson. Icon? Hero? Controversial pot stirrer? All of those things. We rummage around to try and find out what makes the man tick.

INK SLINGER We like tattoos. How could we not! Guy Aitchison is one of the best out there. A gratuitous display of his work and some words to keep you clued in should suﬃce for now.

LIVE! The months top gigs in glorious technicolour. If you missed some of this stuﬀ, you need to get out more.

Letters from you people, responses from us people. The end.

BLACKOUT IN THE RED ROOM Following a great album release earlier in the year, INME have just laid waste to the UK on one of the best tours in ages. We spent the day in Brighton with them and the only disappointing part was that none of us got to go to the Dr Who exhibition. Maybe next time.

It’s always fantastic to stumble across a band you’ve never heard of that blows you away. Circa Survive are one such rarity.

SILVER BULLETS Silverstein are making serious waves in the USA. Get ready for the UK onslaught later in the year.

CACTUS MOUTH Talking of hard working men, Jizzy Pearl never stops gigging these days. This month, he gets his chance to rage against the machine.

DREAM COUNTRY A new book and a new ﬁlm sees Neil Gaiman, the hardest working man in literature, back in the limelight. Not for long though… back behind the desk tomorrow no doubt.

And so to the meat. With just days to go before their double appearance at the Carling Festival, we trapped My Chemical Romance in a corner for a bit of a grilling.

THE TOWER OF BABEL Wayne Hussey is back in town with the release of the new Mission DVD in his lap and a UK tour on the horizon.

CHEMICAL BURNS

OUR CURRENT OBSESSION The stunningly gorgeous Cristina reveals all as Lacuna Coil ready themselves to take on the world.

ILLEGAL ALIEN More wanton tales of destruction from the road as Dean Walker seeks fame and fortune in LA.

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THE GODFATHER Jim Phillips is a god. There is nobody who could say he didn’t deﬁne a generation – we take a good look at the artwork that inﬂuences almost every skateboard design you see today.

A BIT ON THE SIDE A side project that rocks? That’s right. Chris Shiﬂett of the Foos takes a break…

RAZORBLADE SUITCASE Backyard Babies ﬂy into the country for a swift gig and a drink or two. We thought it would be a bit a chuckle to meet them at the airport and see what happened…

THE CITY OF ANGEL If you’ve never seen Criss Angel in action, you’re missing out on one of the most spectacular performers of the last 20 years. Read it and weep pretenders to the throne.

MAVERICK GENIUS OR UNHOLY RACKET? Martin Grech. Under-rated and over talented. We love him.

BIG TOUGH MEN Part two of the Zodiac Mindwarp epic exclusive to Zero. Man, it just gets worse!

STREETS OF FIRE From Frodo to street ﬁghting. Elijah Wood takes on his most challenging role to date.

CLUB SODA Yup.. out again into the big wide world of drinking and jiving. Hard life.

AIR SUPPLY Continuing our look at the world according to the jocks. Radio just gets better and better.

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DEADTIME STORIES A little career perspective on quite possibly, the zaniest man in the world. Ladies and Gentlemen: Eric Pigors.

BEAR WITH A SORE HEAD Is Billy Bob Thornton oﬀ the scale or what? Can we resist printing some pictures of Angelina Jolie just because we can? Maybe…

MUSCLE OF LOVE With Alice Cooper coming up for another round, we started talking and wondered, yeah, just what the hell did ever happen to Kane Roberts…

100 BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL Ex Catherine Wheel mainman Rob Dickenson releases what, quite frankly, is a masterpiece of songwriting in the shape of his ﬁrst solo album. Figured we’d ask him a few questions.

104 HARDWARE Gotta love it! The BC RICH Zombie is yet another string in their already powerful bow. Check out those curves!

108 EAR CANDY A bunch of bands send in their stuﬀ, we listen, we comment. You buy it or don’t buy it. That’s kind of the way it works...

120 EYE CANDY From the big screen to the very small screen – we watch, we wait, we learn... movies! Loads of them!

130 BRAIN CANDY The lost art of interpreting strange symbols printed on a page is rediscovered!

130 HAND CANDY OK, so the saying doesn’t exist per se . . . but it does now. The awesome PSP gets a road test.

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METALLICA TO SUPPORT THE STONES

News ✭ Gossip ✭ Stuﬀ ✭ Views

ROCK IN A HARD PLACE HARD ROCK INTERNATIONAL WILL BE MOVING FROM ITS ORIGINAL LOCATION ON 57TH STREET TO OCCUPY THE FORMER SITE OF THE HISTORIC PARAMOUNT THEATER. AS PART OF THE MOVE, HARD ROCK WILL BE TRANSFERRING MUSIC MEMORABILIA FROM ITS UNPARALLELED COLLECTION, INCLUDING PRICELESS PIECES FROM THE BEATLES, LED ZEPPELIN, NIRVANA, BILLY JOEL, THE RAMONES AND ELVIS PRESLEY. artifacts that can be seen in this space are truly breathtaking for music fans." Even Pete Townshend will be impressed by this guitar smash! Traditionally, Hard Rock executives smash a guitar or two at the opening of a cafe. However, Hard Rock has decided to make its grand entrance by smashing 100 guitars, creating the World's Largest Guitar Smash on the world's greatest stage, Times Square. On Friday, August 12, more than 100 Gibson guitars will be smashed simultaneously outside the new home of Hard Rock Cafe New York, signaling its official opening. Members of the Hard Rock family will be joined by several New York notables and celebrities, including Steven Van Zandt and Brian Wilson, for the guitar smash, a moment that will go down in rock history. For each guitar smashed, Hard Rock will donate a new guitar to Peace Games, extending the influence of music to the masses. Rita Gilligan, one of the original servers from the 1971 opening of the first Hard Rock Cafe in London, will be leading this historic smash.

The new Hard Rock Cafe New York will officially open at its new location at 1501 Broadway upon the smashing of more than 100 Gibson guitars, branding the moment as the World's Largest Guitar Smash. The historic guitar smash and opening of the Times Square cafe will kick off a month-long celebration, which will include rockin' concerts and special events, as well as a grand opening party, featuring a live performance by super group Velvet Revolver. The grand opening celebration will benefit Peace Games, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the trend of violence in the U.S. by teaching children to become peacemakers in their schools and communities. “Relocating the New York Cafe to Times Square is an important strategic initiative," said Hamish Dodds, president and CEO, Hard Rock International. “Hard Rock Cafe New York will bring high energy dining, live music and exciting entertainment events to New Yorkers and visitors alike, with the rock n roll passion that has made Hard Rock world famous.” “The memorabilia being featured in the new Hard Rock Cafe New York includes some of the most valued and treasured pieces of rock history,” adds Dodds. “The doors to the Beatles’ Abbey Road Studios, Elvis’ tuxedo, hand-written lyrics by Jimi Hendrix, guitars cherished by legends, including Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, and more contemporary items, including stage costumes worn by Madonna and Gwen Stefani -- the rock

THE GRAND OPENING A PARTY TO REMEMBER! The grand opening celebration, scheduled for Saturday, September 17, will include a rockin' benefit concert, featuring music superstars Velvet Revolver. With the band's top-selling album Contraband and hit-single "Slither," Velvet Revolver is ready to rock one of the world's most historic stages, joining such greats as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and The Beatles. That evening, Reverend Run, from the legendary hip-hop group Run DMC, will make a special appearance for the official dedication of the New York Room at the new cafe. Run will donate his trademark cape, hat and collar to Hard Rock, which will be permanently displayed in the New York Room. The party will also feature music from New York's hottest DJ, Mark Ronson, who will be rocking the turntables throughout the night.

Metallica are returning to the days of support slot performances. The legendary metal band will support the Rolling Stones at two dates in San Francisco this Nov. Conﬁrming the support slot, the band wrote on their website: “After taking three weeks oﬀ we thought it might be fun to play a few small intimate gigs so we called up our close personal friends, the Rolling Stones, to see what they were up to... turns out that they are doing a stadium tour of North America! Nah - seriously, last week we were honoured to share the stage with them in our home town”. “After having the thrill of playing with some of our most personal heroes such as AC/DC, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden and Ozzy, how could we say ‘no’ to the quintessential rock band, who are in some way responsible for all of this? These two shows are about nothing more than having fun and playing music... nothing to sell, nothing to promote, nothing to talk about... no fuckin’ agenda at all. Simply put, this is the reason we started a band 25 or so years ago, and we are psyched and appreciative of this awesome opportunity to get c racking again”. Metallica are one of a diverse selection of bands who will be supporting the Stones – the list also includes Pearl Jam, Black Eyed Peas, Joss Stone, Beck and Maroon 5.

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Collective Soul Album Sales of their Indie ‘Youth’ album now approaching 200,000 copies INDIE AND PROUD OF IT, COLLECTIVE SOUL ARE CLOSING IN ON SALES OF 200,000 WITH THEIR SIXTH STUDIO ALBUM YOUTH, RELEASED ON THE BAND’S OWN EL MUSIC GROUP.

Following the top 5 success of Counting The Days on the Mainstream Rock chart, the band’s new single Better Now had a Top 5 chart position on Triple A radio and is currently surging into the Top Ten on the Hot AC chart. With pointed lyrics by frontman Ed Roland like “The world’s done shaking me down” and shot through with tough guitar riﬀs, Better Now embodies the band’s ﬁerce independence

and creative rejuvenation. With over 10 million records sold, 2000 live shows performed and seven #1 singles, Collective Soul began on an independent label with their debut album Hints, Allegations And Things Left Unsaid, later released by Atlantic Records in 1994 and achieving triple-platinum status. For Collective Soul – founders Ed Roland (vocals/guitars/keyboards), Dean Roland (guitars) and Will Turpin (bass/percussion) along with Joel Kosche (guitars) and Ryan Hoyle (drums) – the decision to return to an independent label was “an entirely conscious one,” says Ed. Since the release of Youth, Collective Soul

have continued to tour America, performing shows highlighted by their pure rock energy and inspired songcraft, not to mention their deep connection with their fans. Next on tap for Collective Soul: the early 2006 release of a CD and DVD of their April 23 and 24 Atlanta hometown performances with the Atlanta Youth Symphony on their El Music Group. This orchestral musical setting enabled the band to reinterpret such Collective Soul classics as Shine, December, The World I Know and Precious Declaration – all songs that the group now has the rights to rerecord and give new life to. www.collectivesoul.com

ULTIMATE ROCK‘N’ROLL WEEKENDER

Maximo Park, Editors and The Features rock UK fans in Nashville.

Right: Maximo Park Far Right: Editors Below: The Features

If Mr Jack Daniel was alive today, September would be his 155th birthday. His legacy lives on through his whiskey and also through The JD Set – a series of one-oﬀ gigs, held at unusual locations. This year’s birthday celebrations will see Maximo Park (2005 Mercury Music Prize nominees) Editors and The Features, three of the most exciting bands around at the moment, joining forces on stage for a one-oﬀ gig in America’s music capital, Nashville, Tennessee. Maximo Park, Editors and The Features will all play on Saturday 17th September for a small crowd of competition winners from the UK. Those lucky enough to get hold of a ticket will be treated to a tour of the Jack Daniel’s distillery,

the Devil’s Playground tour Billy Idol ﬁnally conﬁrmed his UK tour this week. Joining Idol for these dates are long standing guitarist Steve Stevens, the inimitable Brian Tichy on drums, bassist Stephen McGrath and keyboard player Derek Sherinian. The set will feature a mixture of old favourites including Rebel Yell and Eyes Without A Face together with new material from the critically acclaimed Devil’s Playground. November 2005 Friday 11th London – Brixton Carling Academy £27.50 0870 771 2000 Sunday 13th Manchester – Carling Apollo £25.00 0870 401 8000 Monday 14th Glasgow – Barrowlands £25.00 0870 400 0688 Tuesday 15th Wolverhampton – Civic Hall £25.00 01902 552 121 Tickets on sale now!

an authentic Southern barbeque and tickets to the exclusive JD Set. Not only that, but in true JD Set style, the audience will also have the opportunity to rub shoulders with the bands after they’ve played. Jack Daniel’s, whose association with music goes way back to 1892 when Mr Jack started his silver cornet band, promises a once-in-a-lifetime weekend to remember. Fans of Maximo Park, Editors and The Features will be able to win tickets through the Jack Daniel’s JD Set website and competitions in the media. The JD Set birthday extravaganza is the tenth in a series of successful one-oﬀ gigs. Previous bands include: Hal, Funeral for a Friend, Jet, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Elbow, The Cooper Temple Clause, Turin Brakes and last year’s birthday headliners, The Flaming Lips. 2005’s birthday celebrations promise to be just as unmissable, with a triple bill of Maximo Park, Editors and The Features.

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NINTENDO FUSES WITH FALL OUT BOY

Moore’s Vendetta:

THE 2005 NINTENDO FUSION TOUR KICKS OFF ITS TOUR ON SEPTEMBER 28 IN DETROIT, AND WILL PLAY NEARLY 40 OTHER U.S. DATES BEFORE THE TOUR WRAPS UP ON NOVEMBER 23. Each venue on the tour will be outfitted with video game stations, where concertgoers can check out new Nintendo products like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Nintendo GameCube, the hot new Game Boy Micro and games for the hot-selling Nintendo DS. “We're giving both music and video game fans an incredible fusion of entertainment,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. Fall Out Boy headlines the tour, and joins other bands The Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack, Boys Night Out and Panic! At the Disco. Fall Out Boy's new album, From Under the Cork Tree, has recently been certified gold since its release two months ago. The first single, Sugar,We're Going Down, has been racing up the rock charts, while the video has been getting heavy play on MTV, including a No. 1 rank on TRL. Chicago's favorite sons have come a long way since their indie debut on Fueled by Ramen Records in 2003. "We've been fans of Nintendo since the days of Excitebike and Kid Icarus," said Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy. "We are excited to be a part of the Nintendo Fusion Tour because of the diverse offerings it gives our fans. While they check the bands out, they also get the chance to check out some new video games. Besides, we have all always been video game nerds anyway."

FIREFEST2 THE SECOND FIREFEST FESTIVAL TAKES PLACE AT NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26TH. THE LINEUP COMPRISES SARACEN, POWER QUEST, BALANCE OF POWER, BLUE TEARS, VAUGHN, DANGER DANGER, HAREM SCAREM AND HOUSE OF LORDS.

Some will be familiar to fans of melodic hard rock while others may be new to many fans out there – but all in all it is a line up that proudly represents a healthy blend of old and new. The festival also moves ‘home’ with Firefest 2 moving to a more central

location in Nottingham Rock City one of the premier rock venues in England and has played host to Whitesnake, Motorhead,Y&T, Skid Row and many more besides. In fact, if you care to trawl through the annals of rock, it's evident that more melodic and hard rock bands have played this venue more than any other venue in England. The move should make Firefest 2 more accessible to the vast amount of people traveling and bearing that fact in mind it's also possibly one of the best venues to attend a live show. Full ticketing details will be available early next week, but as always tickets can be purchased directly from the promoters via paypal using the fireworks.mag@ ntlworld.com e-mail address.

. . . like Zorro only with more fascists

The last two ﬁlms adapted from Alan Moore graphic novels (From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) turned out to be a little bit .. well, shit – but the next title of his on the Hollywood hit list looks set to change that trend. V for Vendetta, the ﬁlm that Natalie Portman has gone all refugee-chic for, focuses on V, a masked vigilante conducting guerrilla warfare against the Government in a post WWIII fascist Britain. Charismatic as well as exceptionally skilled in the art of combat and deception, V ignites a revolution and urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. Starring Hugo Weaving as V, and with Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers involved, this has the potential to be awesome… and Stephen Fry’s in it, which is never a bad thing. V for Vendetta is released on November 3.

MOORE COMMENTS ON V FOR VENDETTA

Alan Moore gave some details about bits of the V For Vendetta shooting script he'd seen. "It was imbecilic; it had plot holes you couldn't have got away with in Whizzer And Chips in the 1960’s. Plot holes no one had noticed." What Moore found most laughable however were the details. "They don't know what British people have for breakfast, they couldn't be bothered. 'Eggy in a basket' apparently. Now the US have 'eggs in a basket,' which is fried bread with a fried egg in a hole in the middle. I guess they thought we must eat that as well, and thought 'eggy in a basket' was a quaint and Olde Worlde version. And they decided that the British postal service is called Fedco. They'll have thought something like, 'well, what's a British version of FedEx... how about FedCo? A friend of mine had to point out to them that the Fed, in FedEx comes from 'Federal Express.' America is a federal republic, Britain is not." David Lloyd was reported to have commented on the script at the recent Bristol comics convention. Superherohype posted a fan report talking to Lloyd, saying "he thinks it was very good for an Action Thriller, but is very much diﬀerent from the Graphic Novel. He said that the character of Evey is less of a victim in this ﬁlm and that he had met with The Wachoski Brothers." He has also publicly disassociated himself from the upcoming Warner movie and as a result, he has cut his remaining ties with DC Comics, including future volumes of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Moore has promised future League comics will be published by a US/UK collaboration between Top Shelf and Knockabout.

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LIT UP AGAIN

BUCKCHERRY ARE BACK AND READY TO ROLL ALL OVER YOUR ASS! WE’RE PERSONALLY ABSOLUTELY STOKED TO HAVE THE GUYS BACK  THEY HAVE A NEW TRACK AVAILABLE CALLED CRAZY BITCH OVER AT MYSPACE WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ BUCKCHERRYWORLDWIDE. The band performed a secret show in LA last week as a warm-up for their upcoming festival appearances in Japan at SummerSonic. Appearing under the name ‘The Cherry Brothers’ they performed new and old material for an action packed 90 minutes. The secret show details were leaked online and the place was packed to the rafters. The new lineup includes former Ju Ju Hound Jimmy “Two Fingers” Ashhurst. While your hunting down that track at myspace, whip over to itunes and search on the pulse where Josh and Keith talk about the new album.

TWIST AND SHOUT

Scrubs GIVEAWAY

Guaranteeing the perfect dose of comedy, wit and bedside bad manners, Scrubs Series 2 is released for the ﬁrst time ever onto DVD from 12th September. UK Scrubs fans will go weak at the knees for this fabulous special edition four-disc DVD box set which features all 22 episodes of the second, Emmy award-winning series. Fix your funny bone with never before seen bonus features, including interviews with the cast, behind the scenes action and exclusive deleted scenes. Weirder, wittier and a little bit sicker than the ﬁrst time around – don’t miss the second series of this side-splitting cult comedy when it is released onto four disc DVD from 12th September 2005. We’ve got 10 copies of the brilliant second series of Scrubs to get rid of! Simply drop us your name and address to SCRUBS, ZERO, The Old School, Higher Kinnerton, Chester CH4 8AJ. Entries to be in by August 31st please.

A show Twisted Sister’sDee Snider performed at a Pennsylvania high school will be recreated for an MTV special. A few months ago, Snider made an impromptu appearance at the school after hearing that it planned to prohibit student rock bands from performing because of fears that “slam-dancing” might cause injuries. Snider sang “We’re Not Gonna Take It” with a student band, and the controversy will reportedly be featured in an MTV special called High School Stories. Meanwhile, Dee is serving as the concert host for the Sauza tequila-sponsored “Live All Summer” battle of the bands tour, which aims to bring “music back to the stage and into the hands of rockers across the U.S”. The battle of the bands tour, which kicked off July 13 at The Hard Rock Café in San Francisco, is rolling across six US cities this summer - Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Fla., Phoenix and San Francisco - staging a head-to-head contest between local bands. The tour will culminate with the winning band from each city competing for a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to open for the Virgin Records’ EXIES or Capitol Records’ OK GO!. In addition to the battle of the bands competitions, Sauza’s “Live All Summer” promotion has the brand partnered with EMI and iriver to help consumers take home the music they want to hear with the latest and greatest gadgets. Available on specially-marked bottles of Sauza tequila and through scratch cards distributed at local nightclubs and bars, consumers will find special codes allowing them to download music from EMI artists free from the Sauza tequila web site. Additional contests will put 200 MP3 players from digital audio pioneer iriver in the hands of lucky consumers. Entries will be accepted via www.SauzaTequila.com and through mail-in entry forms available at local retail stores where applicable. “The Sauza brand has launched its most ambitious promotion to date,” stated Jonathan Yusen, Sauza brand director, Allied Domecq Spirits, North America. “The ‘Live All Summer’ program includes numerous on- and off-premise events and a through-the-line campaign. Through music and technology, ‘Live All Summer’ reaches key tequila markets during Sauza’s hottest selling season.”

Chance of a lifetime:

Ozzy Osbourne is looking for a guitar player to write his next studio album with. All interested parties should send a package showcasing their guitar skills to: Ozzy Osbourne Guitar Player P.O. Box 5249 Beverly Hills, CA 90209

Creature Feature

The universe loves pure rock ‘n’ roll bands and will open its arms to welcome the long-awaited Beautiful Creatures album Deuce on August 23, 2005. This is the band’s first release for Spitfire Records. Deuce is a full-blooded hard rock/heavy metal album full of in-your-face attitude and punchy, blast-furnace songs. The first single from Deuce will be Anyone. The album also includes Thanks, Freedom, Unforgiven, Save Me, Empty, Never, Super Fly, Straight To Hell, The Unknown, Ton Of Lead, Brand New Day and I Won’t Be The One. Deuce, which was produced and mixed by Focx, is Beautiful Creatures’ second album. It’s been four years since its self-titled debut was released. The record company shakeups and band member changes that happened shortly after that would destroy lesser bands. Not Beautiful Creatures. Beautiful Creatures’ vocalist Joe LeSte (ex Bang Tango), rhythm guitarist Anthony Focx, lead guitarist Mark Simpson, bass guitarist Kenny Kweens and drummer Timmy Russell are excited about the return of the band. “It took a long time to complete Deuce because we didn’t want to have any throwaway songs on it,” LeSte says. “It’s a very well-rounded album and we’re very happy with it. We’re all focused and have a very positive attitude.” “We’re all about perseverance,” he continues. “You have to remember that when our first album came out, there was no Darkness or Velvet Revolver, and we endured being a ‘rock band.’ Yet we played with Kiss, then we played on Ozzfest and got a great reception and then toured for another year.” The rabid, overwhelmingly positive reaction Beautiful Creatures received from its early fans even exceeded what the veteran members had experienced in their previous bands. LeSte was the lead vocalist with Bang Tango and Simpson (a new addition to the band along with Russell) was the lead guitarist with Flotsam & Jetsam, but Beautiful Creatures sounds nothing like them. “Beautiful Creatures is a gang,” LeSte says. “We’re a team. We put our heart and soul into everything.”

What the hell have you got to lose…

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San Francisco Rocks JUMPING OFF THE GOLDEN GATE FOR KICKS… Please excuse me if my breath smells like bile, but I’ve been having some very metal nights, and the drink has me by the short and curlies, yet again. Let’s jump in feet ﬁrst, shall we? Local Bay Area thrash legends converged on the San Francisco’s Pound club and laid waste on the aural cavities of legions of countless drunken metal soldiers. Easy, stomach, easy. Pardon. The Pound unfolded it’s gates out into the parking lot, cause you can’t keep the metal indoors when it’s this huge. When locals got together a couple of year’s back to split craniums and give dough to the cancer recovery of Death’s Chuck Schuldner and Testament’s Chuck Billy, not only was the show of solidarity of this community heart-warming, but literally every O.G. thrash band that this tortured mind could list climbed up on that stage and made history. Well, again local need calls and again, metal rises to the occasion. Thrash Against Cancer. http://www.thrashagainstcancer. com put this show on to raise money for families decimated by

cancer taking the lives of their children, and a worthier cause, one would have to hunt hard. All original members of TESTAMENT headlined the fest, with HIRAX, VICOUS RUMOURS, AGENT STEEL, BROCUS HELM, KAOS, NEIL TURBIN’S (O.G. member of Anthrax) DEATHRIDERS, and a host of other thrash gods poured their souls into this show. Most noteworthy was the full throttle assault that recently reunited

LAAZ ROCKIT inflicted on us all. Between the charisma of Michael Coons and the sheer exhubrance of fun that bassist Willie Lange projected to the crowd, sound difficulties and hair props, this band crushed! I can’t tell you how amazing it is to hear a band that literally hasn’t played together for over 15 years, reform and put on one of the most brutal sets that I can remember of any band, past or present. No bullshit, this band proved it’s mettle (no pun intended) and had fists raised and the whole crowd chanting “City’s Gonna Burn!” You could tell, everyone that was there will admit that this band took the show, hands down. Testament was amazing, as usual, with surgical precision, ripped through the classic Testy tunes, and had everyone longing for the past. When you see bands like this, all of them, you realize what the Bay Area had and has to shape the metal world community.

Shared many pints o’ Guinness at the annual gathering of fans of legendary band THIN LIZZY, to pay tribute to it’s fallen leader, Mr. Phil Lynott. Local rockers Eric Lannon (former drummer of bands Mordred, American Heartbreak and Bay City Rollers) and Craig Behrhorst (Ruffians, Trouble Horse and Two Bit Thief ) threw the event and God bless Thin Lizzy for being there for us, when we needed them most. It was also to commemorate the unveiling of the statue in Phil Lynott’s honor, which is to happen on August 20th, 2005, which would have been Phil’s 56th birthday. Everyone drank 3 dollar pints of the dark stuff till the blarney was flyin’. Speaking of local metal, RUFFIANS reformed recently, as well, and are re-releasing their original LP with tons of demos, live tracks, picture galleries, live video track from last year’s, BANG YOUR HEAD Festival and much more on a double disc produced by Old School Metal Records. Classic Bay Area power metal. Fall tour for those guys start in Lubeck, Germany on August 28th.

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WWW.COHEEDANDCAMBRIA.COM

23/8/05 15:07:36

ZERO

ZERO HOTTER THAN HELL

More irrelevant hot-lists from the staﬀ at Z – like you give a toss what we think is good…

Sion Hot stuff: The Waltham album (you’ll see), candyappleblack, INME and Tiger Balm Cold stuff: The sea in Brighton, my broken finger and people who outstay their welcome. Rediscovered stuff: Mother Love Bone’s Apple, Fosters Ice, The Almighty and driving within the speed limit. Looking forward to: The Legend of Zorro (still!) and Twisted fucking Sister. Guilty pleasure stuff: Starbucks muffins and smoking more than I should.

Mike Hot stuff: Lost, and bonus episodes of The Sopranos. Cold stuff: Cricket. Zzzzzz….Unless you’re dead, or Australian, turn it off! Rediscovered stuff: Catcher in the Rye – rock the system! Looking forward to: Shore leave and our hardcore launch party. Guilty stuff: Plans to watch McFly and Girls Aloud, answering the phone as Jack Bauer.

Kahn Hot stuff: Dogs, Lacuna Coil, Juliette and the Licks, Razor Babies, Scarlett Johansson. Cold stuff: Summer Weather, James Blunt, getting woken at 4am by my cat. Rediscovered stuff: LA Guns, Great White, Cheap Trick, Newlydeads. Looking forward to: My long overdue holiday in Singapore (two months to go). Guilty stuff: Cigarettes (sixth attempt to quit and counting).

Louise Hot stuff: Tokyo Dragons, Mezmerize, my new car and cheese on toast. Cold stuff: Rain, my 2 year old’s destructive streak (“Back away from the X-box!”). Rediscovered stuff: Futurama (all hail the 15 disc box set), Peanut M&M’s. Looking forward to: Eagles of Death Metal on tour with the Foos, and a hot shower (festival camping sucks ass!). Guilty stuff: Stealing bands beer at festivals and my mum doing all my housework.

John Hot stuﬀ: Sony PSP, the awsome Waltham CD & The Mission DVD & Tour. Cold stuﬀ: Hangovers from hell & lack of sleep

Rediscovered stuﬀ: U.F.O - The Wild, The Willing and The Innocent, The Mission – Salad Daze and Vampire Hunter D on DVD. Looking forward to: X-Box 360, Half Life 2 on X-box, Kung Fu Hustle on DVD. Pleasure stuﬀ: 10 Fishcakes (with Brown sauce), drinking Jack Daniels with fruit twist.

Simon Hot stuff: My 60GB iPod, Jaguar’s X-Type “Sports Premium” and Motorola’s V3 Raza Neon. Cold stuff: Reality TV, Arsehole and the final, but crap, episode of Star Trek’s Enterprise. Rediscovered stuff: 3rd Rock From The Sun Boxset and Monster Magnet. Looking forward to: Delivery of my brand new Jaguar and show on ARFM (9pm – midnight), weekends – on SKY 913 & www.arfm.co.uk (is that a plug? Ed). Guilty pleasure stuff: Duran Duran’s remastered “Arena”live album and ‘lairy’Pink Floyd “Hawaiian”shirts!

Andy Hot stuff: Volbeat, Candlemass and the L.A. Guns’new album (you heard me). Cold stuff: Iron Maiden’s appalling touring decisions and Sheri Moon’s performance in The Devil’s Rejects. Rediscovered stuff: Bruce Dickinson’s Balls To Picasso and Mr Kipling French Fancies. Looking forward to: Dio’s Evening With tour and Rob Zombie’s new album Guilty stuff: The Essex Cricket Festival (WTF? Ed!)

Katie Hot stuff: New HIM single, The Apprentice USA, new kittens. Cold stuff: Music TV, the weather. Rediscovered stuff: The first two Placebo albums: I'd forgotten how good they are. Looking forward to: Autumn and Nightwish at Hammersmith Apollo. Guilty pleasure stuff: Blogging and Jaffa Cakes.

Jack Hot stuff: Mountain Dew, it is ace. Cold stuff: Mezcal Tequila, the rough stuff. Rediscovered stuff: Men Without Hats – Safety Dance (We must talk. Ed.) . Looking forward to: All female students coming back to town. Guilty stuff: Tokyo Marui fully automatic, electric Steyr AUG rifle.

For the diary: The awesome Circa Survive hit the UK this month along with Motion City Soundtrack and Copeland. Unmissable dates for the diary are: Fri 16th September Academy 3, Manchester Sat 17th September Barﬂy, Cardiﬀ Sun 18th September Bar Academy, Birmingham Mon 19th September Zodiac, Oxford Wed 21th September Joiners, Southampton Thurs 22nd September Islington Academy, London Sat 24th September Cockpit, Leeds Sun 25th September King Tut’s, Glasgow

Good scan/Bad scan?

Richard Linklater’s adaptation of sci-ﬁ supremo Philip K. Dick’s novel A Scanner Darkly is causing concern and excitement in equal measures. Using the same technique employed in Linklater’s Waking Life (live action traced over by animators), the slightly unreal mix could be the perfect device for telling Dick’s story of addiction and paranoia starring Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder… or it could be pretentious, artsy bollocks. Time will tell.

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23/8/05 15:08:32

THE TOWER OF BABEL Words: John McMeiken

TWENTY YEARS? APPARENTLY SO! BACK IN ’85, WAYNE HUSSEY LEFT THE SISTERS OF MERCY ALONG WITH CRAIG ADAMS AND PUT TOGETHER THE MISSION. CALL THEM A GOTH BAND IF YOU LIKE, BUT WITH 3 MILLION PLUS ALBUM SALES UNDER THE BELT, THEY CLOCKED UP ENOUGH FANS TO QUALIFY AS A DAMN FINE ROCK BAND.

razil? What’s Hussey doing in Brazil? Brazil apparently, is the new black. The place to be. Currently residing there in his home cum studio, Hussey is at first eager to talk about his first passion – football. The ed however has banned me from including that bit, so what remains is, by default, the new Mission project: Do we have to talk music? I do that all the time! There aren’t that many Liverpool fans out here y’know! OK, maybe we’ll come back to it later and try and sneak it in without anyone noticing.You’ve just toured South Africa, sounds like an unlikely marriage to me, but how did it go? It was great, lots of fun. It’s nice to get back to playing live again. We did a few shows with the band then finished with a solo acoustic show. The Mission shows were rocking, but it was certainly a different vibe to the solo show. It was in a smaller club, very intimate. People seated at tables and it was ‘oh so civilised’! I do like the solo stuff, its much more relaxed – people shout out song titles and I just play them? If I can remember the lyrics that is! Quick test then, Island in a Stream? Island in a Stream! Ah, now there’s one I can’t remember the lyrics to! I have done it before, but I had to ask a member of the audience to come and sing it for me! Like a lot of the older bands out there, some band members have so many projects on the boil that it’s sometimes hard to get the whole band together. Rob (Holiday – current guitarist), didn’t make the S. Africa shows – how come? Rob had prior commitments with the Prodigy, so I had to draft in Mark (Thwaite, former Mission guitarist from 1992 to 2001) at short notice. It was great though, nice to play with him again and was good to be back on stage together again. Rob is a good guitarist, is he back on board for the UK tour? Hopefully, I think he still has a few things more to complete with the Prodigy, but as far as we have been told, there is no reason for him not to play on the UK leg of the Lighting the Candles tour. Let’s get to the reason behind the tour- the new DVD. How come it took so long? Well, we had decided to film and record the show we did in Cologne back in 2004 and the plan was to put it out quickly as a live DVD. The trouble was after watching other bands DVD’s I

wanted more on this one. Since it was to be the first Mission DVD release, it had to be special. It contains the full concert in 5.1-surround sound. Compared to the likes of U2 and the Cure, I think it holds up rather well. I’m very happy with the sound and look. We have included a second disc with a discography and biography which I’ve used some photographs from my personal collection in the form of a slideshow with me doing the commentary. Hopefully the fans will appreciate the work we’ve put into this package. We are proud of the final result. Will we see a single or even album to follow? We’ll be releasing a CD single, Breathe Me In, to coincide with the DVD release. It will be a lowkey kind of affair – more to help promote the DVD than going for a hit single. It will include Lighting the Candles as well as a couple of live classics – Butterfly on a Wheel and Tower of Strength. …and a video perhaps? Being finished as we speak! The song itself was originally recorded for a Spanish film director, who was a fan. He asked if we could do a track for the final credits to one of his movies. He did the video for us by intertwining some shots from the movie with some live footage from the DVD. Which leads to the big question of a new album then? Well I’ve currently written about 30 songs for the next album. So once the promotion for the DVD has finished, it will be time to get back to the studio. We are hoping for a release date of second part of 2006. Naturally, you’re a different band than you were in the early days. Has the process of songwriting changed much? Most definitely. These days there is so much technology out there to help the process now. But you know what, I do sometimes miss the way we used to do it. I certainly couldn’t write some of the older songs now. They had a kind of innocence that has passed with age! Haven’t we all! You want to talk football some more? I’m out of time! We are currently decorating the home/studio and I need to pop to town to get some paint! So, there you have it – even rock stars have to go to B&Q. Do they have DIY superstores in Brazil?

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Cover to Cover The Mission where always a great band for delivering interesting cover versions. In the spirit of Men Behaving Badly, here’s a quick top ﬁve: 1. Dream On (Aerosmith). From Children

2. Like a Hurricane (Neil Young). From The First Chapter 3. 1969 (Iggy & the Stooges). From Everafter Live 4. Mr. Pleasant (The Kinks). From Grains of Sand 5. Can’t Help Falling in Love (Elvis Presley). From Aural Delight

“I do like the solo stuﬀ, its much more relaxed – people shout out song titles and I just play them? If I can remember the lyrics that is!” www.zeromag.co.uk | ZERO MAGAZINE | 17

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Dream Country Sometimes Gods walk among us. Neil Gaiman knows this and relentlessly plunders their depths to bring us some of the greatest stories our generation has ever been privileged to read. Author of the best selling graphic novel of all time, his latest journey into the otherworld comes in the shape of Anansi Boys: Words: Sion Smith

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Art to Choke Hearts Amazingly, Dave McKean – the artist who defined the image of Sandman and long time cohort of Gaiman – has designed more album covers than we ever thought! Here’s a fine selection that’s not only worth having on the basis of the artwork but are also essential pieces of work in any music collection. Alice Cooper The Last Temptation This was really the first Alice album that brought him back from the precipice. Not only was it a great album, it also featured a couple of songs from Chris Cornell and sported an accompanying graphic novel by Gaiman and Michael Zulli.

o an outsider who has not come across Gaiman’s work, Anansi Boys might seem somewhat peculiar. To précis: Fat Charlie’s dad had a liking for naming things, and when he named Fat Charlie, the name stuck. It’s just one of the delightful presents that his dad left to him before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage. He also left him a tall stranger who appears on Charlie’s doorstep who is apparently the brother Charlie never knew. Twist after twist, Gaiman reveals that Charlie’s dad was Anansi, a trickster god… and so it continues. For those who are familiar with Gaiman, the concept is not such a leap of faith. What is remarkable is his ability to plunder the myths of the Underworld and always come up with something new. American Gods, Coraline, Stardust and the entire Sandman collective – they all conform to just one common denominator, storytelling in its purest form. You have to be the busiest man in the world. Whenever I check out your site, there’s

always a new blog on there, but you still keep releasing books faster than I can read them! Maybe! Sometimes you just get in the flow and roll with it. The blog originally started as something a lot more basic, but it’s evolved into this whole ‘scene’. Sometimes I fool myself into thinking of it as work – if I spend a couple of hours doing it, some part of brain thinks ‘well, that’s the writing done for today’. Let’s start with MirrorMask: all done and dusted? Yes. We’re very proud of it. Dave (McKean) has done a fantastic job with it. It’s had its share of pitfalls – mostly to do with funding and how quickly a multi million dollar project can turn into slightly less millions of dollars. There were also some weird times when the movie was technically finished, or at least the live action sequences had been finished, but there were still creatures to build or voices to find for some of the animated characters. It’s not quite the vision I had in my head originally, but it’s good. It will be interesting to see what the world makes of it! I didn’t have as much input into it as

“When I wrote American Gods, I had been writing movie scripts and outlines for nearly ten years. It became a big deal and I think it shows. Although it’s easy to read, there’s a lot of ideas in there that had obviously been accumulating over that period.”

Counting Crows This Desert Life The third outing from Counting Crows saw the band really settle into their style bringing a more settled version of then band than the previous release Recovering the Satellites. Still living in the shadow of their debut album, This Desert Life features an image most will recognise as definitive McKean artwork. Stabbing Westward Darkest Days One of the most underrated bands of all time. Darkest Days from 1998 sees them at their bleakest. If you’ve not been subject to the Stabbing Westward experience, go and get yourself dumped and then slide this on. Pain will never be the same again. Top sleeve too. Machine Head Burn My Eyes Social disorder and blisteringly heavy guitars are the order of the day here. Burn My Eyes is their debut album and nobody would ever forget Robb Flynn after this. One of those albums that almost defined a generation. Check out the album art close up. Buckethead Monsters and Robots McKean really caught the wave of what Buckethead was trying to deliver with this peach. With its influence flying straight out of old sci-fi and Godzilla movies, I think I’d like a poster of this. Good record too. Chinese Democracy anybody?

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T he Best of Gaiman Interest piqued? Don’t know where to start? Everybody will tell you somewhere different – so here’s our rough guide to getting started: American Gods A dark journey into the soul of America, American Gods really cemented his role as one of the greatest storytellers in the world. Prior to this Gaiman was viewed as a ‘comic book author’ – albeit a very successful one. When Gods hit the shelves and flew out of bookstores across the globe, the ‘critics’ had no choice but to sit up and take notice. I’m personally on my fifth copy of this book. Be warned. You’ll be insisting that people read it and you will be giving it away too. Sandman – Dolls House Perhaps not the definitive Sandman book, but you have to start somewhere and this is where I came in. A faultless blend of characterisation and storytelling, I defy anybody not to fall in love with it. Death and the High Cost of Living A spin off from Sandman, Death almost became a bigger household name than the Sandman himself. In this book, Death takes us on a tour of duty shedding light on how she visits us all eventually. Spawned the brilliant t-shirt slogan: “You get what everyone gets – you get a lifetime”. Brilliant Coraline A grown-ups book in disguise as a children’s book or vice versa? Whatever you’re verdict, Coraline is a nice addition to anybody’s collection. Very dark in the vein of Dahl. If you don’t get it, you’re really not paying attention to what’s going on between the lines. Anansi Boys The latest from the Gaiman stable and on a par with American Gods for it’s depth of vision. See the main text for more details.. better still, just go and read it.

“I’m lucky enough to have a very loyal following who track down my books wherever the stores like to stock them. I’m very aware of how loyal my fans are. Some people call it obsessive, but I think they behave like they do because they just want to say thanks – at least that’s how I interpret it.” Dave did, it’s basically his movie, but there were a couple of times when I was called in to add weight to his decisions. There was one instance when they were having problems voicing one of the characters and the American arm was putting up some resistance to Dave’s choice, but when I heard who he wanted and how it sounded within the whole context, it was the right decision and it came good. Go and see it. It’s a cool movie. You and Dave McKean are going to work together forever, aren’t you? It seems that way yes! You know I was reading something the other day where, I think it was a writer in New York, had commented on Dave’s work and accused him of ripping off the work of the Sandman artist. I find it incredibly dumb that mainly, the writer wouldn’t go and check who the Sandman artist was before saying that. It just defeats the whole object of being a journalist. A few of years ago, time gets the better of me these days so it may be longer, I went to one of Neil’s book reading come signing sessions. I honestly had never seen anything quite like it. The level of fandom borders and then crosses over into pure obsession. It began innocently enough with around a hundred people sitting in a civilised fashion in small room in Waterstones. Neil read from a selected chapter of American Gods and then opened the floor up to questions. Such was the level of knowledge about the writer, I think the most intelligent thing anyone asked all night was “what colour are your socks tonight Neil” - upon which, he rolled up his black trouser leg and revealed black socks. Seriously – did anybody expect anything else? But when it came to signing time, it was like a magic show. A queue formed in about two seconds and each person was armed with armfuls of Sandman books, copies of American Gods, comics, magazines… it was most bizarre. Most authors, no matter how popular, are lucky to have a room full of people turn up, let alone sit and listen avidly. At all the book events I’ve ever been to, I’ve only ever seen one other that operated at that level and that was with Clive Barker – and that one was just plain weird!

Anansi Boys – it’s your new baby. How does if feel to have it finally out there – you’ve been working on it for quite some time. I wanted to write a funny book and here it is. At least I hope it’s funny! I had a lot of fun with it. It’s had some great feedback. There were a few times when it stalled and I just had to walk away but it practically wrote itself once we had gotten going. When I wrote American Gods, I had been writing movie scripts and outlines for nearly ten years. It became a big deal and I think it shows. Although it’s easy to read, there’s a lot of ideas in there that had obviously been accumulating over that period. It was very therapeutic – some of the storylines that appeared to go nowhere in the beginning turned up and rounded everything off at the end. Then came Coraline – which was loved by adults and children alike, but not by adults whose children were reading it! It was as though the kids and the adults reading it were reading different books.The fact that the ‘other mother’ had black button eyes, some adults found disturbing but kids just think it’s cool. It goes back to the idea of putting pennies on the eyes of the dead. If you look back in history though, isn’t that the way with all the stories that have drifted up through the ages. Anansi Boys is a logical extension of those two books – I don’t like to pigeonhole myself, so it’s sort of similar to both but in another way, it’s a world apart. See how I’m avoiding talking about the plot too much in case you haven’t read it! I’m very proud of it. You’re probably in a very enviable position amongst your peers then. Publishers, stores and distributors don’t really like things that don’t fit into a genre do they! Nobody is ever really sure where to stock things in order to sell them! I’m not sure if that’s a problem for me or not! It might be for them. I’m lucky enough to have a very loyal following who track down my books wherever the stores like to stock them. I’m very aware of how loyal my fans are. Some people call it obsessive, but I think they behave like they do because they just want to say thanks – at least that’s how I interpret it. Finally, I hear you went out for dinner with Derren Brown last night. Anything suspicious to report? Only that he kept convincing my little girl that something was going on behind her so that he could her chips…

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Specially-priced CD includes limited edition bonus disc www.dopearmy.com

COME AND TAKE A RIDE! debut album out September 12th

“Fast Times at Ridgemont High-type songs--very anthemic and very cool” Iann Robinson, MTV VJ “In a nutshell, this one fucking great driving album” ZERO Magazine www.walthamtheband.com

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www.rykodisc.co.uk

23/8/05 15:28:52

Quincy and other nonsense Aside from currently fronting Ratt, Love/Hate frontman Jizzy Pearl also publishes the odd book or two. Brace yourself, here’s an extract:

I was driving down the street the other day when I saw a truck coming flashing a row of red flashing lights. Like all the other motorists, I dutifully pulled over and stopped, idling. As the white truck sped by I glanced at the writing on the panel-side door . . . Animal Services . . . ANIMAL SERVICES?! What the Fuck? I stopped my car because someone was late getting to the pound? As I sat there I wondered why Dogcatchers need flashing lights on their vehicles. Why the emergency? Does it make any difference whether this Dogcatcher gets to the pound 15 minutes earlier or later? I’m sure if they queried the dogs locked in the back they’d say ... “Slow down, take your time.” After all, the dogs are on their way to Barken-Belsen. Arbeit Macht Woof, the Doghouse in the Sky. Why the hurry, Dogcatcher? The

long, given the grisly aspects of his profession. They really sugar-coated the whole dead-handler thing, even made Quincy out to be something of a ladies man. Dinner and drinks with the coroner, late night dancing cheek to cheek, Dom Perignon and a roaring fire with the coroner, he’s a coroner for christ’s sake! He’s got a ration of guts and ligaments and bile under his thick black fingernails and he’s fingering pussy like a porn star. Am I the only one who’s freaked out by this? Beautiful women every week tongue-kissing Quincy who cuts up the dead for a living, that’s his job! I don’t care if he solved crimes all the live long day. He’s a goddamn ghoul, albeit a ghoulish man about town, sorta like Brad Pitt meets Jeffrey Dahmer. If you watched the show they really made light of the fact that in order to solve all those fucking crimes, Quincy had to pull out people’s bloody hearts like an Aztec Priest. Quincy and his Oriental assistant laughing and trading

“HERE’S A GOOD ONE, REMEMBER QUINCY FROM TV? HE HAD A FLASHING LIGHT ON THE TOP OF HIS CAR AND THAT’S THE MOST PREPOSTEROUS THING YET, A CORONER WITH A FLASHING LIGHT. WHEREVER YOU’RE GOING, CORONER, THE DUDE’S ALREADY DEAD!” fact that this highly-trained civil servant has flashing lights on his vehicle upsets me. He has the power to pull me over and I don’t like that. Only firemen and cops should have this power, not dogcatchers. That goes double for those asshole ticket-writers in their little white Chevy Cavaliers, why give them any slack? What about streetcleaners - why do they need a flashing light? Here’s a good one, remember Quincy from TV? He had a flashing light on the top of his car and that’s the most preposterous thing yet, a coroner with a flashing light. Wherever you’re going, coroner, the dude’s already dead! It won’t make any difference whether you take the diamond lane or not, he’s dead. He’s chalked out on the carpet, he’s not going anywhere! Take your time, go get a burger, answer your e-mail, the dead guy will still be here. I always wondered how a show like Quincy could even stay on television for so

one-liners as they sawed through a man’s rotting skull, or jammed a catheter up his arse to poke for clues - or worse. I noticed nobody ever went to Quincy’s house, or questioned the white billowing smoke coming out of his chimney... The seventies were full of TV crime solvers... Cannon the morbidly obese crime solver. Barnaby Jones, the 600 year-old crime solver. Also a magnet for the ladies. Longstreet, the blind crime solver. He didn’t last too long, it’s hard to chase criminals when you keep running into trees and parked cars. Kojak, the bald crime solver. Banacek, the Polish crime solver. Columbo, the Slob... I say we go one step further. How about Thud, the quadriplegic crime solver? “When he sinks his teeth into a case, there’s no letting go!” They could duct-tape him to a skateboard and he could chase criminals up and down the streets of San Francisco. Or what about Wheezy, the iron-lung crimesolver? Or Stony, the catatonic crimesolver? If Jack Klugman can solve crimes and still get laid then anyone can. If I saw a guy in an iron lung coming down the street with flashing lights and a siren, I’d pull over!

If you enjoyed this rant from Jizzy, jump onto his website and check out his two books: I Got More Crickets Than Friends and Angst for the Memories. He is currently out on the road across the US with Ratt.

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From Russia With Blood The city is asleep. While ordinary folk rest, a war is raging – a conﬂict that has lasted for thousands of years. Words: Mike Shaw Pics: courtesy Twentieth Century Fox

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n recent times the warriors have been at peace, but the uneasy truce that was forged has been broken, and once again the forces of light and darkness battle for supremacy. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian cinema suffered a major decline with the number of cinema screens in the country falling from around 10,000 to just 70. With little opportunity to see films as they were intended, bootleg culture thrived, and the country’s movie industry moved ever closer to its almost-inevitable demise. Something huge but homegrown was needed to kickstart the industry and get the Russian people back into the remaining cinemas; something spectacular enough to demand a visit to the pictures; something with the potential to catch the public and save them from their perpetual fall into pirate-movie hell. The first part of a major movie trilogy, Night Watch only cost $4m, but took over $13m in its first three weeks alone… in Russia – and now it’s coming here. After seeing the phenomenal success it generated in its homeland, Fox Searchlight picked Night Watch (or Nochnoi Dozor) up for international distribution. Tarantino described it as a “magnificent Russian fantasy that’s going to be the new Lord of the Rings,” and with that kind of endorsement behind it, audiences around the world so far have been showering the flagship of the Russian revival with acclaim. Based on Sergei Lukyanenko’s novel Night Watch – and its sequels Day Watch and Dusk Watch, the film has the rough and dark but neatly polished feel of The Matrix or Blade, and the dark tone, style and soundtrack means that it already has a ready-made audience eagerly awaiting its arrival – something rare when it comes to foreign-language films. Lukyanenko’s books were a watershed in Russian literature, and young Russians made the book instant cult classics. The prolific author had always wanted to write an epic tale of ancient magic set loose in the modern age. “I’d been eager to write fantasy for quite some time,” says Lukyanenko. “Then, I had an intriguing notion – this idea of the night as a battlefield for magicians who live in hiding among ordinary people and can only fight when it won’t disturb humanity.

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FUNNY LOOKING

fghijkjljhijijghi From this came the further idea of the Night Watch – a special unit created to control the magicians. This then led to the development of the Night Watch’s antagonists, the Day Watch, and their eternal battle against one another.” To direct Lukyanenko’s tale of the unnatural and the undead loose in an urban jungle, a visual innovator was needed who could faithfully recreate the people and places described in the novel. Eventually, Kazakhstan-born Timur Bekmambetov was chosen as director, something that went down well with the cast and crew. “Timur is highly visual,” says producer Antoly Maximov. “He goes very deep with the characters, in a Stanislavski way. It’s from this combination that the film’s style was born.” Night Watch has a highly individual style, and this is something that Bekmambetov worked hard to achieve. Despite a deep love of modern Hollywood action-spectaculars, he was initially sceptical about creating a horror fantasy that would appeal to Russian audiences – but the more he read of Lukyanenko’s novels, the more he became hooked on the vision of vampires roaming the often chaotic and troubled streets of modern-day Moscow. “It was such an interesting mix,” explains the director. “I found that it produced in me a very personal feeling because one half of me is the filmmaker who loves vampires, Roger Corman and The Matrix. Meanwhile the other half of my mentality is a Russian reality where there are lots of problems. This story brought these two sides of me

“ORIGINALLY RUSSIAN CULTURE WAS VERY COLOURFUL, VERY EMOTIONAL, VERY DRAMATIC, AND WE DECIDED TO GO THERE, TO GO BACK TO THIS TYPE OF VISUAL INTENSITY.”

together: Russian reality and American movies.” “The books became poetry,” he says. “They were cool. They were funny. They woke me up.” Bekmambetov began to see Night Watch as a way to mesh all his influences together into one piece of work, and the film is peppered with traditional Hollywood action as well as being imbued with the human insight and philosophy that marks Russian literature. “In reading the book, I suddenly realised Sergei had managed to distil magic and miracles, the transcendent and the supernatural, into our way of life. I found that the story really was something special because in it, fantasy not only meets reality – but Russian reality – and it’s the first Russian movie that has this unique point of view.” The Night Watch world was quickly absorbed by Russian youth culture, with lines of dialogue becoming everyday phrases, and the characters’ clothing being adopted by many of Moscow’s young and trendies as their uniform of choice. “The costume of the Night Watchers, the big coat especially, is very fashionable,” says Bekmambetov. “It’s become a kind of fashion cult.”

fghijkjljhijijghi

Bekmamtov’s casting of ‘ordinary’ actors has meant that he’s ended up with a leading man who’s, well… kinda funny lookin’. And he’s not the ﬁrst. Mackenzie Crook

Is always going to be Gareth from The Oﬃce. Even in Pirates of the Caribbean, he was just Gareth dressed as a pirate.

William H. Macy

Plasticine-faced hangdog looks, even when he’s happy Willem Dafoe

Scarier in Spiderman after the Green Goblin mask came oﬀ. Danny DeVito

Gimli with alopecia. Steve Buscemi

The king of kinda funny lookin’. Has the ability to swap his eyeballs around.

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Stanley who?

Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov may think highly of his work, but who the hell is Konstantin Stanislavski? The work and teaching of the Russian actor and director (1863-1938), has been the major inﬂuence on acting techniques for the past 100 years.

fghijkjljhijijghi “RUSSIAN AUDIENCES DON’T HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE OF THIS KIND OF FILM, BECAUSE WE’VE NEVER HAD ANY FANTASY MOVIES OR COMIC BOOKS  IT’S ALL NEW. SO THE ONLY WAY FOR ME TO BEGIN WAS TO MAKE EVERYTHING VERY REALISTIC, SO THE AUDIENCE WOULD BELIEVE IN IT ENOUGH TO ACCEPT THE FANTASY.” But it’s not just the clothing that made a big impression on the young Russian audiences – the speed and the energy of the movie also had an impact, and that suits Bekmambetov fine. “The typical image of Moscow is of a very grey, depressing city. Our idea was to make a movie that changed that image to something much more fun and cool,” he says. “Over the last two centuries the Government has altered the image of the Russian soul and made everything grey and white; but originally Russian culture was very colourful, very emotional, very dramatic, and we decided to go there, to go back to this type of visual intensity.” The world Bekmambetov created is mystical, yet realistic and recognisable. The characters, social situations and psychological elements are all familiar, and he knew that one of the keys to making his a success would be finding actors who could stand clearly on opposite sides of the good and evil divide. To achieve this, Bekmambetov undertook a very particular casting process, which began by separating leading Russian actors into two groups. “I felt that there were actors who look like actors and there were people who just look like people,” he says. “We cast the actors who look like actors as the Dark Ones because they are very cool,

very original, interesting and proud. But those actors who look like regular people, they were cast as the Light Ones, the members of the Night Watch.” Konstantin Khabensky, one of Russia’s most popular actors, was cast as the hero, Anton Gorodetsky – a member of the Night Watch and one of the lead Protectors of Light. The unassuming Khabensky certainly doesn’t look like a movie star. He’s not particularly handsome, nor striking in any way – but fundamentally he had the acting skills to be able to do justice to the part. Choosing ability over appearance? You’d never find that in Hollywood. As well as focusing on how they looked, Bekmambetov also put emphasis on finding those who could probe their characters’ emotional and psychological worlds, as well as handle the film’s intense action. He believes this sets Night Watch apart from other modern horror fantasies. “In American fantasy movies the characters aren’t usually so deep,” he says. “But here we have access to Russian actors who have a strong schooling in Stanislavski. So, because of that, we could bring to the fantasy genre very deep characters and very complicated relationships and a lot of complexity of story through the performances.” Making the flying, fighting, fantastical

Stanislavski’s System, as it has become known, was the result of a life spent training and directing actors – mostly those of the Moscow Arts Theatre. The almostmystical form of method acting, favoured in Hollywood and made famous by the performances of Brando and De Niro – is a modiﬁed form of Stanislavski’s System. The system is a complex method for producing realistic characters where actors are required to ask many questions of their characters and themselves, and to utilise their own memories of particular emotional states in order to naturally portray a character’s emotions and achieve a more genuine performance. Stanislavski demanded that the actor totally immerse themselves, body, soul and mind, in the part that they are playing. That’s gotta be tough if you’re playing a murderous vampire.

characters believable was a tough task for the director, whose creative vision was founded in the need to overlay the inventive effects with a constant and intense sense of realism. He explains: “Russian audiences don’t have any experience of this kind of film, because we’ve never had any fantasy movies or comic books – it’s all new. So the only way for me to begin was to make everything very realistic, so the audience would believe in it enough to accept the fantasy.” To Bekmambetov (and Fox’s) delight, the new generation of Russian cinemagoers did accept the fantasy, and anticipation is steadily growing for the second part of the trilogy, which is currently in production. Recent attempts to bring the world of the supernatural to the big screen have, for the most part, ended dismally – and this is often due to Hollywood’s belief that all audiences want is eye candy, and the misguided insistence of building the story around the effects rather than the other way. With Night Watch’s unique movie experience coming soon, and the uncommon procedure of putting characters and plot first – that trend of failure looks set to change. O

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SOUL SURVIVORS Words: Louise Steggals

he story how Circa Survive came into existence would not look out place on the desk of a Hollywood mogul as a screenplay. Singer Anthony Green had been working in a not-unsuccessful band Saosin, out in California but was unhappy. During a trip home to Philadelphia spent time hanging out and playing music with old friend Colin Frangicetto. The two enjoyed that time so much that, halfway back to California, Anthony decided to quit his band, abandoning all his possessions and turn around, heading back to Philly. “I had a layover in Phoenix before I got to LA,” explains Green. “I was freaking out. It was such a weird turning point. I just felt like, if something’s going to happen, I’m going to have to do it.” Frangicetto got a call begging him to pick the singer up from the airport at 6am. The surreal reunion was immortalised by the song Handshakes at Sunrise and Circa Survive was on its way to being born. With the backing of Equal Vision Reco rds on the basis of their demo material, Green and Frangicetto went about recruiting the other band members. Frangicetto had no hesitation in asking guitarist Brendan Ekstrom to join, as he had worked with him in his previous band This Day Forward. “I was blown away by Brendan’s presence and guitar playing from the start,” says Frangicetto. “I had always known that if I were to ever start another band I would need and want him with me.” A drummer was found in the shape of Steve Clifford (“He’s the young funny guy of the band. He makes us laugh,” says Frangicetto). Bassist Nick Beard also came from California to Philly from the band Taken. The line-up now complete, the band could concentrate on developing their music. The group rented a house in the area, moved in, and came up with the material that would make up their debut album, Juturna. They describe it as a “mindbending amalgamation of influences ranging from prog-rock to art-metal, which reflects both the diverse backgrounds and the common bonds of the five unique individuals who make up Circa Survive”. The visceral songs full of mish-mash guitars and

rent than “I definitely sound dbifufe I don’t I’ve ever sounded, at t is. Maybe entirely know why the bit older.” it’s because I’m a littl machine gun drums are certainly a compelling listen. They say that fans of any of the members’ former bands will be surprised—in a very good way. “It’s definitely a lot more straight up rock and roll than our previous projects.” offers Green. “I definitely sound different than I’ve ever sounded, but I don’t entirely know why that is. Maybe it’s because I’m a little bit older. It’s delicate music, but it’s not too passive. It’s got all this bulk to it. There’s a sick amount of groove.” Time will tell if this story will have the Hollywood happy ending but if the band’s future success is anything like their level of passion and dedication to their art we can expect very big things indeed.

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Standing in the Shower . . . Thinking. WRITE TO US AT ZERO, THE OLD SCHOOL, HIGHER KINNERTON, CHESTER CH4 9AJ or email: editor@zeromag.co.uk MAIN ATTRACTION

RIPPED OFF? Why is it that the ticket agencies have to insist on ripping us oﬀ so badly?? One day ticket for Reading this year is £60! Jesus. But hey, probably only chance I’ll have to see Maiden, so I bite the bullet. Oh, hang on, it’s not just £60.00. There’s a BOOKING FEE. For what? What is this “fee” for exactly? £7.00 on top of that. PER TICKET? Surely it should be PER BOOKING if anything? Oh, hang on, there’s more - £4.50 (£4.95 if you order via the web!!!) for P&P! You’re having

a laugh surely. Tickets came today by Special Delivery, Next Day, signed for etc., which actually ONLY costs £3.75. Do envelopes really cost 75p (£1.20 if you order via the web)? Not where I come from, and that’s the saaaarf (I think he means the South… Ed), where things are usually more expensive and anyways, surely they buy them in bulk at a discounted cost? I know I do for my business. Why not send them RECORDED. Same thing, first class post, they’re signed for, and would only cost 93p! You could do the whole deal for less than a quid and wouldn’t piss people off so much. So, why the huge rip-offs? Why does each ticket carry a horrendously large premium called a “booking fee?” Every ticket, for Reading, carrying this fee... say there are 80,000 people there, that’s more than half a million quid these faceless ticket agencies make from this single gig! I appreciate the need for staff

to be paid for taking the calls and stuﬃng the envelopes, but... STOP RIPPING US OFF! It’s not that I can even attend in person to buy the tickets and avoid this premium as I can at usual venues (though even some of those don’t allow you to buy direct from the box oﬃce these days!) Maybe Zero can use some of its weight to persuade WAYAHEAD, TicketMaster et al, to stop this price hike?? Surely it’s about time? BD Er.. good question. Two things to address here. First of all, I’m not sure as a magazine entity we carry that much weight! Secondly, we don’t give a toss because we get in for free! Seriously though, we really do get in for free! (Sorry, couldn’t help myself!) What we’ll do, is we’ll ask. Maybe we’ll do a feature. It would sure as hell be interesting to see where it all goes. Like you, I understand that stuff needs administration and everyone needs to make a profit to survive, but it’s a bit like a store adding 50p to the cover price of the mag because someone had to serve you. Stick around… this’ll be interesting.

Hi I was reading through Issue 1 of Zero (very good, may I add!) and found a fault in one of your articles. On page 46 you state that Velvet Revolver played their first gig in England on the 23rd January 2005, but this is not the case. Their first date was the 2nd September 2004. I’ve been to all their UK dates and would like to add they were excellent. This must be worth some freebies. Looking forward to the next issue. Matt Horton Just the one mistake? I found a lot more than that! What it actually says is “Bands first UK tour… at the Hammersmith show on January 23…”. The fi rst date was indeed 2nd Sept but it wasn’t part of a UK tour. Sorry Matt – no freebies for you! Hi I’ve just spent an enjoyable lunch hour with a pint and a copy of the first issue of Zero. Thought I’d drop you a line to

pass on my congratulations on a ﬁne piece of work. Although it looks like most of the bands you intend to cover won’t be entirely my cup of tea (but then the majority of my tastes are ably covered by Classic Rock), I couldn’t resist a magazine with such a major feature on Porcupine Tree. I hope that you will continue to champion

this most underrated (or at least undiscovered) of bands, whose widespread recognition seems to be taking an age to reach anything approaching what it deserves. I commend you for giving them such signiﬁcant space within your pages. There does seem to be quite a lot else in the mag which I will ﬁnd interesting. I like the fact

that you’ve widened the usual scope of the music press and hope that this will enhance your ability to find and fill a niche. I particularly look forward to reading the piece on Fin Costello. Despite the fact that I might only become an irregular reader of your publication, I wish you every success for a healthy future and look forward to seeing more of my favourites featured. With Porcupine Tree and a – good – review of a Judie Tzuke release, you’ve certainly made a welcome start. Phil Morris Cool… glad you like the Russian Roulette approach.Works for us! WOW! What a thoroughly uninspiring debut. Take huge chunks of Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, add a touch of film mag, lets try SFX, blend with failed “rock mags” of the past - Raw, Kingsize and Burn. Add predictable format, features, reviews etc. Dilute to taste. ZERO – just another rock magazine, only not as good. I have seen it all before. I am sorry to be so harsh but as a rock fan and magazine buying member of the public, feedback of any description is invaluable if the product is to improve and hopefully achieve longevity. Sadly on current form Zero will be relegated by Christmas. If you want some creative help and genuine innovation please reply to this message. You won’t be disappointed. Nick Fellows Well, I was kind of willing to go with the flow on the criticism until that last bit, which means you obviously want something from me – kind of like all the letters we got saying “Wow, Z is great… by the way, I’m a writer”. To be fair here, we called Nick out on it and asked to see what was so great about his stuff. He mailed it in like a trooper and it was actually pretty good. I wish him all the luck in the world. Looking from the outside in at this picture though, yesterday I was in Japan and Nick was wondering whether or not to ask the fat guy if he wanted fries with that. Harsh but fair.

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The Point Man WARTIME MURDERERS AND THE UNDEAD SHAKE BLOODSTAINED HANDS IN THE FIRST FEATURE TO BE HELMED BY ACCLAIMED KOREAN SCRIPTWRITER KONG SUCHANG, SKILFULLY COMBINING THE MOST PERSONAL OF NIGHTMARES. Words: Nick Madeira

s the post-slasher stylings of the psychological thriller have become an institution unto themselves, modern horror directors are slaves to the art of balance. The fear of the unknown and the shock of realisation are the delicate strings on which every scene hangs, and unless incoherence is a desired outcome, it pays to handle these elements with care. Nevertheless, there is scope for subverting the genre, and R-Point director Kong Su-chang is not the first to realise that fear and shock can come in many forms. In this particular case, ghostly forces join social claustrophobia in shaking up the audience’s expectations as well as their terrified limbs. We join nine Korean soldiers on a reconnaissance mission in 1970s Vietnam, where they find themselves unwelcome in ways they could not possibly have imagined. Their orders lead them to a small island with a chequered history, in the midst of Ho Chi Minh City. Of course, the Vietcong

aren’t best pleased, and consequently give them a chance to test their mettle. But the real mission lies in Romeo Point, the sacred centre of the isle – from where a troop of missing soldiers have been sending out mysterious distress calls. Thick with fog and boasting the native equivalent of a travelling haunted house, R-Point proves also to be a point of no return. The comrades’ dazed drama takes on a psycho-supernatural bent, and as their missing flock elude them they begin to question their sanity. Soon they suspect that their fate will follow that of the missing – but the young soldiers are loath to accept it, and superstitious talk is met with upset of every kind. Soldiers argue and pull rank, but after a few intense days it becomes difficult for them to deny that some kind of curse has taken over. A haunting moralistic vengeance grabs hold of proceedings from here, but there is something very real in the confusion that so ravenously tears apart the group

“The viewer is left feeling uncomfortable in all the right places, and though occasionally the pacing of the story is a little off, Suchang ultimately builds suspense well, to an ending as black and perplexing as the rest of the film.”

and its individual members. Shrieks of terror and prolonged goodbyes that might normally cause unwitting comic reactions are more likely to engage the sympathies of the audience, purely in recognition of the horror of the situation. The viewer is left feeling uncomfortable in all the right places, and though occasionally the pacing of the story is a little off, Su-chang ultimately builds suspense well, to an ending as black and perplexing as the rest of the film. With such care taken to blend human survival instincts and inhuman dread, his version of horror becomes a rich and emotional experience. These soldiers are clearly justified in their fear: R-point’s mythology is steeped in reality, dating back as far as 1800, and the very circumstances detailed in this production came to light just two years ago, enhancing the sense of both terror and empathy. Admittedly, it may take the crossover appeal of superstar director Zhang Yimou’s pending remake to propel R-Point to the heights reached by his own movies Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Indeed, such a Hollywood version may hit all the buttons demanded by a storyline as thrilling as this – but in light of the legendary status surrounding the real RPoint, Kong Su-chang’s directorial debut has all the hallmarks of a gripping and involving scenario, with photographic flare peppering an otherwise humble directorial style that lets his co-written screenplay – an aspect that is clearly still closest to his heart – share centre stage with the shock of the real as it grates against the unspeakable. Add to this some impassioned performances from a believable cast who are forced into melodrama only by their trauma, and this inventive horror is hard to beat. O

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Reanimator

Fans of the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp partnership seen in modern goth classics Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow are in for a treat this year. Not only have we already been treated to the spectacularly bizarre Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, there’s also the highly anticipated Corpse Bride. Words: Katie Roberts

“Johnny and I have this process where we sort of speak in the abstract to each other and yet can still understand each other.” It’s been more than ten years since A Nightmare Before Christmas became an instant cult classic, and yet the merchandise for that landmark animation is still going strong. It would seem that this is the perfect time to revisit Burton’s freakishly joyous stop-motion world. Corpse Bride’s haunting tale of zombielove has its roots in some rather gruesome 19th century Russian folklore. At a time when anti-Semitic feeling was high in that part of the world, Jewish wedding parties on the way to the ceremony would occasionally be hijacked, and the bride murdered. The idea was that the bride would therefore be unable to provide further Jewish offspring to add to the population – although these grisly events also seemed to have fuelled public imagination, and contributed to a host of folk tales. Director Tim Burton, taking a break from live-action filming, has chosen to weave these legends into a dark and fantastical animated tale of love gone scarily wrong. Victor, voiced by Johnny Depp, is due to marry his lady love Victoria (Emily Watson).

On the way to the wedding, Victor places his wedding ring on a finger-shaped stick protruding from the ground, and practices his wedding vows. However, that fingershaped stick turns out to be a fingershaped bone, and on the other end of that bone is the body of a young woman, murdered on the way to her wedding and buried in her wedding dress. The reanimated corpse emerges from the earth to drag Victor off to the underworld, claiming him as her husband. What follows is a weird and wonderful journey to the land of the dead, where Victor enjoys the contrast between the strict Victorian world from whence he came, but pines for his true love, the jilted Victoria. This is the fifth time Depp and Burton have collaborated on a film project, and it is obvious that the two have a huge amount of respect for each other. Speaking about the increasingly popular actor Burton says: “Johnny and I have this process where we sort of speak in the abstract to each other and yet can still

understand each other.” That understanding and trust has been reciprocated by Depp: “I know that I respect him so much and love him so much as a filmmaker,” he said of Burton. “I would do anything he wanted.” As is typical of Burton’s films, don’t expect morals or seriousness; rather, prepare yourself for romance, dark comedy, and a host of star voices. From Depp’s involvement as the male lead, to the inclusion of Burton’s wife Helena Bonham Carter as the freaky corpse bride, the casting is flawless. Brit favourites Richard E. Grant, Joanna Lumley and Christopher Lee are also on-hand, making the whole project a thoroughly classy affair. Add to that Burton favourite Danny Elfman’s original score, and you have the recipe for an enormously macabre hit. Corpse Bride will be at cinemas everywhere from September 30th.

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“They just didn’t want to do it anymore and it wasn’t fun anymore because of that guy. They also weren’t comfortable playing onstage‘cause he would mess up songs or he would stop playing.”

chemicalburns ß Words: Louise Steggals

Helicopters, bodyguards, comics and chaos – these are a few of My Chemical Romance favourite things according to drummer Bob Bryar. Bob, joined the band a year ago, replacing Matt Pelissier and has a particularly good perception of the meteoric rise of My Chemical Romance to super-band status. Because if it wasn’t for him, My Chemical Romance may not have got this far at all…

“We’d become really good friends and I went to Europe to hang with them. I kind of noticed that the other drummer didn’t get along with anybody. The mood of the band was horrible. They weren’t like a real band who enjoys being on stage together or doing anything together. After a show he would go off on his own. Not to talk shit or anything but he was kind of an asshole. We started talking like “man, I wish you played drums in our band”. What started out as a joke became a serious reality when the band was on the verge of throwing it all in and breaking up. “They just didn’t want to do it anymore and it wasn’t fun anymore because of that guy” recalls Bob. “They also weren’t comfortable playing onstage ‘cause he

would mess up songs or he would stop playing. There were big problems and they asked him to leave and they asked me to come and do it. I just did it cause I liked the guys, I liked the music and I believed in what they were doing. I knew it was going to be successful but I did it anyway ‘cause that’s what I really wanted to do. I wanted to play drums and not walk around and use a calculator all day.” So lucky for My Chemical Romance – and us – he became a full time member and his predictions of success were soon to be proved right, though way above any level he could have imagined. Soon, Helena worked its way to the number one spot on TRL, and the band are currently sporting four MTV video

award nominations. “It’s weird. It’s kind of hard when you’re touring and you’re not at home to watch the TV a lot or to see a lot of the magazines. We’re kind of out of the loop. All of a sudden you get a phone call, “hey you’re number one on TRL today”. You’re like “What? Are you sure?!” It’s very strange and it’s something that we find out after it happens.” But Bob is very modest about their chances at the MTV awards. “I hope we get something. I don’t know about sweeping the board. There’s some of the acts we’re against…we’re against Green Day and in all of our minds we think Green Day deserves everything. Those guys are like our idols.” Currently on tour in the States as one of the bands of the Vans Warped Tour, My

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ßgdwewgjk e lak;qpoe “There are the people that are really excited to see you that are trying to get around everybody, but every once in a while you get the asshole that wants to fuck with you, the guy who wants to call Gerard a faggot cause he wears make-up . . .” Chemical Romance has been bolstering their reputation as one of the hottest acts today. “It’s good, we’re almost done,” says Bob. “We’re looking forward to going back to playing indoors and not playing in the daylight. Last night we played last and I think it was 8.30pm or something like that and it was dark outside. Our show was awesome ‘cause it was dark. We’re not meant to be playing outside with the sun out!” Unfortunate, given that when we go to press, My Chemical Romance will have played two shows at Reading and Leeds in full daylight. Still, you can’t have it all ways and the band seems to find that the shows more than compensate, particularly here in the UK. “It’s just awesome,” raves Bob. “It’s just chaos over there. A lot of people here like your band but they are too cool to be really into it. We go to shows over there, it’s just insane – everyone goes crazy. It’s just like really genuine and people really like you. It’s being in a new place and it’s a refreshing feeling being able to play to different people.” The band does miss some home comforts. “You guys don’t have Walmart!” moans Bob. “But the

shows make up for it. The kids just want to steal your clothes – it’s really weird!” Rampaging fans are the least of their worries right now though as they must first negotiate playing two shows in one day at the Carling Festival in order to make it to Miami for the MTV awards. “We’ve done a lot of things where things have come up and we have to do two in one day. I think this is the biggest show that we’ve ever tried to put in one day. We didn’t want to cancel, we had to go down to the MTV awards, the last thing we want to do is cancel a show so we brainstormed and thought maybe we can do it at the same time. It’s going to be exciting just to run back and forth. We need to figure out our transportation somehow. We’re thinking maybe a helicopter!” And why not eh? They already have a Britney style entourage to protect them from overzealous fans. “On the Warped tour, sometimes you have to walk through the crowd to get to the stage so we just

make sure we have some big dudes with us just in case. There are the people that are really excited to see you that are trying to get around everybody, but every once in a while you get the asshole that wants to fuck with you, the guy who wants to call Gerard a faggot cause he wears makeup, stuff like that so we just have to have people around to watch our back.” This level of adoration and obsession has also presented further downsides. As at the Download festival, where an attempted signing session was met with pandemonium, the signing sessions planned for the Warped tour had to be quickly curtailed. “We were going to do signings everyday. We did two and they asked us not to come back,” chuckles Bob. “People were pushing each other and knocking over the fence. We’d sign for an hour and a half and only get through a quarter of the line,” he sighs. At the end of the day though, when the fans have been pacified, the shows played and the schmoozing over, the boys like nothing more than to settle back in their hotel and play. Not with young lady friends though as may be

Frank Iero, Bob Bryar, Mikey Way, Gerard Way, Ray Toro

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Road Trip Bassist, Mikey Way gives us his top 5 essentials for life on the road…

“The open road can be a cold and lonely place...so why not fill the void with useless but expensive gadgets . . . and vitamin C!” 1) Apple G4 powerbook: this is one of those things that you didn’t know you needed until you got it. Allows the everyman to check his email and surf the web with ease on one of a bajillion wireless signals giving us cancer throughout the globe. It also houses ﬁstfuls of programs for the graphic designer, iPod-er, and whatever “-er” you are. 2) T-mobile sidekick 2: Ahh, technology. What better way to alienate yourself from everyone around you then to have entire conversations on instant messenger on your sidekick! I’m actually sending this list from my sidekick. It’s a portable email, instant message, cell phone that no one in my entire band can live without. In fact, I can’t remember hanging out with any band that wasn’t all attached to these things. Must be something in the water.

“The other four are really into comics, they read comics all the time. I’m the one who doesn’t. I steal the TV at the front of the bus and people are like‘God, I wanna watch TV’and I’m like‘Can’t, I’m playing video games!’“ the usual practices of a band of their status, but on video games. One in particular. “Have you heard of World of Warcraft?” ask Bob. “We played really early today and as soon as we were done we went to the hotel and went online. We’ll play for like 10 hours straight. That’s been our thing, finding wireless internet and playing that game, it’s keeping us going each day!” Bob and the boys have tried other distractions to keep them occupied on the tour bus. “I’ve been watching the show 24. That’s been my new thing, to try and see every episode. We all have iPods and I’m always listening to Quicksand CD’s and Jimmy Eats World and Mastadon. But pretty much the thing we all come back to is video games. The other four are really into comics, they read comics all the time. I’m the one who doesn’t. I steal the TV at the front of the bus and people are like “God, I wanna watch TV” and I’m

like “Can’t, I’m playing video games!” My Chemical Romance may be geeks at heart, and health freaks with an addiction to diet soda but they are also immensely hard working. No break is on the horizon after this spate of festival appearances and awards bashes. “We’re coming back to the US to do our first ever big production headlining tour. We’re carrying everything…lights, and we have video screens and PA, it’s going to be big,” he enthuses. “Then we’re coming back here to do the headlining tour in November with our full production and I think that’s where we’re going to close this record out. Then we’ll head back to the US and start the next record.” So the UK has quite something to look forward to come the winter. “Yeah,” grins Bob, “it’s gonna be huge”. And with the dark nights that come with a British Winter, no doubt the boys will on fire to boot. Can’t wait.

3) iPod: I can’t tell you how many of my CDs were casualties of the road when we first started touring. They would get scratched, lost, cracked in half...you name it. The iPod changed all this, as you can now have 20gb to 60gb of your music collection out with you at all times. Probably my favourite material possession. 4) Diet Dr Pepper: Us being the most dangerous band in the universe and all, we maintain our edge by ingesting Diet Dr Pepper. As the ad states, it truly tastes so much like regular Dr Pepper that I no longer know the difference. We probably go through 2 cases a day on the bus. 5) Trader Joe’s Chewable Vitamin C: being in a touring band exposes you to just about every weather condition imaginable. Now picture going outside in these same conditions after you just sweated it up onstage. These wafers will help you fight the common cold, and they are so damn tasty at the same time.

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ZERO

Music that kicks ass! WHO’S WHO ON THE CD

Reuben – Every Time a Teenager Listens to Drum & Bass A Rock Star Dies Not only is it a rocked out name for a song, it’s one hell of a track too! Reuben are soon to release their second album Very Fast, Very Dangerous and it’s knockout from start to ﬁnish. Get your ears behind one of the best UK bands to come out in the last few years. www.wordsfromreuben.com June – Patrick Arguably the most competitive indie and punk scene in the Midwest, Chicago has brought you new bands like Fall Out Boy, Spitalﬁeld, Rise Against and classics like Alkaline Trio, Smoking Popes, Cheap Trick and Smashing Pumpkins. Patrick is taken from June’s new album If You Speak Any Faster. www.junerock.com

Zillionaire – For Someone Changing the direction of the cover mount, the mighty Zillionaire step up to the ring with a soul crushing ballad of majestic proportions. When people say that there’s nothing new out there anymore, one listen to this voice will have you pushing it down their throat. Brilliant. www.zillionaire.net Nadie – Like I Used To Well, the Ed was determined to have her on the cover mount and we’re stoked that he put his foot down. This picture perfect slice of pop rock might throw you a curveball, but you’ll be back again and again coz it’s one tune you just can’t put down. Wait until radio gets a ﬁstful of this…

Bayside – Devotion & Desire Bayside formed in Long Island, NY during the winter of 2000, developing their own style based on soaring vocals, powerful guitar work and brooding lyrics from inﬂuences as diverse as the Smoking Popes, and Nirvana, to the Cure, Stevie Wonder and Nick Drake. Devotion & Desire is a good introduction to this great band. www.baysiderocks.com

The Audition – You’ve Made Us Conscious Hailing from the suburbs of Chicago, their new CD Controversy Loves Company will be released on Victory Records on September 20. This track was hand picked just because it’s so damned infectious. Can’t got it out of your head? Good. www.theauditionrocks.com The SmashUp – Best That I Can With these subtle harmonies and a swagger that could disarm even the coolest of the cool, The SmashUp deliver a beautiful song that’s tainted with just about every emotion you can call on to describe it. Well, we like it anyway. www.thesmashup.com

Br:gade – Meet Me At My Funeral Another fantastic UK rock band about to break through into the mainstream, Br:gade fuse some pretty heavy riﬀs with great songwriting. An original voice up front and unconventional lyrical ability will set them apart from the rest... you’ll see. www.brigadeworld.com

Neon Zoo – Heaven Sin We fell in love with this song as soon as we heard it! It kind of reminded us a little of Gravity Kills, which is a great thing. This hulking rock monster of a track is yet more proof positive that music in the UK is far from dead. Watch and learn – then buy the album. www.neonzoo.com

Diamond Nights – Destination Diamonds Thin Lizzy meets the Darkness.. and bred in a New York tenement? Sounds great –and it is. This fantastic Stateside band are about to make some serious waves all over the place. Once heard, never forgotten. www.diamond-nights.com

Esoterica – Don’t Rely On Anyone Industrial pop? Who gives a damn about genres anymore. Everything is fair game, so get with the programme. Ersoterica have a fantastic delivery of their style. Unique and captivating, it may take a couple of listens but it’ll get under your skin eventually. Don’t Rely On Anyone is taken from their debut album The Fool. www.esoterica1.com

Dean Walker – Flying Round two for the man in black. Nifty drumming and a neat line in guitar riﬀs bring Dean Walker back to the cover mount. Still moving and shaking things out in LA, you can look forward to a home visit real soon. www.myspace/deanwalker

My Awesome Compilation – Asking for Trouble Just sit back and watch this one turn up over and over again on Scuzz. It’s just got that x-factor that makes you wonder why the hell you dig it so much… and you just gotta go see them live! www.myawesomecompilation.com

…HELLFIRE! DON’T MISS OUT…

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ZERO PREVIEW

M O DO

a game ions of out t a t p a ad ab ipated t it was rly antic , we though e g a e t mos f Doom us pics! e of the hape o With on rizon in the s ome gratuito ho ds on the ebody printe m o s time

If you’re one of the millions and millions around the world who has ever played Doom, you’ll know what the fuss is all about. Groping around in the dark for your gun, not sure what’s around the next corner – you stumble in some water.

You raise your face and are met with a creature of uncertain origin. This is ultimate gaming experience – the first person shoot-em up. How that should translate to the screen sounds feeble. The whole essence of Doom is that you’re alone against the world, and yet if you check

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out the trailer – best source for this is www.apple.com/trailers - you’ll find that it’s actually been turned into a movie of some worth. We’ve got The Rock for a start. Slowly forging his way as the next action hero, he brings a certain sense of gravity to the film, but then we also have actors of the calibre of Karl Urban and Rosamund Pike. Peer a little closer though and you’ll find months upon months of painstaking computer rendering taking place. Backgrounds, sets, creatures, sfx… it’s all here lovingly crafted with some soul for a change. We’re quite excited. O

24/8/05 16:45:52

On the Waterfront WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM DISCOVERING THE WATERFRONT BARELY RELEASED, THE CANADIAN OUTFIT ARE ALREADY MAKING WAVES. THE UNDERGROUND BUZZ ON THE BAND IS AT BREAKING POINT AND WITH GOOD REASON: Words: Daniel Owen

A record company, for once, have done the right thing. Silverstein have been on the road for what must seem like forever. Out on the buses with label mates Hawthorn Heights and Fall Out Boy, Silverstein have honed both their sound and come up with a perspective from which to stand. Life. Lyrically, they’ve moved on from their early delivery and now expose themselves as having matured far beyond where a band so young should be – but then again, years on the road will do that to you. Their sound too has changed. A first casual glance would bundle them in with the current gang of copyists, but Silverstein have developed a little bit of an edge: “Being on the road changed us for sure, but you know, what we’re really looking forward to at the moment is coming over to the UK. That place is

just so clued in. In America, which is obviously an important country for any band to succeed in, there’s not really an infrastructure of support. You have to do it by constant touring. The magazines we have over here are very amateur really considering the resources we have. They don’t stay up to date and neither do they really deliver anything of much worth. In the UK though, you have weekly magazines and monthlies that all seem to come out at different times of the month. If you can get into that spiral while you’re on tour, then you can pretty much be assured of creating a good buzz. Not only that, but it’s done in an intelligent way most of the time and bands can really start to make a name for themselves.” How are the shows going? They’re really starting to be quite manic!

The response we’re getting is great. What’s strange sometimes is that you can be out on the road for so long that you miss all the stuff that’s going on around you. So when you stop playing for five minutes, you suddenly find that you’re profile is on the up! It can be very strange – one minute you think you’re doing OK, the next, you really are doing OK! I guess that while you’re out there, exactly the opposite could happen too, but thankfully that’s not us at the moment. We’re really grateful to everyone that comes out to support us. Life in the wild can frankly be shit for new bands but Silverstein appear to coping with it, dealing with it and luckily, beating it. Everything the open road throws at them winds up in a song. That’s the way it should be.

“SO WHEN YOU STOP PLAYING FOR FIVE MINUTES, YOU SUDDENLY FIND THAT YOU’RE PROFILE IS ON THE UP! IT CAN BE VERY STRANGE  ONE MINUTE YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING OK, THE NEXT, YOU REALLY ARE DOING OK!" 40 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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If you believe all that you read, there’s an underground current that says INME fell over and are only just getting back on their feet. While it’s true that they made their debut album as practically nothing more then a bunch of kids, that doesn’t automatically preclude them from being taken seriously. It’s all a bit irrelevant now though – with an almost completely sold out UK tour behind them, and a hip new album under their belt, seems to us like that’s just the way it was meant to be… Words: Sion Smith Pics: Chiaki Nozu

Blackout in the Red Room

hen I say “almost completely sold out UK tour”, truth of the matter is, there was one venue in South Wales where the venue actually holds more people than there is available in the surrounding areas to fill it. Other than that, this tour has been one success after another – which has been a surprise and a half for the doubters of the band.

So just what happened ‘back then’ anyway? The British ‘scene’ was very much up and coming at the time, so ‘they’ dropped us into that and now there’s a vibrant indie scene, they’re trying to drop us into that too, but back then a lot of bands experienced their label practically deserting them. Suddenly, they would just say something like ‘Right, we’re not supporting that anymore’, but our first label (MFN) were completely behind us – they poured a lot of money in for our second record to be made, but then BMG stepped in and stripped it of everything and we went along with it. We were really busy when it appeared that we were doing nothing, but we were out in America. We were basically sitting on a record and didn’t have any means that we wanted to use to get it out to people. When you’ve been burnt once, you get pretty wary of what might happen next. We’re signed to ourselves now though and we licence our product out. At the moment we’re with V2 in the UK, JVC in Japan and we’re hoping it’s going to come out in Australia and Europe very soon. We were so fed up with going to our label and trying to get money out of the budget that we could spend how we wanted –you’d always get the ‘it’s our money and we’ll tell you how to spend it’ speech. So now it’s a good deal. We decide how it’s spent and right now we

want to hit the road. So basically, you have no one to blame but yourselves anymore! Yeah, but at least if we fall on our faces it will be through decisions that we made. At first we were a little bit nervous about how far we’d slipped off the map… ..is that how you saw it? Well, we didn’t know one way or the other. We didn’t know if we would come back and be nowhere or could pick up where we left off. The fans have been great and as tacky as it sounds, it’s all down to the fans being supportive, coming out and seeing us again and buying the record. We were like, 16 maybe 17, when we wrote the first album. We were so young. To have your whole career judged on something you did when you were that young is madness. People forget quickly and people learn just as quick too – right now, we’re an up and coming band again and that’s great. It’s worked out well.

It’s a good plan and one that’s seeing INME making some good decisions for themselves. The merchandising is selling fast at every gig, Seven Weeks made it to number 26 in the chart, which for a band who have done very little promotion for it, is phenomenal and the whole vibe on the road amongst both fans and the band is at fever pitch. Even from the outside, this is actually an exciting tour to be on. You could have crashed and burned quite badly under the circumstances. We could have put another album out and ended up in the band graveyard quite easily, but we’ve come back with a sold out tour and it really couldn’t be going any better. That Welsh gig was weird though – we got water-bombed by them. This might be a bit left of centre, but as an outfit, you remind me of the Wildhearts when they started out. Not in a musical sense so much, but in that there’s a sense of direction and a self containment to what you’re doing. We like the Wildhearts a lot – at the Kerrang! awards, Ginger came over and said he really liked our new album, which was a bit odd because we would have gone over and said the same thing eventually! The problem around here is that there are so many great bands in this country

who just don’t get any support. There’s only a few avenues in this country were you can get exposure on radio. In America it’s a completely different story. At the moment, every band whose name starts with ‘the’ and has an ironic quirky lyric seems to be getting airplay on that basis alone.

When we did the interview with Steve from Porcupine Tree last issue, he was saying about how long it took to make it on your own terms. I guess this is the beginning of that road for you. We really want to build it slow – we won’t lie about the fact that at first we wanted to sell loads of records and have hundreds of people at our gigs, but take Incubus – they’ve had a lot of money put behind them, but only after they had proved themselves. It wasn’t a new signing of a band and then putting millions behind it, they really proved that they could do it and get the fact on the table that people wanted what they had. When you get that sort of money though, you just tend to do the Mindwarp thing and blow it all on a bunch of drugs and comics. Yeah – course you do. It was that that brought us back down to earth, but when you go from writing songs as a hobby to someone putting a financial figure on it, of course you’re going to turn into a dick – show me somebody who didn’t! It’s a good thing we never had huge amounts of money anyway – one of us would be dead by now. Y’know considering this is supposed to be the gay ‘capital’ of Britain, there’s a lot of fit women here… Oddly, right at that moment in time, we all look round to check and outside of the window, there’s about 20 men all dressed asWonderWoman walking towards the Dr Who exhibition on the pier. I forgot to ask any questions after that, which is probably just as well. INME.Watch and learn. It’s going to go ballistic.

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Words: Sion Smith Pictures: Chiaki Nozu/Tony Wollescroft

Where Manson is concerned, it’s not always easy to see when life is imitating art or vice versa. In the close to fifteen years that the legend has been growing, the media at large has battled with the constant contradictions, eventually choosing to sensationalise the man over listening to what was actually coming from his mouth. This is a common theme where anyone that dares to challenge the concept of normality is concerned. While thousands and thousands around the world did get it and saw the show for what it was, and an equal number merely followed the rest of the flock, there were just as many who simply didn’t understand at all and chose to fire their guns: “Funnily enough, the wildest stories about me come from people without a clue, people who claim they don’t need to hear my albums or talk to me to know what I’m all about”, he told NY Rock. “Do they fancy themselves mind-readers? There are so many horror stories around about what I do. It’s truly amazing and to be honest, most of the stuff is too sick for me to think it up. Go figure. There are people accusing me that I’m sick, that I’m a danger to morals, western civilization and basically everything under the sun. And they’ve got these wild stories about me, completely off the wall, completely untrue. They thought them up and it makes you wonder what goes on in their brain, but of course, they don’t consider themselves sick. They think they’re normal because they don’t dress like I do”. No matter how frenetic the show, all shows reach the stage where people stop listening – it stops being shocking by virtue of being desensitised by the exposure that once fed it.

It’s happened many times before, and it will undoubtedly happen again. Alice Cooper’s fantastical stage show shocked initially, and now it’s like a pantomime, a piece of theatre. W.A.S.P.’s show became a circus by the admission of ringmaster Blackie Lawless himself. “It wouldn’t be all bad if people would stop being shocked, if they’d stop running away once they see me and fear me, or break out in hysterics. I think if they could simply get used to the fact that I do look different, they might be able to take a look at what I really do and try to understand what I’m trying to say. I don’t do things for shock value. I do things because I want to do them, sometimes because I think it’s funny. A lot of people don’t get my sense of humour, maybe because it is often a bit dark and cynical”. Well, that’s something we can all relate to (ahem), and yet from beneath a darkened sky of cynicism he storms the front of his own stage and in various incarnations plunders the depths of the human soul, recycles it for public consumption and spews it back out to be willingly received. But if people stop being shocked and amazed by the Manson live experience, will they continue to sit up and pay attention? Would they stop listening if he ceased to be the very thing that has made him the icon he is? People would surely stop watching horror movies if they knew they weren’t going to be scared by them. And if Manson’s work becomes too commercialised in order to gain maximum sales, then this could very well happen. So it can hardly be a surprise that this particular protagonist has chosen to pursue different outlets from which to speak and ultimately, shock. The list of

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new Manson ventures is extensive, and it’s all with the purpose of letting the man present his thoughts and ideas in a pure, unmanufactured way. “I no longer want to make art that other people – particularly record companies – are turning into a product,” he told Austin Scaggs at Rolling Stone recently. “I just want to make art.” And apparently, he’s given his forthcoming new breed of art a name. An amalgam of the words ‘horror’ and ‘depilation’ (that’s to remove hair from the body, if you didn’t know) result in ‘Horripilation’. “It will horrify the hair off of your legs,” says Manson. “I’ve always dreaded being called a musician, because I always wanted to

write and paint,” he said, speaking to Cyril Helnwein (son of Gottfried, who collaborated with Manson on the artwork for The Golden Age of Grotesque) for Tastes Like Chicken back in 2002. “But I’m not ashamed to just merely be considered an entertainer, because art is entertaining; sometimes my stuff is funny, some of it has pain in it, some of it has confusion, some of it has anger, sex. I have a real hard time drawing the lines between any of them”. Perhaps it’s the classic story of the recording artist trying to free himself from the shackles of the music industry moguls and express things with total freedom. Or perhaps it’s another “commercial ruse”, as Manson himself termed his Omega

alter ego from Mechanical Animals. Either way, there’s plenty of it to come, and it will surely all draw big crowds and make big money. With his wedding to model Dita Von Teese also in the planning stages, Manson is looking forward to busy and undoubtedly rewarding times. The first venture to emerge is likely to be Manson’s series of four short films, in his own typically grotesque style, entitled Phantasmagoria:The Visions of Lewis Carroll. Instalment one is said to be focusing on the origins of Alice In Wonderland characters Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. With Manson playing Carroll himself and the twin girls that play Dum and Dee engaging in genuine lesbian sex (“I like to make

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dreams come true”) this initial foray into moviemaking looks set to be just as shocking and graphic as everything else Manson touches. These short films are intended for release through Manson’s Official website, essentially meaning he can do whatever he likes. There will be no certification, no film companies calling the shots and no censorship. These films are destined to be pure, unfiltered Manson. He is also planning on

showcasing his artwork (possibly including the graphic depiction of the murder of a would-be Hollywood actress in 1974 that briefly became the centre of a murder investigation in Scotland in January) in both a new fine art book and a gallery in Los Angeles. This follows a pair of one-day exhibitions of his watercolour paintings in Paris and Berlin last September, including Experience is The Mistress of Fools, which was used for the

“I’m not simply out to shock people. I like to make people think - I got into it to say what was on my mind… it amazes me sometimes how many people are listening.”

The Essential Marilyn Manson Timeline 1989 The embryo of the band is formed with Manson hooking up with Daisy Berkowitz, Gidget Gein and Madonna Wayne-Gacy. The bands intention is to explore the limits of censorship.

1992 Under the banner of Marilyn Manson and The Spooky Kids, the band began to gain a loyal following in Florida and were nominated for some local music awards. By the end of the year, the band were known simply as Marilyn Manson.

1993 Trent Reznor oﬀers the band a contract on his own label and an opening slot on his tour. Gein was replaced with Twiggy Ramirez and the band won a South Florida Slammie award for Song of the Year with Dope Hat.

1994

1998 The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, was published. Zim Zum leaves the band and is replaced by John 5. October – Mechanical Animals tops the Billboard 200 Albums chart for a week. Marilyn Manson found his ﬁrst bout of opposition when public oﬃcials in Syracuse, NY moved to stop him from appearing in concert there.

Portrait Of An American Family is released. Banned from performing in Utah, but Reznor invites Manson on stage anyway. More controversy arises when he rips up the Book of Mormon. Jailed in Florida for nudity violations, Anton LaVey bestows the title ‘ Reverend on Manson.

1995 Lucas is replaced with Ginger Fish on drums, Berkowitz is replaced on guitars by Zim Zum. Smells Like Children is released and their cover of Sweet Dreams is picked up by MTV.

2000 Release of Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death).

2001 Tainted Love released for the

2002 Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death) was certiﬁed gold.

2003 The Golden Age Of Grotesque released. Tops Billboard Top 200 Album chart for a week with The Golden Age Of Grotesque selling over 118,000 copies in the US its ﬁrst week of release. Manson takes the Ozzfest stage for the third time in his career.

1996 Antichrist Superstar released making top 3. Band is nominated for Best Hard Rock Video for Sweet Dreams.

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cover of his Best of CD/DVD set Lest We Forget. Manson has had a long and vested interest in painting, since his childhood, and has always painted throughout his musical career, unknown to most of the commercially sheltered public and press who fail to see past “Manson the Freak”. Manson has always exercised complete control over everything in his career. Every message his music has delivered has been exactly what he wanted it to be. And his new ventures are even more under his control than his music was. But now, he has even been involved in some things over which he doesn’t have control. A lack of power, he told Helnwein ahead of his acting debut in Party Monster (2003), that he rather enjoys. “The only thing that’s freed me up, and is an art form in itself, is acting. You’re releasing yourself to the director, and you are sort of a tool of another artist. I’ve enjoyed the release because I’m so much in control of every detail of what I do, that it was interesting to have somebody else put me somewhere and do something and not play myself.” Next in line was Area 51, a conspiracy laden video game remake released in April. Manson ‘stars’ opposite David Duchovny (X-Files) and Powers Boothe (Men of Honour/Sin City) as the voice of a disgruntled alien called Edgar who narrates the entire game and interacts with the other characters. “He’s supposed to be the narrator and a helping hand, but he does it in a real nasty way,” said Manson in an interview with Spin Magazine in March, “He’s very condescending to the players and talks about them as if they were monkeys. He was easy to get into because we share common feelings about mankind. He’s a misanthrope. Obviously, living the life of

looking highly unlikely. But none of this an alien myself, it’s a good character for necessarily means Manson, or indeed me. He’s an antihero – you like him, but Zombie, are done with music altogether. you’re not supposed to.” Both have a number of songs ready for Lastly, Manson makes a cameo as a another album each, but there is no word bartender in a new vampire movie, entitled from either camp as to when these next Rise, starring Lucy Liu (Ally McBeal/ opuses will emerge. “It’s not like I’m going Charlie’s Angels) as a young journalist to stop making music and start knitting,” who wakes up in the morgue having been Manson said in the Rolling Stone interview. turned into a vampire and sets about “I just don’t think the world is worth seeking revenge. “I think the ultimate irony putting the music into right now. First we’re is that it’s a vampire movie, and I’m not a gonna fix the world with horripilation.” vampire,” he commented to Entertainment As much as the majority of the World Tonight. “You have to have humility; it’s not would like to believe otherwise, Manson about being a pop star. I take acting very is an incredibly intelligent, eloquent and seriously, even if it’s a comic thing, because talented individual, with an awful lot to I love film. I have a respect for filmmaking.” say about the state of the World, the way The movie is said to be completed, but a everyone is perceived and the challenge release date is not yet known. of normality. And he is going to get this Musically, Manson hasn’t released across in every way he possibly can. He is anything since Lest We Forget in September an artist in the truest sense of the word. last year and its only single Personal Jesus in One who has produced, and will continue October. He’s been on the Against All Gods to produce, some of the most thoughtWorld Tour since October and looks set to provoking and challenging material the finish that at the end of August. He almost World has ever seen. And if the masses quit music once, until hearing the Depeche continue to disregard his views because Mode track on the radio changed his mind they don’t understand them or are too and inspired him to record the cover for fearful of something that dares to strike the best of CD. However, there are no such an alternate stance, then he will more plans for any imminent releases or ultimately be proven correct in all he has tours (apart from a UMD release of his live said. For those that do understand, he will video God, Guns and Government) for the continue to be a cult icon. After all this time foreseeable future. It’s all about the movies, the media and the public at large are still the art and any other avenues of expression unable to conceive Manson’s World and the man takes a fancy too. Manson’s career continue to criticise him. But what they is drawing obvious parallels to that of Rob fail to realise is that through this constant Zombie at the moment. He too hasn’t stream of condemnation they are still released anything since a best of CD/DVD commenting on him. They are still taking set, he too is set to finish his current tour notice of the things he does. Everyone has (as part of the Ozzfest touring circus) in something to say about Marilyn Manson September and he too will be focusing on and because of that, he has already won. a new filmmaking project throughout the autumn and winter, with another tour “I think people forgot how to think for themselves.

Maybe now they realize that they have to learn how to think again, accept responsibility and not simply believe everything the media or politicians tell them.”

The serious end of the stick: Back in 1997, the father of a 15 year old boy who committed suicide told how he felt that Manson’s music played an important part in his death. AntiChrist Superstar was purportedly playing on his portable CD player at the time. “Obviously it upset me that someone [would think] I would encourage that type of behaviour. I’ve always said that people [who] would harm themselves or others over music or ﬁlm or books, [they’re] just being ignorant. If people want to be ignorant there’s nothing you could do about it. It’s a wake-up call for parents to

teach their kids to be more intelligent [ways], to interpret art with some sort of intelligence. If you want to blame music for someone hurting themselves, then you can just as easily blame Shakespeare writing “Romeo & Juliet” which is something I was taught when I was a kid, and that’s a story about two teenagers that killed themselves because their parents don’t understand them and I think the key lesson is that parents don’t understand their kids. If you take more time to talk to your kids, your kids are going to live happier lives.”

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The Ink Slinger Whether he’s inking or oiling, Guy Aitchison ﬁlls a mean canvas. A co-founder of Art Fusion with Paul Booth (see issue 1), this artist is on a mission. Ian Downes gets down to basics and ﬁnds out where to start. Why Tattooing? Was it something you grew up with? I never really thought about it at all until I was 16. I grew up mostly in the suburbs of Chicago, a real homogeneous middle class cultureless void, and just hadn’t encountered tattoos in any way that had impacted me. Then one day my sister Hannah suggested we go get tattooed at Sluggo’s in Aurora, the seedy old factory town next to our pristine white suburb. It sounded rebellious enough for my tastes, so I was immediately interested. I didn’t have any idea what to expect from a tattoo shop; I didn’t expect to see designs to choose from on the walls. I was always artistically inclined, and just assumed I should bring in my own design, which I did. It was a small thing, now long gone, but while having it done, I watched and realized that it seemed like something I could do; that any artist who was good with their tools and had a decent grasp on design could conceivably tattoo if they wanted to. I was immediately hooked. So how long was it before you got your own gun. (Paul Booth says tattooists don’t like the term ‘gun’ - but we can’t think of another

way of describing it - what do you call it?) And just exactly how do you start tattooing? You need to learn on someone! It was four years from that first piece before I actually had the opportunity to learn the art. I had friends in the punk scene who urged me to tattoo, some who even offered to pitch in for the equipment if I promised them a bunch of work. My art style was very tattooable back then and there was no one in the scene, no young hipsters, tattooing at the time. But I felt intimidated by the medium and uncertain how to proceed; in particular, I was afraid of the healing process and guessed (somewhat correctly) that there was more to the whole thing than meets the eye, and was afraid to do something that wouldn’t heal well. Plus, I was living an unstable lifestyle at the time, sleeping under a table in the back of a friend’s print shop- not the right moment to learn such a complex art form. I got my chance in October 1988 when I (miraculously) had a good hunk of cash in my pocket and was ready for my next piece. I went to Bob Oslon, who had a good reputation amongst the folks

I ran with at the time, and brought some drawings along. He tattooed me, and by the end of the session I had been offered an apprenticeship. This is the right way to learn- to land some sort of mentorship situation in an established shop. The more artistic and professional the owner, the better, but any decent shop can be adequate. You learn the basics by watching and asking questions, and doing all the peripheral stuff- making needles, cleaning, doing drawing assignments. The day comes where you sit down with your first victim- hopefully a fully informed one, and for a small piece on a not-sovisible part of the body such as below the knee. Hopefully your teacher will be watching this happen. Then you just go for it, and do your best. I had little struggle with it, once I got used to the unusual weight balance of the equipment, and was tattooing unsuspecting walk-ins within a few months. Incidentally, we call them machines. Guns are for damaging people. Friends of mine who are tattooists have sacrificed their own legs in order to learn the art. Then they seemed to ‘fill up’ the rest of their body real quick - it’s almost

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a race to get it done. Have you managed to keep areas free for special pieces? Sure, I doodled on myself a bit. It’s better than messing up someone else. But yeah, I filled up fast; it’s hard not to when you’ve always wanted a lot of work but couldn’t afford it, then suddenly it’s available. As soon as I got comfortable in the trade I began hanging around as many other artists as I could, and travelled extensively to visit artists like Greg Kulz, Marcus Pacheco, Eddy Deutsche, Aaron Cain and others. We tattooed each other, did all kinds of crazy experimental crap on each other. All of us filled up fast. Since then, I’ve had a lot of tattoos removed with a laserpainful, time consuming and expensive, but worth it. I recently had a new sleeve done by Aaron and Grime, covering an area that used to be filled with my worst tattoos- stuff from my teenage days that had been covered, fixed up, fixed again... I’m also clearing off my right forearm and large parts of my legs. I’ve only got one body, so I’m trying to make the most of my collection and really polish what I do have. I have no regrets - regret is unhealthy - but I do have a strong desire to continue improving my collection in any way available, even if it involves going back a few steps before going forward. An increasing number of young tattooers are reaching this same stage now – under 30 and sleeved with crappy looking cover-up work. It’s the price we pay for haste and naivete, but

that’s all part of our artistic path, part of the learning process that makes us better as tattooers, qualifies us to help others make their collections look better. My back is still blank, but not for long. How do you feel about tattooing hands and faces – which seems more popular these days (even Mike Tyson has a tribal tat on his face!) My hands are tattooed, and I’ve never had any issues with them. I have always enjoyed looking down and seeing them;

becomes a thing of the past, regardless of whether you are talking to a tattoo fan or someone who hates tattoos. So I’ll probably never tattoo my neck, even though it would look cool if I did. Face tattoos are a different story completely – once you go this far, you have separated yourself from the rest of the human race in a strong and permanent manner. I have seen some facial tattoos that were designed very well and seemed to compliment the wearer’s

“FACE TATTOOS ARE A DIFFERENT STORY COMPLETELY  ONCE YOU GO THIS FAR,YOU HAVE SEPARATED YOURSELF FROM THE REST OF THE HUMAN RACE IN A STRONG AND PERMANENT MANNER.” but I believe I chose the right tattoos for my hands. For starters, they are black and grey and fairly low profile; so they grab less attention than something large and bright; they are really for me far more than they are for the public. I can’t easily hide the fact that I am tattooed, nor do I need to or want to; but I do find eye contact to be very important on a day-to-day basis with ordinary folks, and the hand tattoos don’t seem to detract from that. On the other hand, when you get up to the neck and face, eye contact

personality, rather than masking it, but those are rare. There was a time when no professional tattooist would tattoo a face, so all the face work you’d see was crude; but these days are past, and there are more and more well done facial tattoos. I think everyone should have the right to do whatever they want, but the sad fact is that most folks who get their faces tattooed are young enough that they really can’t comprehend the long term effects of their decision. It is rare for someone over 25 to want this done. But

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“A TATTOOER’S JOB GOES BEYOND SIMPLY APPLYING TATTOOS  TO SOME EXTENT,WE ARE GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS, AND WE DO HAVE TO AT LEAST ACKNOWLEDGE THIS RESPONSIBILITY, SINCE THE TATTOOS WE DO AFFECT PEOPLE FOR LIFE.” for those who do, best of luck to them. As far as the Tyson thing goes- why the hell not. High profile tattoos have a special place in our culture. My only concern is that this could lead to a whole slew of inner city kids getting their faces drilled, and this would stigmatize them forever as violent troublemakers- obviously, since they are emulating Tyson- and seriously limit their prospects. It’s safe to guess that most of those kids will end up in jail. So tattoos are socially acceptable now because of the MTV generation who see the likes of Marilyn Manson with sleeves. I’ve been to rock festivals and seen some really young looking kids with dodgy sleeves and weird forearm tats. Do you try to guide them if they come your way, or is it sit down, shut up and stay the fuck still? (Most people know what they want, right?) Tattoos are like anything else in life- the older and more experienced you are, the more time you’ve thought about the subject, the more experience you’ve

had, both good and bad, relating to it-- the better prepared you are for the next big decision. Nobody really starts out knowing exactly what they want, although they may believe that they do. But even with a good idea in mind, very few really are aware of what is possible, and I’ve found that many clients who thought they had a rock solid idea end up throwing the whole thing in the trash and starting over after having a short consultation and seeing some of the latest work. A tattooer’s job goes beyond simply applying tattoos – to some extent, we are guidance counsellors, and we do have to at least acknowledge this responsibility, since the tattoos we do affect people for life. I give as much guidance as possible to my younger clients, and would rather turn a big project away than do something that someone might later regret. In this respect, I think that there are many young tattooers who are very gung-ho about hard core tattooing who want to cover as much skin as they

can, especially on cute young girls... this is the wrong attitude, and I believe we have a responsibility to the public and to the art form to try to make sure that as many of our clients as possible are happy in the long term. This, in return, helps all of our business to grow. On the flip side of this is the basic tattooist’s credo that there is a kind of karma to tattooing, and that the client will get the piece that they need for that moment of their lives... a young person getting a large ugly tattoo that they immediately dislike may not agree with this, but in the long term that piece might teach them something that might not have been as easy to learn otherwise, and makes them more fit for living in the world. I always try to do beautiful tattoos, but just by the law of averages not every client is going to be happy, for whatever reason. I just have to believe that every one of them will ultimately be guided along their path better as a result of having that piece. If I didn’t believe this, I would have to put down my machines once and for all, and find another way of paying the bills. You’re a conventional(?) artist as well as a tattooist.Your work is very textured. How well do they go together? In many ways they are one and the same. I discover things in tattoos I’ve done that I like enough to explore further on canvas, and have done plenty of paintings that later inspired

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tattoos. I seem to naturally follow a few basic themes, regardless of what medium I am using, so they have a strong influence on each other. There are even similarities in the techniques involved. For instance, the way I use paint on a palette, where I will dip the brush between different blobs of paint and mix them on the palette before applying the brush to the canvas, that has worked its way into my tattoo technique, where I dip freely between ink caps the same way that I work with paint. I think this has given my work a lot more freedom and dimension, as well as a wider range of colours. I’m sure I would never have thought to tattoo this way if not for working with paint first. Paintings are different from tattoos in many ways; you can make them any size, work with any size brush, try anything you want, no matter how unlikely it might be to succeed as a composition. If you don’t like it, you can paint over it or trash it. This gives a you lot of freedom, and is a good opportunity to try things that would be too damn experimental for skin. You can also lighten dark areas of a painting by applying more paint, which isn’t so much an option in a tattoo. So a painting is a good place to try new things and really push the envelope. A tattoo, on the other hand, has a certain realness that a painting does not – it is on a living person, for starters, so the option to give up and start again isn’t there; the whole thing matters a

lot more, and must be made to work no matter what. The client also will have a certain amount of input in a tattoo, where a painting doesn’t have to take anyone’s needs into account except for the artist. The tattooist’s task of meeting in the middle with the client is an important part of the synthesis of tattoo design; this is not a factor in painting, except for commercial illustration. Are you influenced in your work by the music you listen to? What is on your stereo at the moment? I actually have been spending much of this summer just listening to nature... I am painting in our screened in porch, and we’re in the boonies, so

minded, but I have tired of the yelling dude and am having a much easier time working with music without lyrics. Some of it is electronic, such as The Orb, Boards of Canada, Plastikman, Steve Roach, Loop Guru and System 7; some of it is instrumental rock, such as Tortoise or the Dennison-Kimball Trio; some of it is classical, like Philip Glass and Shostakovich; I also appreciate some World Music – in particular we have a large collection of Ravi Shankar’s sitar music. A lot of this depends on who or what I am working on. We recently subscribed to XM satellite radio, hoping to hear some new alternatives, but so far it’s been been disappointingly dull – the most generic

“THE CLIENT ALSO WILL HAVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF INPUT IN A TATTOO,WHERE A PAINTING DOESN’T HAVE TO TAKE ANYONE’S NEEDS INTO ACCOUNT EXCEPT FOR THE ARTIST.” the sounds here are rich and beautiful and multilayered. This should give you an idea of my musical tastes. I like music that rewards attention without demanding it, especially while tattooing; something mid-tempo, usually without vocals. This could mean a lot of different things, and I like to consider myself open

music in every genre. So far we’ve had the most luck discovering new music from personal recommendations... since our taste is kind of at the fringe to begin with, finding great new music is a needlein-a-haystack proposition, but when something new turns up that’s worth hearing, it’s cause for celebration…

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Live! Gigs

Black Crowes Fillmore, San Francisco, CA

“SLOWLY THEY DIPPED US INTO THE

GROOVE, LETTING THE MUSIC PERMEATE OUR BEING, SOAKING IN IT FOR A SECOND, THEN UNLEASHING THE SERMON CAUSING OUR HEADS TO

LUNGE FORWARD AND BACK AGAIN, TAKING US HIGHER AND HIGHER."

Something called to me from a place I hadn’t visited before, calling me, drawing me to the gathering place where the lost souls of a thousand white boys were to meet, greet and get some churchin’. I enter the holy place where countless others have taken it upon themselves to move the masses, and on the holiest of rock and roll nights, Sunday. The Black Crowes are in town and as they congregate the ﬂock to the yielding ﬂoorboards of the Fillmore, we all wait in anticipation of some good ol’ spiritually healing rock and roll. The stage alight with candles, backdrop cementing the fact that we were in hallowed halls and preparing to meet our money maker. Trotting onstage with the swagger of an R. Crumb cartoon, freewheelin’ apostle Chris Robinson took to the pulpit and welcomed us to the

fold. Enter the whole band, the lights dim, and with outstretched arms, you could tell this crowd was in need of some savin’. Especially after contributing so generously at the bar ($5 Budweiser in a dixie cup is sinful). Fully motivated by libations, we braced ourselves for the coming of the Loud. The All-Souls, skinny white boy gospel choir and its Peckerwood revival were cranking up the organ, and spiritual wheels were turning. The Crowes ease us into the river with Virtue & Vice, Stone Cold and Black Moon Creepin’, and bring us to a soulful simmer. Trading guitar licks from either side of the stage had me feel as if I had Satan on one shoulder, and an angel on the other, both vying for my very soul with ripping licks that would tempt even the most devout pop fan. This band kept us on the stove for

hours, literally, they played for over 2 and a half hours. Slowly they dipped us into the groove, letting the music permeate our being, soaking in it for a second, then unleashing the sermon causing our heads to lunge forward and back again, taking us higher and higher. I witnessed at least three souls, drop from the jubilation (or it could have been the shrooms) and be carried out by the ﬂock not two feet from where I stood. I was standing with legendary skinsman Chris Kontos and his lovely wide Gwynne, and even though we are all three metalheads to the nines, we let the Crowes into our lives that night. Chris told me that the night before, they had a full horn section; complete with local talent, Dave Ellis, and that they had brought the house down, coming close

to Sly and the Family Stone moments more than once. After a short break, no doubt to fire up a little “inspiration”, the band returned with a slow acoustic take, then carefully returning us to the boiler plate for a full bake. Smoking through a ripping nod to the Stones, Torn and Frayed, the crowd settled back on their heals and prepared for salvation. Chris’ Jagger like moves comforted us all in our swaying state and praised us for our eagerness to accept rock as our savior. There we were, converted, believers and non-believers alike, basking in the glow of a resurrection of faith, Rock is not dead, long live rock. Praise be the Black Crowes. Though I may walk in the shadows through the valley of American Idol, I am not afraid. For I have seen the Crowes, and they are good. Well, I have seen them before, but never in a hall so cozy as the Fillmore, and I tell you, there is only one way to see the Crowes, up close and personal. Taking five nights at the Fillmore to prepare for a upcoming tour, and to shoot what will definitely be a “must-get” concert DVD through Eagle Rock Entertainment, this was one of those classic shows that I will have to read this article again ten years from now, so I get the story right at the bar. MD

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Funeral for a Friend Manchester Academy 8th July 2005 Hell is hot. The Sahara is hot. Tonight the Manchester Academy blasts them clean out of the water as the temperature hits melting point. What is it with Funeral for a Friend’s desire to play at venues with no air conditioning?! The temperature is not a good thing for openers Gratitude. Whilst Funeral for a Friend may be keen to introduce the crowd to the man they consider an emo-pioneer, tonight the kids don’t need no education. They need ice cold beer. So Joe Matranga and crew fail to raise interest in all but the most valiant few. The same fate awaits A Static Lullaby who also fail to come even close to the quality of

Backyard Babies

London Astoria Last time Sweden's Backyard Babies came to London they were blowing the mighty Velvet Revolver off the stage at the Carling Hammersmith Apollo in front of rock guitar legends Jimmy Page and Brian May. This time it's the first night of a short European jaunt with punk legends Social Distortion. They've been touring non-stop since the start of June. Would they be showing the strain? Would they hell! Given the rather subdued hair-style situation, this didn't look like being the colourful punk event one might have expected. Granted, whoever had come on the stage after the dreadful opening act Cooper were going to be well received, but the crowd needed lifting. A trio of Offspring-rejects peddling their weak brand of pop-punk to a largely disinterested audience for thirty minutes did not start the night well. So when Backyard Babies walked on stage, they were greeted with a mighty roar. The bars mostly emptied and the

standing area ﬁlled up nicely as the Babies tore through Earn The Crown and crowd favourite Brand New Hate. This was about the point the band seemed to get pumped up. Singer/ guitarist Nicke Borg had ditched the ill-advised backwards baseball cap he was wearing over his bandana and was clearly starting to get excited. Bassist Johan Blomquist seemed pretty bored for most of the set until the last couple of tracks, but Nicke and lead guitarist Dregen were full of energy and seemed to be delivering the songs with passion and vigour. The crowd response was getting bigger with each track, and the cheer that greeted the intro to Minus Celsius was huge. This song also marked the ﬁrst, last, and only time Nicke handled a guitar solo. It was arguably a lot more emotive than Dregen's, so perhaps he should do a few more. The eerie intro to Highlights marked the beginning of what would indeed be the

the act that has preceded them. Bullet for My Valentine however, could be forgiven for thinking this was their own headlining show as the young crowd go barmy for their aggressive, charged riﬀs. By the time Funeral for a Friend take to the stage they are greeted by enthusiasm and devotion nothing short of rabid. Roses for the Dead gets the crowd ﬂinging themselves around fuelled by a potent mix of raging hormones and a desire, almost a need to share Matt Davis’ rage and pain. Hours has been out less than a month and the kids already know it word for word. Funeral for a Friend lap it up and play like their lives depended on it, which all makes for a frenetic and chaotic show. And the audience love it. Scorching – literally! LS

highlight of the night before the Babies closed the set with evergreen favourite Star War and former show opener Look At You. The final fifteen minutes of this forty five minute set really demonstrated the energy and power a Backyard Babies show can achieve, and with the additional breathing space of a headlining slot, a full gig is not one to be missed. AL

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Live! Gigs

INME

Brighton Concorde Pavilion

There seems to be theme running through live reviews at the moment, and that’s how hot it is all the time. It’s not just the summer though, what seems to be happening is that people are really getting back into seeing live bands. They don’t come more live than INME. Radiating an energy that belies their intention, they stripped this joint down to the bare bones tonight. On the down side, I just feel old amongst this crowd. On the plus side, the Pavilion is tailor made for a band like this. Everyone is packed in like sardines and the minute the band hit the stage, it’s like the second coming of rock has ﬁnally arrived.

The lights flash like some prototype Derren Brown experiment and those at the front erupt into a frenzy – you ever see koi carp feeding when food is thrown in the water? It was like that. David McPherson owns this stage – his concept of singing and playing like a devil is so wrong for someone so (relatively) young. It’s just not right that somebody is able to play guitar like this whilst pouring their heart into the mic and fronting the band. That’s not to say the other guys are slouching around though. Jo Morgan fills in every single space left by McPherson and is as good a bassist as you’re going to find out on any stage while Si Taylor pounds away in the background. The crowd is theirs completely. Surprisingly throwing Seven Weeks into the middle of the set rather than the end, the pit heaves and spills over. Will the madness never end! Probably not – for all that’s been said about INME over the last few years, this is just the beginning. Believe me . . . this really is just the beginning. SS

Skinny Puppy Rescue Rooms, Nottingham First off, I should say I think the new Skinny Puppy album, The Greater Wrong of the Right, absolutely rocks. So I was eager to see how it would come across live. They arrive on stage with the expected onslaught of aggressive, industrial noise. Mr Ogre appears wearing his shredded puppy outfit, delivering raucous vocals and posturing around the stage with an energy that makes him look slightly possessed. The Greater Wrong of the Right has a kind of sleazy groove to it, not present – I don’t think – in any of the eight that go before it. But it’s not until the third song – the excellent Pro-test, that this starts to come across live. A combination of dirty, tribal beats and thrashy industrial sounds starts to get the crowd rocking. Me included. But sorry to say this was the highlight of the show. Skinny Puppy have always been too right-on for their own good. That’s fine. That’s who they are. But the on-stage visuals of George Bush cut into images of marching Nazi soldiers, were clichéd and unimaginative. It reminded me of something Ministry might have done back in the late ‘80s. Except with a different President. Next they donned a rubber mask of good ole George and the black robes of someone I suspect was supposed to be a Taliban member and started scrapping on stage. I couldn’t help thinking of the Frankie Two Tribes video and started to lose patience. Musically, they do what they do well enough and will always be thought of as being amongst the founding fathers of industrial rock. Though for a band with so much to say (apparently) I can never figure out why they process Ogre’s vocals so much you can’t understand a word he’s saying. Ultimately, Skinny Puppy delivered exactly what you’d expect, which was disappointing as the latest album promised to be more of a move on. This kind of packaged rebellion (sorry Anthrax) just ain’t shocking any more. SE

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Live! Gigs

The Bulldog Bash Stratford-Upon Avon Friday

Queen Adreena

Ah, I love the smell of Diesel in the morning. It’s 10am, the beer is already ﬂowing and the sound of 1000ccs ﬁlls the air as dozen of bikers line up to run the drag strip, testing the speed of bikes of all makes and sizes. People are tucking into bacon and eggs, contemplating whether to head over to the custom bike and car show or explore the vast market, maybe even get a tattoo or piercing to mark the event. It’s important to remember that this is essentially a biker festival and tonight’s music is the icing on a very large, well oiled cake.

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METROPOLIS MUSIC PRESENT

Metropolis Music, SJM Concerts & CPL by arrangement with X-ray present

Plus guests

November Tour 15 Wedenesday 16 Thursday 17 Friday 18 Sunday 20 Monday 21 Wednedsay 23 Thursday 24 Friday 25 Saturday 26 Tuesday

Southampton Guildhall London Carling Academy Brixton Leeds University Newcastle Carling Academy Glasgow Barrowlands Nottingham Rock City Norwich UEA Manchester Academy Bristol Carling Academy Birmingham Carling Academy

023 8063 2601 0870 771 2000 0113 244 4600 0870 771 2000 0870 220 1116 0115 941 2544 01603 508 050 0161 832 1111 0870 771 2000 0870 771 2000

All tickets available on-line: www.gigsandtours.com New album 'Crimson' out now. www.vagrant.uk.com

CONCERTS ERTAINM ENT & SJM CLEAR CHANNEL ENT METROPOLIS MUSIC, SENT PRE GAA WITH NT BY ARRANGEME

METROPOLIS MUSIC BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AGENCY GROUP PRESENT

PLUS GUESTS

OCTOBER 2005 06 MANCHESTER ACADEMY

11 BIRMINGHAM CARLING ACADEMY 2

07 LIVERPOOL ACADEMY 2

14 LONDON ASTORIA

0870 771 2000

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09 GLASGOW GARAGE MBER MONDAY 28TH NOVE

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0870 169 0100

10 NEWCASTLE CARLING ACADEMY 0870 771 2000

WWW.KILLINGJOKE.COM A METROPOLIS MUSIC AND DF CONCERTS PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE AGENCY AND GRAND UNION

MBER TUESDAY 29TH NOVE

ROOM OOL EMPRESS BALL KP AC BL 121 751 01253 MBER THURSDAY 1ST DECE ATIONAL ARENA RN TE IN F IF RD CA 8 029 2022 448

METROPOLIS MUSIC BY ARRANGEMENT WITH HELTER SKELTER PRESENT

ER FRIDAY 2ND DECEMB

IGHTON CENTRE BR 0870 900 9100 ER SUNDAY 4TH DECEMB

RMINGHAM NEC BI 0870 909 4133 ER MONDAY 5TH DECEMB

APOLLO444 5556 MERSMITH 020 7403 3331, 0870 NDON HA7M LO 0932, 020 7734 8932, 0870 606 3400, 020 728 K / WWW.GETLIVE.CO.U GSANDTOURS.COM BUY ON-LINE: WWW.GI 10TH OCTOBER NEW AA SINGLE - OUT SHATTER / TENDER - THE PUSHING THE SENSES TUMBLE ES SINGL HIT THE FEATURING MOMENT OUT NOW AND FALL & FEELING A

OM WWW.FEEDERWEB.C

OCTOBER 2005 12 WOLVERHAMPTON 01902 552 121

PLUS GUESTS

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LONDON ASTORIA

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MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2

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BUY ONLINE: WWW.GIGSANDTOURS.COM WWW.GIGSINSCOTLAND.COM

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FOR EXCLUSIVE LIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS AND PRIORITY BOOKING GO TO: WWW.GIGSANDTOURS.COM

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Live! Gigs

5 OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BASH The naked lady dancers – very.very.rude The custom bike and car show – There are hot bikes, then there are these bikes. The Wall of Death – who doesn’t enjoy watching someone risk life and limb in the name of entertainment? Scary but brilliant. The giant testicles – encouraging men to love their balls. Perhaps not as eﬀective as the Rachel Stevens’ commercial. The Fairground – for those about to hurl, we salute you.

“THERE IS NO V.I.P AREA, NO SCHMOOZERS HOPING TO BE SPOTTED FOR THE NEXT ISSUE OF HEAT MAGAZINE AND THE HEADLINING BAND SOUNDCHECK WHILST THE AUDIENCE LOOKS ON, DRINKINGTHEIR BEER." The Ga Gas

Matt Davies – Funeral For A Friend

How better to start the musical mayhem than with some old school guitar widdlery courtesy of Richie Dickinson’s Driving Force? Classic rock complete with drum solos kick-start the main stage activities. The Tokyo Dragons take things up several notches with slabs of sleazy riffs. They take us back to a time where the guitars growl and the singer wails, and the audience laps it all up. Definitely one to watch out for. A Bulldog veteran, the ridiculously dressed Lord Bishop has a stumbling start with technical problems, but this fuelling of the self-proclaimed “king of sex rock” frustration means that he plays with an added ferocity and performs with a brash Las Vegas showmanship like some sort of evil James Brown, although at one point he dubiously claims to be Cliff Richard. He even raises a singalong. Another blast of rock and roll nostalgia comes from Hurricane Party who strut and move like rock titans on a stadium tour

not in a tent in Stratford. Singer Richie dances manically around like a young Jim Morrison and the band play as if their lives depended upon it. Guitarist Johnny, currently suﬀering from a broken arm, makes a brief appearance to help sing “Roadstar”. Winnebago Deal may not have the star presence of the previous act but they sure as hell make a lot of noise for two people. Thrashing guitars, snarling vocal and hard heavy drums get some moshing action in the crowd and guitarist Ben twitches and writhes like a puppet with Satan in control of the strings. Irish trio Therapy? are greeted like returning heroes as they take to the stage tonight. Andy Cairns plays with a demented gleam in his eye and the boys look like they are thoroughly enjoying themselves, Maybe it’s the muted sound system but something doesn’t quite gel tonight. However, with their infectious enthusiasm rubbing oﬀ on the

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mean fiddler MEAN FIDDLER BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AGENCY GROUP PRESENTS

TOURTURING EUROPE 2005

presents

THE FUCKING CHAMPS MEAN FIDDLER PRESENTS

PLUS GUESTS

TODD & LORDS

WEDNESDAY 7TH DECEMBER

THE GARAGE

20-22 HIGHBURY CORNER, LONDON N5. DOORS 8PM.

melt banana MEAN FIDDLER PRE

SENTS

NOVEMBER MON 21 PORTSMOUTH WEDGEWOOD ROOMS TUE 22 EXETER LEMON GROVE WED 23 LONDON MEAN FIDDLER THU 24 NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY FRI 25 BIRMINGHAM CARLING ACADEMY 2 SAT 26 LEEDS COCKPIT SUN 27 SHEFFIELD CORPORATION

THURSDAY 10TH & SUNDAY 20TH NOVEMBER 2005

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THE GARAGE

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TICKET HOTLINE (24HRS): 0870 060 3777 BOOK ONLINE AT MEANFIDDLER.COM & SEETICKETS.COM

7.30PM

Mean Fiddler by arrangement with Factory Music Management and Agency Ltd presents

PLUS SUPPORT

•SEPTEMBER TOUR•

LER EVERY FRIDAY @ MEAN FIDD

LONDON ROCKMETAL MAYHEM > ROCK FOR FULL THROTTLE PUNK

ADMISSION £4 WITH THIS AD (NORMAL PRICE £6)

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

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Agincourt Rock Venue Sheffield Corporation Glasgow King Tuts Wah Wah Hut Newcastle Trillians Rockbar Milton Keynes The Pitz London The Garage Bristol The Fleece Cardiff Clwb Ifor Nottingham Rock City Manchester Music Box Stourbridge Rock Cafe 2000

DOORS 11PM – 3.30AM • BANDS ON STAGE AT MIDNIGHT 165 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON WC2. OVER 18’S ONLY

Ticket hotline (24hrs): 0870 060 3777

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Book online at meanfiddler.com & seetickets.com

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Information line: 020 8963 0940 (Mon-Fri 10am–6pm)

25/8/05 09:49:33

Live! Gigs

O Tokyo Dragons & Terrorvision

The Glitterati

audience who cheer at the presence of “Screamager” and “Nowhere” Therapy? do play a tight set. With the audience driven beyond distraction – and very nearly blind – by some extremely rude naked ladies, The Datsuns may have their work cut out for them. But they storm through their set with high-octane guitars and blistering energy to a highly appreciative crowd. Possibly the skinniest blokes on site they do a fantastic job of drawing tonight’s proceedings to a close. And then swiftly buggering oﬀ so the naked ladies can come back. So as night falls and people drift oﬀ to their

tent, the funfair or grab a late-night burger, it’s clear that tomorrow’s bands will have a lot to do to be as good as today’s.

Saturday As the sun rises on the second main day of the bash (and then swiftly disappears behind the clouds), it’s possible to muse over your coﬀee about the refreshing lack of bullshit surrounding this festival in comparison to other higher proﬁle events. There is no V.I.P area, no schmoozers hoping to be spotted for the next issue of Heat magazine and the headlining band soundcheck whilst the

“SIMILAR SENTIMENTS ARE ECHOED BY THE GLITTERATI WITH SNARLING DISCO PUNK, SINGER PAUL SCREAMING AND STAMPING AS IF HIS FAVOURITE TOYS HAD ALL BEEN STOLEN. IT’S A FRAUGHT, FRENETIC SET WITH BUCKETS OF STYLE AND ENERGY.”

audience looks on, drinking their beer. Everyone is laid back, enjoying the vibe and having a good time. However, Saturday doesn’t get off to a great start with the skies finally opening up and pelting the gathered throng with rain. It seems to have dampened everyone’s spirits, including Sweet Black Angels who play an unanimated, uninspiring set of Dad-rock that even the Stereophonics would turn their noses up at. Smother make more of an effort to wake everyone up. Their unassuming appearance masks a penchant for crunching riffs and raw, powerful vocals and songs played with youthful vigour. Their suggestions of a slow song are met with a resounding “no!” so they steam on with punk-tinged gusto. The Ga-Ga’s turn up the heat with their sleazeinduced garage rock. Dripping with sweat, they stomp around the stage, spitting out rough and ready riffs, oozing a star charisma that has eluded some of the other acts. Similar sentiments are echoed by The Glitterati with snarling disco punk, singer Paul screaming and stamping as if his favourite toys had all been stolen. It’s a fraught, frenetic set with buckets of style and energy. Having witnessed the Casbah Club’s Oasislite nonsense simply to stay out the rain, it’s a welcome change of

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The Glitterati

scene from Queen Adreena. Whilst Pete Townsends’ little brother did nothing to wake people up from a rain-induced coma, there’s no way that Katy-Jane Garside will let anyone get away with that sort of behaviour. She varies between a stumbling, little girl lost to a screeching banshee, dancing about as if on the verge of an orgasm. Heck knows what she’s singing/mumbling about but the audience is mesmerised for the next 30 minutes. And then she simply drops the microphone and goes.

02 Live.indd 61

After that display and the dance-rock leanings of space cowboy loons Alabama 3, the straight-up, no frills thumping rock of Terrorvision is a welcome relief. Storming straight into their classics such as “Pretend Best Friend” and “Alice, what’s the matter?” Tony Wright and his mob bounce around the stage playing joyous slabs of rock and roll and bring this years bash to a highly energetic close with audience singalongs and guitar driven anthems. All that remains to be seen now is how the festival organisers are going to better this year for the 20th Anniversary. I for one, look forward to ﬁnding out. Louise Steggals

Wed 26 Oct

HALLAM FM ARENA SHEFFIELD

Sat 29 Oct

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Sun 30 Oct

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0114 256 5656 www.hallamfmarena.co.uk

0870 121 0123 www.nottingham-arena.com

02476 630 693 www.planet-ice.co.uk/vampires 0870 190 8000

www.men-arena.com

24/8/05 09:06:17

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OUR CURRENT OBSESSION It’s a funny old world. A month ago, I’d never heard of Lacuna Coil. Then a friend posts their name on a web forum, I wander oﬀ to investigate, and now I own pretty much everything they’ve done. Which is just as well, as we’ve got an appointment with Cristina, and you really should never keep a lady waiting… Words: Kahn Johnson Pics: Chiaki Nozu/Century Media

o I find myself, on a sunny afternoon, chatting to Cristina Scabbia and providing her with an excuse to get out of the practice room for a few minutes. It’s been a busy couple of years for the Italian goth merchants, since the release of Comalies. Several jaunts around America, either as part of Ozzfest, with POD and Anthrax among others or playing improptu acoustic shows in shops have kept the six piece away from their friends, family and – more importantly, the UK and/or a recording studio (depending on your viewpoint). Having whetted our appetites with their blistering Download set, however, they’re coming back for a quick jaunt.

Seems like things never slow down around here. “We’re pretty relaxed at the moment,” Cristina enthuses, contradicting me completely. “We’re just composing the new album and having fun. It’s progressing very good. We’ve got about nine songs recorded, but not complete.” This is the longest the band have taken to come up with new material. Up until Comalies, they’d produced something every year for five years. Cristina at least has a ready made excuse. “Like I told you, we’ve been touring America,” she laughs. “We’re not one of those bands who can write on the road. We need to be at home, where we’re comfortable, without all the extra people around us.”

“WE REALLY DIDN’T EXPECT

TO EXPLODE, BUT TOURING IS THE SECRET

OVER THERE. IT’S LIKE PEOPLE SEE YOU AT ONE SHOW, AND THEN THEY TELL THEIR FRIENDS AND THEY COME AND SEE YOU…” www.zeromag.co.uk | ZERO MAGAZINE | 63

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“WE’RE A BAND WHO LIKES TO MOVE AROUND A LOT, AND EXCHANGE ENERGY WITH THE AUDIENCE, BUT IT’S GOOD TO HAVE SOME QUIET MOMENTS AS WELL, TO DO SOME CHILLING OUT.” At least their time away from the studio hasn’t been wasted. America has taken them to their hearts it seems, with more than 200,000 copies of Comalies having shifted so far. “It went great. We really didn’t expect to explode, but touring is the secret over there. It’s like people see you at one show, and then they tell their friends and they come and see you…” And then you become your label’s biggest ever selling act. Which isn’t too shabby. And of course, having a similarstyle band come out at the same time is no bad thing either. “In America, everyone was asking

us about them,” says Cristina, answering the Evanesence question for probably the 1000th time. “But over here, everyone was asking them about us! “Obviously, they have a bigger budget – I mean, they have a MUCH bigger budget, and they’re on soundtracks and games, but it’s been really good for us. It’s opened doors. “People were reading the interviews, seeing the comparisons and checking us out as well. I’d really like to say thank you to them!” Once Lacuna have finished recording the new album (no title available as yet. I did ask. A lot. But Cristina

hates interviews where bands drop hints at what the album title might be, so I shut up), they finally hit these shores for their debut headline tour. “We’ve only done London before, and it’s not possible for everyone to get there, because it can be quite far and expensive to travel, so we’re glad to be touring the whole country. We’ve had a lot of requests to come over, so finally we are!” Given recent events in London, it could be thought there are better times to be hitting these shores, but Cristina isn’t one to dwell on the negatives and the ‘what if’s… “I hate what happened, and I’m so sorry about what happened, but that won’t stop us. If it’s my destiny then that is my time, well… but I’m not scared. We’re all feeling pretty positive about it.” And if news of Lacuna’s impending arrival wasn’t enough to get you salivating, come here – there’s more: Word is, there will be no support band as the guys will be doing an acoustic set as well as their full electric one. “It will be in the middle of the set, probably,” says Cristina. “We’re a band who likes to move around a lot, and exchange energy with the audience, but it’s good to have some quiet moments as well, to do some chilling out.” If Download was anything to go by, chilling out will be the last thing on people’s minds come October.

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illegal alien e PORN IN THE USA

Tour Diary Pt2

with the top off. I am still trying to get my eyeballs straight. Talk about having eyes at the back of your head, I stood up just to see what it felt like having the wind rush past at that speed, my head spun around more times than the kid in the Exorcist. I tell you if the Russians had had Boris driving a Z8 they would have won the space race! He promised me a go in the Spyder if I agree to play footie for them. What do I have to sign, where’s the contract? Anyway he gives me the keys to a ’77 450 SLC and says I can use it while I’m here. I love Russians.

Day 7

Well, here we are again back in Tinsel Town. Where did we leave off last time? I know, I was going to tell you about the cars, the porn convention and Brian May, amongst other things and if I can remember right, I was off to do a gig at Molly Malones. This is the best bit of this mad business, performing! I just love it! As Kevin Keegan once said: Instant gratification. You get your feedback right away, no waiting for reviews or any other critique, just get up there and do it. If it goes great there’s no better buzz. Tonight’s show was one of them, the audience appear to love what I’m doing and it all ends up in a party, we end up back at some chicks house in Bel Air, hot tubs, jacuzzi the works! Happy days! I’ve got a few days off from this treadmill of bliss so I will catch up on some of the other stuff that has been going on. I went for a beer in the infamous Cat and Fiddle - it’s a pub that a lot of ex pat muso’s hang out in, as well as the odd Rock God or two. Whilst sipping the odd beer, I get talking to this Russian geezer about football. No, it wasn’t Mr Abramovich, his name was Boris, honestly. He asks me if I would like to play footie for his team in the league they have going there and if I would I could pop down to his used car lot and he would tell me more about it - hang on a minute! A dodgy Russian called Boris with a used car lot in LA sounds a bit odd to me but I go along for the ride, curiosity getting the better of me. Used car lot, you’re jokin! A Spyder, ‘69 Mustang with red cobra stripes, a Challenger, old Mercs and I mean old! His pride of place goes to a ‘53 350 SL, the one McClaren have just modelled the SLR on. Boris is suddenly my best mate! He asks me would I like a run in his latest acquisition, “Unfortunately it’s new” he says “Never mind - what is it?” “A Z8” he says “Yes!” I yell, hardly able to contain my excitement. A couple of hours later we are doing 200 mph across El Mirage desert

Have to stock up with beer and food, supplies are getting low and I have to go on a trip to do a few gigs cross country. Route 66 to be precise. Taking in the Grand Canyon, Albuquerque on to Sante Fe, so I get into my new wheels and whip down to the store. It’s 2am and the store is deserted except for this guy with clogs on and a big woolly jumper, you know, the ones fishermen wear. I think to myself I know this guy - I’ve seen those clogs before. Then he turns around, Brian! Dean! It was Brian May out doing his shopping. Amazing. One minute you’re on the top of Buckingham Palace playing God Save The Queen and the next you’re just a mere mortal doing the shopping with bog rolls stuck under your arm. Showbiz eh? I had played with Brian on a couple of theatre gigs recently and although we are not friends of long standing, it was good to see him and have a chat about stuff, and yes he does wear clogs, honestly.

Day Next

Off to Palm Springs, another gig and time to take in 29 Palms and the Joshua Tree. The place is brilliant, the gig goes off well everybody’s happy, the sound was great and the punters went home happy. Another brick in the wall as they say. Stayed over at 29 Palms to see the desert sky at night, get some inspiration and stuff,

“ALL NIGHT, I GET ASKED DID I KNOW JOHN OR PAUL. I EXPLAIN THE BEATLES HAD GONE BEFORE I WAS BORN, BUT EVENTUALLY I RELENT AND DO A COUPLE OF KARAOKE VERSIONS OF SOMETHING OR OTHER AND WIN 1ST PRIZE. A BOX SET BY THE BEATLES! BIZARRE. I’VE LISTENED AND THEY’RE OK I SUPPOSE!” you just wouldn’t believe the stars, there’s millions of them. They’re everywhere. Back home in Liverpool you can see about three if your lucky. Had my photo taken by Joshua Tree. Had to really it’s one of my favourite albums.

ay Different day than yesterd - played

Back on Route 66 to Albuquerque a couple of roadhouses along the way. Great In your face audiences, up close and personal. Plenty of beer and birds and the sun never stops shining. Do a gig at the press club in Albuquerque, this is where it all goes a bit wacky. The gig happens to coincide with a celebration of the anniversary of the Beatles conquering America. The audience have all got Beatles wigs on and there are look-alikes and believe it or not, I don’t know one Beatles song! I’ve travelled 80000 miles from Liverpool to gig in America and my last gig is a Beatles convention with the club decked out like the Cavern. You couldn’t make this shit up - I’m not even a fan! All night, I get asked did I know John or Paul. I explain the Beatles had gone before I was born, but eventually I relent and do a couple of karaoke versions of something or other and win 1st prize. A box set by the Beatles! Bizarre. I’ve listened and they’re OK I suppose! I remember leaving the place about 4 in the afternoon the following day. It was a great end of tour gig. An absolute diamond, one I will never forget. Dean Walker

Make some time to visit Dean’s site at www.myspace.com/deanwalker

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Escaping the Love Generation was never an easy transition for some. Jim Phillips ďŹ&#x201A;ew out of it on the back of some pens and a pencil. His artwork is amongst the most sought after in the world from skaters and surfers alike . . . that means you bullethead. www.zeromag.co.uk | ZERO MAGAZINE | 67

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How did you get into the rock poster business to begin with? Was it a question of geography? I got a call, just the same as every other job I’ve had, and yes, it was all about geography. I was working in Florida, glassing surfboards in 1967. A lot of us Santa Cruz surfboard workers would go back there to work in these large surfboard factories in Melbourne and Cocoa. I kept in touch with my old surfing buddy Jim Mazzeo. We exchanged the kind of letters that artists send, envelopes covered with weird colourful drawings. Maz was touring the Midwest with some bands and a light show he put together. Then one day he called from Boston. He said he was doing lights in a new club that was opening there called the Crosstown Bus, and asked me if I wanted to come up and work in the art studio there doing some poster work. I left the next morning. Were you completely detached from the bands that were appearing at the venues you were producing art for? I was detached alright, but it had nothing to do with the bands! We had an art studio upstairs in the main concert hall, with a long railing that you could look down to the ballroom and stage. We’d be working on our posters and stuff during the day, and often there would be auditions for prospective bands happening down there. Every once in a while a band would strike some hideous screeching chords and we’d all jump up and go look over the railing to see what the heck it was. There must be a rock n roll night that sticks in your mind more than others... Definitely one of the the nights the Doors

came. They were at the top of charts, so to speak, when they came there. I helped Maz work the light shows on show nights. The Doors went on and I was working one of the liquid projections and pulsing a huge throbbing orb on Jim Morrison. Suddenly a bright white light flooded him. One of the carousel slide projectors I was operating malfunctioned and the slide didn’t drop. He stared at me and I started hitting the top of the projector. He looked pissed. I thought he was gonna flip me off, and then the slide dropped

and everything was okay. That was my little moment with the Lizard King. So how do you get your inspiration for your posters? Ideas are a dime a dozen, it’s more a matter of choosing the best one. Sometimes that’s not easy, because rock posters usually have a short rush deadline to get the art and printing done and posters out to advertise the show. So you need to get going on something as soon as possible. Did/do you listen to the particular music at that creative time? I always listen to music when I work. All kinds of music. At the time you refer to, the Beatles were at their peak, St. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. That music may seem tame now but it was radical at the time. I was commissioned to make a Beatles poster by famous Boston Disc Jockey Arnie Ginsberg, one of the first guys to play their records on American radio.

You worked for 15 years at Santa Cruz Skateboards as art director, and if I’m not mistaken you joined the skateboard world when it really had no ‘art’ identity. Yeah, there was hardly any art on the decks. In the beginning of the urethane revolution, most skaters and skateboard manufacturers were surfers. Surfboards were mostly plain, with just a sticker. Skateboards followed suit. Full deck graphics didn’t get going until the new breed of street skaters took over, who weren’t centered on surfing. What was it like at that time – virtually free reign over what people would see skateboarding as? You’d think so, but there was a lot of resistance from everywhere. I’m always chomping at the bit to do wild graphics, but you need to beat them over the head with it sometimes, before they get it. Once sales of my designs were topping the charts I was given a longer leash. Did it evolve from surf art or

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“Art is hard work and an artist is very vulnerable to market forces, but I wouldn’t have traded it for any other profession. Okay, maybe a movie star.” was it music with attitude? The term Surf Art didn’t exist until the late 80’s, but I guess you mean generally. I would say no, except my first surf art was a monster with teeth and a long forked tongue. Around 1958 a kid in Junior high school paid me to paint something on the deck of his board so I did the monster. That job inspired me to get my own surfboard. It was the punk rock influence that allowed a venue on skateboards for art. It gave the green light to graphics. Guys like Duane Peters and Steve Olson opened the doors for me at Santa Cruz by ordering Day-Glo “new wave” designs. Santa Cruz sold 8 million stickers in a two year period was it ﬁnancially rewarding? If I had a nickel for each one I’d be a happy man. But I was fortunate to earn a living out of it, and to be able to provide for my family with art. Art is hard work and an artist is very vulnerable to market forces, but I wouldn’t have traded it for any other profession. Okay, maybe a movie star. Is it easy making a living from your particular style? I guess you mean my graphic pen and ink work, but nothing about art is easy. Making a living by carving out a niche for yourself

in art has nothing to do with the word easy. My graphic pen and ink style, which I learned from reading comic books, lent itself well to silk screening. Pre-computer “old world” techniques have a mysterious appeal, a certain link to the medium. That, and the amazing fact that a powerful graphic can be created with a two dollar pen, a ten cent piece of paper, and a penny’s worth of ink. Do you like what you see these days? I like almost everything. Anything any artist makes is noble and worthy of respect. A lot is computer generated, do you think that takes away a lot of the required skills of the artist? More like the fact the ante had been raised and there’s a lot more skills and expensive equipment demanded of an artist. Many artists are compelled to use computers to compete. The problem is that an artist’s work is devalued by technology. The computer’s ability can easily overshadow an artist. It is often credited for his work, just so many computer tricks. It has made clip art into an industry, and the real artist’s labour is often confused as such. It’s a fast and disposable world. What is your favourite medium? The computer, (laughter) It’s an amazing tool. I like to draw with pencil, scan the

drawing and use the tools like airbrush in PhotoShop to colour it. I also crave painting in oil on large canvases. I intend on doing more of that soon, as I have just obtained a new studio with the light and room that it takes. I have seen several pieces of your work as tattoos now, are you ﬂattered by this? Honour is the word. It’s an honour for me to see these tributes to my work on skin and the commitment to have that art for the rest of their lives. Sometimes, when I see someone sporting one of my designs, I’ll mention to them that they’re wearing one of my graphics, and I’ll make an instant friend. Also, I am amazed by some of the great tattoo artists out there, who are able to duplicate my intricate designs in every detail. Keep it up. Do you think it’s strange how accepted the antisocial rock lifestyle is these days? Every band on MTV has tattoos and piercings – it’s almost as if these ‘outlaws’ are now mainstream. I’m just glad that it’s mainstream and I’m not looking like such an outlaw now, everybody’s an outlaw. Even my in-laws are outlaws. Who did you look up to in the art world? Hoo boy. You got some extra pages? I’ll try

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to skim over some of them. To begin with, my grandfather Henry C. Hall, who started me going at around six by giving me a small book published by the Speedball Pen Company called “Pen Tips on Cartooning”. My grandfather played drawing games with me, where we took turns drawing things and it would get crazy. Then there’s Ralph Grey who ran a children’s art class out of his commercial art studio around 1955. These two guys are titans in my book. I was deeply affected by 1920’s and 30’s cartoon art such as George Herriman’s Krazy Kat and Pat Sullivan’s Felix the Cat. Felix was resurrected during the early days of television and played dominantly along with the Fleischer Brothers’ Popeye, years before TV finally created it’s own limited animation. Of course Disney Studios and Carl Barks who was an obscure hero, who I later found out anonymously created the Duck family and made Disney’s Donald Duck into the personality we know. There were quite a few good teachers. Then my older sister came home with some Mad EC comics, with the hilarious work of Wally Wood, Bill Elder, John Severin, Basil Wolverton, and others, combined

with the zany script writing of Harvey Kurtzman. Also the many great comic book pioneers like Will Eisner, fine artists Burne Hogarth who did Tarzan, Harold Foster who created epic Price Valiant, and Al Williamson who drew Flash Gordon. They don’t make comics like that anymore. Nestor Redondo from the Philippines was a biggee for me. There was Big Daddy Ed Roth and Von Dutch. Hieronymus Bosch blew my mind. EC Escher, Dali and Picasso piqued my imagination. So did Virgil Findlay, an amazing science fiction pulp cover artist. The psychedelic artists Mouse, Kelley, Moscosso, Griffin, Wilson. Robert Williams. Robert Crumb. Richard Corbin, Frank Franzetta, Boris Vallejo. Mati Klarwine. Ray Harryhausen... The list goes on, and it is almost unfair to list them as there were countless others who contributed to who I became. ..and what about now? I’m trying to get a clue from Thomas Kinkade’s marketing abilities (laughter). There’s a great new crop of young skateboard artists out there. We can expect to be well entertained in the future from artists with heart like Bobby Brown, Michael Moore, Rick Augeri, Jay Alders, Dirty Donny, Dennis Franklin, my son Jimbo Phillips, and many others. Hey, my granddaughter Cassidy has the ol’ Phillips touch too! Are you a Californian through and through? I guess you could say that. Not only since I was born, raised and live in California, but because I happened to have Forrest Gumped my way into many cultural events that happened there: the original “bunboard” skateboard era, the skateboard revolution that was brought on by the development of the urethane wheel, the golden age of surfing in the late 50’s and 60’s, the later popularity of surf art, the psychedelic movement which spawned a renaissance in poster art, and many others. Has California changed for the better over the last 40 years? I wouldn’t trade my years growing up on the beach here for anything, it was like an undiscovered paradise. The geography hasn’t changed any, it’s just more crowded. it was easy to take things for granted as a kid not realising what was coming, and hopefully I’ve gotten better over the years by way of appreciation, and my ability to draw inspiration from it. You have a book coming out in the summer – “Surf, Skate and Rock Art” – is it solely a collection of your work or is it autobiographical? It was a mountain of work to accomplish. The art is laid out chronologically along with a detailed biography. It does what few art books offer, and that is to trace the artist’s development from early childhood, from the creative cauldron of

his bedroom. That’s where it all begins. Your skateboard work is highly collectable, high prices are paid on ebay. Does it surprise you considering they’re prints of your pieces that were produced in their thousands, that they are considered so valuable? I knew everything was collected, but I was still surprised to see the intensity of the skateboard collector’s market heat up the way it has. Skateboard decks were mostly grinded to a pulp but maybe that created rarity and thus value. I expect an original of that work would be well sought after too. I began to get inquiries for the originals a few years ago and sold off some of my archives. Then when the collectors started getting aggro and going after some of the key pieces like the Roskopp series, I offered them to Rich Novak, owner of Santa Cruz Skateboards. I hated to see the work scattered, so now most of the skate graphics from the era are framed and hanging on the factory office walls. It’s like a Phillips museum down there. I’ve always thought that V.C. Johnson at Powell produced great graphics – the ripper art etc – was it a friendly rivalry between your companies back in those days? Did you guys all hang out at the beach? (Too busy working I ﬁgure!) You got that part right, my beach time was nil. I worked practically non-stop in those years, day and night. Powell wit Johnson’s great art was deservedly our biggest competitor, but they were located in Southern California and I didn’t get out of my studio much. I tried to respect their space which was the skeleton stuff, that’s one of the main reasons I did so much fleshy monsters and mixed up body parts. What’s in store for Phillips Studios in the future? I just landed a larger studio space and will be moving this week. I’ll have room enough to get back into painting large oil canvases like I did in the 60’s. Also I am working on a line of limited edition prints of my skateboard and surf art , which will be available along with my book, online at jimphillips.com or skateshops and galleries. Are you handing over the big brush to your son Jimbo? He grabbed that brush many years ago, like Von Dutch grabbing his father’s bank vault striping brushes. The handing over now is headed toward the grandchildren. They are the future, so watch out world! Do you want the last word? Just a note to young artists. Just keep drawing and don’t listen to negativity. Don’t try to limit yourself to one genre like skateboards, that will make you stretch as an artist and it will make you stronger when you do skate art. Keep with it and it will all happen.

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A bit on the side Words: Jack Rawstone

OUTSTIHDEE OF

FOOs

THE FOO FIGHTERS GUITARIST CHRIS SHIFLETT, OR TO SOME, JAKE JACKSON, IS SHINING BRIGHT AT THE MOMENT, BRIGHT ENOUGH TO ESCAPE THE POWERFUL SHADOW CAST BY ONE OF ROCKS LARGEST FRONT MEN, DAVE GROHL. hris’s eclectic talents are just as strong as ever, now fronting his new band Jackson United he finally has a lead role rather than being the side man to somebody else. But where did Jackson United come from and what are they all about? “It started out as a recording project, I got my brother and my friend Pete to come and help me out, we recorded the album and it was awesome had a really fun time” Jake starts. “We did a couple of shows here and there and then those guys started to get busy so I met up with Cary when he was playing with his old band. Soon he started playing with us and he suggested we get Doug who I had actually known for years and years because his old band used to play with my old band. So since

we’ve had that base of the band put together we’ve done a few tours, put the album out and basically that’s that.” From Me First And The Gimme Gimme’s to No Use For A Name and the Foo Fighters Chris certainly gets around. Now, Jackson United is allowing Chris to finally be right at the front “I had always been coming up with loads of song ideas and stuff but this is the first time I’ve ever really pushed myself to sit down and finish the songs” he says. “I more or less want Jackson to act as an outlet for the things I couldn’t necessarily do with my other projects.” But is it important for Chris to constantly stay so busy? “I think that’s just they way things work out, when you’re in a big band like the Foo Fighters sometimes when things calm down you can get time off to

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OUT

OF SIDE THE

FOO

“WE WERE SUPPOSED TO TOUR OVER HERE LAST OCTOBER WITH SUGARCULT, AND AT THE LAST MINUTE MY FOO FIGHTERS TOUR SCHEDULE WAS CHANGED AND WE HAD TO CANCEL THAT TOUR.”

work on other things. Even throughout that time off though it wasn’t as if we were on the road non stop with Jackson United, we would tour and then after six months we’d do another tour and so I think sometimes it can seem that you’re actually a lot busier than you are. That said though right now I’m really fucking busy” he laughs. Having his fingers in so many pies inevitably causes problems when it comes to tours and album production, “we were supposed to tour over here last October with Sugarcult, and at the last minute my Foo Fighters tour sched-

ule was changed and we had to cancel that tour” he says. “It is heart breaking and I know that the other guys weren’t exactly stoked either. That was the first time there was really like a conflict in schedules and something had to be cancelled at the last minute, it really sucked, we were bummed.” The music industry is never the easiest of places to negotiate, even if you are the guitarist in one of rocks largest outfits. Scoring a good record contract even for someone as experienced as Chris was no easy task “It was such a long struggle to figure out how to get the album out in various

places. The hardest was sorting out how to get it out in America” he notes with a hint of anguish. “One label who we were thinking about putting out with in America really wanted more ownership than we felt comfortable giving up. That was really an artistic control issue more than anything, but I don’t think I would be comfortable just giving up something that I had put so much into to someone I didn’t trust, that would just suck.” No one is questioning his previous success, his other projects always have popular tours and everyone knows the story of the Foo’s, so did he feel under any pressure when putting out Jackson’s album? “Nah, you know not really because everything else I’ve ever been involved in was playing under other people so I don’t think there was ever any like expectation of what we would be like, it’s not as if we’re some big band you know.” But what are his personal expectations of the band that will inevitably be overshadowed by his Foo Fighters connections? “Well you know obviously it would great if people liked our band but I have no illusion about what we are or being more than what we are, I mean look at where we are” he laughs as we sit in the broom cupboard sized room in a cellar based club. Side projects are never easy and rarely have the same amount of success as the musicians primary project, but that is rarely their point. Chris has an outlet now that allows him to stand up at the front, in the middle, rather than at the side of a huge personality like Dave Grohl. But the big question is, does Grohl lend him a helping hand? “Nah, he’s never given me any tips but I should hit him up for some” he laughs. O

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ARAZORBLADE Let’s check the watch again. Time is passing quickly. We’re at Heathrow airport waiting for the arrival of the Backyard Babies. Their visit to the UK is so short this time around, the only chance ZERO will have to talk to them is on their tour bus as it travels from Heathrow Airport to the London Astoria where they’re supporting Social Distortion. Lets hope there is a little bit of traﬃc on the streets to give us some extra time… Words: Daniel Owen Pictures: Chiaki Nozu

SUITCASE To say that the Backyard Babies stand out a little as they come through arrivals is the understatement of the year. Loud, rude and tattooed, this foursome ooze rock star credentials without trying. Quickly bundled into the waiting tour bus, Nicke (Guitars and Vocals), Dregen (Guitars), Peder (Drums) and Johan (bass) barely have time to acclimatize before they are on their way to the Astoria.

Where have you just flown in from? We flew in from Stockholm but we did a gig in Lulea which is northern Sweden, so we had to fly from Lulea to Stockholm, then Stockholm to London. I think we went to bed at about 4am and had a wake up call at 6am. Who else was on that bill? Europe play the same day as us and today, Slade and the Sweet are playing as well as lot of Swedish bands. You guys really did stand out as you came through arrivals, any problems with customs? Dregen: Actually no.You see all the extra security with what’s been happening but that’s one of the positive things about being a rock n roller at the moment, the customs treat you well.

Nicke: They have narrowed down all their suspects. Before they were like, you got tattoos you are a terrorist but after 9/11 now they are like great, it’s a rock’n’roller and let you through. How does it feel to be back in London? Nicke: Feels great. We were here almost exactly a year ago with Velvet Revolver and it was like in and out, really short. We only did that tour because we were meant to do the American leg of the tour and that got fucked up, so they took us out in Europe instead”. Dregen: We were on the same label as them which I think in the long term was bad for us. I’m not saying that Velvet Revolver and Backyard Babies are at the same level but they are the same kind of band and of course all the money was thrown into Velvet Revolver. They didn’t do shit for us, so now we’ve left that label and signed with Century Media. So why has it taken so long – like a year – to come back? Nicke: We’ve been in America a lot and also, we only just signed the new deal a month ago. We are so happy to have a proper label again in Europe. The UK and America are the two countries that have been the most

“WE SHOULD SELL A LOT OF RECORDS BUT WE DON’T BECAUSE THE RECORD COMPANY HAS NEVER BEEN BEHIND US. IF THE RECORD COMPANY WON’T PUT OUR ALBUMS OUT AND ARE NOT BEHIND US WE CAN’T COME OVER.” 74 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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“BACKYARD BABIES GO ON TO TEAR THE ROOF OFF THE ASTORIA AND BY THE LOOK OF IT THERE ARE JUST AS MANY PEOPLE HERE TO SEE THEM AS TO SEE SOCIAL DISTORTION.” difficult for us. They are such great countries for rock n roll and we pull a lot of people at gig’s and have a lot of fans. We should sell a lot of records but we don’t because the record company has never been behind us. If the record company won’t put our albums out and are not behind us we can’t come over. Is that why your last album Stockholm Syndrome never get a UK release? Nicke: That’s exactly what I mean, one of the fuck up’s! There are 4 songs from Stockholm Syndrome on our new album Tinnitus which we are releasing now. Then we will concentrate on a new album. Tinnitus is a very good album for fans or for people that have only just heard of us. They get 4 songs from each of the last 3 albums and a live disc as well. Dregen: It’s a hint of what the Backyard Babies are really like. If you don’t dig Tinnitus don’t even fucking bother about buying the new album when it’s out! Nicke: I think we’re a band that a lot of people have heard about, so they should pick this album up and get the whole idea. Dregen: I think Century Media bought the whole back catalogue so maybe one day the full album will come out. Have you played the Astoria before? Dregen: Yeah, a lot of times. One of our first gigs in England was the Headbangers Ball Christmas Rumble with Machine Head in ‘94. Nicke: We played after Machine Head! Dregen: That was the first time we played the Astoria. We’ve also played two nights with Alice Cooper in ‘98 and also played here with QOTSA. Then we played downstairs at

the Mean Fiddler about three times as well. We like this venue very much! Nicke: Especially all the stairs, it’s very spinal tap! Have you been on tour with Social Distortion before? Nicke: Yeah, they played over here in Europe in ‘97 and we did that whole tour except the UK. That’s how we met them. They brought us on that tour and then across to America where we didn’t have a deal. We just did another two months tour in Feb/March in America with them and this is the first date of the European tour. So when are you going to be back in the UK? Dregen: We’ll be back on 1st September at the Islington Academy in London, the 2nd of September in Leeds and the 3rd at the Barfly in Glasgow. That’s about the last of the touring. We need to get in and do a new record. Nicke: We want to have finished the new record by Christmas. Dregen: I think we’re going to have a release in the New Year around March/April. We are going to record it in Stockholm. Are you nervous about coming back and playing London? Nicke: I’m not nervous but I am excited! It will be great to get back and win the crowd over. Social D has a bit of a narrow-minded crowd but we always win them over. We went down good as an opening act for AC/DC and after that you can basically do anything. With that, the bus comes to a shuddering halt out the front of the Astoria and as quickly as they appeared they are gone – soundcheck, more

interviews, photo shoots and whatever else is on their schedule before they are due to hit the stage. Backyard Babies go on to tear the roof off the Astoria and by the look of it there are just as many people here to see them as to see Social Distortion. As I make my way out of the venue at the end of the night – bruised, battered and totally fucked, I pass Nicke and Dregen propping up the bar and fire off one more question: So it’s a day off tomorrow right? Dregen: Nah, tomorrow it’s Amsterdam. Nicke: To get fucked up!. Dregen: Then it’s loads of shows in Germany, then Belgium, Holland and then Germany again before a few in Switzerland. Then we end the tour and come back to the UK and play our shows. Nicke: This is the UK and Europe tour because obviously the UK is not a part of Europe. Ha ha! Right, I don’t care how un-rock n fuckin’ roll it is. I’m off to bed!

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The City of Angel As Criss Angel challenges the bounds of reality with his new TV series – sadly only airing in the US at the moment, underneath we ﬁnd the most determined and conﬁdent of egos in recent times. Lay back and give yourself up to the Mindfreak: Man in the box: Sion Smith. Pics courtesy of crissangel.com

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riss Angel falls so exactly into the category of ‘icon’ that we have here, it would have been irresponsible not to bring him to your attention. He exudes a confidence that is sheer class and his show is second to none. In my mind, there is nobody better at this game – he combines magic, theatrics and rock music in a way that I have never seen before. Sure, magic gets a bad rap, but then, so does rock. What Criss does is not pathetic attempts to prove that magic is real, but he blurs the lines between what you see and what you believe and connects with his audience on an emotional level as well – that’s why we love what he does so much. He recently did a suspension from four

fish-hooks from a helicopter 1000ft above the Valley of Fire is the Vegas desert – that’s the level of disbelief we’re dealing with here – and when you see it, it’s very real indeed! Let’s start pretty close to the beginning. If memory serves me right, when you were a teenager, you were a drummer. That’s a long way from being Criss Angel ‘Master of the Bizarre’ – how did you get here? I could use the entire interview space allocated to answer this one question. It’s been an evolution starting from my earliest recollections of what I wanted to be. It continues to be a love-hate relationship with countless trials and tribulations in all aspects and only brief moments of fulfilment. The conclusion – I believe you can achieve anything if your willing to put everything in

your life aside and live as a slave to your vision. There is no substitute for dedication, passion, and calculated risk. That can’t have been easy – did you have financial backing or do you ever look back and wonder how the hell you ever pulled it off. My family helped as much as they could – but I never had backing or the type of dollars that I needed and today I’m thankful for that. The lack of money forces one to either be really creative or give up. I’ve seen many people with lots of cash waste it on stupid ideas. Money will never make a bad idea good - creativity can’t be bought. MINDFREAK – this is my understanding – is all magic, but what you were once known for is combining music with magic – is that still an ongoing concern, or has it just delivered you to a different place?

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WIN A SET OF CRISS ANGEL’S CD BACK CATALOGUE!

We’re giving away a set of Criss Angel CD’s containing Criss Angel Mindfreak and the complete trilogy of Criss Angel: System. In this piece of pie competition, simply tell us Criss’ web address. Entries to the usual address by Sept 30th. Mark your entries: ‘Criss Angel’

Actually that’s incorrect, MINDFREAK and pretty much everything that I do is both. I write all of the music for my television and live productions. Music is an integral part of everything I do and actually I’ve been doing it longer. Obviously you are influenced by Houdini to some extent (and this is a guess) and maybe the likes of Richiardi – but there must be an element of Alice Cooper/Kiss and maybe even some horror movies in there – were they big influences from the theatrical/showmanship side? I certainly have been affected by so many things growing up whether conscious or not. But ironic as it might sound, horror was not really one. Some things that had a profound effect were music, movement, movie magic, illusions. I dig anything, if it’s good. I have to say I have a lot of respect for you because you seem to have achieved the impossible.You’ve moved magic into a new dimension (cool as it is, it’s been pretty static for a long time) and also dropped rock music and its culture right into its lap. I would imagine that nobody

would even attempt to copy you directly but have you seen your influence rubbing off on others – do you think you’ve motivated them to raise their game? Thanks for the kind words. I don’t really care about what others are doing, I try to remain focused on my creations and not look behind me. One might mimic the surface, but will never be able steal the soul of its creation. I’ve seen people try and at best, it’s a sad attempt. For the uninitiated, you created a cast of characters like Tronik and Illusia – are they still around or have they morphed into different ideas in the show. Tronik, Illusia and Irus are all still part of the experience. But I am excited to introduce some new creatures that Michael Curry is making at this time. I am constantly writing down ideas for new creatures, illusions, etc. or refining the ones I have. It’s a never- ending process. Who’s on your team at the moment – anyone that we should watch out for outside of your show? I’ve been fortunate to surround myself with so many talented people. Some who

“I CERTAINLY HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY SO MANY THINGS GROWING UP WHETHER CONSCIOUS OR NOT. BUT IRONIC AS IT MIGHT SOUND, HORROR WAS NOT REALLY ONE. SOME THINGS THAT HAD A PROFOUND EFFECT WERE MUSIC, MOVEMENT, MOVIE MAGIC, ILLUSIONS. I DIG ANYTHING, IF IT’S GOOD.”

are at the pinnacle of their field and some that will be in no time. The list is long. Gene Simmons once said that when you were in Disneyland, you didn’t want to know that Mickey Mouse was the guy that swept up the trash when you’d all gone home. That’s pretty damn accurate – is that akin to the philosophy about your guys? My father told me very early on as a kid, in order to be successful you must understand all of the components. So, if your going to own a restaurant start off as a dishwasher and work your way up to manager, that way you understand everyone’s role and how to make the best and most productive team. If I may, let’s talk about Blaine (very briefly!) Do you think it works for him because the ‘shock’ is that he turns up out of nowhere in jeans and a t-shirt. I was telling someone who you were a few weeks back and the comparison I came up with was that you were like Alice and Blaine was like Springsteen – care to comment? I plead the 5th… If I were to say you had redefined magic for a new generation – would that be a fair assumption of your goal as it was. My goal is and always will be, to make art that pleases me first and in turn, connects to people on an emotional level. What ever happens as a result of that is gravy. .. and your aim for the future is? I’d hope to continue to grow as an artist and eventually get into other areas like film.

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The psychology of magic is fascinating. In essence, we pay to see a show, knowing we will be partaking in illusion and are willing to buy into that – kind of like a wrestling show. Is that something you have to learn and master and are you completely reliant on the audiences wiling participation actually, is that knowledge the difference between a good illusionist and a bad one? I attempt to blur the lines between reality and illusion. A lot of what I do is real and not a trick – it’s up to the viewer to distinguish which is which. More importantly, a movie can reveal its magic and yet the public still purchases a ticket. It’s because there is something

“I ATTEMPT TO BLUR THE LINES BETWEEN REALITY AND ILLUSION. A LOT OF WHAT I DO IS REAL AND NOT A TRICK  IT’S UP TO THE VIEWER TO DISTINGUISH WHICH IS WHICH.” more than the magic that is engaging – I believe MINDFREAK offers the same. In Jeffrey Deavers novel, the Vanished Man, he purports the trick of the same name to be the most dangerous and amazing illusion of all time. Is it a real trick that is renowned in magic circles and if so, is it really that dangerous, and I have to ask… could you do it? I’m not sure of the specifics your referring to, but what I do know is when the mind, body and spirit work as one coupled with the art of the impossible – most anything is possible for me. Not to mention enough time, money and training. Being a self confessed perfectionist/obsessive, have we seen the best you can offer or is the best still to come. My new show is a huge growth from my Broadway run. I believe my peak will be at the second I die or the moment I decide not to do it anymore – I wouldn’t waste my time otherwise. In magic, unlike 95% of music, within certain boundaries you can perform magic until you die – do you see yourself going down

that road or are there other avenues for Criss Angel to explore - that might be a bit unfair because you haven’t got there yet but you must have some kind of plan… As I mentioned before, there are many things that fascinate me and I look forward to explore them in all media forms. OK – some quick ones to finish off with: Who do you rate in magic at the moment – anyone we should watch out for? Sorry to say, I’m not a real fan of most magicians – I think their kind of hoaky. Here’s an off the wall question: Criss Angel in the WWE – that would be awesome.. could you pull it off? I got enough on my plate right now. Not to mention in every performance I get my ass kicked by Tronik, Dred and some of the other creatures. And the big question – when are you coming to the UK? I know my last television special aired there December 24, 2002 because so many people came to see me in Time Square from the UK and I have to admit I can’t wait to go. So there you have it. As you may have gathered, Criss delivers a knockout show. One thing is for sure, Criss Angel won’t stop until everyone on the planet has experienced what he has to offer. Fuckin’ A.

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s u i n e g k c i r e v a M or unholy racket? MARTIN GRECH

Clare O’Brien considers.

Whether you know it or not, you probably first heard the 19-year-old Martin Grech back in 2002, when the deceptive purity of his ethereal Open Heart Zoo garnished a Lexus car ad. Its chorister clarity and haunting waltz-time setting were only part of the recipe, though. The debut album from which that track was taken also featured apocalyptic metal guitar, blood-curdling electronic noise and octave-hurdling vocals. People were desperate to categorise, but from the start Grech confused more than he clarified. “I’m a combination of Trent Reznor, Thom Yorke and Peter Gabriel,” he told Rocksound in 2002, “but nowhere near as good as any of them.” The selfeffacing Grech claimed to have grown up listening to Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger and NIN’s Pretty Hate Machine as well as The Bends and Peter Gabriel 4; weirdly androgynous looks and whispers of an exotic Moroccan provenance clashed with his nononsense manner and Aylesbury upbringing. Recalling other precocious mavericks-withmentors such as Kate Bush, he’d apparently started work on the album when he was still a 16-year old schoolboy. Teaming up with producer/keyboard player Andy Ross (Immaculate Fools, Howard Jones, Tori Amos), he’d turned his rough demos into hugely ambitious slabs of genre-defying sound. Though he appealed to adherents of nuprog bands like Muse and Mars Volta, his vision was hotter, more personal. Despite the broad

sweep of his melodies and arrangements, there was something disturbingly claustrophobic about these songs. Even their composer couldn’t place its origin. “I don’t know where the intensity in the music comes from,” Grech laughingly told Kerrang in 2002. “Somewhere really intense!” A more credible clue slipped out when he confessed to The Scotsman’s Fiona Shepherd that he dreamed of writing a soundtrack for a David Lynch movie. Open Heart Zoo wasn’t perfect. Though it boasted some massive musical tours de force like Dali and Here It Comes, it sagged badly in the middle and its lyrical naivety sometimes tipped over into cliché . Even its high points seemed misunderstood by an industry hungry for massproduced, bite-sized emotions, and despite some stellar live reviews for his first headline tour, Grech failed to set the world alight. Like Coldplay’s promising Parachutes before it, Open Heart Zoo’s appeal was rooted in the spectacle of a young man finding his emotional voice. “The Open Heart Zoo thing came from the general feeling of opening up for the first time,” explained Grech. “If you do an album and if you’re being honest about it, you’re putting your whole

self on display.” Some might say Grech wasn’t so much opening up his heart as pulling you inside it - and a strange but brave new world it was. But while Coldplay’s Chris Martin zoomed straight from teenage virgin to pipe-and-slippers establishment grandee without ever passing Go, Grech seemed to prefer the scenic route round the board. He declined to release the title track from Open Heart Zoo in time to catch spin-off sales from the Lexus ad - “I don’t want people just to buy the album because they like the advert,” he told The Sunday Post in 2002. And then, just when he should have been consolidating, he disappeared into obscurity for three years, beset by what have been described as “legal problems” and “record company issues”. Rumours flew that he was seeking a new label; that up to 50 new songs had been scrapped; that he might even call it a day. As for one of his musical heroes, Jeff Buckley, Grech’s follow-up album seemed to be cursed from inception. Meanwhile, Grech himself seemed to be accepting that he was an acquired taste, marking time with free downloads on his website and low-key solo acoustic sets in bars and clubs. He even honoured the cultish Buckley at a musical tribute in London

“I’M A COMBINATION OFTRENT REZNOR, THOMYORKE AND PETER GABRIEL, BUT NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS ANY OFTHEM.”

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representation of a teenager who was changing all the time and was at odds with everything.” That’s not to say Unholy exactly rushes in and licks your face. Lead-off single Guiltless clocks in at eight minutes and has a video scary enough to send you scurrying for cover behind the sofa. Unsurprising, when Grech’s new influences include Alien artist H R Giger and photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, who works with human and animal corpses. “Their work is the visual equivalent of what I would like to do musically,” he told Rocksound recently. But despite its lack of immediacy, this is an album which rewards a few committed listens. The first album’s hothouse claustrophobia has widened out into a much more extensive musical vision. The songs are stronger, which means that some tracks feel over-produced this time round, gilded with

“IT’S ASTHOUGHTHE ELEMENTAL HOWL OFTHEYOUNG CHRIS CORNELL HAD BEEN ORGANICALLY FUSEDWITH THEWARPED PURITY OF A RENAISSANCE CASTRATO, WITH A DASH OF MAD MEDIEVAL MONK.” organised by the late singer-songwriter’s mother. Finally, however, second album Unholy was released in June this year, and true to form, it proved free of anything resembling artistic compromise. Devoid of three-minute pop songs and eschewing big choruses in favour of scary soundscapes and atmospheric diversions, it nevertheless showcases a voice that’s becoming one of the wonders of the world. It’s as though the elemental howl of the young Chris Cornell had been organically fused with the warped purity of a renaissance castrato, with a dash of mad medieval monk. Much more mature than the debut, Unholy embraces dangerous, edgy concepts: the borderlines of love and obsession, the incoherence of spiritual need, the power of extremes. To make it, ﬁrst he had to reject the ﬁrst album’s naivety. “It [was] like a diary of my youth and I appreciate it for that,” he told Rocksound in July. “But for a while I hated it because it was inaccurate. It was a

too much studio trickery. Others, like the glowing, ardent Venus and the acoustic bonus track This Sun, approach sonic perfection. And when the balance between production and performance is right, as it is on I Am Chromosome and Holy Father Inferior, the eﬀect is cataclysmic. Virgin Radio’s Steve Harris has described Martin Grech as a genius. That may well be so. All the more shame that he’s lost so much ground in the last three years; just when he should be spreading his wings, he needs to go over old ground just to remind a ﬁckle public who he is. So far since the album’s release he’s played only a few acoustic dates, some as support to the inferior Oceansize. Maybe a label like Island isn’t the best place for an artist so dedicated to making music for art’s sake with no thought for the bottom line. Let’s hope that like other maverick geniuses before him, he doesn’t have to wait until he’s dead or disappeared to see his talent recognised.

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Love Reaction High

Big Tough Men

PART TWO

obby cracked open the Jack and pulled off the top of one of the foul purple brews. “Drink the beer straight down, it will make you want to be sick but just fight it” I ordered unwrapping a couple of rocks of crack cocaine and placing them in a pipe. “Do you smoke?” I asked, lighting up the pipe and after taking a monster hit giving it to the boy. “Erm?” He said trying to figure out how to operate the crack pipe. Cobalt helped him, encouraging him to pull deeply on the highly addictive freebase cocaine. “This is called crack. Big tough rocker men smoke it to enable them to drink more alcohol, come on quickly lad, inhale then drink the beer. You’ll like it” Bobbie toked deep, the colour drained from his face and his eyes rolled back in his head. Rob smiled affectionately, remembering his first suck on the pipe. The lad struggled bravely with the can of Nine percent tramp juice, managing to

gamely swallow most of it before heaving it back up. “Im sss sorry sir..” he spluttered, I just came over all funny, I couldn’t help it,” he heaved again, throwing a huge arc of watery vomit over his pants. “Never mind lad, it just takes a little practice, here have another hit on the pipe and try the whisky this time, I’ve put a little coca cola in it to make it taste nice.” Little Bobby trembled as he pulled on the radioactive smoke, he knocked back the whiskey and smiled weakly “Ooh, sir, that feels quite nice” he started shaking uncontrollably and smiled feebly. “Good, good, now while that’s happening were going to show you a few films before showing you how to use heroin” I informed him. Cobalt selected a few movies. Anal Holocaust jumped in first, a snowy image of some young girl screaming in agony as two men dressed in SS uniforms perform a horrific pile driving double anal upon her. Cobalt

laughs as the young Bobby chucks up his Jack and coke. The kindly guitarist wipes the vomit from the lads new swastika t-shirt and helps him with the crack pipe. Robbie pours him another drink. “I know these films might seem a little odd to you young man” I said in a concerned manner “I remember when I was first forced to watch them, some of the copro stuff, the shit eating and what have you, I couldn’t sleep for days, but well young fellow there is a point to all this, that’s right inhale deeply.” I waited while the crack took effect and the lad settled

“YOU SEE YOUNG BOBBIE, IF YOU WANT TO BE IN A BIG TOUGH ROCKING BAND OF MEN YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP AN ABSOLUTE, FEAR, LOATHING, HATRED AND UTTER CONTEMPT FOR THE OPPOSITE SEX.”

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“WELL, LITTLE FELLAH AND WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WOMEN NOW, AFTER WATCHING ALL THEM EDUCATIONAL FILMS THAT IS?” comedown jacks in on him give him a small dragon of smack and then hit him with the porno, its important we build up his tolerance” I ordered “We’ll lock him in here and come back in four hours and check on his progress”

down, his eyes glazed, watching blankly as the Nazis started setting fire to the womans breasts after dousing them in lighter fuel “You see young Bobbie, if you want to be in a big tough rocking band of men you have to develop an absolute, fear, loathing, hatred and utter contempt for the opposite sex. That’s what these films are for. They are mainly produced at the big tough rocking mens academy and are played to rookies like yourself to help you develop the correct attitude towards groupies” Cobalt put on another video. Before the first black turd squittered out of the Nazis arse and splattered all over the young girls face little Bobbie had chucked his cookies once again. “Maybe we should start him off with something a little less strong boss, a little bondage and some SM or something, before we get onto the copro and snuff?” said Robbie sympathetically. He was probably right.Young Bobbie Sockett was starting to show signs of mental derangement and sexual insanity already. He had removed his penis from his leathers and was masturbating weakly in his own sick, he had also, I noticed, shat his pants. “You’re right I know, but the gigs in less than a week and we have to get him match sick. He has to be a completely, debauched, cross-addicted, alcoholic and a completely sexually insane pervert in just under a week. Do you think he’s going to make it?” I said, concerned. “Look, give him another rock and leave him for a half hour, when the jittering depression of the

Bobby seemed to be doing fine. He was gouched out in front of the video, most of the smack was gone, the rocks had all disappeared and there was maybe half an inch of jack left. “How you feeling son?” said Cobalt to the glassy eyed new recruit. Bobby twitched his head and tried to focus in Cobalts direction, his mouth moved slightly, a croaky sound emanated from the back of his throat and a long string of drool slowly made its way from his chin to his chest. “Good answer” added Cobalt. “Well, he looks like he’s checking out just fine, hit him up with the methedrine Robbie, lets check out his sexual orientation, these videos should have knocked any nonsense about sex being wonderful and all that crap out of him” I said, rolling up the lads sleeve and tapping up a nice fat vein. Robbie flicked the bubbles out of the Methedrine solution and stabbed the spike into young Bobbies vein. The lad twitched violently and pissed himself. “It’s OK son, calm down, just a little pick me up, here drink this” I said, handing him the last swig of Jack Daniels “It’ll straighten you out. ” Bobbie sucked down the Kentucky farmer killer greedily and then wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. “You’re nearly there young fellah, just a few minor re alignments in your personality and you’ll be as big a big tough rocking man as the rest of us. Just a few little questions spunker” I said, handing him another pipe of crack “Well, little fellah and what do you think of women now, after watching all them educational films that is?” I quizzed him matter of factly, the answer was a foregone conclusion, any prolonged exposure to hardcore pornography on that level of depravity can only ever have one result. A desensitization that borders on the pathological. “All women are whores sir, merely three holes that need plugging, whether they like it or not” he answered like a robot.

“Excellent, you’ve learnt well young Bobby. I doubt any groupie will ever trick you into marriage ” One of the biggest dangers for neophyte rock stars is the predatory groupie/potential wife syndrome. This was the real reason we were showing young Bobby the porno. To put him off women of a fiscal attitude. Those bendy cash slags that fuck naive young rockers into thinking that they are in love with them. The polluted sea that is rock and roll teams with these bottom feeders. At least young Bobby was safe from them, after watching Anal Apocalypse and shit eating slags do India twenty times over each I doubt if the young Bobster would ever be able to look a woman in the cunt ever again. “Now Bobby, swearing. Do you know any swear words?” I asked him, attitude is everything in big tough rock and roll men rock, the lad had to know how to f and blind with the best of them. Swearing is extremely important in rock. “Oh yes sir, all of us in Blured are great at swearing, Bloody, bum, bugger, bastard” swore the cheerful fellow. “Cobalt” I said seriously “Take him down the West End, get him fucked up, teach him how to swear and get kicked out of nightclubs” “Yes boss” said the Great Stargazie, smiling. Young Bobby was beside himself with excitement the next day. “I haven’t even been to bed yet! It was fantastic! We got kicked out of Grouchos for cracking walnuts between our arse cheeks, Cobalt showed me how to do it, it was hilarious!” Blurted the enthusiastic young lad. His jaw was going like a paper shredder and his breath stunk like Lemmy’s bell end. The Stargazer smiled parentally and rubbed young Bobbys neck “Sorry Cobalt” said Bobby, bobbing his shoulders and then taking a deep breath “I haven’t fucking, fucking been to fucking bed yet” He said, pausing briefly then continuing carefully “It was fanfuckingtastic, we got kicked the fuck out of that fucking nonce fucking fucking hole fucking Grouchos for cracking fucking wallfuckingnuts between our fucking fucking arse fucking cheeks, Cobalt fucking showed me how to fucking do it, it was bastard hilarious!” He shouted, eyes flickering around the room, anxiously waiting for approval “Well done lad” I obliged him “The final bastard in that sentence was particularly venomous. Excellent swearing and by all accounts some excellent anti social behaviour. Well done indeed. Welcome to the Love reaction. Needless to say, young Bobby died soon after.

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s and t n e m e c n a reat adv odern civilisation, g t a h w r e t t No ma ade in m nt to when we all m e r a s t n e achievem s in life are no differe . some thing l skins and shit outside wore anima

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ournalism student Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) has been wrongfully expelled from Harvard just two months before graduating. With his big-name journo dad not around, he moves to London to stay with his sister (Claire Forlani). He is soon sucked into the world of football hooliganism, but how does he reconcile this with own morality, and what if his innocent journalistic background is uncovered? Of course, the film isn’t a straightforward glorification of this way of life, and neither is it an all-out condemnation. Director Lexi Alexander’s own misspent youth as a member of a German team’s firm, has given her a unique viewpoint that pushes to the fore the more palatable aspects of the lifestyle – namely trust and brotherhood. “Reliable. Protective. Loyal. Consistent. That’s what I remember most about the guys in our firm,” says the director. “Which was more than you could about any of our parents. The firm was family.” Following a gang of lads from West Ham’s firm, the Green Street Elite, the movie uses the GSE as a metaphor for family – that these people are simply trying to find something lacking in other parts of their lives. Speaking on her own days in Mannheim’s crew, Alexander agrees: “Contrary to common belief, most of us went to the best schools, had money and lived in big houses. What we didn’t have were available parents… what we missed at home, we found in each other, in our firm.” So, if the movie had a message, what would that be? “You never run, you never leave your friends behind. That’s the message to people of every age and every background, not for a fight situation, but every day situations. “This film is about camaraderie and friendship, somewhat of a traditional friendship that is kind of dying out,” she continues. “I’ve always been attracted to stories like that. It happens a lot in war movies but this one was contemporary

“Contrary to common belief, most of us went

to the best schools, had money and lived in big houses. What we didn’t have

were available parents…

what we missed at home, we found in each other, so that’s what really attracted me to it There’s a lot of action in it but it is much more about the love between these guys and their dedication to each other.” Despite the director’s protestations, Green Street is nonetheless going to rub a lot of people up the wrong way. “I know it’s a controversial subject, but I didn’t set out to make a film or write a script in order to push somebody’s button, absolutely not,” replies Alexander. “If people are just watching it because of the violence, they are watching if for the wrong reason.” It’s obvious that one of the reasons that many people are going to watch this film is for the opportunity to see Elijah Wood tackling a very different character than we are used to. Lexi is certain that, in Wood, she made the right choice. “It’s an independent movie and I knew that I needed the lead to be easy going, hard working and passionate about it. He’s been more than I ever expected, he’s a great actor, he was such a support and he nailed the role. I couldn’t imagine anybody else in the part.” The rebirth of Elijah Wood following his seemingly unending appearances as Frodo continues apace with his portrayal of Matt Buckner. Following his shocking and shockingly good turn as Kevin the murderous cannibal in Sin City, the actor appears to be making a conscious effort to wipe cuddly Frodo from our memories – something that Wood agrees with. “Doing something like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was so massive and had such huge appeal, put me in the limelight as one character for so long.,” he explains. “My interest was to do something completely different after that, which has always been my philosophy. I look for roles that stretch my ability and challenge me as an actor, something that takes me to places I’ve not been before.” Among the places that Wood had never been before was West Ham’s Upton Park ground – including during a match between the Hammers and the equally infamous Millwall. Wood describes his

ın our firm.”

experience of watching West Ham play as ‘electrifying’, and the trip was an education for the American – especially as the tensions between the two sets of fans genuinely ran high during the day: “Before and during the match there was a rush of impending danger,” says Wood. “There was a massive police presence because West Ham and Millwall hadn’t played each other in something like fifteen years. So to go to an actual match and experience that whole thing was just unbelievable. There were points where it seemed like it was going to blow during the match but the police had a pretty good hold on it. That was where fiction really met reality, there was a very blurred line – and consequently there definitely was an extra authenticity to what we later filmed.” The subject matter, plus this added realism means that Green Street is going to have the tabloids frothing at the mouth. But will the inevitable red-top frenzy be justified? What does Wood think of the accusations that the film is glorifying football hooliganism and is solely about violence? “I think it’s about friendship and loyalty and brotherhood and what that means,” he says. “It’s also a pretty anti-violence film as well in the sense that the violence doesn’t really get these people anywhere. As the film unfolds, the characters change and the story progresses to essentially show that what violence has gotten these people isn’t a hell of a lot.”

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THE SUGARMILL STOKE-ON-TRENT . . . Stoke-on-Trent: famous for Robbie Williams, Anthea Turner, Nick Hancock, oatcakes and the Pottery Industry among others. To that list you can now add venue/nightclub The Sugarmill giving the city and its homegrown music scene some much needed credibility. ZERO magazine found out more about a club many are saying is among the best small venues in the country:

It’s fair to say that many nightclubs don’t make great live venues and many live venues don’t lend themselves to being great clubs. However The Sugarmill in Stoke-on-Trent seems to have found the magic formula to get the balance right. Up to seven nights a week live bands can tread the boards of the 400 capacity venue and if the gig happens to fall on a club night the DJs just kick in after the bands have finished and everyone is welcome to stay in until 2am. How refreshing to think that if you’ve shelled out your cash to watch a favourite new band and fancy a late drink/dance you can simply just stay in without the ignominy of being kicked out and asked to pay again. It’s been a slow and steady climb up the ladder and one which was actually inspired by comments from London booking agents. Steve Tilley, resident DJ from 1994 who became live music booker in 1998 told ZERO: ‘’When I started many agents told me their acts would rather have a day off than play in Stoke. They didn’t see the point; in fact one of them once phoned up and said his band (a popular European guitar act) wanted to cancel because they didn’t know where Stoke was. I diplomatically told him where to get off and had to convince him the show would sell well!’’ If any inspiration was needed to try to make a go of it and get on the UK’s musical venue map comments like that simply fuelled the venue’s steely determination to succeed. The Sugarmill has steadily climbed to become firmly placed inside the top 10 alternative live music venues and

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JUST A FEW OF THE HUNDREDS OF BANDS THAT HAVE PLAYED THE SUGARMILL . . . The Libertines, The Darkness, Underoath, Open Hand, Funeral For A Friend, Cable, American Headcharge, Reel Big Fish, Goldﬁnger, Muse, Coldplay, Stereophonics, Travis, Trivium, Agent Blue, Discharge, Alfa 9, Sabotage Left, Andy Gower , Fifth Action Shelter, Bullet For My Valentine, Biﬀy, Inme, Ash, Snow Patrol, Coheed and Cambria, Terrorvision, Wildhearts, Therapy, Sugarcult, Hundred Reasons, Reuben, Hell is For Heroes, Ian Brown, Seahorses, Editors, Cooper Temple Clause, Eighties Matchbox B Line Disaster, The Coral, The Music, The Zutons, Razorlight…

nightclubs in the UK, a fact borne out by its inclusion for the first time in a certain weekly rock mag’s readers poll Top 10 last Christmas. Its combination of regular live music and weekend club nights has provided the rock indie and alternative punters of Stoke-on-Trent with something to cherish and call their own. And it’s the venue’s patronage and championing of local bands that have also helped it become so well liked by the rockers indie kids and skaters of Stoke-on-Trent. To start with the Sugarmill didn’t have things all its own way. In 1993 when it was opened by the owners of The Stage Door public house (which was right next door) it lived in the shadow of local live music venue The Wheatsheaf. Unable to compete for live bands at the time, the venue – which was then known as The Stage – laid its foundations by starting what became a hugely successful Friday indie/alternative club night called Electric - still going strong to this day. Fate dealt TheWheatsheaf a terminal blow in 1998 when it was bought by Wetherspoons who converted it into a traditional pub and kicked out the live music. At this point The Stage – by now renamed as The Sugarmill – was able to start taking more acts and thus began its steady climb onto the “must call’’ lists of influential London bookers. In conjunction with the live music policy, providing quality club nights has always been a key part of the mill’s success and the venue’s Saturday night The Dirt has cemented itself as the area’s best and longest running rock night already. As Steve continues: ‘’We have two brilliant club nights every week that are fuelled by a combination of great DJs, a music policy that’s popular with the punters and the credibility

we’ve got by hosting some of the hottest up and coming bands from both the indie and the rock/metal genres. The live side and the clubbing side are not mutually exclusive, it’s a perfect combination. Clubbers who come here demand our nights to be musically savvy, up to date and on the ball because so many of these people are also live music fans.’’ The Sugarmill, a former Scout meeting space, is like a miniature city hall with a big stage for a venue of its capacity with high clearance and a balcony. That’s why it also works really well on club nights because it can capture the big club atmosphere when full of people drinking, singing and dancing. Says Steve Tilley: ‘’A lot of new bands can’t quite believe it when they walk through the doors here. Their first words are often, ‘’fuck me, it’s a proper venue!!’’ And when they have played prior to a club night most bands end up staying til 2am enjoying the DJs and sometimes even DJing a bit themselves. My favourite memory is Guy out of the Eighties Matchbox standing on the bass bins at the end of the night pissed out of his head playing air guitar to The Damned’s New Rose. It was brilliant and captured the spirit of The Sugarmill and our audience perfectly.’’ The second smart move in their quest for success was also the venue’s decision to openly embrace and encourage making all of its gigs open to all ages. Club nights of course remain the domain of the over 18s only. All gigs are open to anyone aged 14 or over, copying a system widely used in America. Over 18’s who want to purchase alcohol must have ID to obtain a wristband that must then be shown at the bar to get served alcohol. Steve Tilley continues: ‘’I think we were one of the first venues in the country to

really go for this system. It worked really well, especially on the rock and punk gigs which traditionally have attracted a younger crowd. We have had bands turn up to do guest slots on local band nights and they’ve not been able to believe how busy it was. As a result this has stimulated the venue because bands genuinely want to come and play here because they can play to so many people.’’ He continued: ‘’We genuinely believe in investing in new talent, if we like a band we’ll put them on. They often reward us by coming back when they make it bigger. Equally we passionately believe in Stoke’s music scene and think at some point several of our local bands will make a big impact nationally. The scene here is incredibly strong.’’

SOME FORTHCOMING GIGS Sept 16th – Oceansize Sept 17th – Trivium (SOLD OUT) Sept18th – The Mission Sept 21st – Pure Reason Revolution Sept 23rd – A Story At Three Sept 25th - Corrosion Of Conformity Sept 25th – Alfa 9 Sept 29th – Dead Men Walking Oct 2nd – The Fight Oct 3rd – The Research Oct 5th – The Undertones Oct 9th – Queen Adreena Oct 10th – The Fall Oct 16th – The Glitterati Oct 29th – New School of Rock Tour II Oct 31st – Friends of Ken Halloween Special For further information check out the venue’s website www.thesugarmill.co.uk. Venue number is 01782 214991.

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Air Supply

sponsored by

NYC ROCKS Jonathan Clarke Q104.3 FM NYC (104.3 FM in NYC and streamed via q1043.com)

Jonathan Clarke joined Q104.3, New York’s Only Classic Rock Station, as an on-air personality in 1997 and continues to be a mainstay there as well as the Host / Executive Producer for “Out of the Box,” New York City’s Number One New Music Show since its debut over four years ago. He’s been on the air in every time slot at Q104.3 and currently holds down weekends and fills in as a regular classic rock jock. Clarke is frequently called upon as a music industry expert and has been spotlighted in The NY Post and NY Daily News numerous times. ZERO hooked up with Jonathan over the phone while he was getting ready for his show. For the last four years, Clarke’s been showing his support to musicians with a forum dedicated to showcasing their

latest works in his weekly Sunday night show on Q104.3 “Out of the Box,” a show that spins deep cuts from new CD’s by classic rock artists, new music from newer artists, as well as music from the garages, basements and lofts of the many undiscovered artists and bands in the NYC tri-state area. Noel Gallagher, Michael Stipe, Mark Knopfler, Liz Phair, Robert Randolph, Bruce Hornsby, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Pete Yorn are just a few of the artists that have co-hosted the show with Jonathan. ‘Out Of The Box’ also has some interviews available for Podcast, with some of those artists, Jonathan thinks that ‘We do it to bring more content to our listeners, so if someone has missed something, they can go to our website and catch something that a friend has told them about, if you were really ‘teched’ out, you can get the show recorded and listen to it the next day’

“ ‘Out Of The Box’ also has some interviews available for Podcast, with some of those artists, Jonathan thinks that ‘We do it to bring more content to our listeners, so if someone has missed something, they can go to our website and catch something that a friend has told them about.”

Here’s a sample playlist from the show. Listen in! Jeﬀ Beck Rosebud – Epic Juliette & The Licks You’re Speaking My Language – Fiddler Stellastarr Sweet Troubled Soul – RCA Pieta Brown #807 – Valley Myracle Brah Message ‘78 – Rainbow Quartz The Killers All These Things That I’ve Done – Island Melodrome Love Keeps Me Alive – Melodrome.com The Campbell Brothers Frammin – Ropeadope Nickel Creek Somebody More Like You – Sugar Hill Oasis Let There Be Love – Epic Brandi Carlile Follow – Columbia Matt Costa Astair – Venerable The Alarm Coming Home – Snapper UK

Want to Podcast some cool interviews? Go here: www.q1043.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=outofthebox.xml

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Known Virus Alert! Except this time, the bug is most welcome. This ﬁne looking piece of kit is the Bug from PURE Digital. I’ve had one for about two weeks now and it’s simply taken over from the regular radio around here – there’s not much it can’t do, unless you’re really into listening to an awful signal that breaks up in the middle of your favourite song – it doesn’t do that. This is one serious piece of small equipment. Touch of a button, hack into your favourite digital station. Like a song.. you can rewind and hear it again! Really like the song? You can record the damn thing. With some of the nations best digital rock stations streaming in, it’s damn near essential to get yourself hooked up with one of these. The Bug comes in white or graphite and is the most advanced DAB radio on the market. This is the future of radio, and while the bug will set you back a mere £130, there are stacks of other designs around. Check them out at www.puredigital.com – if you have problems ﬁnding one, you can always call 01923 277 488 for stockists.

Win The Bug! It just wouldn’t feel right not to give one of these little chaps away, but you’re going to have to work hard for it. Mail in your name and address to the usual address with the comp title “Give Me The Bug”. See – hard huh?

Prior to coming to Q104.3, Clarke served as Music Director / On-Air Personality at WDRE / WLIR on Long Island. He was also on-air at several radio stations in the NYC tri-state area including WDHA in North Jersey and WPDH in Poughkeepsie. While on the airwaves for the past 16 years, Clarke stood out from his peers with his extensive background as an A&R person, rock historian / interviewer and journalist. He started his career as a charts researcher for Billboard Publications before heading to Arista Records as a national director PR. During his tenure there, he also

“In a world where the word ‘format’ is king, Jonathan is a prince of thieves, he steals this 60 minutes of airtime and exposes listeners to what can only be described as ‘freeform rock n roll’ ”

successfully signed The Samples to Arista with Clive Davis in conjunction with his A&R activities. Clarke also held high-level creative positions at the Hard Rock Live TV show, and I.R.S. Records with Miles Copeland. Jonathan adds ‘Radio is my natural home and where better than here, Q104.3 is a classic rock station, but we are playing new songs from classic artists, New U2, Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, I am a regular jock on that station, while ‘Out Of The Box’ plays more updated rock artists, music that is probably ‘new’ to the listener, It’s amazing that I am on the biggest station, in the biggest city for one hour and I get to play what the hell I want’ he adds ‘the bosses Bob and Eric really support this, they trust me even though the artists are so diverse’ In a world where the word ‘format’ is king, Jonathan is a prince of thieves, he steals this 60 minutes of airtime and exposes listeners to what can only be described as ‘freeform rock n roll’ When you look at the playlist, you could think it can’t work, but when you listen to the show it does; ‘I structure this show so it flows - Crosby, Stills and Nash followed by The Killers should not work on paper, but radio is not a magazine! The show has been on for nearly five years and the ratings show that it’s number 1 in its time slot, which means I’m doing something right. People listen to the show at home, but I think that lots

listen to the show while driving’ I get the impression that Jonathan knows his audience, because he is his audience! Jonathan has also been a contributing writer to industry trade magazine Hits and Creem Magazine, profiling various recording stars and industry execs. A singer /songwriter and producer in his own right, Jonathan continues to record and produce original music for himself and other upcoming artists. These songs are currently being placed in TV, films and commercials ‘It’s in my blood’ he states, ‘My father took me to see The Beatles and he was involved with the Grateful Dead who I love - it’s nearly ten years since Jerry Garcia died, but alongside artists like the Who, he also loves Coldplay, who he wishes would rock out a little more. ‘The new Oasis album is quite amazing, they have come into their own at last, I also love jazz and hip hop, I could play Jay Z on my show, but not every week’. This fact sets him apart, he has open ears. There is no ‘rock snobbery’ at the station, ‘Great music is just great music - Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Elton John, they are just three of the many artists with so many great songs, so we just play the song, not the artist, no matter what category of rock you can put it into, like he says, ‘You know a great song when you hear it, it jumps straight ‘Out Of The Box’. Damn Straight!

The main “Out Of The Box” site is here: http://q1043.com/pages/outofbox/index.html

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Deadtime Stories His name may not immediately slip oﬀ the tongue, but when Hetﬁeld and Hammett from Metallica call you up at home and ask what the chances are of you designing a shirt for them, it can only be a matter of time. From his humble beginnings constructing haunted houses as a kid that featured his own home-made skeleton masks to having a Hallowe’en wedding in an old train station, everything about the man stinks of death... in an Addams Family wholesome kind of way that is. Words: Sion Smith

Some would say it’s obsessive behaviour, others are thanking the gods of animation that somebody cares enough to take it another step into the future with what little bit of integrity the industry has left. He is one of the new breed, spawning an identity for himself with his original Diestink characters. With little more than a history at Disney (cleaning up artwork) and a dream, he put his heart on his sleeve and started turning those things buried deep in his psyche into gruesome cartoon characters. Such was the test-tube birth of the brilliant toxictoons. So when you start seeing ‘Unkle Pigors presents...’ cartoons on CNX in the near future, don’t say we didn’t tell you so... this guy is going to be huge. Eric Pigors – stand up and be counted like the dog you are... You worked for Disney for a time - are you still involved? Do you think they’ve still got what it takes to impress the world or has their heart and soul just been replaced by the dollar? I’m unemployed from Disney and just received my 15 year Mickey Mouse bronze statue which is very cool. They still have some great artists there – and all the ones

they dumped like yesterdays garbage. They can definitely impress the world some more, but it’s being run improperly there right now. Too many managers and not enough artists getting creative input. I think it will change soon, otherwise they are doomed! A big problem they have is the name Disney. The name represents great animation as well as great stories and the company is trying to capitalise off these old films with these crappy remakes done cheaply overseas. Everything coming out of there now is a number 2, which if you think about it, the number two represents crap! If they keep this up, they will really hurt what Walt Disney made out of his name. Which really bugs the sequel out of me! The name Disney also represents safe family entertainment and the times have changed since then. So if they try new stuff out there, people complain and if they don’t try new things, people complain. They are just putting too much product out and should slow down and do quality stuff that Walt would be proud to see represent his name. There’s some comparisons to be made with some of the classic MAD artists - have you ever thought of working for them, although having said that, I don’t see it on the shelves anymore in the UK. MAD magazine is my schooling into my becoming an artist and developing my own style. Which I feel is a big combination of what I loved as a kid but with my own diestink style. Mad is still out over here but it looks like crap now and they have real adverts which I think is so far from what Mad represented in its classic form. They need to just close shop. We need some new mag like MAD built up using the new talent that’s out there. I read recently that you don’t mind people having your artwork tattooed on them – do you have any tattoos of your own and would you ever get something you’d drawn tattooed on yourself? I don’t have any yet. I do draw a lot of my designs thinking of it as a possible tattoo that I would want. Then I chicken out. I wonder if it might look weird getting my own art tattooed on myself. It would make a great conversation piece at the old folks home having my own stuff inked on me.

I would probably have to be locked in the closet and fed through a hole in the wall. That sounds kind of cool. I have started a tattoo flash set though because a lot of tattoo artists have been asking if I have a set. I have enough characters to do one, I might have it out by the end of this year. Can you make a good living out of your artwork or do you supplement it with more conventional art. It always seems like such a grey area to get into. If I had to make a living off my art right now it would be tough, but things are beginning to pick up for me through magazine exposure. Mezco Toys will be doing a Toxictoons toyline in 2004 and crystaletching.com sells glassware with my art hand etched into the glasses. The shot glasses are a must and the glasses come in coffin shaped boxes with numbered coffin shaped certificates with the art on it. So I think all this exposure should help a lot. If I had never worked at Disney though I could have never have afforded to self publish my artbooks, they are expensive to do. Who or what, do you really not see any value in in the world right now? Well, it sucks that this planet just can’t get its’ shit together and get along and live peacefully. Other than that Boybands - and MTV is really sucking the big one. I don’t know what MTV is like over there but over here in the USA it’s a big heaping pile of shit! (Don’t worry, it’s just as awesome over here..). It’s just awful pop, pop punk, generic rock like Creed and rap. Nothing of value, just utter boring shit! This network is really doing a disservice to the music industry. God I hate that channel right now. For a while we had MTVX which was 24 hours of rock with no commercials or VJ’s – in other words, heaven! Then they took it off and replaced it with more rap. Like we don’t get enough of that on MTV and MTV2. Is there anything out there that really should be brought to the worlds attention that is getting nowhere fast but deserves to? Hmm. Maybe adult diapers? I don’t know. I like this artist named Kaz. He does a strip called Underworld and he is my favourite

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but it’s this huge guy who kills zombies. Great art and stories! Old Popeye toons are great and old Woody Woodpeckers I love just because our local drive-in theatre played them before every film when I was a kid. There’s nothing like seeing a crazy cartoon character on a wall the size of a football field as a kid in a car during night-time cranked up on Cracker-Jacks and pop! Are you into magic at all - either the real deal or stuff like Criss Angel? Have you got any cool magic stories? No, but my wife sees ghosts sometimes. My ex-girlfriend Buffy Brandon, who died last week in Amsterdam after falling down some pub stairs on her head - not even drunk. She died in a coma after having a brain operation. She lived in an old creepy small house near me in California and her add on bedroom had a curtain for a door and she said it was some kind of portal for ghosts because she said see saw them coming through the curtain and going through her room a

which was when the voice came to me that second time. My wife says she hasn’t seen that woman’s spirit around me since. Who would you most like to interview - and if we could set it up, would you do it, so obviously nobody like the President then... I would like to interview Walt Disney, Jesus, and Dr. Seuss. I would ask Walt how he likes seeing the company he built being turned into crap and if Jesus could bring him back down for a week to fire all the idiots that are there destroying his name! I would ask Jesus what’s up with this world you created and when are you gonna come down here and fix some shit! And I would thank Dr. Seuss for giving us so many cool books to read as kids instead of the bland crap like Dick and Jane. You mention that you’re married. Do you have kids? I have two girls - they changed my worldview in the drop of a hat.War used to be cool to watch on the TV – now its just fucking sad that people and their kids have to die, but this also runs onto stuff like, I’d much rather

“OLD POPEYE TOONS ARE GREAT and old woody woodpeckers I love just because our local drive-in theatre played them before every film when I was a kid.”” artist out there now. His work is kind of like Charles Addams meets a dead junkie tripping on old 30’s cartoons in a back alley dumpster. His humour is dark and his strip takes place mostly at night which is where all bad cartoon characters should be living. Something about it is so creepy, knowing cartoon characters are wandering the streets at night time. Who’s better and why: Chuck Jones or Tex Avery, Disney or Warner Bros, Marvel or DC? Wow, that’s a tough one. My favourite is Betty Boop just because I think the world she lives in is what a cartoon should be. Everything is alive and weird like a strange dream, but each one is great for one reason or another. Take Disney, he did some really cool films – Fantasia has some stuff that will never be surpassed. Plus he has Peg Leg Pete and Goofy. Chuck Jones has some of the best short cartoons every made like a A Bear for Punishment. Classic - especially when Jr. is reading the gunpowder can he has just stuffed into pops fathers’ day pipe - G.U.N. P.O.W.D.E.R = tobacco. Tex Avery made the funniest cartoons ever made, Screwy Squirrel is great! Bob Clampett made the best animated looking Warner’s cartoons like Kitty Cornered – that’s one of my top ten cartoons. I’ m not a huge super-hero fan. I just don’t get why they wear their damn underwear on the outside of their tights. I do love EC Comics though; MAD, Tales from the Crypt, awesome art and great stories. There is a comic book out now called The Goon, it’s kind of like Will Eisner’s Spirit

lot. One time, my wife and Buffy were in Buffy’s house and they said they always saw a woman spirit around me like a guardian angel, which I wasn’t sure I believed. But in the November of 1999 I heard a woman whisper in my ear while I was asleep something that seemed extremely important. I woke up and was bothered about what she said and was going to wake my wife up and tell her, but I thought she would get mad so I figured I would remember it in the morning and tell her. When I woke up I couldn’t remember what this woman whispered but I knew it was a dream by the way it sounded when she spoke. Anyhow what this has to do with is, my younger brother was starting to have mental problems. He went to many doctors for four years and they couldn’t diagnose what he had. My mom says he was like the actor in A Beautiful Mind. Well a month later, Christmas time comes up a month after that woman whispered in my ear and my mom calls and says Brian is missing now for a whole day. That night my sister comes down from San Francisco and we are all looking for him. When I went to sleep that night, I heard that same woman whisper in my ear, ‘He’s gone...’. That’s it just.... ‘He’s gone’. A few days later after my dad flew in and he is in the hills riding my brother’s motorcycle looking for him, it’s now been about 5 days and Christmas has passed. The cops are up in the hills and have found a body there and they find my brother dead after shooting himself with a pipe rigged up with a spring and a hammer to ignite the bullet as a gun. It seems he probably did it a few days before

they saw a Marilyn Manson video on MTV than Britney Spears because I personally think its fucking safer that way and that’s pretty bad. What’s your slant coming from the fact that you draw weird stuff that deals with death and skeletons but the acceptable face of the world has a far more drastic impact on our kids than anything we can ever dream up? That’s true. I don’t have any kids yet. When horror comics were attacked in the late 50’s for graphic violence, I can see why they could be concerned, but I didn’t go killing people after reading them. What they would allow them to draw after that was just awful. It was like looking at Manson then watching him being changed into Britney. I guess that’s why Mad could get away with more because they turned it into a magazine instead of a comic book, which most people associate with kids. This is one thing I love about Europe, they seem to embrace comics and animation, it’s not seen as just a kids medium. In the USA, adults look down on comics and animation as mere kids entertainment! There could be so much cool stuff being made here if people didn’t think this way. When Bugs Bunny and those old Tex Avery cartoons were made, they showed them in the movie theatre and they were made to entertain both kids and adults. I’m surprised nobody has gone after video games for their violent content yet... You can see more of Eric’s artwork and get yourself submerged in some cool t-shirts, books and stickers by driving by www. toxictoons.com All artwork copyright Eric Pigors.

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“Having sex with Angelina Jolie is like humping a couch.” Only one man could get away with that statement, and that man is Billy Bob Thornton. The self-styled actor/musician/ranch hand/screenwriter is among the most amusing of Hollywood stars, and has an onscreen presence that many more groomed stars lack.

he former saw mill worker burst on to the scene in 1996 with Sling Blade, which he wrote, directed and starred in. After bumming around Hollywood for several years, frustrated because casting directors would hire actors from New Jersey to play the redneck parts that were his by birthright, he created the character Karl Childers. Originally a one man show, the feature film, in which Robert Duvall, John Ritter, and Dwight Yoakam also appeared, nabbed him an Academy Award for best screenplay, and a nomination for best actor. No more sleeping on couches, and potatoonly diets. Billy Bob’s career was born. With his new found celebrity Billy Bob was able to also develop his music – something close to the heart of this self-confessed 60’s child and former hippie: “Tower Records is like a temple to me. I’ll stay there for hours. Nobody can shop for records with me. It drives them out of their minds.”

While shooting Sling Blade, he got together with some if his former bandmates from back home and held jam sessions for the crew, getting behind the drum kit himself. Some years later in Nashville, his musician friends persuaded him into the recording studio, and this led to the recording of his first album, Private Radio. A second, The Edge of t he World, is said to be a hippy-ish confection of stories about everyday life. He formed a band to perform songs from his albums, combining his lifelong musical pals, and various session talents – including former keyboard player with Guns N’ Roses, Teddy Andreadis. Billy Bob’s band has toured America, Canada and Europe, supporting a number of charities and featuring a series of guest stars. It was only last year that he played the talismanic leader of an American college football team in Friday Night Lights, and now he’s starring as a baseball coach in Bad News Bears, but this time he’s playing for laughs – although the shoot wasn’t without drama: “As you know, pissing people off has never been a problem for me,” says Billy Bob by way of an explanation. Bad News Bears is a remake of

the 1976 Walter Matthau hit where a slovenly coach helps a losing baseball team find a winning way. Playing Morris Buttermaker, a “semi-lovable curmudgeon”, Billy Bob runs a one-man extermination business while trying to pick up women by trading on his former glories as an ex-major league pitcher. When he’s bribed to coach a little league baseball team, he finds himself torn away from his slump, and as time goes on “the old spirit of baseball comes back to him.” Any chance of this becoming too syrupy is nixed when you hear that the writers of Bad Santa were drafted in for the script. So whereas as St Nicholas, he confronted the kiddies with anal sex and alcoholism, in Bad News Bears Thornton takes the team to Hooters and has an early coaching session by the side of a pool with a martini in his hand. Nonetheless, Billy Bob stresses that the new movie, unlike Bad Santa, is suitable for children, and he strongly defends the Hooters sequence. “Kids are able to watch movies where the hero blows up 55 people,” he says. “Personally I think violence is way worse than Hooters!” Amen to that, Billy Bob. Bad News Bears is out now.

“TOWER RECORDS IS LIKE A TEMPLE TO ME. I’LL STAY THERE FOR HOURS. NOBODY CAN SHOP FOR RECORDS WITH ME. IT DRIVESTHEM OUT OF THEIR MINDS.”

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Muscle of Love Hell, everybody knows Kane Roberts. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more well known than Glen Buxton (see what I mean!) His notoriety is probably a combination derived from a mixture of his playing right at the time when Alice came back from the dead, his wicked sense of humour and his monstrous physique, but heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a genuine talent in his own right. With the Alice tour coming up, I wondered what in the world he could be up to. As it happens, quite a lot... Interview: Sion Smith | Pics courtesy pfx

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You’re obviously best known to the world as Alice’s guitarist from the Constrictor era, but what’s your history from before that time? You must have been pretty young when you joined the team? I was in my 20s. I was living in New York playing original songs at rock and punk clubs - we were accepted by both crowds for some reason. The music was nothing like my later stuff. To make money I dealt cards at an illegal Blackjack game that used to be held at different hotels every night. Lots of weird people and guns. I remember a guy there that couldn’t finish a sentence... I mean he would start and stop an idea repeatedly until you wanted to jump out a window. You couldn’t say anything though because all these guys were badasses! One guy used to request me as his dealer and he’d play $300 on every circle all night. He suddenly stopped appearing at the games and I found out he was a hit man and he blew his own brains out. Fortunately I meet Alice and suddenly I’m at a beach house in Maui writing with Cooper. I have to say that I owe the people involved with the blackjack game cos A. they were salt of the earth, real great people and B. if they read this and I don’t give them props they’ll find me and kick my ass. You were a part of the band that brought Alice back into the frame after his wilderness period. Was it all consciously engineered that way or did it just happen? Whatever reason, you must have seen it as the opportunity of a lifetime. Well, I met Bob Ezrin and he liked my shit. Alice had just come to New York after some time off and a meeting was scheduled (he had come to see me

play at a strip club the night before without telling me). We hit it oﬀ. They had hooked him up with some other dudes but they were looking for an

Well maybe a little. I do have a high opinion of myself though. People had rather extreme views of my influence on Alice. Either I was responsible for everything (good or bad) or I was just kinda standin’ there and watching the world go by. I remember an article appeared in England stating that I wasn’t really playing on stage. Pretty funny shit. You brought out another album under the banner of Under a Wild Sky – did it sell OK for you? Is that band still a going concern? No... right now I’ve co-written and produced a short film called Embryo that’s won a slew of awards and is playing internationally. We’re getting ready to start our first feature so I’ve been pre-occupied with that stuff. I do have an album almost ready for release with new players and a new sound. My love of music and performing is as hot as ever... I just want each step to be a forward one - something that will indicate growth and change. Checking over your site, you’re obviously pretty damn good with a pencil. Is that something that’s always been around or a reasonably new thing? I’ve always drawn... girls mostly but then I started pencilling some pretty freaky shit. My dreams get more bizarre with each passing night and sometimes I try and draw what my visions. You did the sleeve for Brutal Planet too - presumably you’re still in touch with Alice... were you ever involved with the stage show design also? Along with writing and recording I was involved with the arrangement and choreography of the shows but Alice and Shep are the kings. They could do have done it without me... they’re just awesome. The artwork that you display on the site - it looks like it may be from a comic book project. Is that a fair assumption or does it just stand alone? A lot of the artwork is based on stories that either got published or went to shit. I still like them though. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko got me through my childhood. That’s an honour unto itself. I’ll leave comic book art to the geniuses that are doing it as we speak. Let’s talk about the bodybuilding for a moment: I see you’ve slimmed down considerably! I know it takes some big ass commitment to get as big as you were. I guess you must have attracted attention from some

“I stopped lifting mainly because I noticed that the smaller my legs got the bigger my dick looked!” aggressive style and I seemed to ﬁt the bill. He’s the funniest fucking guy on the planet. I think Alice would succeed at anything he tries. And yeah... it was a real opportunity. My girlfriend and I moved to Los Angeles right away and soon we were oﬀ to Maui. Looking at the timeline involved with Alice though, there’s not as much time as I thought between your time with him and you going on to record your solo albums. We knew it was time to split when we did but I was already working with Desmond Child and other artists. We had talked the night before about how I had better pay attention to my solo career and he was about to make changes. The next morning I was sleeping at my house and the door to my bedroom swung open and it was Alice holding two suitcases (he has a sense for the ridiculous as well as the sublime) and he said... “I’m leaving.” We totally cracked up. We still talk and I still idolize him in every way. Personally, I think your input on Trash was played down. Is that a fair thing to say?

pretty bizarre places being huge and being in the position you were.. I was approached by LAPD to be a cop and also by the WWF to perform at wrestling matches and some people thought I was Alice’s minder. Being that big was pretty funny. You piss off and attract a wild bunch of people. I remember at Wembley, this girl kept showing me her tits, rubbing her nipples and licking her lips everytime I looked at her. Her boyfriend (at least I think he was), got fucked in the head over it and began spitting at me. It was a substantial distance but it was pissing me off. I threw off my guitar and was about to jump down and find out what his problem was but I saw him rise up in the air, turn upside down and smash head first over the barrier – and there were these three skinheads looked at me and gave me a nod. Wild shit. I stopped lifting mainly because I noticed that the smaller my legs got the bigger my dick looked!

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Rob Dickinson could have been the man you wanted to pour your soul out to. He could have been the man that featured in the top ten albums of all time, and to some he still is. His previous band, The Catherine Wheel, were more important to their fans than Radiohead – who were their contemporaries at the time. Why it never happened for them on a similar scale is a question you’ll have to ask older Gods than I can get in touch with… Words: Daniel Owen

hatever happened, it was criminal. Radiohead, as good as they are, are a little too sulky and spend far too long looking at brown shoes for my liking. The only real similarity between the two bands is that they came out at around the same time, but The Catherine Wheel had a real vitriol about them. Where Radiohead tend to sulk, The Catherine Wheel would get a little bit uppity and dish some of the shit back at the source, and that was a beautiful thing. Anyone looking for a good place to start should source Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck for proof of what I’m saying. Hell, you only have to look at the song title to get the picture. Rob Dickinson is in town to promote his ﬁrst solo album. Fresh Wine for the Horses is a relentless tour into the heart of a man with so much to say Well, it was a long he doesn’t know where to start. Long time ago now. There time fans will not be disappointed. were a few moments Our meeting starts ominously. My when I wondered phone rings and as I go to turn it oﬀ, if anybody would Rob says: give a damn about “Is that a Starsky and Hutch theme me releasing a new ringtone you’ve got there? album, but it seems “Sure is” that people don’t forget and for that I’m very “You sad fucker” grateful. You know we never had the success “..and what have you got that’s so in the UK like we did in the US but even interesting then?” here there’s good things being said. “Mine just rings” Of course I’m in a different place though. There’s no real answer to that, but it’s I was ‘well cared’ for if you like. I didn’t a good start to an interview. need to go and find a job when we split the band, so I wandered about for a bit just Fresh Wine is quite something. It’s very doing things I like to do. I used to design similar to a Catherine Wheel album, cars, so I did some of that along the way, but which is to be expected with you being mostly I accumulated songs and Fresh Wine the vocalist, but you’ve brought other is a result of that. There was a lot of material dimensions in. Whereas previously you to choose from and it took me forever to get might have gone into overdrive with the the track listing in the right order – or at guitars, this time you’ve gone for the throat least to a point where I was happy with it. lyrically.Well, in Catherine Wheel you did that too, but this is different. You’re in a You know what I’ve noticed, how can I put different place now aren’t you. this? The more ‘mature’ artists out there, have a ‘vinyl hangover’. They know how to build an album that will last. When vinyl was the predominant medium, you had to be sure that side two began as strongly as side one. With some of the guys who have been around a while, you consistently get a strong album. That’s very true –and if there were any weak tracks, vinyl was a much better medium for burying them! That’s a good point. A lot of albums these days seem to peter out quickly. Fresh Wine was tough to put together because the songs mean one thing to me but when you’re putting it out for public consumption, you have look at the bigger picture.

“I GOT SUCH A BUZZ FROM PLAYING LIVE AGAIN AND BEING INVOLVED IN SOMETHINGWHERETHERE WAS A CHEMISTRY ON STAGE, THAT NOW I’M REALLY KEEN TO START  ITWILL BE INTERESTING TO SEEWHERE IT GOES.”

You going to take it out on the road? Yes. There are plans afoot. I’m just putting together a full electric band and I’m really

looking forward to getting out there again. I just played a show with a couple of friends in the States – who were also ‘mature’ artists – and it turned out fantastic. I got such a buzz from playing live again and being involved in something where there was a chemistry on stage, that now I’m really keen to start – it will be interesting to see where it goes. I just do what I please really. There were times when I could have put this album out earlier but didn’t. It didn’t seem like the right time. From a personal level, I’m not married, I constantly live out of a suitcase and creatively, that suits me just fine. The ability to be creative on the spur of the moment is very important. I think that comes out on the album – at least I hope it does. Rob is certainly a man completely at ease with himself and appears to know exactly where he’s going with this. His days in Catherine Wheel have given him a perspective and a knowledge that prove even when you think you’re going somewhere you could be standing still – and when you think you think it’s all over, it could be just about to drop over the cliff. For some odd reason, we finish up talking about Iron Maiden, I can’t remember why, but I also forgot that Bruce is his cousin. Did you milk him dry when you were starting out? Not really – I mean he helped us out for sure. Our first recordings were recorded on an old machine he gave us and we might have mined him for some information here and there, but it really wasn’t like that at all! I haven’t seen him for years now. He’s not really likely to tap you up for some cash is he! I don’t think so. I fucking hope not! A final word from me then. Buy the album. From a songwriting perspective, Rob plays second fiddle to nobody. Seriously… just go get it.

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ADAPTATION

Stupid questions: Kahn Johnson

Things are moving fast in the world of Editors. Signed just a year ago, their album can currently be found in the ‘hot cakes’ section, and they’ve been ripping it up around the UK all summer. Now, they are stretching their wings and heading over to the good ol’ U S of A – at the invitation of Jack Daniels. Tom Smith (vocals, guitar), Chris Urbanowicz (guitar), Russell Leetch (bass) and Ed Lay (drums) will be in Nashville to celebrate what would have been the great man’s 155th birthday. They will be

joined by Maximo Park, The Futureheads and a gathering of competition winners. “We’re really looking forward to it,” enthuses Tom, “I mean, it’s Nashville! “And playing with Futureheads and Maximo Park will be great – we’re all massive fans of both bands.” Sadly, time is against us (Tom being a busy man ‘n’ all), so instead of the usual chat, he’s hit with 20 questions… How did you end up in Editors We met at uni. We all wanted to be in bands, and luckily we all found three other people with the same idea. Once we

had finished at university, we moved to Birmingham and started taking it seriously! What made you decide to be in a band? It was around ‘94/’95, the time of Definitely Maybe, and I was of an age where I was ripe for the picking. That whole Brit Pop thing just made me want to pick up a guitar and be in a band Are you any good? No, we’re terrible… (laughs) Who suggested that question? Was it someone who’s seen us? Who would win in a ﬁght between a cow and a sheep? Hmmmmm… I would have to go with

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“THE WORST THING IS ALL OF THE WAITING AROUND YOU SEEM TO DO, JUST SITTING IN THE VAN. THE BEST THING THOUGH IS THAT YOU GET TO PLAY FOR PEOPLE, WHICH KIND OF MAKES THE WAITING AROUND WORTH IT I GUESS.”

the cow I think, because of the weight advantage, although the sheep does have the protective coating… No, I’ll go with cow. If you could ride a push bike, what would you ride? I’ve always fancied a go on a Penny Farthing. Given the choice, would you rather achieve superstardom or cult status? (there’s a long pause) Cult status. There’s a whole lot of baggage that comes with being a superstar Groupies – not interested or everything that’s oﬀered? Well, as I’m in a relationship… If I wasn’t though, I’d definitely be interested!

What team do you support? I’m really not the man to ask… Are you really planning to get Emile Heskey to rap on one of your records? NO! That’s come about because a couple of the guys are really into their football – but I’m not, so that’s a big fat no! Who are your major inﬂuences as a band? I’ve been influenced by early REM and Radiohead, but as a band Elbow and The Strokes I’d say. How do you take your Jack Daniels? Either straight or with coke, but always with ice. Best/worst thing about touring? The worst thing is all of the waiting around you seem to do, just sitting in the van. The best thing though is that you get to play for people, which kind of makes the waiting around worth it I guess. Marmite – love it or hate it? Love it! Actually, I discovered something fantastic recently. Marmite, on toast, with some sour cream on top. I’m trying to get everyone to try it! Are you as mad as you look when on stage? I don’t think so…. The thing about us is that we give everything when we play, we’re really passionate and intense. Off stage, I’m actually quite reserved Where does the band name come from? Man, we had some terrible names in the past. Then we got a deal, and when

it came to sign we decided we had to have something good. We chose Editors because it looked good written down. I’d like to say we were being witty or commenting on the industry, or try and give it some meaning that led us to choose it, but no. It just looks great in print. Simple as that. Describe Editors in three words Tuneful. Happy. Morbid. Build your perfect woman If you could blend Shannyn Sossoman (A Knight’s Tale, Rules of Attraction) with Sienna Miller (Layer Cake, Alfie), I think you’d pretty much have her Will you ever change the band’s sound to chase success God no. We’re constantly going to evolve I think, and up our game and try and reach new heights, and I’m sure our second album won’t sound like Back Room part two. But change just for commercial reasons? Definitely not. If you weren’t in a band, what would you be doing? Oh god, erm…. Well, I studied music technology at uni, I was thinking of maybe becoming a producer, but I wasn’t any good! I’d probably be back home in Stroud working in a factory Interviews – love them or hate them? I’m not a massive fan, but this one has been OK…

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v Hardware Sound of The Dead

In a continuing movement to unleash new and increasingly evil guitar shapes on the music world, BC Rich have added the Zombie to their hugely successful Platinum Pro range.

The shape itself is an amalgamation of some of the most popular shapings of previous BC Rich guitars. The front end of the body features smaller versions of the points from the front of the Beast model. The back end is shaped like the instantly recognisable trademark Widow headstock that many of BC Rich’s most successful models have used. It also features an actual Widow headstock, but the company has never used this shape for the body of a guitar before. Previously, the Beast shape has proven to be a very popular model in the modern “shock” metal culture, but the guitar itself is huge. The wing at the back making the guitar particularly unwieldy for guitarists smaller than an NBA basketball player. The Zombie is somewhat smaller than the Beast. A fact that the company hopes will be a major selling point. Product Manager Rock Clouser on the oﬃcial BC Rich website: “…this guitar will be popular due to its mobility and playability – while still displaying attitude.”

Currently, the Zombie is only available in the Platinum Pro range, so it has all the standard features of that range, including the licensed Floyd Rose locking tremolo, meaning no matter how long you spend jerking the tremolo arm around and hammering on the strings, you’ll never knock the guitar out of tune. As with all BC Rich guitars, the neck is bolted onto the body, a feature that many guitarists try to avoid due to the reducing effect this has on the sustain (keeping notes ringing) they can achieve. BC Rich claim to have solved this problem, however. On the Pro range particularly, and more than likely on other ranges like the NJ series, BC Rich have developed a method of computer-controlled routing when shaping the Agathis body that creates an especially tight joint to the neck. The online instrument company Musician’s Friend have tried out the Zombie and describe the sustain as being “infinite”. With other long-standing Platinum Pro features such as a rosewood fingerboard on

a maple neck and a pair of BC Rich BDSM humbucker pickups, the heavy metal snarl of classic guitars like the Mockingbird and the legendary Warlock is maintained within the brand new shape. The Zombie is currently available in both Tombstone (that’s grey to you and I) and Shadow (matte black) but in July a limited edition red was added in the US, all with black chrome hardware. The Zombie is the latest in a long line of aggressively shaped guitars from a very unique manufacturer. BC Rich have long provided to growl and bite of many of metal’s most vicious acts and with such famous protagonists as Kerry King of Slayer, Phil Campbell of Motörhead, Dimmu Borgir, Paolo Gregoletto of Trivium and Tracii Guns of Brides of Destruction currently pummelling audiences with the evil tones of a BC Rich, you could very well being seeing a Zombie on a stage near you soon. “Guitars that rock… shapes that shock” indeed.

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Ear Candy

ZERO accepts no responsibility for CDs that were crap when they arrived

All The Right Reasons Nickelback ✪✪✪✪✪ What did we expect from Nickelback this time around? For them to have moved on and gotten in touch with a more mature side to their nature? No – and to be quite honest that would be thoroughly fucking unacceptable! What we wanted – and what we got - is more huge riffs, great screaming balls of fiery thunderous driving, fucking, fist throwing rock. There are still the unconverted out there, but it’s only a matter of time before their souls give in and just go with the flow. This is rock as it was meant to be. End of story. Animals is much in the same vein as Flat on the Floor – big drums, a riff

“THE INTRO TO FIGHT FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS OWES A LITTLE BIT TO NINE INCH NAILS ODDLY ENOUGH  AT LEAST THERE’S SOMETHING THERE THAT REMINDS, BUT WHAT IT ALSO HAS THAT INFECTIOUS GROOVE THAT NICKELBACK DO SO WELL." from hell and Chad is in the mood to fuck like a lyrical beast. It’s a driving song, it’s a fucking song – it’s just what you need on a murky summer afternoon on the prowl. The intro to Fight for all the Wrong Reasons owes a little bit to Nine Inch Nails oddly enough – at least there’s something there that reminds, but what it also has that infectious groove that Nickelback do so well, the thing that digs the track deep under your skin – but however good that is, just fades in the light of the Photograph.

If I said Nickelback had embraced the spirit of Bon Jovi, I wouldn’t be far oﬀ the mark. Whether or not Photograph will be their I’ll Be There for You, I’m not sure, but it’s every bit as good a song. This is the one track oﬀ the album that’s going to pull in the audience from elsewhere. Prime it up with a killer video and you’re looking at some serious action for the band when it hits the shelves. Next Contestant takes the album down a notch – it’s a good song. Not a great song, but it’s well placed to

the album up into some different dimensions. There’s a great bass presence on this track and a neat break that stops it from just being a bit filler, but hey . . . small complaint, because then comes Savin’ Me. It’s just gonna be huge – as is Someone That You’re With (personal favourite). Again, the band rely heavily on Ryans drum sound to carry their sound off. With him as a lynchpin, they’re able to cavort with a looseness, a coolness, that allows all of their songs to breathe and be catchy as hell… it’s an old thing from the seventies superbands that you just don’t see very much anymore. Far Away is a huge ballad. Not a good thing to listen to if you’re a little on the emotionally unstable side today – it’s a heart-cutter, so if you’re in the middle of a bust up, best stick with Animals which will be a lot more practical to get you through the long night! Damn good song though – and a single for sure. Bringing up the back end of the album, Follow You Home really picks things up, which is great news – it could all have fallen over, but it doesn’t and there’s plenty of life in the album right in the final stages. It’s a real love song with some great passion behind it. Not one of those love songs that makes you goo-ey eyed, but rather one of those that’ll make you drive miles out of your way to buy condoms… a lust song if you like. Side of a Bullet again comes back to the tribal thing they’ve invested heavily in with their sound and is probably the heaviest track on the album with plenty of Metallica riffery to keep it alive. If Everyone Cared and Rock Star bring the album to a neat closure with Rock Star singing the praises of being exactly that. Big dumb riffs, big dumb lyrics – sure as hell guaranteed to wind some people up, but that’s why Nickelback are here and that’s why I’m here to sing about how awesome they are. Right at this moment, in my head, Nickelback rule the world. Bring it on. SS

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Very Fast Very Dangerous Reuben ✪✪✪✪ Xtra Mile Recordings It’s great to hear a band with no fear of doing something original. Mixing up a whole bag of influences, Reuben have arrived at Very Fast Very Dangerous with their sanity intact. Remember Catherine Wheel’s Happy Days album and how you felt the first time you heard it? VFVD is just like that. Stripping down the tune to the bare minimum, the lead track A Kick in the Mouth pounces from around a corner and pretty much rags the tune to death with a spicy mix of drum led mayhem – nice! The album continues in much the same vein of going everywhere and nowhere, pulling in and spitting out melody and fury in equal measures. If there’s a downside to the album, it doesn’t come until very late on in the shape of Return of the Jedi –which I could really live without, but in between, VFVD shakes the tree and all kinds of things fall out. Nobody Loves You is sullen and tends to sulk about in the mid section, but flanked by the awesome Blamethrower and Every Time a Teenager, it works so well! This is a different world from their debut – it’s cohesive, sonically balanced and a basically fantastic rock album. If only it was always this easy. SS

The M’Naughton Rule Nadie ✪✪✪✪ xxx My, my, my. Somebody was very generous when they dished out the “voice to die for” and Nadie appears to have taken more than her share.

If you’ve come to this place looking for a balls out twisted bitch, you came to the wrong place. However, if you’re looking for subtlety, great song writing with a pinch of pain and the aforementioned voice – stick around. This is the place to be. There’s got to be at least 5 singles on this album and while first appearances might suggest Nadie is a glorified pop songstress, fact of the matter is, it’s impossible not to fall in love with her entire demeanour. Like I Used to Be and I Break Twice could both crack the industry wide open for her. To crack a heart that dotes on food like Rob Zombie, you got to be doing something right! The M’Naughton Rule is a crap name for an album and should be dropped in favour of just Nadie – aside from that, she wipes the floor with the competition. Eat your heart out. SS

Heaven Sin Neon Zoo ✪✪✪✪ Forked Tongue Once more – a band from out of the blue gathers enough momentum to break on through, and once again, it’s great to find a band with enough dimensions to pull it off. Neon Zoo sit somewhere in the land once occupied by Gravity Kills and Stabbing Westward. With a nod to the fact that this is a debut album – inevitably with a limited production budget – with a great producer behind them, Neon Zoo will inevitably find themselves on all soundtrack albums for all superhero movies at any given time in the future. Each track on the album sounds like it sits on the edge of tearing through into manic riffs but instead, they all choose to lie in the woods in a sultry fashion. Predatory would be a good word to use. Heaven Sin (which features on the cover mount CD) will give you a great idea of what the album is about, but there are other tracks worth mentioning too: Monster, Darkest Dance and Get You are all primed for some kind of release – with Darkest Dance surely being favourite for hitting the likes of MTV with. It’s a little bit industrial, a little bit gothic and a little bit

“The world has been crying out for a band like this. No angst, no problems, just in lust and welcome in four corners of the globe.”

Waltham Waltham ✪✪✪✪✪ Ryko This could go through the roof. This will go through the roof. I didn’t know that anyone in this decade could dredge up an inﬂuence like Rick Springﬁeld and make it work, but they have. Big time. Despite the way the name of the band translates over this side of the pond – conjuring up nasty images of a crappy place won’t do them any favours – this is one superb rock band. In a nutshell, this one fucking great driving album. 12 picture perfect summer pop songs straight

from a non existent soundtrack to The Breakfast Club, St Elmo’s Fire… think Rick Springfield, think The Cars, then forget both and just enjoy it. Joanne is one perfectly crafted slice of music. It’s got a hook that will drive you insane for weeks, if not get you back onto Friends Reunited to see if your old girlfriends are still single. You Gotta Let Me In similarly pushes your foot to the floor and you’re going to find a lot of speeding tickets on your hands by track 6. There’s just no point in going through the album track by track, each is a stand alone single. There’s no need for the ‘skip’ button on the CD player and there’s no need to justify loving every second of this album. This is as good as summer will ever get. The world has been crying out for a band like this. No angst, no problems, just in lust and welcome in four corners of the globe. If you’re after some fun and a band that are 100% genuine in their delivery and passion for summer, get it on. If there’s a fault with this album, I can’t find it. Put your prejudice of pop rock aside and just get in the car. SS

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Ear Candy

ZERO accepts no responsibility for CDs that were crap when they arrived

Juturna Circa Survive ✪✪✪✪✪ Equal Vision Umm. Wow. Blown away, but where the hell to start? Circa Survive are one intense band – and not in that thrash you to death with a stick manner either. There’s absolutely no space to breath here. Every second of every song is bursting at the seams with something happening. Even the silences are deafening. The ﬁrst listen to Juturna, I had a frown on my face all the way through trying to ﬁgure out what the hell was going on. Second time around, I started to like the confusion. By the time I was on the third go on the ride, it was like being drowned by sonics and emotion.

The Glorious Nosebleed is one hell of a song that drags you somewhere else. It sounds absolutely nothing like Pink Floyd, but it’s that kind of similar experience when you dip the lights and hit it with the headphones on. The Great Golden Baby is another, as is We’re All Thieves. If there’s a basd track on this album, it’s well hidden. This is one otherworldly place here and it seems to have been a long time since I was truly excited at the prospect of seeing a new band live. To be frank, Circa Survive just make all the other bands making this kind of music look like amateurs. Occasionally, an album comes along that’s completely devoid of hype and expectation. It’s perfect, you carry no baggage and the album lives and dies on its own merits – if you’re looking for something new that’s very exciting, are quite serious about your music and where you spend your money – go out and spend it here. The album art rocks too. Where’s the freakin’ vinyl when you need it. Disturbingly beautiful. I’m in love with a monster. SS

dangerous. If there’s any justice in the world, give them some money, give them to Reznor and then give them back to the world. Predict great things and expect great things. SS

Mafia Black Label Society ✪✪✪✪ Artemis For years, I sat in the wilderness over BLS – it took the acoustics of Alcohol Fuelled Brewtality to turn me on to it – I know I’m not the only one either. Everytime I play something like Steppin Stone or Damage is Done from Hangover Music, most people are shocked by what they hear. How mellow and how emotional Wylde can be is a good kick in the chops for most. Despite a change of record label, there is never going to be anyone that will change what he does, and in Mafia we see the alcohol drenched monster coming through. Oddly, it’s a little bit more Ozzy than previously – Zakk seems to be adopting the double tracked vocal style that worked so well for Ozzy in the past, and it works brilliantly. The lead single Suicide Messiah is just heavy as hell and Forever Down follows in its tracks with fire behind it. Say What You Will has got the devil in it’s grooves too, but it’s not a flat out heavy ass deal here. Subsequent listens will give you some real depth and there are unexpected twists as you find that Zakk is not afraid to drop in some odd instruments every now and then, (go find them yourself ). Chalk another one up in the win column – and next time he’s in town… just go. SS

One Day Remains Alter Bridge ✪✪✪✪ Wind-Up Let’s face it, Creed were a great American rock band who fucked up. Out of the remains, we all become winners as Alter Bridge are a much tighter band with better songs and a better long term dynamic. Much as I liked Creed, the band wore thin on me pretty quickly after the ﬁrst album.

The great big shining beacon of light on One Day Remains is undoubtedly Open Your Eyes. This massive dirty power ballad has to be one of the best songs of the year – once heard, never forgotten. Fortunately, it’s not the only high point the album has to offer. Broken Wings really takes the tone of the album off in a different way with a depth, which is pretty brave quite early on in the album. To follow it with In Loving Memory is also good thinking – but now we have a whole mid section which is as strong as hell. One Day Remains has been put together like vinyl used to be with thought and care that the listener will get to the end without getting bored. Watch and learn people. For those eager for some crashing guitars and angst driven lyrics chanted like a shamanic prayer, look no further than Watch Your Words. In it’s own way, One Day Remains is like a dirty version of Journey’s Escape. Listen, think about it, get back to me. You know I’m right, and this is one damn fine album. SS

Live at Cabo Wabo ’96 Alice Cooper ✪ EMI Right, I’ll confess – I’ve barely given this a listen. Skipped through the tracks to check what was written on the promo inlay corresponded with what was hitting my ears, and that was it. This isn’t because I’m lazy. I mean, I am, but I’m not being this time. It’s because I’ve heard this album before, back in the late ’90s when it was called A Fistful of Alice. It’s the same gig, has the same special guests (Slash, Sammy Hager and Rob Zombie if my memory serves me correctly) and has the same

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Turn Against This Land

SHOUT IT OUT LOUD!

Dogs ✪✪✪✪✪ Island

on the ZERO website

www.zeromag.co.uk

studio track at the end (Is Anyone Home?. Good song, but would be out of place on Dirty Diamonds. It’s more The Last Temptation territory). For the record, the live stuﬀ is good and covers his career up to The Last Temptation (represented here by Lost in America), covering pretty much all the bases. There’s School’s Out, Elected, Feed My Frankenstein, I Never Cry, Teenage Lament ’74 – you get the idea. Of course you do. Fuck, if you’re any kind of Alice fan, you already own this! Obviously, this being a promo copy I’ve no idea what the sleeve artwork is like – but it better be damn good to warrant people parting with their hard-earned. KJ

I’ll nail my colours to the mast right now – if this lot don’t set the world on ﬁre, then I’m packing up and going home because everyone will have clearly gone deaf. For too long now, bands have either been taking themselves too seriously

Moonage Daydream being the miss. But it’s the other stuﬀ that’s of interest, and the Terror’ devotee won’t be disappointed. Sure, some of the tracks were never meant to be heard (Tom Petty Loves Veruca Salt passes by unnoticed), but others (This Drinking Will Kill Me, Corpse Fly) are little gems. Sure, this record won’t change the world, but its something for the real fans to cherish. KJ

or being so commercial I’m guessing even Satan wouldn’t want their sanitised souls. Welcome then, Dogs. Like their contempories The Subways and Nine Black Alps, this quintet rock like bastards. The difference lies in the attitude, however. Where Alps bludgeon, and Subways scream, Dogs are arrogant, nasty, snarling little fuckers – and it’s brilliant. They remind me of the bands I first truly fell in love with. Hanoi Rocks, GnR, Aerosmith – bands who didn’t give a shit and played for themselves first and foremost.

Singles She’s Got A Reason and Selﬁsh Ways are perfect examples of the album as a whole – ragged guitars played like they’re slung low, vocals brimming with attitude, drums having the shit kicked out of them, you should be getting the picture. End of an Era has a chorus live audiences will love (all together now, “what a wanker…”), Tuned To A Diﬀerent Station will have you pogoing whenever you hear it and Red closes out the album with a simply sublime bass-line rumble. Dogs. The bollocks. End of. KJ

stick to a winning formula. Abba may have been tempted to dabble in death metal, but they knew their strengths. Bon Jovi were never going to produce a tribute to Slayer – but in both extreme cases, they grew as a band. Bon Jovi’s God awful second album was a far cry from Keep The Faith (their ﬁfth), and this is where Staind seem to have ground to a halt. It may be tried and tested, but that’s no excuse for repeating it ad nauseam. KJ

The entire album has a great feel to it, there is a feeling BRMC have found what they were truly wanting to do with their music. A high spirited, talented and original display from a band that may never have made it to album number three. JR

Hey Mr Buskerman: B-sides & Rarities Terrorvision ✪✪✪ EMI God I loved Terrorvision back in the day. Still do, as it goes. If ever you needed a punchy, rocky pop tune, Bradford’s ﬁnest were always to hand (if you overlook the dour Shaving Peaches). It was sad when they called it a day after Good To Go, which I thought was a return to form. Apparently I was in the minority. Still, no change there – and I suspect I’ll be in the minority again with this collection of odds and ends EMI found in a broom cupboard somewhere. Never a fan of buying CD singles as a rule, collections like this are like gold dust to me – I love hearing what fell by the wayside, or demo versions of old favourites, or cover versions the band decided were a good idea at the time. And I’m not disappointed here. In terms of demos, there’s just the one – Perseverance. Not bad, but glad they worked on it. The covers are a tad hit and miss – Surrender being the hit, a leaden

BBC Sessions & In Concert Chapter V

Howl

Staind ✪ Atlantic There was a time when Staind stood on the brink of something. It was either greatness or an abyss. Only time was going to tell. Seems greatness wasn’t in when the naval-gazing noise merchants went knocking… Granted they haven’t yet slipped into the abyss, but if this is anything to go by it’s only a matter of time. Now, I’ve not crossed paths with this lot since Breaking The Cycle, and I wasn’t sure what to expect three albums on. What I didn’t expect was a clone of Cycle. The chunky riﬀs are all in place, the slow starts are all there, the pained vocals have been planted atop like a cherry undergoing therapy – I’m assuming the formula was the same for the previous two albums. Now, granted, it’s tempting to

Black Rebel motorcycle Club ✪✪✪✪ XXX This mellow rock Americana album is splashed with more country and western sounds than we are lead to expect from BRMC. Do not think horrible line dancing noise though, think cool as hell sounds especially reserved for Quentin Tarantino movies. A further step away from their original dirty guitar sounding smooth psychedelic rock, they have produced an album that brings chilled bluesy riﬀs alongside crowd pleasing, dance until dusk edge. The single Ain’t no Easy Way is a real raucous display of up tempo Americana that will undoubtedly entertain in bars up and down the world. Well produced and great sounding where previous albums may have had chugging riﬀs Howl brings harmonicas and piano solos.

Motorhead ✪✪✪✪ Sanctuary There’s not a lot you can really say about this band that hasn’t been said a hundred times before. Unwittingly, they redefined rock music by pulling the tablecloth out from under the things on the table and stopped things being taken for granted. What actually comes across on the first disc of this 2 disc set, is that the guys in the band are better musicians than they’re ever actually given credit for. Just check out those blues influences seeping through in Keep Us On The Road. That bass riff that’s straight out of Hendrix’ band on I’ll Be Your Sister. It’s all here and has been staring us in the face all along. Disc 2, is more what you expect from the off. It’s hard, brutal and heavy and nobody will go away disappointed with the inclusion of White Line Fever, Killed By Death, Deaf Forever… you get the picture. That’s all! It’s Motorhead and it does just what it says on the tin. DO

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Ear Candy

ZERO accepts no responsibility for CDs that were crap when they arrived

Unholy Martin Grech ✪✪✪✪ Island After his under-recognised debut Open Heart Zoo and three years away tussling with “legal problems”, alt-metal wunderkind Martin Grech could have been forgiven for edging further towards the rock mainstream. Hell, it revived the fortunes of maverick innovators Cornell, Reznor and Keenan, whose long shadows run right through Grech’s work like the words in a stick of Brighton rock. Sophomore eﬀort Unholy is a long way from radio-friendly unit shifter land, though. Opener Guiltless drops the soaring choral melodies of Open Heart Zoo for a

Portrait of the Human Condition Black Flame Dispute ✪✪ Golf/Plastic Head Shoot. A good album marred by a vocalist that can’t match the standard of the band – well, not enough of the time for me. It’s actually not that bad an album, so don’t not investigate it on the strength of me not liking the vocals – it might work for you. Just can’t ﬁnd anything better than that to say. Sorry. DO

are a few bands that really deserve to be heard, simply for the fact that they are so damn good at what they do. Ill Nino are one of those bands. Not content with driving riffs of no fixed abode into your brain with a jackhammer, they pull in very subtle influences that give the band a series of really powerful dynamics. Example: the lead track This Is War will send the weak scrambling for cover but stick around long enough hand you’ll find the most beautiful Spanish guitar in the middle 8. Next up is the tribally infused My Resurrection – undoubtedly one of the heaviest tracks on the album here, but not as commercial as What You Deserve which must surely come out as a single at some point.

cracked, thirsting whisper which threaten to close in on the listener like a cage. And just when you think you’ve got the thing pegged as standard gothic angst, in comes a meltingly beautiful, achingly sexual love song called Venus, as smooth, lyrical and…well, lubricated as music ever gets. Mr Grech has plainly fallen in love of late, and far from taking him down the road to romantic cliché, raw emotion shows on every song. For every angsty bellow about “prisons of duality” and “heads on a plate”, there’s lushness and lust so strong and universal it overturns all notions of genre. This is an unhurried album. For all its strange melodic strength, there are passages which are happy to meander oﬀ into swirling

the emotionally unstable or recently dumped. Paralyzed is probably most guilty in that context and Mould will cut you to ribbons as he slides up next to you to let you know he feels exactly the same… and probably worse. A little detour into some guitar pop in the shape of I Am Vision, I Am Sound will allow you a breather for a few minutes but then it’s right back on the melancholy horse for a ride through Fucked Underneath Days. Bleak in a catchy kinda way, but if it’s bleak that you wanted stick around. Days of Rain provides the bleakest song on the album as Mould pours his heart into a glass. It will just make you cry even if you weren’t sad such is Mould’s propensity for dragging up the past. If you make it to the end of the album without stringing up the noose, you’ll be well rewarded for Body of Soul is aptly titled. SS

atonal soundscapes that at times recall medieval plainsong. I Am Chromosome is old metal mingled with deconstructed Johnny Greenwood-esque experimentation as Grech imagines himself metamorphosing into a tree; elsewhere there are whispered fragments of poetry, spooky voiceovers, choirboys, unearthly screams. The high point might be Worldly Divine, a sinister 6/8 bear-stomp which recalls the glories of goth pioneers the Banshees, but Unholy sees Martin Grech beginning to take leave of all his inﬂuences. Too visceral to be called prog, too tender to be called gothic, too wild for the mainstream, this is the sound of an original talent taking ﬂight. CO’B

to mean it for once rather than churning out a semblance of angst. Given the aforementioned time, their lyrical style will grow into something a lot less basic and we’ll start to see the real band emerge. Devotion and Desire is a great little pop song, and there is already signs of the future band emerging. They Looked Like Strong Hands delves into a territory not revisited again on the album, which is a shame, but there are other signs of greatness – Blame it on Bad Luck is Unﬁnished

Ringing In My Head Cori Yarckin ✪✪✪✪ Cargo

Body of Song

One Nation Underground Ill Nino ✪✪✪ Roadrunner Sit down and be counted. That’s me. When it comes to the thunderous cacophony of most Roadrunner artists, I have to switch oﬀ, but there

Bob Mould ✪✪✪✪ Cooking Vinyl Bob Mould is a songwriting genius. Not to the taste of everyone, but then not everyone has good taste. Coming through the ranks of Husker Du to Sugar and ﬁnally branching out as solo artist, Mould has trampled every style available and with Body of Soul has come up with a totally cohesive album that works well. There’s no mistaking his voice in any arena and it’s this along with the cutting lyrical style that powers the album – so be warned – it’s not an album for

Bayside Bayside ✪✪✪ Victory Bayside could so easily sound like a million other bands who deliver catchy pop/punk driven tunes, but they don’t. Good songs – really good songs – lift them far above the norm and given some time to grow as a band, you’re looking at real contender here. Early twenties angst is wearing a bit thin surely, but they seem

Seems to be a ruckload of rock chicks ﬁltering though my house this month. Some are really fucking appalling – others, like Cori embrace the ethos with no small passion. Occasionally coming on like Shirley Manson crossed with Ashley Simpson this is an excellent stab at pop rock is it’s purest form – actually for a 4 star rated review, it’s more than a ‘stab’… it’s as close as you’ll get to a great album in this vein. There’s a massive hit single waiting around the corner in So Much For The Real Thing, but then there’s also the potentially explosive

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Highest Hopes The Best Of Nightwish September 26 Includes exclusive track ‘The Phantom Of the Opera’ plus a bonus DVD featuring ‘Dead To The World’ ‘Kinslayer’ and ‘She Is My Sin’ live at M’Era Luna

Live Hammersmith UT Apollo O D L SO September 25 www.nightwish.com

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Ear Candy

ZERO accepts no responsibility for CDs that were crap when they arrived

lead track Gratitude to consider. Makes me genuinely sad that you can manufacture someone like Ashley when there’s a genuine talent out there bursting at the seams with passion and desire to deliver the real deal. Still, jack shit I can do about it apart from let you know. If that sort of thing is your bag – get it on. DO

doing what they’re supposed to. With not a bad song present, what you’re left with is different levels of emotion and what’s so addictive about June is their infectious lyrics and harmonies. It would be lazy of me to use that Rick Springfield comparison twice in one issue, but I can’t help myself because it’s so damn true. This time it’s tinged with an ethic not too dissimilar to Fall Out Boy. You’d be hard pressed to pull a definitive single from Speak, but My Side of the Story and Speak Up stand out as being easy MTV tracks to pull in the masses. Fantastic. Another talented band capable of writing real songs. My day just keeps getting better. SS

If You Speak Any Faster June ✪✪✪✪ Victory Another band dying to be on the front of a million t-shirts – and another band who just might make it that far. Harnessing the spirit of real songs over riding coattails, If You Speak Any Faster is a bit of a surprise to be honest and just goes to show, for about the eighth time this month, that the major labels don’t hold all of the cards when it comes to great music… and yet another album with every single one of the songs

The Audition deliver an album more than able to hold it’s own amongst the current razor sharp young guns. Mixing up some great harmonies and melodies, there’s a stack of originality here. The guitars know when to play it down and let the drums and bass take the weight when necessary, providing a massive soundscape on which to play on – you don’t ﬁnd that around very much anymore and it’s a welcome change from the norm. The track Approach The Bench should and could climb to the very top of any self respecting chart, there’s just so much good to say about this album, I’m never going to get it all in, but You’ve Made Us Conscious, and The Ultimate CoverUp are also tracks to watch out for. Get these guys on the radio, now. Make it happen. For fans of Lostprophets waiting for the next album – this comes very, very close to being just as good as Start Something, and yes, I’m desperately searching for a reference to make you hunt it down… SS

Bag Controversy Loves Company The Audition ✪✪✪✪ Victory Good albums coming thick and fast around here. Only let down by a few tracks that are a bit ﬁller not killer,

Bag ✪✪✪✪ Simmons/Sanctuary Gene Simmons has been banging on about this guy for so long, there was almost a danger of one-man over hype. Come the revolution though, turns out to be not so far oﬀ the mark! Anybody expecting something along

the lines of Black n Blue or Simmons’ other discoveries, will be so far out of the park, it’s not even worth playing. If you can imagine Rico or maybe James Hall playing with some new toys, you’re on your way. Maybe even a rocked out funked up Babylon Zoo. What I’m getting at here is this fucker defies description. It twists, it turns and takes a journey that really does have no destination. There really is no end to the album – you can put the damn thing on repeat and not know when it got to the end and started again. Pavement is almost like a theme tune to a superhero movie that doesn’t exist. Blown Away comes off like Prince wanking off Talking Heads, while I Can’t Shut My Mouth drives home some devilish lyrics wrapped up in some seriously great guitars. To be frank, after the hype Simmons put behind this I was ready for “yeah, yeah, whatever”. Instead it’s more like being sandbagged from behind with a lead pipe. Keep an open mind and check it out. Fucked up and fucking essential. SS

Blue Sky Research Taproot ✪✪✪ Atlantic I really want to like Taproot. They are, after all, the band who told Fred Durst to ram it and set out on their own path. And here they are, three albums in and going strong – but I can’t for the life of me work out why. At times it’s heavy as fuck, which is a good thing, and at others it’s almost delicate – which is no bad thing. It’s still not making me scream “fuck yeah” and insist the Mrs listens to it though. I think the problem is one of angst. You see, I’m quite happy with my lot at the moment, and as such want my music to reﬂect this. I want it loud, snotty and something I can party to. Which this ain’t. On a track by track basis, the songs are perfectly good (assuming you’re in a bad mood), but as an album it just wears me down. Wandering about the house while it played, nothing stood out (not even Calling, which on its own is a top song). Sitting here at the ’pooter, the tracks are just blurring into one another. If I’d had this in the car, I’d have probably gone looking for the nearest bridge… KJ

“At times it’s heavy as fuck, which is a good thing, and at others it’s almost delicate – which is no bad thing.” 114 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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An Absence of Empathy

job from Andy Johns than he achieved on either of the previous two albums (Hamilton’s bass lines sounding particularly dangerous) Tales From The Strip is one of the hard rock albums of the year so far.

Tales from the Strip L.A. Guns ✪✪✪✪ Mascot Records For the last three years nothing has been straight forward for the L.A. Guns. With the return of original vocalist Phil Lewis in 1999, stability seemed to have returned to a band that had seen too many lineup changes. Then at the end of 2002 founding guitarist and the bands’ namesake Tracii Guns left the band mid-tour to form Brides of Destruction with Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx. Guns were forced to cancel their slot on the Monsters of Rock UK tour with Alice Cooper and Thunder, and their future looked uncertain. Fast forward to 2004 and a rather surprise covers album release on Mascot Records appears featuring new guitarist Stacey Blades. And now in 2005 Stacey rips and tears his way through a brand new studio album with a precision Tracii has been unable to demonstrate for many years. With Lewis also on magniﬁcent form, Tales from the Strip is easily the Guns best album since the glory days of their eponymous debut, Cocked And Loaded and Vicious Circle. And it’s possibly even better than those. At fourteen tracks, it’s also a good length, and within that only two songs could actually be termed “ordinary”. The Guns angle this time seems to be for the slow burning L.A. rock song. I don’t mean ‘ballad’, I mean slower-paced, driving heavy rock. They have a theme this time out as well. The album title gives it away, really. It’s all Hollywood and Sunset Strip from one to fourteen. It’s Stacey’s playing that really steals the show. His soloing on openers It Don’t Mean Nothing and Electric Neon Sunset is top-drawer and he even saves the ordinary tracks Gypsy Soul and Hollywood’s Burning, while the whole band are simply majestic on the balled Vampire. Drummer Steve Riley demonstrates his immense abilities on the instrumental 6.9 Earthshaker and bassist Adam Hamilton plays several layered guitars and bass on the stunning instrumental piece Amanecer, much in the same way KISS’ Ace Frehley did on the legendary Fractured Mirror. With other exceptionally strong tracks in Skin, Resurrection and Shame, and an inﬁnitely better production

The Battle Allen-Lande ✪ Frontiers I thought we’d moved along from armoured-up triceratops with elves and lances ﬁghting each other on album covers about 30 years ago. The music isn’t quite as bad as I expected but it’s tainted now anyway. I hate to do this to a band but stop now, please. Before it gets any worse. Get out of my house! DO

Place Vendome Place Vendome ✪✪ Frontiers Ouch. Two good kickings in a row. Sorry. I used to really like this sort of music – 15 years ago. The problem with this album is that the ﬁrst track is fantastic. Twin guitar attack, great vocals and a fantastic tune (it’s called Cross the Line if you’re interested), but that’s the only bullet in the gun as the boss would say. And it’s got a freaking eagle, a castle thing and some ﬂames on the cover. Enough now. DO

Fresh Wine For The Horses Rob Dickinson ✪✪✪✪✪ Sanctuary Is there anybody out there who didn’t love The Catherine Wheel when it was all over? Possibly the most criminally

Frameshift ✪✪✪✪✪ ProgRock Records Frameshift is a concept project masterminded by Dutch guitarist Henning Pauly much in the same vein as Arjen Lucassen’s Ayreon. Each album, of which Absence of Empathy is the second, utilises the talents of a different singer. For this second outting, Ex-Skid Row screamer Sebastian Bach is on board. The basic story is of a man who, having seen so much violence in the media and in the World around him begins to wonder what it is that triggers the violent tendencies in people. After immersing himself in research he is hit with a series of dreams, each giving him a unique perspective into different violent situations and mindsets. Sebastian voices the main character in each dream. Henning plays all the instruments on the album except the drums, which are handled by Eddie Marvin. Opening track Human Grain is the song covering the plot outline above. Musically it also sets the scene. Complex, heavy guitars, layers of intricate solos and keyboards and soaring, powerful vocals. The middle ten songs of the album fit into five categories of violence and violent situations. Each is a dream the main character is having about someone in one of these situations. Henning and Sebastian tackle murder, rape, violence in schools, torture and war in ten hard hitter, beautifully crafted tracks of aggression and power that at times are perfectly balanced with softer interludes, accurately depicting the mental turmoil of the subject. There are no standout tracks. Everyone single one is an absolute killer (pun intended). This is as close as anyone can get to a perfect album. AL

“Complex, heavy guitars, layers of intricate solos and keyboards and soaring, powerful vocals. The middle ten songs of the album fit into five categories of violence and violent situations.” overlooked band of the nineties, they influenced – by osmosis – a whole generation of music that still echoes today. Dickinson had one of the most beautifully tainted voices in rock and not much has changed in the camp either. This kind of sounds like you would expect, expect it’s delivered with a lot more tenderness than in the past. There seems to have been a learning process at work on the man while he’s been away, but it’s not a bad thing a tall. The lyrical content has slightly shifted, but he still retains his poetic spice as he goes about colouring in his day to day life. Just revel in the song Oceans. An absolute masterpiece of dribbling pain – Coldplay et al can go eat Dickinsons dust. This is the real deal when it comes to heartache. There’s an awful lot a songs here that you could move a mountain with, but the hugeness of what Dickinson has created with Fresh Wine will be lost if you don’t spend some time in the room and discover it for yourself. Sit back, relax, enjoy . . . cry yourself to sleep. Particularly if you’re

a songwriter. You’ve got miles to go before you’re as good as this. Whoever you are. SS

Dark Eyes Alien ✪✪ Frontiers Spoke too soon! See review above but with better vocals and switch the album artwork description with what appears to be some rock, some sand and a pencil drawing of some… eyes. I’m either missing the point or it really is insipid shite. I’m also starting to feel bad now. DO

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Ear Candy

ZERO accepts no responsibility for CDs that were crap when they arrived

Soundtrack to a Headrush Emanuel ✪✪✪✪ Vagrant Holy mother. Full on rock album alert! Instructions for use: Get in car. Start car. Insert CD. Drive. Never stop driving until CD stops or car runs out of juice. It’s the Glitterati on crack for a generation of speed freaks. Enough of the poetry. Headrush is going to be the soundtrack of a late summer for a whole bunch of people with nothing better to do than just rock out with a case of Bud and a softpack. It’s what the annoying guy on the train behind you is listening to on his iPod, it’s what the cool kid in the corner is playing air drums to and it’s what you should be listening to if there’s anything at all about this summer that you want to enjoy. A little bit shouty for no reason at all in some places, but I can live with that. Let the dog see the rabbit. Go. DO

I Am The Avalanche I Am The Avalanche ✪✪✪ DriveThru Hey, this is OK . . . just not great y’know – and if there’s one thing we don’t like around here it’s ‘just OK’. It’s

too hard to deal with. Either you can go oﬀ the deep end and rave about something on the basis of a gut reaction like a small child – which is how music is meant to move you, or you can hate something so bad, it’s just fun to stick the boot in. Average however, well that requires thought – usually too much, but as this is verging on the better side of average, it’s kind of OK. If you like noisy punk without any point, but some nice riﬀs here and there, it’s probably up your street. However, I just spent half hour of my life with something average, so I thought I’d return the favour. Excellent sleeve artwork though! Smile. DO

unashamedly so in some cases. For example, if Glenn Hughes (ex-Trapeze/ ex-Deep Purple) sang for Bon Jovi, And Then Goodbye and I’ve Seen An Angel Cry are what you’d get. I Wonder is pure stadium rock era Whitesnake in the verses and Scorpions in the chorus, and Everything I Want is as close as you can possibly get to a Def Leppard cover without it actually being a Def Leppard song. However, as unoriginal as the music may be, it’s still a solid album. Every track is strong, Steve Lee’s vocals are superb throughout, and there’s a good variety of ballads and hard rockers. Guitar duo Leo Leoni and Freddy Scherer are very tight and between them deliver the perfect mix of hard hitting riﬀs (Dream On, I’m Alive and All We Are) and delicate melodies (And Then Goodbye). Anyone who is a fan of any of the bands mentioned in this review will like Gotthard and will love this album. If you like things a little harder than Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, this is possibly not for you. AL

Ghost Reveries

Lip Service Gotthard ✪✪✪ Nuclear Blast Gotthard have been around a little while now. The band released their eponymous debut album in 1992 and Lipservice is their eighth release to date. Between those two releases the band have enjoyed a triple Platinum selling album (Homerun), a number 1 single (Heaven) and recorded the oﬃcial Swiss Olympic song (One Team One Spirit). Gotthard have become somewhat of an institution in Europe, and with Lipservice and it’s ﬁrst single Lift ‘U’ Up, they look set to continue on their gradual rise to the top. The trouble is, every song sounds like someone else. Gotthard owe a great deal of their sound to Whitesnake, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Y&T and Bon Jovi. Rather

Opeth ✪✪✪ Roadrunner I don’t know. Maybe it deserves more stars. Maybe less. I can’t get my head around this ‘vocal’ style and that’s the only reason I headed for 3 stars. Never have and probably never will get to grips with it, so I’ll jut put that to one side for a moment, because aside from that, sonically Ghost Reveries is fantastic. The production is superb and the arrangements are out of this world – which is handy because when half the albums tracks kick in at around the ten minute mark, it’s asking a lot of a three minute heathen like myself. But there’s something haunting and completely captivating about it and the variation in styles Opeth have pulled in is just amazing. There are times when they manage to pull oﬀ some kind of Zeppelinesque reverie (Atonement), times when they hit some early Queensryche Empire moments (The Baying of the Hounds) and times when it just plain nose dives into something else completely. Let’s face the facts, you know already if this is for you – and when you hear it you’ll just go ballistic over it. If you’re

not sure though, trust me – it’s well worth running it by your ears. Some of it is seriously out of this world This needs some serious listening to. DO

Runaway Brides Brides of Destruction ✪✪ Mascot Records This album is a pretty neat 50/50 split. Half of the songs are very good. Half are not. None more so than the horrible Offspring-sounding single White Trash. A painfully mundane and simplistic riff, daft lyrics and Tracii Guns jumping up and down on his wah pedal for a lead break. Elsewhere following the completely pointless intro Aunt Biente, Lord of The Mind, Dead Man’s Ruin, Criminal and Brothers are excellent hard rocks songs. This Time Around and Porcelain Queen do well enough, but the closing trio of White Horse, Tunnel of Love and Dimes In Heaven let the side down somewhat. The high-speed punk of Blown Away is also poor, while Never Say Never is a pretty good rocker with an excellent chorus. It has to be said, the overall feel of this album is not what was promised in the press release. “Utterly electrifying in the realms of Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols and early KISS”, it says. “It has a great blend of modern rock heaviness and retro sounds and styles”, says Tracii. Um, no. I don’t think so. This record is far too close to being a pop-punk album to ever be mentioned in the same breathe as Black Sabbath or KISS. Half hard rock, half punk this album doesn’t quite deliver the full package. The rock songs are good. The punk songs are not. This might have achieved three stars had it been half of an excellent album. But it’s merely half of a good album. The Brides are trying to be far too commercial, and it lets them down. Maybe if Nikki Sixx had stayed it would have been different. Maybe not. AL

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The Magnificent Seventh Thunder ✪✪✪✪ STC Recordings Thunder’s second independent release, and their seventh fulllength release to date (get it?). Another completely self/fan financed release, following a hit single (I Love You More Than Rock N Roll) and a tour supporting Deep Purple. How does it compare to the superb Shooting At The Sun (2002)? Well, quite favourably, actually. Except for the single. It’s not a terrible song, but it’s a single blown away by it’s own B-sides. It has a terribly weak guitar riff for most of the song, which only ‘beefs up’ in certain parts. Fortunately the rest of the album doesn’t follow suit and it’s rock all the way, so just put

Fused Iommi ✪✪✪✪ Sanctuary Records The dust has barely settled following the 2004 release of The 1996 DEP Sessions, the remixed and remastered official version of the album that was shelved after it was leaked on a poor quality bootleg, and now Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and Ex-Trapeze/Ex-Deep Purple vocalist/ bassist Glenn Hughes have unleashed a brand new album of classic, Black Sabbath-style heavy metal. Tony Iommi’s solo career officially began with the 2000 release of Iommi, an album bristling with Iommi signature riffs and a different vocalist on every track. This time out, Tony wanted something he could tour. He wanted a band, not a project. Smart money was on Philip

up with it for four minutes and sit back and enjoy (until you get to I’m Dreaming Again, anyway). This album does sound a little rougher and more spur-of-the-moment than Shooting At The Sun, but when you read in the booklet that it was recorded over many different sessions between touring and wasn’t really planned, it all makes sense. Several tracks exhibit those crunchy, raw Luke Morely riffs that all the best (non-ballad) Thunder songs have, including album highlight The Pride, The Gods of Love, Monkey See Monkey Do and forthcoming single Fade Into The Sun. There are also the inevitable ballads, executed in classic Thunder style, and the usual tongue-incheek tracks like Amy’s On The Run, which is a mid-paced rocker about a transsexual. A handful of songs sound like leftovers from Shooting At The Sun, and while these are by no means bad songs, it does relegate The Magnificent Seventh to a close, but admirable second. Thunder are enjoying themselves more than ever now that they are free of label pressure, and it shows. The band are producing the best music of their careers. And it looks set to continue for some time. Roll on the February 2006 UK tour. AL

Anselmo (Ex-Pantera/Down/Superjoint Ritual), who sang Time Is Mine on Iommi, to fill the vocalist spot. However, with the remixing and a little re-recording for the abandoned 1996 album, Glenn and Tony decided that they wanted to work together properly again. Fused sees Tony reunited with producer/bassist Bob Marlette, and sees Kenny Aronoff complete the main lineup on drums, with Marlette turning in a little bass and handling keyboard duties. Near enough every track on here is a killer, but the standout ones are opener and first radio single Dopamine, the powerful and melodic Grace, epic closer and the storming What You’re Living For. The chances were always good that Tony would simply put out an album that retreads old Sabbath riffs. I’m sure many people would have put money on just that. I wish I’d bet against them. This is a fresh, modern, yet classic heavy metal record. Tony’s riffs are once again second to none, but it’s more than just a riff-fest. It’s perfect proof that Tony, and indeed Glenn, can still write quality songs, and yet more evidence that a new Black Sabbath record is long overdue if Tony is still producing playing of this order. These men are legends for a very, very good reason. AL

Prime Cuts Portnoy ✪✪ Magna Carta “A Mike Portnoy solo album? How come I didn’t hear about this?”, you’re asking. Well, it’s not a Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater drummer) solo album, as such. It’s a collection of tracks that he happens to have played drums on, on various releases by Magna Carta Records. The Andy West (ex-Dixie Dregs bassist) track, Mad March, kicks off the CD. Besides Andy on bass and Mike on drums, it also features guitarists Mike Keneally (Ex-Frank Zappa) and Toshi Iseda. It’s a four minute instrumental that rocks hard. Liquid Tension Experiment were an instrumental prog-fusion outfit featuring Portnoy, Dream Theater band mates John Petrucci (guitars) and Jordan Rudess (keyboards) and bassist extraordinaire Tony Levin, and of the four tracks featured here in their original form, Freedom of Speech and Acid Rain are the pick. Both exhibit supreme musicianship and don’t at any point suffer from being self-indulgent and

A Drug For All Seasons F5 ✪✪✪ Mascot Records F5 is the new band formed by exMegadeth founding member and bassist David Ellefson. Ellefson formed the band in early 2003 instead of accepting Dave Mustaine’s oﬀer to rejoin Megadeth. The band also features former Sickspeed vocalist Dale Steele, guitarists Steve Conley and John Davis, and drummer Dave Small.

boring. Elsewhere Sebastian Bach appears on Working Man and Dream Theater’s James LaBrie appears on By-Tor And The Snow Dog. Both tracks lifted from the Working Man (Tribute To Rush) album. Both are excellent, slightly heavier versions of the originals. The rest of the tracks serve as nothing more than ﬁller. Unless of course, you‘re a drum nut and want this record purely for Portnoy’s playing, because it is top-drawer. The liner notes spew pretentious musical descriptions of each song that really only make for good reading if you are an aforementioned drum nut. To the rest of us, it’s just pointless. So, a somewhat haphazard collection of tracks from several sources that just happen to feature the same drummer. There’s no continuity at all, and only half the tracks are really worth the listen. I recommend seeking out a copy of the Rush tribute CD instead. AL

The first thing you notice when you pop the CD in, before you’ve even listened to the opening bars of the first track, is that it is criminally short. Thirty six minutes. There are EPs on the market that are longer than that. Musically, the band’s sound is unsurprisingly heavy. There are small hints at a classic metal sound, but the aim seems mostly to be for a modern sound, with clean vocals. The solos are all very short and all the riffs have that Disturbed/Drowning Pool staccato feel, the kind pioneered by White Zombie in the early-mid nineties. Dale’s vocals are very similar to his work with Rich Ward on the Sickspeed album The Way I Am, but a little more aggressive, given the more metal approach of F5. Ellefson has said, the focus is very much on catchy song writing and tracks such as Hold Me Down, Faded, Bleeding and Defacing prove this unquestionably. A Drug For All Seasons is a wellplayed, well written, high-energy modern metal album. With solos and clean vocals. Don’t get that very often, do we? AL

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Love Many Trust Few Ricky Warwick ✪✪✪✪✪ Townsend Records Phew. Wipes sweat off brow with sleeve. OK, so Tattoos and Alibis was a really good album right? Love Many, Trust Few is all that and so much more – all hail the almighty Ricky Warwick as yet again, he puts his songwriting head on to pin down 14 top shelf tunes. Whatever Joe Eliot is doing behind the production thing is so, so right for Warwick. It brings out the best in his voice, his playing and the chemistry of the entire album just reeks of sheer class and confidence. The two most striking points of the album are that it’s a lot mellower than you might expect and that Ricky has chosen to throw out the heaviness through lyrics instead. Sometimes up, sometimes down, Love Many embraces variations on the theme of hurt in all its different disguises – Learning to Fall is a wanton display of a man with a heart on his sleeve, and there’s a song called New Neighbors, Old Fences which is pure Def Leppard out of the box. Except Ricky is a far better singer – sorry Joe! Anybody Want to Waste Some Time would be a cool single if there’s one coming. Embracing some great pop rock hooks with some kind of desperate lyrical need to be wanted sure as hell works for me – and if you’re feeling a bit down sometime, just get your head around Sometimes Even Losers. So, there you go. Go and buy it. Don’t let another album that’s a contender for top ten of the year pass you by just because it wasn’t stuffed down your throat. SS

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Eye Candy

JUST BECAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD, DOESN'T MEAN IT IS  BUT IT HELPS

Kingdom of Heaven ✪✪✪ What may be the most stolidly unnecessary line of crawl in movie history presents itself just before the end credits in Ridley Scott’s Crusades bloodfest, Kingdom Of Heaven.

Against the smoldering ruins of Jerusalem, it reads, “A thousand years later, peace still eludes the Middle East.” Oh yeah, the Middle East. I think I read about that somewhere. You get a pretty good idea of Scott’s modern-day politics in Kingdom Of Heaven, his gritty, dusty followup of sorts to Gladiator, with all its bloodletting and twice the contemporary contentiousness (Rome’s occupation of Gaul just doesn’t have the same resonance as Palestine). What it means in terms of neat, bloody storytelling is that a revenge tale (Gladiator avenges dead wife and child) makes a much neater package than um, well, let’s see. Kingdom Of Heaven begins in the 12th century and introduces us to Balian (Orlando Bloom) a blacksmith mourning his wife’s suicide. In his grief, he’s met by a group of Crusaders, led by one Godfrey (Liam Neeson), who turns out to be Balian’s long lost father. Godfrey

“It’s a pretty wicked, sprawling battle as these things go, straight out of Lord Of The Rings with ﬁreballs, crossbows, bloody hand-to-hand and wall-ascending soldiers doused in burning tar. It’s hard to know who to root for, since the Muslims all seem like pretty decent fellows.” offers Balian a chance to defend the faith in Christian-occupied Jerusalem. Balian passes but changes his mind after he is provoked to murder a priest. He joins his father’s quest through bloody skirmish after bloody skirmish -- then on to Jerusalem, there to find absolution for murder and for his wife’s

soul. This is the point in the film where I realized I can’t really watch medieval knights traipsing along on a quest without expecting to see Terry Gilliam bringing up the rear banging coconuts. What Balian finds in the Holy City is a motley lot of Christians -- a good bunch, led by the masked leper king

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Baldwin (Edward Norton) who believe in co-existing with the Muslim population as a beacon for all humanity, and the nasty Templars who want nothing less than all-out war with those same infidels. (A number of historians have scoffed at scriptwriter William Monaghan’s notion of a society of Jerusalem peaceniks). As the Muslim hero Saladin (Ghassan Massoud) and his 200,000 warriors loom, Balian is offered the chance to marry Baldwin’s sister Sibylla (Eva Green) and have her Templar husband Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas) executed for treason. He demurs, for reasons of piety (though he’s already slept with her, so um, what the heck?) All this is by way of warmup for the siege of Jerusalem that makes up the last half-hour of the movie. It’s a pretty wicked, sprawling battle as these things go, straight out of Lord Of The Rings with fireballs, crossbows, bloody handto-hand and wall-ascending soldiers doused in burning tar. It’s hard to know who to root for, since the Muslims all seem like pretty decent fellows. Oh well, I guess we’ll just root for the underdogs. You might try that with the Middle East now. Tell me if it works for you. DO

Sir Ridley Scott defends some of the accusations made about Kingdom of Heaven. What do you think of the controversy over how this film portrays Muslims? I think I’ll be able to go on holiday in the Lebanon any time I want. The way we portray Muslims feels accurate to me. I know it is accurate because I cast guys who are Muslim. I think we give a very good balanced view of what may have happened at that particular time. Some historians say that the film has been badly researched. But 99 percent of those people haven’t seen anything of the film or read the script, so they are basing their opinions on speculation. But some of those who have seen it are critical of how the famous massacre of Christians at the Battle of Hattin isn’t dealt with. We dealt with the aftermath of the massacre at the Battle of Hattin, but I decided I didn’t want to show another huge bloodbath - the killing of the Christians. This was the most famous battle of the Muslim dominance of the Christians ever, where the Christian army really was foolhardy to go out and fight in that climate and at that time of year. I think they lost because they were simply not as strong and powerful as the Muslim army. But I didn’t want to have a massacre on top of the battle portrayed on screen. So it was my dramatic choice. Would you say that the film has any particular message? It is about tolerance and understanding. How much of it is factual? It is all based on real events. We borrowed and

changed some of the names though. Do you think the Crusades taught us anything at all? Of course, though we keep repeating bad behaviour, don’t we? But you watch and you learn and you study. Hopefully the majority of the world is getting better. I think what has really happened very clearly of course is that there is no colonialisation as it was anymore, we lost the British Empire ages ago. Boy did we have it! And of course we used and abused that power, didn’t we, basically getting something for nothing? We paid the price for that. So hopefully if anyone tries it again they will be stopped and prevented.

COMPETITION Yes – it’s a fucking suit of armour! And we’re giving it away along with ﬁve runner up copies of the DVD release. Simply tell us who directed the ﬂick . . . answers to the usual address by Sept 30th please. Prize as in conjunction with www.museumreplicas.com

“I think I’ll be able to go on holiday in the Lebanon any time I want. The way we portray Muslims feels accurate to me. I know it is accurate because I cast guys who are Muslim.”

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Eye Candy

JUST BECAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD, DOESN'T MEAN IT IS  BUT IT HELPS

Faces of Death Boxset

Night Watch ✪✪✪ (15) Released: October 7

Like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, Night Watch was huge in Russia. The country’s biggest movie of 2004, it outstripped Lord of the Rings and Spiderman 2 – and with good reason too. The hugely popular novel has been adapted for the cinema using the cutting edge vision of director and screenwriter Timur Bekmambetov, and is now preparing to cast its spell over the rest of the world. A thousand years ago the warriors of light and darkness began a bloody war. As the battles raged, the armies realised that they were exactly matched, and made an uneasy alliance called The Truce, that neither side would breach. To enforce the agreement the Day Watch and the Night Watch were created, powerful beings known as ‘Others’ whose task it was to police one another. However, The Truce was broken, and an ancient prophecy that tells of the emergence of one all-powerful Other is threatening to come true. Who could this person be, and will they fight on the side of darkness or light? Their choice will decide the fate of mankind. Night Watch is the first of a three part fantasy-horror epic, and despite only costing $4m, the acting, direction and effects are comparable with any big-budget

Hollywood title. The stylish effects are never over used, and are used to complement the story, rather than overpowering it, as is often the case with many Western movies. The film has sustained substantial cuts from the original version, which makes some scenes difficult to keep track of, but the imaginative and elaborate cinematography stop the mind from wandering, as do the incredible subtitles. That’s right, incredible subtitles. Although it may sound strange, Night Watch’s subtitles have been made part of the movie-going experience and provide the best performance in the entire film. They change colour to express significance, explode across the screen at pertinent moments, fade away into nothingness and pulsate alongside the characters’ emotions. Sadly, Night Watch is lacking any real tension, excitement or energy, and is at times a little too downbeat for it’s own good – but even this has it’s benefits, as the cast turn in textured performances that are almost too good for a film of this type. This dark and atmospheric tale is destined to become a cult favourite, and with another two instalments to come it could pick up even more mainstream fans – but from this first movie, that seems unlikely, and only a shot of adrenalin in the eyeballs will change that. Mike.

“Although it may sound strange, Night Watch’s subtitles have been made part of the movie-going experience and provide the best performance in the entire film.”

Released: September 19 ✪ On initial inspection, this DVD collection might appear to be a disturbing and almost Chris Cunninghamlike vision of real life, with the first DVD boasting footage of an actual train crash, an Iraqi execution and a man who ‘accidentally’ falls into a crocodile pit and is subsequently chomped into a bloody and gut exploding pulp. However, it is far more than that. This four-disc docu-film boxset shows an interesting and detailed insight to the human psyche and the kind of material that people are happy to tolerate on their TVs. Faces of Death is a sick and twisted collection of film clips from around the world, only to be watched by the mentally disturbed or those just so fucked-up on a cocktail of substances that the idea of security camera footage of a hotel room rape, or a prisoner frying in the electric chair, sounds like a good night’s entertainment. One to watch while looking after the neighbours’ kids on a Sunday afternoon maybe? Extras: Very little. More extreme footage, but sadly no bloopers reel. TC

Scrubs Series 2 Released: September 12 ✪✪✪✪ So it comes to pass that there is a higher power in the world of American sitcoms and its name, for the mean time, is Scrubs. Set in the world of Sacred Heart Hospital, the second series of the hit comedy carries on in much of the same vein as the ﬁrst, with doctors JD (Zach Braﬀ) and Turk (Donald Faison) still trying to survive day to-day

life in the hectic US hospital. Some may say that some of the comedy is underdeveloped and puerile, but those people are fans of Two and a Half Men, and clearly lack any comedy judgement worth throwing a stick at. Okay, it’s not as good as the surreal UK hospital comedy Green Wing, but until that gem is given a release this DVD is an essential. Plus, it has high proﬁle cameos from the likes of Brendan Fraser, Heather Locklear and Dick “cor blimey, Mary Poppins!” Van Dyke. Extras: Commentaries on six of the 22 episodes, outtakes, featurettes, deleted scenes and interviews with the cast and crew. TC

What The Bleep Do We Know? Released: September 5 ✪✪ Selling itself on the intriguing notion of being an exploration of quantum physics which touches on several philosophical ideas, What the Bleep Do We Know? is one part documentary, one part story wrapped around some mediocre special effects and a raft of talking heads. We are assured that most of them know what they are talking about as they come with letters after their name, but some of the more spiritually inclined ‘experts’ are a little harder to take seriously. Unfortunately this produces a rather muddled product which veers violently between the scientific and the speculative. By the end of the film it’s obvious that weight is being thrown behind Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment and it becomes clear that there’s been a message lurking around the film somewhere (and a premium-rate number no doubt). Extras: Filmmaker’s Q&A, music video and trailer. DL

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Poison Greatest Hits ✪✪ Capitol I’ve never seen the point of bands putting out a collection of music videos. OK, someone like Foo Fighters have created some comedy classics, but there aren’t many from the late 90s which could remotely fall into that category. Least of all Poison’s. Greatest Video Hits brings together the foursome’s Sight For Sore Ears and Flesh, Blood and Video releases (back in the day when DVD was spelt VHS), with the added ‘bonus’ of So Tell Me Why, Stand, Until You Suﬀer Some (Fire & Ice) and the comeback vid, Power to the People. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a Poison fan. Love ’em. Spent many a happy night getting shitfaced while Flesh & Blood and Look What The Cat Dragged In were played to the neighbours (for some reason, Open Up… always got saved for the hangover), but let’s be honest – they made some shit videos. Cry Tough, I want Action, Fallen Angel, I Won’t Forget You, Unskinny Bop – none of them do their respective songs justice. Looking past the fact they wore more make-up and hairspray than Liz Taylor

and Diana Ross combined, they just clearly got saddled with a bunch of directors who didn’t know how to capture the band. The only one which manages to marry up the energy of the song with the energy the band put into their live shows is Power To The People, which comes as no surprise when you see the end credits. One for the diehard diehards. Everyone else should go listen to the albums. KJ

doing it to. And the main set is only six songs long. For those who crave the bygone days, this DVD gives you plenty to wallow in – Copenhagen in ’72 and New York in ’73, one black and white, one colour. There’s also a lot of reference material (if you don’t mind reading your TV screen) and a couple of commentaries. As an added bonus, there is also a clip of the band in California, fronted by a youthful and excited David Coverdale wearing a top which his mum appears to have shrunk in the wash. As an introduction to Deep Purple, this is not the best way of ﬁnding out what all the fuss was about, but it is perfect for those who were there at the time but were too stoned to remember it. KJ

him go pear-shaped, with Earth’s survival resting on the shoulders of an unlikely hero, with surprises along the way. Metrodome has pulled out all the stops to restore the original ﬁlm, resulting in a visually superior experience, and there’s still something fun about seeing robots transform into everything from trucks to cassette players. Extras: Trailers, character biographies and techie stuﬀ. Best of the bunch is episode one of the Takara Transformers Headmaster TV series. WS

of a bugger – in four days time. Can the woman he meets there save him? If you liked Momento or Donnie Darko you’ll love this tale of what if rather than what is. Extras: Additional scenes, alternate endings, The Jacket: Project History, The Look of The Jacket featurette. WS

The Twilight Zone

Series 1 The Jacket

Deep Purple Live in Concert 72/73 ✪✪ EMI Once upon a time, dinosaurs roamed the earth, milk came in pints, and school dinners were actually worth eating. At this time, young men and women with long hair and a penchant for denim could be found sitting in pubs extolling the virtues of Jon Lord’s 20minute keyboard solos and Ritchie Blackmore’s unique style. Now, time has not been kind to the Purple sound. What was once marvelled at now sounds pompous and overblown – and the band’s trademark habit of tripling the length of some of their songs is frankly downright tedious when it’s the fourth song in the set that they are

Transformers The Movie: Reconstructed Released: September 5 ✪✪✪✪ Civil war on Cybertron is the least of the evil Decepticon and brave Autobots’ worries when the planeteating monster Unicron (voiced by Orson Welles no less) hoves into view round the nearest sun. Their eﬀorts to stop

Wolf Creek Released: Sept 16 ✪✪✪✪ We all know someone who’s had a bad holiday experience, be it a dad who drank a dodgy pint on the first night and spent the rest of the week on the toilet, or a brother who inadvertently ticked off a nest of hornets. Well, those minor setbacks are nothing compared to the terror facing three backpackers exploring the outback in Aussie thriller Wolf Creek. Brit girls Kristy (Kestie Morassi) and Liz (Cassandra Magrath) set off on a road trip with local boy Ben (Nathan Phillips), searching for a legendary

Released: Sept 12 ✪✪✪✪ Adrien Brody is Gulf War veteran Jack Starks, who returns home suﬀering amnesia following a gunshot to the head. Months later he is banged up in an institute for the criminally crazy after being found not guilty of murder by way of insanity. In a move that makes our national health service look caring he is dosed to the eyeballs on experimental drugs, restrained in a jacketlike instrument and regularly locked away for hours in a body drawer in the morgue. He ﬁnds himself seemingly thrown into the future, only to see his own death – but not at who’s hands or how, which is bit

crater site – the eponymous Wolf Creek. But after spending a day enjoying the beautiful scenery, the mood turns sour when the trio discovers that their car has mysteriously stopped working. When a seemingly kindly passer-by offers a tow, they soon find themselves facing a backpacker’s worst nightmare. Based on true outback disappearances and filmed using documentary techniques and naturalistic acting, the gut-wrenching horror to be found in Wolf Creek leaves the majority of other horror-thrillers lying in a pool of their own gore. Superb performances from all three

Out now ✪✪✪✪ Rod Serling’s voice opened the doorway to many a childhood nightmare. One of the most inﬂuential and loved sci-ﬁ shows of all time, it has often been copied but never surpassed since making its debut in 1959. Six discs of bizarre and unexplainable tales which encompass horror (The After Hours), the thought provoking (The Monsters are Due on Maple Street) and the sad (The Lonely) to name just a few. The complete Season One of the 1980s series is due out in September. Extras: The Twilight Zone Companion Book, episode guide booklet, special edition postcard, commentaries, vintage audio recollections audio lectures from Sherwood Oaks College. WS

lead actors, and a healthy amount of time spent developing the characters at the start means that you’re right there with them through every terrifying minute; and John Jarratt is sickening as their hideously twisted ‘rescuer’ Mick Taylor. Shocking yet necessary violence brings home the brutality of these alltoo-believable bush crimes, and even the most desensitized will ﬁnd it hard not to be moved. Wolf Creek has the potential to be huge... but it might be a good idea to avoid it if you have a backpacking trip planned any time soon. Katie Roberts

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Eye Candy

JUST BECAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD, DOESN'T MEAN IT IS  BUT IT HELPS

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

Released: September 5 ✪✪ Arthur Dent’s day goes from bad to worse when he loses not only his home but his home planet to make way for an intergalactic bypass.

survive death, disease and famine as the fragile threads of society unravel over the subsequent years. In an increasingly dangerous world this should be compulsory viewing. Extras: None WS

Threads Released: September 5 ✪✪✪✪ I remember friends telling me how this scared them as children and now I can see why. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel far from fine. Today’s world leaders should be made to sit down and watch this amazing antiwar film by Barry Hines which sees the East and West go to war and Britain plunged into a nuclear nightmare. Seen through the eyes of two families in Sheffield, their fears of an attack become a frightening reality in a graphic explosion which changes everything forever. Those who live through the destruction, battle to

He’s saved by his friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def), who happens to be an alien, marking the start of the ultimate sightseeing trip. You’re either a purist disappointed that this isn’t an entirely faithful translation of Douglas Adams’ book, or one of those who remind purists this is just another variation of a constantly evolving story. Unfortunately the ﬁlm has been too Americanised and is too reliant on special eﬀects. Martin Freeman tries

this time. Be Cool fails to recreate the fun of the original with only The Rock’s gay bodyguard emerging with any dignity. The dance between Travolta and Uma Thurman (the music exec’s widow) is a blatant attempt to recreate THAT Pulp Fiction moment, but looks more like your mum and dad dancing at a wedding. Extras: A making of documentary, deleted scenes, cast and scene close-ups and a gag reel music video starring The Rock. WS

Appleseed: Be Cool Released: September 12 ✪✪ John Travolta is back as loan shark turned movie mogul Chili Palmer in Elmore Leonard’s follow-up to Get Shorty. The murder of a mobster and record company owner leads Palmer into the music biz, but he ﬁnds himself in the thick of things again after eyeing up a new talent, played by Christina Milian. Palmer says, “I hate sequels” and I’m with him

Two disc edition Released: September 19 ✪✪✪ Originally manga, then ﬁlmed as anime, this tale of cyborgs, confusing conspiracies and a thirst for freedom is given a hi-tech touch-up which fails to hide the usual Japanese cartoon clichés. A utopian city rises from the ashes of a global war, its inhabitants protected by the Bioroids. Not everyone trusts this new half-human half-robot species and set about putting mankind back in control of its destiny. Into this mix comes

hard as Dent, while Alan Rickman rules as Marvin the paranoid android. All involved obviously had the best intentions, but director Garth Jennings should be marched to the nearest Vogon airlock. Extras: Making of documentaries, behind the scenes, deleted scenes, singa-long So Long and Thanks For All The Fish, audio commentaries and Marvin’s Hangman Set Top Game. WS

super-soldier hottie Deuna Knute who ﬁnds herself torn between both sides unable to know who to trust and who is ultimately right. Based on Masamune Shirow’s internationally renowned comic series it looks beautiful and isn’t lacking action, but storywise it’s no Akira. It’s anime by numbers – futuristic landscapes, robots kicking the crap out of each other and musings about the meaning of life in between explosions. Extras: Commentary, birth of 3D live anime featurette, design archives and character galleries, trailers. WS

The Assassination of Richard Nixon Released: September 5 ✪✪✪✪ Niels Mueller’s directorial debut stars Sean Penn as Sam Bicke, a man driven by failure at work and an unhappy home life to plan the assassination of the then-President Richard Nixon. Based on a true story, the narrative follows the year building up to the attempt, a year in which

Bicke harbours false hopes of reconciling with his estranged wife and children, and struggles to keep up at his job as a furniture salesman. Bicke comes to blame President Nixon for all the country’s ills, and decides to take matters into his own hands by planning to drop a gas bomb from a plane over the White House. Penn is indubitably superb as the tortured and increasingly mentally fragile lead character, and despite inevitable comparisons with Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, a strong supporting cast, including Naomi Watts and Don Cheadle, help to make

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this outstanding debut from Mueller essential viewing. Extras: Director’s commentary, The Real Sam Bicke proﬁle, deleted scenes, Sean Penn press conference, featurette. KR

‘sympathising’ with the Nazi leaders, this completely misses the point. Diﬃcult to watch, but ultimately rewarding, Downfall is an attempt to portray Hitler as a human capable of great evil, instead of an indiscriminate monster devoid of emotion. Extras: Making-of documentaries, interviews with the stars and director, The Bunker virtual tour. KR

Downfall Released: September 19 ✪✪✪✪ Many Hollywood films have tried, and in varying degrees succeeded, to capture various aspects of the Second World War. Yet none of them have managed to give such an impartial account of events as German film Downfall. Released elsewhere under the title Der Untergang, director Oliver Hirschbiegel places his sensitive and psychological account of WWII at the very end of the war. Hitler, Eva Braun and other members of the Fuhrer’s closest circle, are hiding out in a Berlin bunker as the capital falls to the Allies. With a towering performance of sensitivity and brutal rage, Bruno Ganz as Hitler swings between unfounded optimism that his troops will win through, and resigned preparation for his and Eva’s ultimate demise. Although the film was inevitably criticised for

Land of the Dead

of truth or dare the plan goes horribly wrong, and the youngsters’ lives are changed forever. Mean Creek hardly tells an original story, and doesn’t bring anything new or exciting to the world of ﬁlm. However, it is a collage of disturbing yet emotional rights and wrongs and how hard it can be to live with the consequences. The dialogue is realistic and the acting from the allchild cast remarkable, with the ultimate performance coming from the bully himself, who makes sure that Drake and Josh on the Ministry of Mayhem will never be quite the same again. Extras: Commentaries, storyboards, trailer and production notes. RW

Mean Creek Released: October 3 ✪✪✪ What if a click of the ﬁngers could kill your enemies on the spot? Mentally deﬁcient but explosively violent bully George (Josh Peck) attacks fellow school pupil Sam (Rory Culkin) for the heinous crime of touching his video camera. Sam’s older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan) is understandably pissed about the highly noticeable shiner and concocts a plan with his best mates to exact revenge on his brother’s bully. They plan a boat trip and invite George along under the false pretence of Sam’s birthday, who also invites his girlfriend Millie (Carly Schroeder) along for the ride. Inevitably, during a game

✪✪✪ Few filmmakers own a genre like George A. Romero and the zombie movie, and the maestro is back marshalling the undead in this new chapter that is pleasingly old school, but which doesn’t quite gorge on the jugular in the way fans may have hoped. Romero hasn’t severed a brain stem on film since 1985’s Day of the Dead, but as proved by the success of Sean of the Dead, and last year’s cracking remake, Dawn of the Dead, slow-moving flesh eaters are back in vogue. Land of the Dead picks up the axe in contemporary times, and finds that those pesky zombies have trashed the place, leaving whole areas without knife and fork users. The living

City to present it to the huge corporation Bigweld Industries. However, Bigweld has become corrupt, and Rodney and friends ﬁnd themselves grouping together to ﬁght for their right to not be incinerated when they grow old and rusty. The story is endearing enough, but ultimately it seems more time was spent on the animation and securing big name stars, than on injecting some much needed warmth and humour into the proceedings. Halle Berry and Robin Williams are poorly utilised, and good as the animation is, it’s still no match for the likes of The Incredibles and Finding Nemo from the mighty Pixar. It’s all good fun for kids, but there’s not enough to amuse a more demanding adult audience. Extras: Animated short, feature and teaser for Ice Age 2, deleted scenes, audio commentary, outtakes, games. KR

Robots Released: September 19 ✪✪✪ From the studio that made the amusing, but ultimately mediocre Ice Age, comes Robots – an animated insight into the life and ambitions of newly assembled robot Rodney Copperbottom, voiced by Ewan McGregor. As he grows up, Rodney invents a handy miniature robot, and travels to Robot

Green Street

✪✪✪ Green Street is Lexi Alexander’s moralistic tale of how hooliganism in the beautiful game can lead to camaraderie, character building and, less

population has run away and now reside in the ultimate gated community, Fiddler’s Green. The privileged hide away in a luxury tower block run by Dennis Hopper’s Kaufman and his corporate cronies. Outside the gates, the great unwashed eat kebabs on the street. When John Leguizamo’s Cholo, a feisty Hispanic mercenary, decides to turn on his boss Kaufman, and the zombies start to communicate and form an army it all kicks oﬀ… Romero shows again that he can put together this type of mayhem with great style, and the cast do their jobs well enough. Dennis Hopper doesn’t over exert himself and scores points for drawling the line: “Zombies man, they creep me out!”. Leguizamo gives good attitude while Asia Argento looks pissed oﬀ the whole time and kicks some arse.

appealingly, calamity. Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) is a journalism student, kicked out of Harvard for a crime he didn’t commit. He travels to London to take refuge with his sister and her husband Steve, but is taken under the wing of Steve’s footballmad brother Pete, who introduces Matt to the GSE, the West Ham hooligan. Matt finds himself enjoying the freedom and companionship of being part of the GSE, but things turn nasty when fellow member Bovver’s jealous actions lead to tragedy. Academy award nominee Alexander’s first major film can best be described as a bit hit and miss. Where it hits is in its unfalteringly realistic locations, and its excellent cast. Wood is unexpectedly convincing as soft-undergrad-turnedhardened-thug Matt, and Charlie Hunnam is loveable and warm as the cheeky but dangerous Pete – once you’ve got over the truly terrible Cockney accent that is. Where Alexander fails is perhaps due to her relatively short directing career. The dialogue is sometimes too longwinded and occasionally cheesy, and some scenes, such as where Millwall firm leader Tommy Hatcher introduces some poor blokes head to a table, seem just plain unnecessary. Green Street is well filmed, the cast are enjoyable to watch, and the violence is to the greater extent realistic and not over-the-top, but overall one is left with the feeling that Alexander has provided a fluffy moralistic version of a scary, nasty world. Katie Roberts

Despite a 15 certiﬁcate, the gore factor is still high – the camera just cuts away that little bit quicker from a beheading or a close-range gut splattering. Land of the Dead is an entertaining ﬂick made with old fashioned craftsmanship, but with its tired story it just doesn’t grab you in the guts and pull on your innards. JM

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Eye Candy

JUST BECAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD, DOESN'T MEAN IT IS  BUT IT HELPS

DIRECTOR ROBERT RODRIGUEZ TALKS ABOUT THE MAKING OF SIN CITY: How did Quentin Tarantino get involved as guest director of one scene? I told him last year, it took him a while to make Kill Bill which he thought was going to be a very fast shoot but I told him if he’d shot it on digital it would have been much faster. So I said the next time I was shooting something on digital he should come and direct a sequence so he can see what it’s like to work with actors in that way. And to see what the technology was about because I felt he would really enjoy it. And he did, he got to see how it was more about performance and not a technical exercise, it was actually the reverse of what you would normally think making a green screen movie would be about. We shot the scene with Clive and Benicio in the rain, on the road in a car – and there was no rain, no road and no car. He got to see how all that stuff went away and he could concentrate on getting a great performance from the actors. How did you decide on the casting of Elijah Wood? I worked with him on The Faculty and he has these piercing blue eyes that women love that I always found quite creepy. I told him then that one day I would cast him as a psychopath, never thinking that would actually come about. How can you go wrong with that? He’s a great guy, I showed him the early test, he was one of the first people to see it, and he said ‘I’d kill to be in that movie!’. I thought ‘Kill? Eat? Frodo eating people? Yeah’. He was in. I sent Frank a videotape of him with me reading Mickey’s lines. Elijah was sitting there as he’s getting eaten [and he’s deadpan], he’s just watching him say nothing. He got creeped out by it, so he said ‘okay, we can hire him’. Are there any sequels planned? I know we’re going to do the second one for sure, that’s based on A Dame To Kill For which is a book that takes place before these other stories. So that means Marv would be back, Goldie and Wendy, the twin sisters would be alive together, a lot of the characters show up again, so that would probably be the most interesting one to help complete this story further. There are some other ones of his that I like, we’ll have to see what we can fit in there. It would probably be wiser to shoot the material for a third while we’re doing the second.

COMPETITION

We’ve got 5 copies of Sin City to give away – just send us your name and address with the answer to the question – Who wrote the Sin City comic strip. Entries in to usual address by Sept 30. Mark your entries "Sin City”.

Sin City

✪✪✪✪✪ No matter what you’ve read or heard, nothing will prepare you for this spectacular headfuck of a movie that, even though is shot almost entirely in black and white, is just too much for the senses. A peek into the sordid antics of fucked-up folk in a sleazy town. The story is a multi-layered jigsaw of pieces that only fit together once the edges have been chewed and then thumbed into place. This also applies to the chronology which has a lot in common with Pulp Fiction’s fragmented and interlinking storylines, and the mood of the film, which veers wildly like a bi-polar schizophrenic from extreme violence to almost touching tenderness . . . but it all feels right. It’s remarkable style is an eerie mix – old fashioned, but tantalisingly new at the same time. If this sounds like a contradiction, that’s because it is. The whole film is. It shouldn’t

make sense, but it does. It’s hideously ferocious, but at times sentimental and compassionate. Funny, but sickening. Many of the actors here will astonish you, but it is Mickey Rourke’s superb performance as the hulking jut-jawed, animalistic Marv that is the embodiment of the whole movie. Savage and sub-human, his love and humanity prompt him to become a vicious butcher of vengeance. The stylised ultra-violence is similar to the graceful black and white gore employed by Tarantino in Kill Bill - the real impact here coming from when the cold monochrome is assaulted by a hot splash of colour. Violent, graphic, angry and nasty, there’s something achingly compelling and beautiful about Sin City. It just feels right. Extras: A behind the scenes feature – that’s it. Do yourself a favour and wait for the ultra-fancy special edition boxset that Rodriguez has planned. MS

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Abnormal Beauty

✪✪✪ The only things certain in life are death and Pentaxes. “Photography is to capture the silent moment”, explains troubled artist Jin to a misguided admirer. “When we press the shutter, everything stops… it’s the same in the moment of death.” If you’re feeling slightly threatened by this thought, then you’re right to do so, as Jin later proves when she relies on a knife to ensure the perfect photoshoot. But though she ﬁnds a certain abnormal beauty in death, she soon discovers that there is no glory. Having established a believably morbid

obsession, with a series of unsettling animal deaths and a memorable tower block suicide, the Pang brothers have created a multi-layered anti-heroine. After admirably disturbing beginnings, however, they allow Jin’s understandably distressed girlfriend to step in and quell her manifestations of selfdoubt. This sets the scene for her misadventures to come back and bite her, but disrupts the movies’ emotional peaks and troughs somewhat. So, although childhood trauma justiﬁes our heroine’s behaviour until now, no sooner has she stopped being her own worst enemy then a real threat arises in the form of an even more sadistic ‘artist’. The especially horriﬁc scenes of violence

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ✪✪✪✪✪

Despite the huge cult status of Tim Burton as a quirky, gothic-minded director, never has anticipation been so high for one of his films. With the combined popularity of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel, and Mel Stuart’s musical adaptation starring Gene Wilder, filmgoers have been desperate to catch a glimpse of Wonka’s weird and wonderful world, as seen through the eyes of Burton - and it doesn’t disappoint. Creating an adaptation for the screen that adds something to the original story is always a difficult task, and Burton achieves this masterfully, as well as drawing a clear line between his vision and that of the 70s classic. Sets of grim terraced houses and Charlie’s own tumbledown shack combine the fantasy of films such as Sleepy Hollow, with the reality of an industrial Northern town, and Wonka’s factory is a bizarre menagerie of rooms lifted straight from the pages of Dahl’s novel. All of the nasty Golden Ticket-finding children are played with suitable unpleasantness, but unsurprisingly it is Johnny Depp who truly makes this film, having developed yet another entirely convincing character. His Wonka is a disturbed, childlike, and sadistic creation, and he truly owns every scene he is in. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a sweet feast for the eyes and ears, and is this summer’s must-see. KR

that follow stay the right side of gratuitous, but will leave you feeling the pain of those involved. Unfortunately, the ‘strong female overcomes misogynist atrocities’ storyline is somewhat lacking in redemption. Despite this fact and the unnecessary teen drama subplots, the relationship between Jin and Jas is well realised, and eerie night-vision lends spice to a gripping ﬁnale. Most innovative of all are the parallels drawn between capturing both moments and lives, and the movie would beneﬁt from questioning this further. What is in fact real? What does death really mean? And, most importantly, can’t I just pretend to be dead? NM

Skeleton Key (15), 118mins

✪✪ New Orleans should sue Hollywood. If you believe the movies it’s the bad mojo capital of the world and a haven for the undead – no wonder you never see Judith Chalmers there. Kate Hudson would’ve done well to steer clear too, instead of taking centre stage in this clunky horror thriller which fails to horrify or thrill. She plays caring Caroline, who takes a live-in job looking after paralysed stroke victim Ben – much to the chagrin of his sinister po-faced wife. Anyone who’s seen Angel Heart or read any Anne Rice novel could’ve told her that moving to a sprawling Louisiana mansion in the misbegotten Bayou isn’t the best career move. Just when she thinks things couldn’t get any worse, a poke around the dark attic where Ben suffered his stroke, points to the house’s dark history. It isn’t long before Caroline realises there are some doors that shouldn’t be opened. Scriptwriter Ehren Kruger (The Ring) and director Iain Softley use every cliché in the book to conjure up scares. They shamelessly wring the last drops of milk from the already sore teat of the supernatural cash cow that is the Deep South – from menacing locals in their crumbling shacks to secret hoodoo stashes. It all adds up to a slightly unsettling, rather than jump out of your seat scary movie. This is most evident in the ending, which aficionados of this genre should see coming a mile off. The performances, especially Hudson who is as hot and sultry as the New Orleans night, are good – although John Hurt is woefully underused as Ben. However, while others were wondering what secrets lie within the mansion’s crumbling walls I was wondering why I didn’t go see Dark Water instead. WS

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Eye Candy

JUST BECAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD, DOESN'T MEAN IT IS  BUT IT HELPS

Novo Tartan Films ✪✪✪ A French bedroom farce? That normally means subtitles that distract a man from watching serious T&A. Office worker Graham (Eduardo Noriega) has recently suffered from complete amnesia from a martial arts accident – so every time he has sex with one the secretaries in his office, he forgets about it – so every time is the first time. Not so hip as 50 First Dates by any stretch of the imagination but if you’re into foreign movies.. or indeed, French (never mind), then it’s pretty damn good. For an utter heathen like myself, I could actually live without the subtitles – they worked OK on Crouching Tiger – but with NOVO I could muscle through it and really not lose much of the plot. Bottom line is, it’s fun and sexy as only the French can be. DO

The Last Horror Movie Tartan ✪✪✪

the video diary that’s been recorded over the movie you’ve rented. Max is a serial killer who murders and ﬁlms it. He has no conscience and gets oﬀ on the fact that none of his family has a clue as to what he’s up to. There is no love or sympathy for the character – ever. It’s not intended that way at all. It’s cheap production is exactly what it would look like in the real world, but it does get a little bit tedious sometimes. Still, it’s disturbing in all the right places and does exactly what it says on the tin. If you’re looking for some cheap thrills and your over desensitised by the genre, you could do a lot worse than check this out. DO

Hmm. A little bit Blair Witch. A little bit American Psycho. Nice. This next to no budget British ﬂick (yup, you read it right), is a bit cool and certainly was never meant to be watched at the movies. Seeing it at home is far more eﬀective. The idea rotates around

Infernal Affairs 3 Tartan ✪✪✪✪ This is a really strong movie for one that’s 3 down the line in the series. It’s basic plot

doesn’t detract from it being a real powerhouse of a ﬂick. With all of the characters already established, it would be wise to check out the previous movies but it does

stand alone well. With some new characters on board, the movie moves into its strong position and even manages to push the envelope on what has been done before. It uses both new and old characters to expose storylines from the past and presumably the future as well. It’s all very ambitious but is delivered with a heap of passion, which is a bit handy as despite it being a simple plot, I managed to get lost in just how many people where involved sometimes. Essentially, it’s big, it’s bad but its Hong Kong cinema very close to its best. Excellent. DO

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24/8/05 17:07:08

Brain Candy

JUDGING BOOKS BY THEIR COVERS IS AN ARTFORM NOT USED ENOUGH

Best of American Splendor Harvey Pekar ✪✪✪✪✪ Titan Books When the words ‘truly original’ are pointed at an artists – whatever your art may be – you can usually ﬁnd somebody who was the template for that vision, thus making them not that original after all. But every once in a while, you can use the phrase and genuinely mean it. Harvey Pekar is a true original. His creation American Splendor is also similarly inclined. American Splendor is a series of autobiographical shorts about the American dream – or rather Pekar’s

The Black Angel John Connolly ✪✪✪✪✪ Hodder & Staughton I get told to shut up a lot. Mostly because my enthusiasm for Connolly’s work is overboard, but I think it’s deserved. Charlie Parker is haunted by the murder of his wife and daughter. The fact that this happened ﬁve books ago, never dulls its impact. In Every Dead Thing, we’re introduced to a private detective that is so diﬀerent from anything

lack of it. Culling his material from heart wrenching personal history to the triviality of the man who told him a joke, Pekar catalogues each minutiae as though it were a matter of life or death – and maybe it is Twenty years of such dialogue has made American Splendor a deﬁnitive history of what it’s really like to live in America. It’s not often a comic book has the audacity to bring on depression in the reader, but Splendor is more than able. Conversely, it also takes you to the top of mountains when it when it wants to. The best are illustrated by the legendary Robert Crumb, but the diversity of artists involved gives the collection a good depth that prevents it from becoming too much of a grind to get through. The observant amongst you will recognise it as being the source material for the movie of the same name, but don’t be fooled. As good as the movie is, you can’t beat submerging yourself in the source material. If ever a book could be termed as essential, then this is probably it. SS

that has ever come before, it’s almost like an epiphany. In the spaces between Every Dead Thing and The Black Angel, we’ve seen Parker hunt down an intriguing variety of foes. All of them supernatural in some way, but not so much so that you could ever mistake them as being human. These were bad people – and if you’re spurned at all to check out The Black Angel on the basis of this review, please, start at the beginning – you’ll miss out on so much exciting background if you don’t. Connolly’s ability to bring the supernatural into real life situations is incredible. At no point is Angel like reading a ghost or horror story – it remains a true crime novel, but brings in these other parts as a sideline. For those familiar with the characters, Louis, Parkers hitman buddy, ﬁnds his niece stolen, broken and dead, but the trail for her body leads

them into a realm of a long time search for one of the original fallen angels whose body was encased in silver and hidden by monks a very long time ago. The bad news is that those searching for the Black Angel have just identiﬁed Parker as one of their own.. I’m reluctant to go for the spoiler angle with The Black Angel so just trust me for once – this is absolutely unmissable reading. SS

Imago Jim Burns ✪✪✪ Titan Books Imago sees Burns reveal his true talents in this previously unpublished selection of sketches and drawings. Acclaimed for his work as an artist who has adorned the covers of work by Arthur C Clarke, Harry Harrison, it’s his work with Heavy Metal magazine that should concern us! Not being much of a sci-ﬁ fan, much of the work here is hard to deal with. There’s no denying the quality of the work or indeed the impact it’s had on the sci-ﬁ world, it just doesn’t hold much excitement for me. But take one look at his sketches and his depiction of the female form and I would venture that it’s about time Burns took his talent and ventures outside of the box. Excellent for fans but outside of that it probably holds a limited appeal. One for the hardcore alone I’m afraid – but the hardcore won’t be disappointed at all. DO

WE3 Grant Morrison ✪✪✪✪ Titan Books On a personal level, Morrison can do no wrong for me. He just pumps out quality every time his pen hits the page.

WE3 are a new breed of cyborg, flesh and metal creatures destined to fight on the battlefields of the future. Their nervous systems are enhanced with cutting edge weapons, but come the end of the prototype testing, the government has forgotten to take something into account. They used lost pets for their testing and the pets have a deep rooted desire to survive and return home. With their imminent destruction at hand, they fight for their very survival. Exquisitely drawn by Frank Quitely, WE3 marks a new direction for Morrison as he ploughs emotion upon emotion into the characters and builds a bleak picture of a future already upon us. If there’s any gripe here, it’s just that it’s too damn short! Other than that, it’s a near perfect piece of literature which marks another direction for Morrison – one that really needs to be experienced to be believed.DO

Fantastic 4 The Making of the Movie ✪✪✪ Titan Books Nice – if you’re a collector. If you’re not, ﬁle under ‘passing curiosity value’. Packed with mini storyboards, script excerpts and cast interviews, the book

does a reasonably good job of getting under the skin of the production of the movie. Maybe it’s been dumbed down for a reason (the perceived audience age perhaps), but there was so much more available to drop into the book that would have really made it a killer. Interviews with the cast tend to be mostly superficial; the background story would have been better served up here rather than the overlong sprawl it is in the film… I could go on, but you get the picture. What you’re buying into here is a kind of souvenir book of the film. On that basis, it’s a great book – but if you’re looking for thorough dissection of sfx and production values with huge chunks of beautiful storyboards, you came to the wrong place. It may be shallow but pull out pictures of Jessica Alba would have bought it another star. Bring on F4:2. DO

Raw Power Mick Rock ✪✪✪✪ Omnibus Press Ahh. Mick Rock. What can you say about his work apart from “I feel a feature coming on”. The man is a legend and one look at this book will cement it in your head as well as mine. It’s a diﬃcult thing to do – review a book that’s is one purely based on images, but if coﬀee table books are your thing, then this is right along your street. Documenting the 1972 period in which the album was recorded, Iggy and the Stooges appear as spectacularly wasted icons of gutter cool throughout the whole mess. They managed to get their shit together to play in Kings

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Brain Candy

JUDGING BOOKS BY THEIR COVERS IS AN ARTFORM NOT USED ENOUGH

Anansi Boys Neil Gaiman ✪✪✪✪✪ Hodder Headline Gaiman never ceases to amaze me. No matter how far he pushes the boat out, he still seems able to push it out further the next time around. With American Gods, his last big novel, you could have been forgiven for thinking he’d hit his peak and nothing he wrote afterwards could come close (it really was that good), but Anansi Boys just gets it’s oars out and rows up alongside it. And there it stays really. Anansi Boys is very similar to American Gods but chooses to be funny rather than intelligent. Oh, it’s clever alright, but to put it into some kind of perspective, where Gods sits on the Clive Barker side of the fence, Anansi Boys sits on the Pratchett side – and on the basis of which style you prefer, you’ll ﬁnd your favoured novel. Anansi Boys sees Fat Charlie left fatherless after his dad dies singing karaoke. Later, he discovers that his dad was the trickster god, Anansi – from there on things just get weird for Charlie – particularly when Spider, his long lost brother shows up. Delivered with his usual delivery of smooth aplomb, Gaiman has delivered another super smooth novel that should win over some more fans and keep old ones more than happy. A four star review when it deserves ﬁve only because American Gods blew me so far away. DO

Cross for one night and it’s here in all it’s rotten glory that Mick Rock works best. With more than an eye for a picture speaking a thousand words, he easily captures one of the most important bands in music history and brings them to life – even when they were closer to death than anyone could ever have known. It’s not a good read because there’s no words. But it is very, very cool! DO

nights out with strange friends of friends, charity folk in the street. Everything. He soon discovers that although saying Yes leads him to people and places he would otherwise never encounter, relinquishing control of his life can take him to some dark places too. Wallace has an easy, conversational style which endears him to the reader, even when he is making some frankly ludicrous errors in judgement, and his wideeyed attitude to events make sure that he remains likeable throughout – although it is sometimes hard to believe that someone can be quite so naïve. This hugely funny, feelgood book is a joy to read, and might just change your life. MS Look out next month for an exclusive interview with Danny Wallace about the upcoming Yes Man movie.

Yes Man

Lifeless

Danny Wallace ✪✪✪✪ Like the Dice Man for the happy-clappy generation, this is the autobiographic tale of what happens when someone puts their fate into the hands of something or someone else. After realising how empty his life has become, and how he has fallen into a rut by continually saying No to oﬀers from friends or strangers, Wallace decides that he will now say Yes to everything. Spam emails oﬀering cock enlargements,

Mark Billingham ✪✪✪✪ Little Brown The top of the crime ﬁction tree has been littered with Connelly copyists for years on end. A few years back though, a new voice came along and delivered a novel as equally haunting as Harry Bosch could ever be. In Billingham’s ﬁrst book, SleepyHead, Tom Thorne got a bitch of a case to get his teeth into. As the years went by, both Billingham and Thorne settled into the

The Invisible Friend Louise Arnold ✪✪✪✪ After winning a BBC competition to ﬁnd the next JK Rowling, Louise Arnold was commissioned to write this supernatural story - but this is no trite tale of a boy wizard and his irksome friends. The Invisible Friend is a children’s book, yes - but with a delightfully adult bent.

Grey Arthur is a timid ghost who has been hanging around for centuries, trying to find a reason to exist. He’s unlike any other ghost he’s met, and as such doesn’t fit in. This makes him the perfect companion for lonely Tom - a young boy being bullied at school, and the duo join forces, for companionship and to get to the bottom of some far more serious problems. Arnold’s first literary foray has already made a huge impact in the States, and it’s only a matter of time until it does the same here - a film is already on the cards, and a sequel is expected next year. The Invisible Friend is the paperback equivalent of a Pixar film - funny and inventive, with references and illusions that will go right over the heads of youngsters but will tickle the parents no end. T

The Wild Highway

genre and found themselves being well received all over the world. Why? Cream rises and other clichés? Maybe, it was the way Billingham didn’t follow formula to build his creation. Maybe it was the massively above standard plots or the humanised – and sometimes dehumanised - characters. Whatever it was, it worked. Lifeless sees Thorne sleeping rough on the streets of London to catch a serial killer picking oﬀ the homeless, but is he really deep undercover or does he belong there more than he thinks? As the lines blur in Thorne’s life and his support system is taken away, we’re given a gritty underview of a man on the edge of his own reality. After each of Billinghams books, I normally end up wondering how in the world he can follow it and I’ve ﬁnally realised he does it by just tossing the rule book out of the window. There’s no formulas here – get on board while it’s still cool. SS

Bill Drummond & Mark Manning ✪✪✪✪ Yes, it is that Bill Drummond.. and it is that Mark Manning. What’s it all about though would be a good question. The Wild Highway is a documentary of their trip together into Zaire, a jungle hell on the verge of civil war. Their purpose? Why, they go in search of the Devil of course. Why else would you take such a manic trip. As you’d expect from Drummond and Zodiac, it is truly manic. The lines blur between reality and fantasy all of the time. They could be knee deep in a forest or they could be sitting at Z’s house tripping acid and writing it for all I know. It doesn’t really matter. The fact remains that the style of the book is unique. As Drummond and Z take shifts with the pen, they bounce off each other and everything else in sight as well. There’s guns, gods, government - kids with guns, women who are gods and governments who turn blind eyes. If you’re open to something a little bit off the wall and fancy a wild ride in the park, check it out. If you’re feeling really adventurous, bag up the first book in the series, Bad Wisdom, too. That’s the one where it seemed like a good idea at the time to take a trip to the North Pole to sacrifice an icon of Elvis Presley. Get the picture? SS

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Candyappleblack ✪✪✪✪ GIPC

“In the heart of the heartless city…somewhere between heaven and hell…an exiled angel trafficks in the darkest trade…and waits.” So begins the comic book called Candyappleblack. I’ll admit it’s been years since I’ve picked up a comic book, but trawling the web you can pick up all kinds of stuff – especially when somebody points you in the right direction – check it out yourselves: www.candyappleblack.com Expecting to find some cool rock n roll stuff I was pleasantly surprised to find a site dedicated to Regent St Claire’s new venture (for underground hip fans, he’s the ex frontman of LA underground legends

Castle Blak/Blak/Monster Island). A graphic masterpiece called candyappleblack which looked as cool as the breeze. I started reading the back story and before I left the site, whipped out my credit card and bought all 7 books in the series. If you order all 7– you pay no postage – even here to the UK. I’m waffling here, desperately trying not to give away the plot! The first thing that strikes you is the covers. A guy called Marc Sasso paints all seven and it’s very cool and very gothic. They complement the story perfectly – and what a story it is too. The epic story of an angel called Cayce who is exiled from heaven for being à bit of a rebel`. The story takes place in the city of angels itself… When we meet our hero, he has already been on earth for 1,000 years, and much to the disgust of the other angels, has not seen the error of his beliefs. As the story unfolds we find out why Cayce is here on earth, and why agents are looking him for from both heaven and hell. A journalist called Susanne is also on his tail, but only children and people about to commit suicide can see him. This story had me gripped from one end to the other - once I started the first book, I did nothing else until I had read the final page of book 7. The series is a must have for anyone who loves a good story – there’s also great artwork and loads of rock n roll references which means you just can’t lose! This story is just aching to be put onto film. Sure it has a nod towards other comic book stories such as The Crow, The Sandman and even Spawn, but this is original enough to warrant the effort. Classic storytelling with a main character that you really care about. JM (Oh, it is going to be made into a film – slated for 2006).

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20th Century Fox also plan to release the following movies before the end of the year: Daredevil, The Day After Tomorrow, Fight Club, Predator, 28 Days Later, Chain Reaction, Cheaper by the Dozen, Garﬁeld, Kiss of the Dragon, Robots, Kingdom of Heaven, Mr and Mrs Smith, Fantastic Four

COMPETITION The ﬁrst range of ﬁlms on UMD is available to buy on September 5 from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Pathé Distribution Ltd. These are: Dodgeball, Alien, House of Flying Daggers, Resident Evil, Alien vs Predator, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and I, Robot. We have three sets of Fox’s seven launch titles to give away. Simply send us your name and address and the answer to this piece of pie question: What does PSP stand for? Answers in by Sept 30th 2005 otherwise, we’ll keep them here! Send your answer to: PSP FILM COMP, Zero Magazine, The Old School, Higher Kinnerton, Chester, CH4 9AJ. Don’t forget to include your name and address!

It’s silly to get worked-up over something so tiny, but it’s hard not to when the object in question is the incredible Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable) and it does everything that you could possibly want it to – games, pictures, music, and even movies. Alright, maybe that’s not everything . . . there is a noticeable lack of toast-making abilities, but you get the idea.

Yeah, so we’ve been able to watch movies on the go for ages – what with laptops and portable DVD players – but never using anything this small. Being able to sit and enjoy some mindless violence on a pygmy-PlayStation petite enough to ﬁt into the palm of your hand is truly something to get over-excited about. As well as being able to watch downloads on the PSP, a huge range of genuine full-length, perfect-quality movies are being released on minidisc-sized UMDs (Universal Media Discs). When music was oﬃcially released on minidisc format, it tended to be shit albums by shit artists

that would struggle to sell, with record companies hoping that the novelty of the minute format would help raise sales. Fortunately this is not the case with UMDs, as there are some superb titles being made available when the PSP launches. Twentieth Century Fox are leading the way with a seven-strong selection of mini-movies, including Dodgeball, Alien, House of Flying Daggers and I, Robot. With ﬁlms being specially transferred to UMD format, the picture quality on the PSP’s surprisingly bright and clear screen is faultless, and the 4.3 inch TFT widescreen display means that the picture size is far superior to many of the other portable

products on the market. The PSP also supports hiﬁ stereo sound, so with the right pair of headphones, screams, squelches and explosions will come from the right direction. As Sony proved with the walkman and discman, sometimes thinking small can lead to winning big. Look out later in the year for some other brilliant UMD releases like Sin City, Ghostbusters, Donnie Darko, Blade, Time Bandits, Old Boy, and The Crow. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time until hardcore Peruvian goat porn is available for the train journey to work – then Britain will be great again, you wait and see.

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Hand Candy

...BECAUSE REDHOT DON’T BROADCAST DURING THE DAY

Come Out & Play…

I AM SITTING HERE WITH THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER HELD IN MY HAND EVER AND IT’S NOT MY DICK! WHAT THE HELL CAN IT BE? IT’S A SONY PSP! IF YOU HAVE TO ASK WHAT A PSP IS, THEN YOU’RE IN THE WRONG PLACE…

ou see I’m no major gamer. I had a Sega Mega Drive, that little blue bastard Sonic drove me mad for years, then the Playstation came along followed by the Playstation 2, which had such an original name that the next one is going to be called… yeah. I’ve got an XBox and I got a Game Cube to replace my SNES. Got my Game Boy Advance Tribal (because it was Silver), my Nintendo DS. I’ve also spent a fortune on games that are no more use than Kiss without make up! Never did get into gaming on the PC, it was always shit. (Editorial interjection: at which point here are you NOT a major gamer bro?) I wasted so much time playing games that life seemed to pass me by, each month, the must have game arrives this month it’s Tekken 5. 10yrs after the debut! I can’t believe it’s that long, but never mind that, what I can tell you is to take every games machine you have in the house and all the games that go with them and get rid, right now, don’t even bother reading to the end of this article, put the fucking mag down, get up, do it, then come back. Seriously. Now! Right, now you’ve done that you are ready to enter the PSP zone. Nobody cares what it stands for. I’m sitting here playing Midnight Run 3, racing like Taz on speed! Around San Diego, trashing all in my way, winning money to help customise the meanest mother of a car you’ve ever seen - complete with a

in your hand while riding to school, and that is the crux of the matter - this machine gives you back your youth, you hold it in your hand, like your dick. Can you see the big picture now? It gives you back what you had lost! Control. No more sharing with anyone, this is yours and yours alone. Everyone else can fuck right off until you say so. No matter how old you are this little machine will either change your life or give you back the one you thought you had lost. To compound things further, I put in the sampler disc I got free in my box which contained 11 game demos, 7 film trailers including The Longest Yard, Deuce Bigalow II and Stealth, and wait for it… full music videos, two rap (with a silent ‘c’ before them), but also 6 killer cuts from diverse acts like Coheed and Cambria, Crossfade, Silvertide, 3 Days Grace, The Zutons and Kasabian, I went out the next day and bought four albums on the strength of this alone so now I have even more stuff to play that will annoy the fuck out of anyone within distance of my stereo. Now the cynical out there may say, he’s only saying all of this cause he got one for free from Sony with the company promising a full page advert if he said

WipeOut Pure

stereo that when I put the songs on the power from the amps in the back of the car, will put my balls in a sling! I know it’s not real but it’s very close! Divorce rates will soar due to this machine, but what the hell. You’ll have your Yorkie bars (cause this ain’t for girls either), you’ll have your record collection, the net for porn, your sixpack of bud, pizza delivered to the door, your subscription to Zero, and with this little beauty you’ll never even miss her. Think I’m joking? Think again - wait ‘til you own one! Wait ‘til you have seen the sheer quality of the screen, the gaming, the fact that it has USB, the fact that it holds just as much music as your iPod Mini – read it and weep guys. All your favourite songs in one place, so if you don’t fancy playing a game, you can rock out ‘til dawn. As Prince would say, ‘there’s something else’ but it’s not the afterworld in this instance – it plays movies! I watched the whole movie with headphones in on the train to work and I felt 10 again. It’s like having the comic

Ridge Racer

how great it was, how fucking wrong you are, how full on fucking wrong! I don’t see no ads - this is just full on impressed. I bought it because it looked like it was fucking cool! Do you remember how that felt? If you do then wake me when September ends because by the time you hit October, your life will have changed forever. Sell your house, get a souped up Mustang (red) with four to the floor and a louder than hell stereo. Drive to the middle of nowhere, stop, turn the stereo up as loud as it will go, recline the seat, grab this baby and play with yourself till you can’t play no more. It’s not dirty. It’s 21st century rock n roll. It’s the SONY PSP! JJ

“Divorce rates will soar due to this machine, but what the hell . . . With this little beauty you’ll never even miss her. Think I’m joking? Think again – wait ‘til you own one!” 136 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction X-Box ✪✪✪ Vivendi Universal Games HULK SMASH! And boy does this game provide! There’s total carnage around every corner! In The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, players can jump anywhere, climb anything and smash everything - even destroy entire buildings. Based on the character franchise from Marvel Enterprises, this nonstop action and destructionpacked game allows players to create their own Hulk-

Resident Evil: Outbreak File 2 Xbox ✪✪✪✪ You never seem to tire of blasting the undead in the head. After all, it’s the only way to take the suckers down! Just in case you missed the first one, Resident Evil Outbreak involves a small group of eight Raccoon City residents banding together in a last bid for survival against an undead army. In offline mode, you start each mission by picking one main character, then another two to help you out on your way. Each person has different qualities, so choose well. Then it’s off to kill some zombie scum.

powered weapons from almost anything they can rip out of the environment unlock new moves to battle a variety of huge enemies in epic boss ﬁghts and experience deep and varied game elements by exploring free-roaming non-mission and side mission gameplay. There could possibly be a plot around here somewhere, but do you know what – I don’t care. This game is just about smashing up stuﬀ. Plain and simple. It’s fun with a capital F. I’m not sure if this game will hold your attention until

its finale, I haven’t played it for longer than an hour at a time, but for taking out your pent up aggression on, or having a quick blastwhen you get back from the pub, it’s as good as any other game I’ve played. If that’s what you want from a game – make the score 5 stars. Oh! A final word of advice – don’t try and play this game while wearing the hulk fist gloves you got with the special edition of the movie. I have to go buy a new controller now. HULK SMASH! JM

This is a rollicking adventure that never gets boring – not quite as mad as Captain Jack Sparrow, but that’s probably for the best. JM

Ford Mustang Racing Xbox ✪✪✪ A bit like Marmite – you either like driving games or you don’t. However, even if you generally like playing from behind the wheel,

Online play is better than average as you play with other people in an attempt to survive together. The graphics have been improved and, for the ﬁrst time in a Resi game, you can now move and shoot at the same time! Jeez Capcom, how long has that taken you to ﬁx?! There have been some new locations added, the coolest being a zoo. Yep, this time you have to try and take out a ZOMBIE ELEPHANT – even Rob Zombie hasn’t thought of that yet! Thumbs up all round Capcom. It could still be better but it’s going in the right direction. JM

Sid Meier’s Pirates! Xbox ✪✪✪✪ This is a swashbuckling third person adventure that combines many styles to produce an excellent gaming experience. The game begins with some back-story, then you choose your speciality (be it navigator, swordsman or even Romeo!), then your allegiance (English, French,

you still might not like this. Let me explain. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a specialist driving game, and having only one type of car does certainly limit the appeal. However, all is not as grim as it sounds. For a start, this budget game only costs £20, and secondly, the Ford Mustang is a pretty rock n roll motor. Ford Mustang Racing allows you to drive the hottest cars from Mustang’s 40-year history on 22 tracks in seven US cities. The handling is great and luckily the gameplay has ‘borrowed’ nearly all of its features from one of the best driving series around – the genius Burnout franchise. If you are after a new driving game to tide you over till the release of Burnout: Revenge and have a spare 20 quid, you could do a lot worse than Ford Mustang Racing. JM

God of War PS2 SCE

Spanish or Dutch). Finally, the adventure begins. The cool thing about Sid Meier’s Pirates! is that you can do whatever takes your fancy. Want to spend all your time on the high seas blowing up ships and plundering them? Then you can. Fancy sailing to every port you ﬁnd, seducing then marrying all the mayors’ daughters? You can do that too – there is also a minigame where you have to dance to impress the laydees. Despite ﬁrst impressions, this is so much more than GTA on water. Sure it does have aspects of Rockstar’s hit series, but there are aspects of RPG and strategy in there that give away the game’s PC roots.

“War, What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, say it again…” Actually war is good for something?. computer games, that’s what! God of War is a Playstation 2 exclusive third person action game, which is based around Greek mythology. You play as Kratos, a strapping Spartan who would be more than at home in the WWE. Blessed with 2 Blades of Chaos – short swords, which are chained to his arms - he can ﬁre them out towards enemies, much in the same way Spawn uses his chains! This makes for some excellent slaughter of mythological beasts such as Hydra, Cyclops, Medusa, Minataur and Harpies. Magic also plays a part in the mindless destruction of these beasts, as the gods

of Olympus have provided our hero with various magic spells to help destroy certain bosses and progress to the next level. These spells are easy to perform and complement the action rather than detract from it. Gameplay is very reminiscent of the Prince of Persia and the Devil May Cry series as it mixes out and out action with puzzle solving and platform aspects. The graphics and sound both kick ass, just like the game. Throw in some excellent locations and a few mini games (Including at one point a chance to get into bed with a couple of nude babes to have some fun), and you end up with arguably the best PS2 game of the year. The God of Gaming is smiling upon us this day. Rejoice and feast upon its goodness! JM

www.zeromag.co.uk | ZERO MAGAZINE | 137

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Words by Sion Smith

SOMETIMES, PEOPLE JUST MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR THEMSELVES.

e all know people who may as well get up in the morning and paint a target on their chest. You know the people I’m talking about. The whiners. The complainers. The victims. The ones the world owes something to but the world hasn’t delivered for them yet. The losers. I came across one of these people a few weeks ago. He was the manager of a band who, in my opinion, are going nowhere. He was pretty cool at first, but I think that was when he thought there might be something in it for him. Being the honest type, I told him what I thought of his band – not in a mean way. I took some time, really thought hard about it and pointed out the flaws in their masterplan to take over the world. Little things really. No songs, no hooks, lousy playing, cheap production, no style – you get the picture. That’s the sort of stuff that’s pretty important when it comes to taking your band from the basement to the first floor.

I guess what he wanted to hear was that I thought they were as great as he did and I’d dearly love to work with them and help take them from that basement to a higher plane. For a start, I’m not that damn powerful! Secondly, why would I want to help out somebody who didn’t have the vision to get there by himself. Hell, there’s a million bands out there who are doing just that. It’s weird how it’s never those guys doing the whining. Probably too busy working! Anyway, to cut a long story short, he did that puffing out of the chest thing that’s usually the precursor to a fight. Bring it on I guess. At this early stage, if you want to fight somebody for calling your band crap, you better be best friends with a Gracie because there’s an awful lot of fighting you’re gonna be doing in the long run! Turns out it was all bravado anyway as he slunk off with his tail in his pocket – which was a bit of a disappointment really because whether he’d kicked my ass or I kicked his, it would have been a much better story and I had a photographer with me who, respect where it’s due, was busy getting the focus right instead of backing me up. Anyway, none of you are reading this column to hear me say nice things. Judging by the response to last months tirade of emotion, you guys out there want more vitriol. For the first time in about a year, I watched WWE Smackdown this week. Depending on when you read this, it was the one where Shawn Michaels was in Canada and calling out Bret Hart. The Hitman music starts up and the crowd goes wild. Now, for non fans, Bret ‘the Hitman’ Hart has been out of the game for about 10 years – what’s the highlight of the show? The anticipation of seeing him come back out again. You would have got a similar reaction if Michaels had called out the Ultimate Warrior who has been gone even longer. Why? Well, first of all, it’s that old nugget charisma. Then it’s the intensity. Those guys were masters of their twenty

minutes in the ring. Absolute masters. The only other player in the game who has the same appeal is HHH. I guess intensity comes in many forms. It’s the result of passion spilling over the top of the cup at the right time. In the ring. Just before that, I was round at JJ’s house and he made me watch this documentary about Jose Marinio. I hate football. Really hate it, but now I have nothing but respect for that man. He has all the qualities you need in a leader and a mouth that delivers the truth bang on the nose everytime he chooses to open it. The man is a genius. Then, tonight, I saw the best knockout I’ve ever seen in my life. UFC 54 – and I’m really sorry I can’t remember the guys name but I’m watching it live as I write this, but he delivered a flying knee that could have floored a horse. He waited and when the moment was right, bang! TKO! Is this a column about sports this month? Not really. It’s about looking outside of the box that you’re in in order to better yourself. If you can’t find an icon to motivate you in your chosen field, then look somewhere else. Look back in history, go to sports, go to books, movie directors and even architects and engineers if that’s what inspires you. Unless you’re a prodigy, there’s not much point in having an icon you look up to in the same field. You’ll never better them by the very nature of them being an icon to you. But look outside of that field and you can run alongside. I’ll let you into a little secret. One of the things we look at design wise when we’re putting this mag together is not other mags, but Audi cars. Get it? Grab hold of that thought, put it into practice. Make your life a better place to be. Shit, make my life a better place to be! Oh, and before I forget. That manager guy I was talking about earlier on and that flying knee – well, you get the picture. Out of the box brother.

“I WAS ROUND AT JJ’S HOUSE AND HE MADE ME WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY ABOUT JOSE MARINIO. I HATE FOOTBALL. REALLY HATE IT, BUT NOW I HAVE NOTHING BUT RESPECT FOR THAT MAN. HE HAS ALL THE QUALITIES YOU NEED IN A LEADER AND A MOUTH THAT DELIVERS THE TRUTH BANG ON THE NOSE EVERYTIME HE CHOOSES TO OPEN IT. THE MAN IS A GENIUS.” 138 | ZERO MAGAZINE | www.zeromag.co.uk

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