“At the time a lot of people read a lot into that too, but there was really no ulterior motive. As I say, the whole thing was shear childish entertainment that me and my writing partner Richard Hartley – another teenage dreamer – came up with. It was never meant to be anything more than a little piece of fringe theatre and there was no greater goal.” Richard O’Brien still works with the co-creator of that little piece of fringe theatre even now, and while creative partnerships are notoriously volatile, O’Brien and Hartley’s remains firmly intact after decades in the biz. “In all these years we’ve never had a row. We became a little terse with one another once and I said, as I was saying goodbye, ‘We’re not going to do that again, are we?’ And he said no. And we didn’t. I like having a writing partner because I can try out a song and he’ll arrange it or say I’ve got a better idea than that, why don’t you try this. And when you’re on the same wavelength great things come of it.” He may be living the quiet life in Katikati, but Richard O’Brien is very much still working. Albeit at his own pace. “Well I’m lazy, you see. But Sabrina went to Germany earlier in the year and I was left on my own so I spent a week and a half in a drunken state scribbling and writing a satirical fairy tale called the Kingdom of Bling about the Trump administration. And I thought I’d better have some songs in there so I sent it off to Richard and we’ll see what comes out of it. Who knows. Once again it’s a fairly childish approach. It’s set in a land of pandemonium. So not too hard to identify.” Richard O’Brien is clearly not a great fan of the American President. “Most people in politics are driven by self interest, and none more than him. As Gore Vidal said, ‘Politics is for people who are too ugly to be in show business,’ and Trump has shown us what an ugly person he can be. I mean he lost money owning casinos! How many people in the world have failed at owning a gambling casino? People in New Zealand often complain about taxes, but I am so happy to live in a country where some of my taxes go toward the welfare state, as it shows that we are civilised Homosapians, which is rather rich coming from one who has also descended from Neanderthals.” Richard’s Neanderthal reference is in relation to the TV show he presented, DNA Detectives, in which Kiwi celebs had their DNA ‘done’ and then went off to visit their past. It ran for two seasons and is something of an underrated gem, one
that should have been given wings and flown with the right backing. “I always thought it would have worked for Air New Zealand to come on board and help visit all the people and places we were uncovering. It would have been great for them to be seen to be involved in that, given that so many Kiwis have ties to other places.”It was not to be however. We got Married at First Sight instead, which would surely have benefitted from having Richard O’Brien in the director’s chair. “I’m not terribly good at directing,” he says, “because I have this idea that the actors should know what they’re doing, what they’ve been trained for. And besides, everyone talks in such strange voices these days. ‘This is how I talk in the movies’,” he says, assuming an impossibly deep and gruff Hollywood tough guy voice that is eerily accurate. He is very good at voices – throughout our interview he also does a great breathless female sidekick and, when toying with the idea of a Midsomer Murders-esque TV show called Katikati Killings, a pitch perfect 1980s melodrama routine. He remains a genuine entertainer to the core, having once said that people say that God is watching so he thought he better put on a good show. Sadly, while we doubt Richard O’Brien’s version of the popular Midsomer whodunnit will ever see the light of day, we’d certainly pay good money to see it. Richard O’Brien doesn’t really believe in organised religion, and looking at the state of things in his previous country of residence – in addition to the US – he’s losing faith in organised politics too. “I think some of them should be sent to the Tower,” he says with a hint of his signature Rocky character Riff Raff in his eye. “I would have preferred that while Europe was growing together we should have grown the Commonwealth. It could have been an incredibly strong thing, with a new focus about cooperation and giving instead of just the UK taking all the time. It would have had a very strong economic base, with complementary economies, and a real global reach. But what the fuck do I know?” A lot more than the current British parliament it would seem; in addition to launching a few million Saturday nights, Richard O’Brien... A lot more than the current British parliament it would seem; he’s launched a few million Saturday nights, and he’s obviously never going to stop making sense.
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