Riding Shotgun On The Electric Surf

Greetings Friends,

This afternoon you find me a little fragile. As dawn broke, I was gazing out over Kensington Gardens from my penthouse suite, a glass of vintage Dom Perignon in hand. Around the room, the great and the good of pop were assembled in various shades of disarray. In one corner, Lady Gaga sat smoking a Havana guitar, a huge boa constrictor coiled tenderly around her white lace headgear. In another, Courtney Love, Jay-Z and various Spice Girls played a kiss’n’tell variation of Russian roulette, each drunken revelation causing drunken chambermaids- lured in by a passing Tom Jones- to blush shades of crimson.
Or at least, that’s how I’d hope things ended up somewhere this morning after The Brits, the music biz’s annual orgy of self-congratulation.
Too often these days, fantasy outstrips reality, leaving us to muse on what happened back in The Golden Age when bands drove motorbikes down corridors for fun instead of fretting over their online marketing.
Thank Odin, then, for Kasabian’s flame-assisted rendition of ‘Fire’ last night, a rock’n’roll moment to treasure like the Blur/Oasis Brit-off of ’95 and the KLF’s Bill Drummond blitzing the assembled execs with his mystical machine gun in 1992.
Proof, yet again, that in 2010, there’s still only one band you can trust with your heart and soul. Here are Serge’s latest thoughts from the frontline.

Take Me Into The Night,

Elliot Palm
Consultant Narcologist
WRPLA

How was the trip to Australia and New Zealand for The Big Day Out?

It was an amazing trip. It was a great bill -Muse, Mars Volta, the Horrors, Lily Allen and Dizzee Rascal. We started off in Auckland. We’d been there once before but we really enjoyed it this time. The response to the album has been so huge out there the gigs were crazy, really amazing. We were going on in the afternoon, which for us was like going back to the early days. I don’t think they realised how big the album was going to be, and so they hadn’t taken that into account. It was kind of cool in a way because we had 40,000 people there to see us at half past two. They really understand rock’n’roll out there.

Any particular highlights from the gigs?
Melbourne was particularly fantastic. Australia is like paradise really. You get to hang out in these beautiful locations during the day then play a gig at night. What more can you ask for ?
The Enmore Theare in Sydney was also a memorable one - that was hardcore. There’s a great spirit there. Adelaide was fun too A lot of bands don’t go there, so they really appreciate the fact that you’ve made the effort. What was really strange about he gigs was that no one seemed to know LSF or Club Foot. They were going mental for Where Did All the Love Go?, Fire and Underdog, but when we played the ones which are the big bankers in England it was like they’d never heard them before. It showed up the difference between having cult success and entering the mainstream.

Did you get much chance to look around?
Not really. We were mostly nursing hangovers on the days off. We’re like vampires on those days, just hiding in hotel rooms, but I got out a few times to go record shopping. I was looking for obscure Australian and New Zealand psych-there’s some really great stuff. We met a brilliant band called Tame Impala who are from Perth. Noel Fielding told me about hem. They’re great, psychedelic but totally up to date with it.

Vlad is the new single. Was it always going to be a ‘proper’ single to come off WRLPA?
Initially I was happy having three singles off the album. It seemrd the classic thing to do. But we were always conscious that we’ll be going into playing festivals later on this year, and so it would be nice to have something out there that people could get into. Then out of the blue Radio One started playing ‘Vlad’. We were like- if they’re going to put that on daytime radio, lets’ put it out. It’s great because ‘Vlad’ is the sort of thing which frightens record companies, so having it blasting out of the nation’s radio’s in mid-afternoon is pretty fucking spectacular. Hearing it after all the boring shit on either side of it, makes it all worthwhile. Even better, when we play it at the festivals this year it will sound fucking massive!

Any live dates sorted for later this year?
We’re headlining T In The Park, which is going to be outrageous. I can’t wait to play that, it’s going to be a proper rock’n’roll festival. Us headlining in front of a really rowdy crowd is going to be absolutely mental. It’s on the day of the World Cup Final day, so that should be interesting.

How did you get involved in promoting the new England kit?
Umbro rung us up and asked if we wanted to be involved in the unveiling of the new England away kit. It’s such an honour. It’s based on the ’66 kit, and the guy who designed it, Aitor (critically acclaimed artist and conceptual designer Aitor Throup), is a really clever guy. He’s not just some egg from Umbro. So we were delighted to help however we could.

How was the gig at Paris Olympia where Tom unveiled it?
Hilarious! Tom came on wearing it at the encore. It was a bit of weird one, because half the crowd were cheering and half were booing to start with, but they all loved it by the end. People might criticise us because they think it’s us associating music with football, but you’ve got to look at it through the eyes of an eight year old kid. For them, it makes wearing an England shirt look like a cool thing to do, which has got to be good.

How were the gigs in Amsterdam and Rotterdam?
Great – Amsterdam was very smoky and atmospheric. There’s just a haze of green all around that place. Rotterdam was good too. The gigs were all sold out in Europe, and there’s a real feeling that we’re beginning to get somewhere over there. It’s weird playing an hour and a half, because half the songs pick themselves so it’s difficult to vary the set. But we always try and throw in a few surprises.

Is it good to be back on the tour bus?
Oh yeah. I love it. Watching DVD’s and smoking nice weed from Europe, it can’t be beat. We watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the other night which was pretty fucking wild. That was Tom’s choice. And Big Trouble In Little China, that’s a good one. I also watched this Swedish vampire movie the other night called Let The Right One I which was brilliant. You can’t go wrong with vampires, can you?

You’re playing the Shepherds Bush Empire after the Brits. How come?
It’s nice playing The Brits, but I’m really glad we’re doing the War Child gig straight after, the same evening. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s great to be able to play an important event like that rather than sit around and make out and congratulate ourselves about how great we are.It’s like, right- let’s do what we’re good at. Let’s play a gig.