them. At least they’re standing for something. The
problem with them is that they are literally just a
one-issue party, and when you go beneath that one
issue there’s a slightly uncomfortable veneer to the
rest of it. They’re such a new party and if you
scratch the surface of a lot of them, I’m not sure
they are the best option.
What did you make of David Silvester’s gay
flood controversy?
That’s exactly my problem. It’s such a
new party that you’ve got people like
that who have snuck in. The saving grace
about Labour or the Conservatives is
that anyone who is quite su ch a prat
would get found out well before that.
So you’re quite a political
animal…
I don’t know about animal…
It does interest me. When I
first got involved, back in the
day, I was doing some ghost
writing for The Spectator
when Boris Johnson was
editor and it was a piece
about ‘Why are the youth
today so apathetic about
politics?’ It was after the
election where the statistics
showed that more young
people voted in Big Brother
than they did in the election
and you just kind of think –
that’s just really fucked up.
But it is up to the younger
generation to step up to the
plate, if you want to have a
voice.
When you’re a solo artist it is pretty lonely. Back in
the day it was me going from Travelodge to
Travelodge and it was just really boring.
Are you still really self-conscience?
Not really – only as much as the next person. My
major paranoia first time around was that people
thought I was an arrogant prick. I was so fearful
that people would think that I was an arrogant
prick, just because I was on TV or because I
was doing a pop song, I went so far the other
way. I became this really servant like, this
pathetic thing. The record company would be
asking ‘what do you think about this?’ I
would say, ‘whatever you want, whatever you
want I’ll do!’ You don’t enjoy it when you do
that, because there’s so little
of yourself in it. All you end
up doing is living a
caricature of something you
think somebody else wants.
❝
On the press gay
rumours:
Let’s be honest, I
did look like a
prepubescent girl
and I am slightly
camp. So it wasn’t
the hardest thing
in the world for
them...
Do you regret any of pop
stuff?
I don’t regret it, because if it
hadn’t happened I wouldn’t
be where I am now. I
wouldn’t be in the frame of
mind I am now, I wouldn’t
be where I am in my life
now, so I don’t regret it. I
was lucky enough that from
the age of 18 to 32 the
longest I had off between
jobs was 2 weeks. I literally
worked for 14 years. I had
amazing opportunities, I’m
not saying I enjoyed them
all, but they were amazing
life experiences.
❞
So how does that fit in
with The Big Reunion –
cause they’re kind of worlds apart –
or are they?
Laughter – I’ve always been a bit of a freak
in that way. The Big reunion for me is
about having fun. It’s pure and simple about
having fun. I didn’t enjoy it when I was a younger
kid and I always regretted it that I didn’t enjoy it –
and there’s no one to blame but myself – I was
always insecure, and I wasn’t in the right place in
my mind and I kinda went through it by numbers
and got road rushed into it all. It’s not rocket
science let’s be honest – it’s just really good fun.
The advantage this time round is being in a band.
Has it been depressing
or hopeful revisiting the pop world?
It depends on your mentality. If you’re
going in there to become the next Beatles I
think you’re setting yourself up for a life of
terrible disappointment. We haven’t done that as a
group. We’ve basically said lets just enjoy it. We’re
grown men getting to do something really silly and
luckily we get on so well we’re having fun. Do we
think we’ll be winning Ivor Novellos- probably not!
The music industry has changed. First time round I
found it so monotonous, Smash Hits interview
after Smash Hits interview where they were asking
you - ‘What’s your favourite cheese…’ It doesn’t
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