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Primal Scream threaten to unleash albumPrimal Scream's Bobbie Gillespie is ranting and raving againInterview by Richard Lowe * Ask him about his beloved garage psychedelia and he'll write you an authoritative list of essential purchaces. Confront him with accusations of being (a) a revivalist and (b) just another of those wimpy "anorak" bands and he snaps back, in the same gentle but firm tone that characterises his singing. "I'm sick of being called a wimp. I'm not a wimp at all end I take that as an inslt. I'm a strong person and our music is powerful music. It may be gentle and melodic but that doesn't mean it's wimpy. Everyone has their soft side. Anyway how can anyone call Primal Scream wimps when Jim's in the band." * He's got a point there. Although young Bobbie may not look as if he could blow the skin off a rice pudding, guitarist Jim is built to roughly the same proportions as the proverbial side of a house. * "And as for being a revivalist band," continues the floppy-fringed one, "that's just ridiculous. None of our songs are ripped off for a start. Of course there are influences, but you can trace the influences behind every group. And we're not just influenced by stuff that was made 20 years ago - we're influenced by rock 'n' roll full stop. From the '50s up to present day groups like The Weather Prophets and the Mary Chain. * "The trouble is if you say you're Into the Velvets, Love, Buffalo Springfield, Pink Floyd and groups like that you're labelled a revivalist, whereas If you say you're into Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye - though they're all great artists - you're automatically hip. * "Now that's just ridiculous. I don't think you should categorise music by boxing It off into eras - how can you just box off human emotions and spiritual art like that and say it's out of date and irrelevant? * "A good record is a good record forever. A great record, whether it's just a fun record like California Girls by The Beach Boys or a violent record like Search And Destroy by The Stooges, will always be a great record. People should dig all kinds of music and not get petty and snobish about what's hip and what isn't. * "And it's up to groups like us to make great records and get them played on the radio and into the charts. If groups like us and The Mary chain, who are the type of groups in a small minority on major labels, getto sell a lot of records and change the record companies' way of thinking, great. We've got to try to have the same effect on the record industry as The Sex Pistols. They're the reason we're in a group now, because they cut through the crap and, opened up the music business. But it's back the way it is now. As far as I'm concerned - groups like Johnny Hates Jazz and Living In A Box are ridiculous because there's no warmth or soul or spirit or humanity in their records. They're just wortless." * And Primal Scream's new' LP Is "worthwhile" is it? * "It's a genuine record and that's what counts. We wrote those songs and they came naturally to us. Nothing about Primal Scream is contrived - when we write lyrics and melodies it's pure me and pure Jim. All great music has to be natural and our approach is like that. We don't analyse what we do, we just get on with it We don't sit dawn and think 'let's write this one like Kris Kristoferson or Alex Chilton', * "We're perfectionists about what we do, but we're intuitive - that's always been our approach and it always will be." Originally appeared in Underground magazine , Issue no. 5 August 1987 Back |
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