Commencing Countdown

Spacehog - smash'n'grab practitioners of full-throttle, quasi-glam revivalism with a penchant for the Slash guitar sound and an Urge Overkill necktie. Well so be it judging by the opening tracks on their debut album Resident Alien.

Mind you, if such ingredients don't tickle your taste buds, then I'd suggest venturing a little further into the album's stratosphere - for high-octane pop with just a twist of the Red Dwarf's it surely is (Red Dwarf being the current sci-fi sensation on British television).

From Britain's northern city of Leeds - the place that brought you the ever so fantastic Gang Of Four, as well as the not so fantastic Marc Almond plus an array of others - the motley foursome (brothers Royston and Antony Langdon/bass/rhythm guitar/ vox, Richard Steel/lead guitar, Jonny Cragg/drums) caused quite a stir recently among the raggle-taggle jihad according to A&R gospel.

Competition reached the point where credit cards flew and at one point, fisticuffs ensued! But while all this was going on, Sire's head-honcho Seymour Stein scrawled his telephone number onto a piece of toilet tissue and the rest as they say, is charmboat history.



So was there somesort of mega-plan, especially in the light that you all came to New York and you're all from Leeds?

Royston (Hog head-honcho and deep thinking type): "No it wasn't a plan at all, it was just a coincidence. We were all in bands in England, but obviously we came over together (points at brother Antony)..."

Jonny (charismatic type that doesn't beat about the bush): "I basically came here to join the band."

Do you still believe in the dictum that "rock'n'roll, as Quentin Crisp once said, is a well-covered landscape. One that's so saturated that to be original now is more about an aesthetic and presentation that it is necessarily about the music?"

Antony (very open, very bubbly type): "I remember saying that and I must say I got it a bit wrong at the time. I don't know how it happened, but it wasn't Quentin Crisp that said that, but a really old lady (Dorothy Ernst) who was married to a surrealist painter in Paris. Coming back to your question, I think rock'n'roll is very saturated. It's difficult to be original and personally speaking, it's something that I still haven't got me head round yet. I'm still trying to work out how to be original in such a popular art form."

If you actually sit down and consciously think about being original, doesn't that defeat the object? Cause if you are, you are, but if you have to sit and think about it...

Jonny: "Yeah, you're probably right."

Richard (doesn't say much but when he does...): "Which is why I'm not very original. But consciously, when we first started out, we weren't catering to anyone."

What's the spark behind (the rockin' boppin') ‘Cruel To Be Kind?’

Royston: It's just one of those songs where you (draws a deep breath) don't have to be cruel to be kind (all round cackles from the band). That's about it."

From a musical standpoint, how would you compare New York to London?

Jonny: "It's better. There's more places to play and there's more people going out to see live music."

Richard: "In London, you've got to pay to play, especially if you're from out of town."

So what do you think was responsible for creating such a big buzz about you?

Antony: "We were completely disorganised, but I think it happened really because it happened. People really liked the music. One bloke came down from Columbia, then more came and then more came; y'know, people spoke positively about the band, I think that's really why it happened. Then we were getting press before we even got signed. What was exciting about it was people responding to it of their own accord and not because it was well..."

Jonny: "Well promoted or well pushed or well this or well that. There was also a bit of schmoozin on our part, cause a lot of the press we got early on, boiled out of personal relationships in the business."

Why do you think British bands such as Blur and Oasis and Suede are really big in Britain, but not that big over here?

Antony: "I think it will change and it'll change within the next two to three years."

Jonny: "Do you think those bands spend enough time over here though, comparative to what the Dave Matthews Band spent in their own country? Touring and playing and doing the do, y'know. I love Oasis, but I do think it's the lowest common denominator. Really catchy songs, nice chunky guitar riffs, but it's nothing really that

unusual. And it's nothing that an American audience couldn't get into, but I just think they come over here for eight weeks and they think they're gonna take over the fuckin world."

Finally, what's your gameplan if any...what is it you're trying to achieve?

Jonny: "Fuckin' entertainment. Really simple. I think we'd be a really ridiculous, cheesy punk rock band if we had the money..."

Antony: "Yeah, I think we would too (the entire band chortle as they agree in unison). If we had more money, we'd definitely have pyrotechnics..."