[kj] The Lightbringer Pours Out of Me

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THE LIGHT POURS OUT OF ME
I was listening to that song on the way here and the line that sprung out at me was, "The conspiracy of silence ought to revolutionise my thoughts." What were you thinking of when you wrote that?

Howard Devoto: Its almost two cliches playing with each other; a conspiracy of silence and thought being revolutionised. That particular phrase goes back so far in my life. That phrase goes back years before Magazine actually! So the origin of that specific phrase is utterly lost to me.

Another phrase that I've always wondered where the Hell it sprung from is "Cubans in surgical Gloves" (from "Believe That I Understand"). Where did that come from? 

Dave Formula: Where it is in the song always amused me. "Look at them!"

HD: Its the way the Watergate burglers were sometimes described. In one account of them they were supposed to be hired Cubans and people talked about them going in there with surgical gloves.

More US politics!

DF: Bloody Cuban scapegoats yet again!

HD: Yes and that was before we went to America actually.

Another thing very big in the USA is people seeing UFOs and that crops up on "Philadelphia."

HD: Yeah but we've got plenty of stuff here too, haven't we?

There was some big miltary operation out in Yorkshire with a UFO. The US airforce was trying very hard to stop anyone get anywhere near it. 

HD: Based over here as well with their aircraft.

DF: I saw one in Lincolnshire.

What was it like?

DF: No genuinely I did! I'm very sceptical but I don't know what it was so therefore it was a UFO. It was an incredibly intense gold disc - and why is it always a bloody disc shape? 
It was relatively low as far as I could tell. There are areas of Lincolnshire which are very flat so the perspective was that much harder to realise because of the flatness. You need height to measure things against in a natural geographic line. It was quite a winding road and as I was going down it I saw it and was instantly focused on it. I was driving and watching from the corners and it was there, really constant. After a couple of minutes it was still there. As I was coming round I was watching it and it accelerated at a ridiculous speed, an unbelievable speed, and was gone in about ten seconds. It wasn't like a balloon and no weather balloon ever travelled at that speed.

That does sound like a fairly typical description of a UFO sighting.

HD: When was that?

DF: About 94 or 95, I can't remember exactly. I hadn't been living there very long. So that changes slightly your scepticism. You don't want to become a believer or somesuch but you've got a definite psychological mind change after such an event.

You saw something that you can't explain.

DF: Exactly, so you've got to be more open to... and very close friends who I mentioned it to would be very sceptical, so Istopped mentioning it. You seem like a sympathetic person so...

I keep an open mind towards these things. I'd entertain the theory that the whole idea of God came from visitors from outer space.

DF: Von Danniken.

Well I've read some of his books and I certainly wouldn't go along with everything he says.

DF: No, but its not an unreasonable basic theory. 30:33