[kj] Outside the Magazine

[Change]

In September I interviewed Howard Devoto and Dave Formula of Magazine for Flux magazine. The editor wanted only 1750 words and many more were spoken. So here are the out-takes and a few quotes that I paraphrased for brevity. The next Flux should hit the stores in late December or early January. Their PR man Nigel Proctor also scotched one rumour about the guitarist before the interview began. It is not Johnny Marr. My money would be on Pete Shelley, but you never know!

The full transcript will appear on perfectsoundforver.com by and by. Until then, Jokers, you will just have to do THE WAIT!
I'll send out excerpts to The Gathering and mark them {MA} so that any Gatherer dumb enough to have no interest in Magazine can ignore them!

Lets go...!

The obvious question I'm sure everyone is asking you is who is going to play guitar at these gigs in February?

Dave Formula: We don't know yet. We've started to narrow it down. We've got a mental shortlist and we'll get together with the people that we decide are on that shortlist and spend a couple of days playing. You can't just decide and then that's it, you've got nowhere else to go. I think we need to play together for at least a little while so we can see if it works for us and the guitar player. We don't want them to just turn up and do it. We want to know what its going to feel and sound like.

It won't be anyone who's played in Magazine before?

DF: You're trying to chip away there and get more information, very clever! 

Howard Devoto: What a ruse! It hasn't been tried before.

DF: Honestly, as soon as we rehearse in October we will say but it's kind of pointless saying now for the people who don't do it, for their reasons or our reasons. It's obviously very important to see if it works for us all.

What label was your solo album released on?

DF: It's not out yet. I'm not sure yet which label will release it. There are a couple of options. It'll either be EMI or Wire Sound.

Wire sound? That reminds me of something else. You should check out the new Wire album "Object 47" because the second track "Circumspect" has a guitar part that sounds very much like the keyboards on "Vigilance." I mentioned it to Colin Newman and he made the sarcastic riposte that everything Wire has ever done has been a Magazine rip off.

DF: We used to meet up with them in Europe just by chance at airports and in bars and stuff. It always seemed to be in transit when we met them and they were quite good fun.

There is an old vinyl bootleg called "Dominoe" that has Magazine on one side and wire on the other.

DF: Oh really? I didn't know.

Magazine are definitely the most popular other band amongst hardcore wire fans. 

DF: We made some sort of natural connection.

I think its down to level of intelligence.

DF: Maybe.

What have you been asked most? I bet it's who is going to play guitar?

DF: Why are you doing it and who is playing guitar? Of course, it's almost like get those questions out of the way and then we can talk about other stuff.

Those Magazine albums have changed the way I think about the world which is a great thing when art does that.

DF: That's great, yeah. Fantastic! We didn't plan this thing happening, us playing again. All of us had been so far away until I asked Barry initially if he'd play on my album, and then John, and I finally approached Howard with some trepidation as he'd been so long away from it. Barry had a very successful career with music and John the drummer was still playing, and I was, but Howard wasn't. It took a while preparing but what he came up with was very moving, a very beautiful piece. My album is called "Satellite Sweetheart."

Do you still live in Manchester?

DF: No, we all moved down to London in 79 and in the mid-nineties I had a family and moved to Lincolnshire.

Howard still lives in London doesn't he?

DF: Yeah. Barry's there too and John Doyle is living in Sussex.

Was there ever any resentment towards Siouxsie and the Banshees when John McGeoch left Magazine to play guitar for them?

DF: Not resentment, but I didn't feel that they were my favourite basket of kittens, that's for sure! It was John's decision in the end.

"Ju Ju" is their best album.

DF: Yeah, absolutely, it's a good album.



Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com