Sex Gang Children: A Cup Of Tea & A Chat With Andi Sex Gang

Originally published in Rave-Up #10 (1985)
Interview by Devorah Ostrov & Sara Brinker
Photos by Devorah Ostrov

Sex Gang Children at the time of this interview.
L-R: Kevin, Andi, Cam & Terry
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Andi Sex Gang is soooo nice! How nice is he? Not only did he sneak two fanzine journalists into Sex Gang Children's London Lyceum show last summer (along with several other kids waiting expectantly outside the backstage entrance), but he also found relatively comfortable hiding places for everyone, and mapped an escape route for us into the main hall. Our hero!

A couple of days later, Sara and I "bumped into" Andi again (some might say we'd been stalking him for hours!) on Carnaby Street, and he invited us round to his place for a cup of tea. He's polite as well as nice! We swooned while he spoke of Édith Piaf and old movies, and while we waited for the rest of the group to turn up for rehearsal, we asked Andi a few questions.

My photo of Andi was used in
the 2007 Cherry Red reissue of Blind!

Rave-Up: We really admire Sex Gang Children's attitude towards the fans that come to see you. Is it important to you to take care of your fans?

Andi: That's human nature. You're either a cunt or you're not. It's not a selling point of the band. Our selling point is our music, the live shows, and our records.

Rave-Up: Sex Gang Children tends to be categorized as a doom and gloom/ gothic/death rock band. Do you ever feel a bit trapped by the cult following for that genre of music?

Andi: It's not a matter of being trapped so much by a cult following... I think most of our followers are basically big fans and have great faith in the band. You just want to be able to prove to everyone that you're not as limited a band as everyone thinks you are.

Rave-Up: There seems to be a great desire in the music press to limit you and label you.

Andi: There is. It gives you a feeling of being picked apart and exposed. It can make you feel incredibly naked.

Rave-Up: From some previous conversations we've had, you guys seem to be great fans of a variety of music and still able to get excited over other people's work.

Kevin Matthews & Cam Campbell
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Andi: Yeah, it's true! We are fans of music and excited about what we do, excited about the people and the things in life. I'm excited by the fact that Steven Spielberg is in the position to do what he wants to do, and at the same time, he's offering entertainment for millions of people. That's brilliant! It gives us faith.

Rave-Up: Who are your heroes?

Andi: I like a lot of film stars — Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Robert De Niro. I like Divine as well; he's a person of incredible style. I like the real stars, old film greats. They have no grand illusions about themselves.
   You know who I really like and admire? Billy Joel! He doesn't go around saying, "I've got an image." Or "I'm a Batcave artist." He doesn't need to sell himself with cheap slogans. He says it all with his music.

Rave-Up: Are you guys working on any videos?

Andi: We did a video for the Édith Piaf song ["Les Amants D'un Jour"]. Graham Bentley, who does our lights and works with us behind the scenes, set up an appointment with Radio Luxembourg because they were greatly interested in us and they had a European cable network. We went up to Northampton, chose a location, and made a video on the spur of the moment. Then we stayed up for four nights editing and sussing things out. We went back to London, went to Radio Luxembourg, and the video was flown out to their cable network in Europe to show that very night.

Andi proves he loves Billy Joel by posing with one of his albums.
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Rave-Up: Is it true that you finance everything yourselves?

Andi: Everything we do is self-financed. We keep everything to a minimum. We have to!

Rave-Up: So, you don't need the limos or the big hotel rooms?

Andi Sex Gang & Terry MacLeay
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Andi: No, we aren't spoiled by the money. 

   I remember the first time we got involved in a huge festival [Futurama 4, 1982]… 

   We drove up there in a shitty old van that leaked, and we were hungry, and we just jumped onstage. We showed them the best of ourselves, while everyone else had this complacent attitude. 

   It was supposed to be the festival of the year. When we got there, we had never seen such a lethargic atmosphere. Everyone was just waiting for something to happen.

Rave-Up: Nothing was happening, so you made it happen!

Andi: Yeah... That sounds like such a cheap thing to say, but it's true! We blew a lot of bands off the stage. In fact, the only two bands that stood out that night were us and Southern Death Cult. Everyone else just went through the motions. We were the only two bands that gave it something!✨

A Rendezvous At Alice In Wonderland With The Damned

Originally published in Rave-Up #10 (1985)
Interview by Devorah Ostrov

Dave Vanian
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Shortly after the Damned independently released (and had a Top 50 hit with) "Thanks for the Night," Rave-Up arranged to rendezvous with keyboardist/guitarist Roman Jugg and vocalist Dave Vanian at their fave London haunt, Alice In Wonderland.

Roman was the first to arrive...

Rave-Up: After seeing the Damned recently in London, the group seems to fit in more comfortably with the Alice In Wonderland scene rather than the Batcave. But if someone didn't know you, they would probably think it was the other way around.

Roman: Well, it depends on if you know what the Batcave and Alice In Wonderland are all about. The Batcave started off as a good idea, but unfortunately, it attracted the pseudo-gothic-punk worshippers. And you've got loads of bands playing down there with this gothic sort of image, who haven't done anything. It's just an image. They don't believe in what they're doing.

Rave-Up: Does it bother you that all these new gothic-punk bands are getting so much attention and press, while the Damned have been at it for so long without getting the attention they deserve?

Advert for the "Thanks for the Night" 45 and EP

Released on Damned Records (1984)

Roman: I suppose it annoys us a little bit. I wouldn't mind if the bands were doing something worthwhile, but unfortunately, they haven't. They just surface for a very short period of time, and the fact that they split up so quickly speaks for itself. They don't have any belief in what they're doing.

Rave-Up: Exactly! Whereas the Damned has always kept going in one form or another.

Roman: I think our strength comes from... If you believe in what you're doing, you find strength in that and you can carry on. You've got to believe in what you're doing to carry on through the hard times.

Roman Jugg

Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Rave-Up: It seems like the Damned has had a harder time than most other bands.

Roman: We've had a very hard time! I think it's been a case of bad luck upon bad luck. But the fact that we've stayed together and carried through it... I mean, the last two years have been very, very hard for the band. But I believe that by getting through that, hopefully, it'll strengthen what we're doing.

Rave-Up: Are you going to continue releasing your material on Damned Records, or are you still looking for a major-label deal? [They have since signed to MCA Records.]

Roman: Well, it's very strange. The only reason we put that single ["Thanks for the Night"] out on Damned Records was because eight months earlier, we couldn't get a deal with any record company. So, we decided to do it on our own.

Rave-Up: And you've actually had something of a hit with the song!

Roman: The fact that we had a Top 50 hit made a mockery of all the major record companies. It got to #43 in the British charts and stayed in the Top 50 for four weeks! Since then, we've had all the majors queuing up to sign us.

Dave Vanian
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Rave-Up: I've heard you say that record companies won't sign the Damned because they don't take the group seriously.

Roman: Well, that was one of the excuses they gave us. When we started taking demos in, half of them wouldn't see us. Then, we'd take the demo tape in and not tell them what group we were. They'd say, "Fantastic! Who is this? We gotta sign them!" We'd say, "It's the Damned." And they'd say, "See ya later." They're scared of us.

At this point, Dave Vanian made his appearance, and the conversation turned to mutual hero, Sky Saxon.

Dave: Last I heard... A couple of years ago, we were in Chicago, and it was like he'd turned vegetarian and thrown his dog out of the house because it wouldn't eat vegetarian food. We were hoping he'd come down; we were going to do a few numbers with him. But he never did. You said you've got a tape of his new stuff?

Rave-Up: A demo tape. It's pretty bad.

The tape recorder picks up an unidentified voice from the other end of the table.

Voice: ...Sky doing that song with Dave?

Rave-Up: No! What!?

Dave: Outrageous! Outrageous!

The Damned's lineup at the time of this interview

L-R: Rat Scabies, Dave Vanian, Roman Jugg & Bryn Merrick

Voice: It wasn't very good.

Rave-Up: Do you have a copy of this recording?

Voice: It's on a bootleg somewhere.

Dave: Is it? I'm always the last to know about bootlegs.

Dave Vanian
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Dave flicks through a copy of Rave-Up #9 laying on the table and pauses at the horror trivia page.

Dave: Some of these questions are quite difficult because we don't get to see these films very often over here. There's been a kind of resurgence of very bad films lately.

Rave-Up: They've become trendy.

Dave: Yeah, it's a shame in a way. The things that I like have become a little bit of a cliché. I always wanted to get, if there's any videotape, a copy of Vampira's original show. I've got a couple of Life magazines from 1954 and a few articles about her. One of the tracks on Machine Gun Etiquette ["Plan 9 Channel 7"] was actually written for her. She sent a letter to me when I was in the States... It was funny, this guy was going back and forth between us. She didn't want us to meet in case my illusion was shattered. You know, she's gotten older.

Rave-Up: Have you ever thought about doing a movie starring the Damned?

Dave: Often. We did a video for "Plan 9," but it was never shown anywhere except Italy. It was shot in Surrey at some farmer's place — all overgrown, with smoke everywhere. Laurie [Dave's wife] was done up as Vampira...

Rave-Up: That sounds amazing!

Dave Vanian
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Dave: The funny thing about it was, we did lots of things that I thought would look good in the video — we actually shot it on film, not video. A year later, I got the Life magazine and some of the stills from the film [Plan 9 From Outer Space] were identical to things I had done. There was a scene where Laurie blows out a candle, it's a side view, and there was the exact same photo of Vampira! It was very strange.

Rave-Up: I was talking to Roman about the problems the group has had getting signed to a major label. He said that now you've had a hit record, they're all interested!

Dave: Yeah, about six months ago, they weren't interested whatsoever. They thought we were washed-up. Since we've proved that we're not, there's about four companies fighting to sign us!

Rave-Up: Being signed to a major label would certainly make it easier for the Damned to tour the States. The last time you were there, it seemed like things were quite bad financially.

Dave: It always has been. We're on a real shoestring over there. There was one time when we were in San Francisco, and we couldn't get to Los Angeles to do our last gig because all the money was gone. If anyone had anything to hock, if anyone had a credit card, any money we had... It was really funny because, at the beginning of the tour, we were met by these limousines. We thought, "Man, this is it!" And then here we are in San Francisco with all these bags trying to get on a bus.

Rave-Up: But through it all, the Damned has persevered.

Dave: I enjoy it!

* * *

You can read my teen 'zine Damned questionnaire here:  devorahostrov.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-damned-british-punk-sensations

You can also read my 1998 interview with the Damned's Captain Sensible here:

devorahostrov.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/captain-sensible-interview