The Thompson Twins Want To Know Why Passion Is More Important Than Dinosaurs

Originally published in Rave-Up #6 (1983)

Interview by Devorah Ostrov

Alannah Currie, Joe Leeway & Tom Bailey backstage at the
Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco - March 1983
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

As I write this, the Thompson Twins are the biggest thing in pop music. Their latest single, "Love on Your Side," from the album Quick Step & Side Kick, is topping several different charts at once, and tickets for their extensive US and UK tours have sold out. Melody Maker even reported that when Alannah goes out in public, she has to disguise herself as an old hag to avoid being mobbed!

After struggling for several years to get noticed and having undergone a radical change of lineup, this has all happened super-fast! When I first met the band a few months ago, they were a critically praised but not especially well-known pop outfit who'd had a US dance club hit with "In the Name of Love." After the show, Alannah promised me an interview "next time."

"If we're not too famous to talk to fanzines," she added in jest. 

Alannah Currie backstage at the Kabuki - March 1983
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Well, they actually are too famous for fanzines now. But Alannah kept her promise. 

So, prior to their headlining set at the Kabuki, I found myself sitting backstage with Tom Bailey, Joe Leeway, and Alannah Currie discussing their massive rise to fame, and the effect it's had on the band and their fan base.

Tom: It's like, really MEGA! See, we've always been at a cult level...

Joe: It's totally over the top! The last gig we did in Staten Island, we said, "After the encore, no one come up onstage. Please!" And everyone just came up onstage.

Alannah: When it started happening [people getting onstage with the group], it was very spontaneous. We were trying to break down the barriers between the band and the audience. Instead of just being very voyeuristic and watching a band, you've got to join in and help create the event. 

Tom: It was a sudden rush! And I think that was the first break... or one of the first steps away from just playing music. It was the first kind of non-musical event.

Rave-Up: Has the live show itself changed dramatically since I last saw you?

Tom: We haven't really changed it very much because we've been more or less consistently touring. We've had to go through sacking various personnel and getting new people. I mean, in terms of not changing very much, that's quite true. But in terms of dealing with human beings, we've gone through a whole lot just getting this production on the road.

Rave-Up: It does seem as if it's a lot more business-oriented now than it used to be. Does that take some of the fun out of it for you?

Tom Bailey at the Warfield in SF - May 1984
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Alannah: No! Definitely not.

Tom: It's much more exciting! In fact, we are not musicians. We see ourselves perhaps more appropriately as a business.

Alannah: We're more like a production company. We deal with music, and we deal with videos.

Tom: We're a communications company.

Rave-Up: "Love on Your Side" has crossed over to several different charts. What would you attribute that to?

Tom: It's probably because there was no prejudice towards us. I mean, as soon as we arrived [in the US], a lot of black radio stations stopped playing us because they could suddenly see us. We suddenly didn't fit into what their image of a "black band" was all about. Similarly, some AOR stations thought we were a little too risqué visually, so they stopped playing us as well.

Rave-Up: Do you think MTV showing the video for "Lies" on regular rotation helped push the group over here?

Tom: Sure! And that's quite exciting for us because we're just about to release our second video over here [for "Love on Your Side"], and we think it's 100 times more powerful than the "Lies" one.

Rave-Up: You've been so busy lately. Have you been able to give any thought to your next album?

Tom: We haven't really thought too much about our next album because we're touring and promoting Quick Step & Side Kick. We want to see that pushed a little bit more.

Alannah & Tom with their copies of Rave-Up #6
backstage at the Day on the Green - September 1983.
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Joe: We've always been a common-sense band. Basically, we need to consolidate what we're doing at the moment. We won't be going out on a massive tangent, that's for sure. We've just got to consolidate and further push the single.

Rave-Up: I've heard that most of your US shows have sold out.

Tom: In New York, we did two nights at the Ritz!

Joe: There were 400 people locked out at the Ritz, and the weather...

Tom: It was pouring rain! It was so embarrassing.

Rave-Up: Were you expecting that sort of reception over here?

Joe Leeway at the Warfield, San Francisco - May 1984
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Alannah: No!

Joe: We didn't know what it was going to be like. I suppose that's where you have to rely on other people analyzing things for you and saying what you're worth.

A journalist from Lowrider magazine voices his concern about the lack of guitars on Quick Step & Side Kick, which leads to a lively conversation about passion and dinosaurs.

Tom: Guitars sneak into one track, and it's really boring! They took four hours to do something we could have done in 7-1/2 minutes.

Alannah: Guitars can be played really well, but we've had several years of having two guitars, and everything we write having to do with those two guitars. Almost everything that can be done brilliantly on a guitar has been done already — it's not new. Whereas synthesizers are new! With technology, there's more sounds; more differences come out.

Tom: If you're not used to technology, it could seem overbearing. You can over-reflect on the essence of technology, so people use synthesizers to make very stark, bleak sounding music.

Alannah: And then also, you can get some great sounds! You can mix very organic sounds with very synthetic sounds, which is what we're trying to do. So, even if your vocals might be, like ours, sarcastic and a bit cold, or not terribly impassioned... 

Alannah Currie backstage at the Day on the Green - Sept 1983

Photo: Devorah Ostrov

Tom: The vocabulary of emotion in pop music is very cliché. All those "Hey baby, let's get down and groove," or "Hey baby, my life is a misery since you left me," soulful wailings and things... They're all rather empty of emotion. They're just like a formula, you know. I think people who are quite inhibited and let emotions sneak out of them under stress and strain are actually more passionate.

Joe: I don't know what the big deal is, screaming out for passion. We're living in a synthetic age. Passion is no big deal.

Alannah: I have this theory that since the beginning of rock and roll, it's been men doing it, right? And men, as we all know, are emotional cripples because they can't express themselves. They've been brought up not to cry and not to show emotion. So, music is the perfect outlet. And because men have always been in control of the rock and roll business, they write these songs that are a total outlet for their emotions. But they need a stage and a performance to do that! Now that there are more women involved in groups and writing songs, there's also been a change in mental attitudes. It's not so important to go out there and do these massive wailings and screechings anymore, because they're doing that in their day-to-day lives. So, then they start looking for other things to talk about and sing about.

Tom: And in fact, we are quite passionate in a subliminal way.

Alannah: I mean, why is passion far more appreciated than a sense of humor or wit, or something completely off the wall, like dinosaurs? Why is passion more important than dinosaurs?

(Many thanks to Rave-Up reader Rodney Klein who kindly forwarded me this long-lost interview from issue #6)

Shrapnel: Daniel Rey Recounts The History Of The Group "Punk" Magazine Dubbed "The Brat Patrol."

Originally published in Teenage Kicks #3 (Spring 1999)

By Devorah Ostrov

Shrapnel strike a suitably militaristic pose for this publicity pic.
Photo: Tom Hearn

You might have seen guitarist Daniel Rey's co-writer credit on such Ramones' faves as "Poison Heart," "Pet Sematary," and "I Wanna Live." He's also produced records for the Ramones, the Misfits, White Zombie, Green Apple Quickstep, D Generation, and "a bunch of other stuff" he can't remember. 

However, what initially caught my attention in Punk magazine was his militaristic-styled late-'70s band, Shrapnel. And when I met Rey (aka Rabinowitz) at the recent Thunder Road benefit (where he backed-up Joey Ramone on a handful of songs), he was happy to fill me in on a brief history of the group Punk once dubbed "The Brat Patrol."

"Combat Love" b/w "Hey"
(Salute Records - 1979)

Comprised of a bunch of camo-clad juvenile delinquents, Shrapnel hailed from the 'burbs of New Jersey. "But as soon as we were old enough, we were hanging out in New York," says Rey. 

Along with Rey, the band's teenaged lineup featured Dave Wyndorf (vocals), Philip Caivano (bass), Dave Vogt (guitar), and Dan Clayton (drums).

"The Dictators were one of my favorite bands," Rey declares. "They totally changed our lives. We went to see the Ramones in the summer of '76, the last time they played the Jersey Shore, and Top Ten from the Dictators was there. He was amazed that anyone recognized him! He told us about this place on Bleeker and Bowery called CBGBs. So, we went up there the next weekend. And we never left."

"There was a time in New York..." Rey trails off. "In '76, the Dictators and the Ramones were the two hot bands. Then the Dead Boys came around. Shrapnel used to open for them all the time. We used to open for the Ramones a lot, probably 100 times."

Rey describes Shrapnel's early sound as a "sort of rave-up, militant, MC5 sort of thing. With a little bit of pop thrown in. Real American punk rock 'n' roll."

Shrapnel and their Spidey friend
(Illustration by Frank Miller for Marvel Comics)

The band "conned" Legs McNeil from Punk magazine into managing them, and in issue #14, the 'zine announced: "Next Big Thing — Kid Groups. Kids too young to drink are playing clubs in N.Y.C." And Shrapnel, along with the Blessed and Middle Class, were listed as the best of them all.

In 1979 Shrapnel released the first of two now impossible to find 45s on their own label, Salute Records. Produced by McNeil and Jonathan Paley, the single "Combat Love" b/w "Hey" featured the tag line "Commandos of Rock 'N Roll," underlining the group's B-movie militaristic stance.

Shrapnel's self-titled EP
(Elektra Records - 1984)

In his review of the 45, Punk's music critic Jolly poked fun at McNeil when he wrote: "A good band but they lack that certain something, that certain guiding light, that maybe a director or manager could provide. In the long run, it may be what stands between them and greatness."

In a corresponding write-up, Punk's Assistant Publisher Richard Tucksmith pointed out: "Hey" is a good song. Shrapnel is also good live, in case you're interested. Buy this record so their manager can get some new clothes. But seriously, it's a good record."

That same year, Shrapnel lost Punk's "Best New Group" award to the B-52's, but the magazine's March/April issue featured them in a photo/comic send-up as the Brat Patrol. The concept went something like this:

"The Plot — Shrapnel — the Janitors of Justice, are out to sanitize New Jersey by eradicating their arch enemy — the Unknown Gook — a bald, aging, fanatical flower child, driven mad by excessive banana-peel smoking."

Shrapnel
(photographer unknown)

However, according to Rey, the fun had gone out of the New York punk scene by then. 

When Dead Boys' drummer, Johnny Blitz, was brutally stabbed outside a Lower East Side deli, it was "a turning point for the whole scene," he says. 

"It had been kind of carefree," recalls Rey. "There was a camaraderie, an innocence to it. And the Dead Boys were the hot band. At that moment, they were the greatest band. But they were never the same after that."

"We used to go to the same place to eat after CB's," he notes about the location of the attack. There were only two or three places you could go to back then in the East Village, late at night. And everybody used to end up there after Max's or CB's. I remember that night vividly; the innocence was lost."

Shrapnel played the "Blitz Benefit" at CBGBs, sharing the bill with Blondie and the Dead Boys. Comedian John Belushi guested on drums in Blitz's absence. As Rey remembers it, "Belushi came into the dressing room all coked up, going, 'Who's got drumsticks? Who's got drumsticks?' Our drummer gave him drumsticks."

In 1984 Shrapnel released a five-song EP on Elektra Records that included a strong cover of Gary Glitter's "Didn't Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock-N-Roll)." 

Shrapnel as the "Brat Patrol" - excerpt from Punk's photo/comic. 
(Written by Legs McNeil & Jolly/Photos by Tom Hearn)

But the no-frills cover art didn't picture the guys in their usual army-surplus garb. Instead, it made them look like an airbrushed new wave band.  

Rey simply states that the EP was "bad."

"We kind of got caught up in the '80s new wave thing," he adds. "We used to play these dance clubs... We were young when we got signed, and like most bands, we listened to the label."

Now older and wiser, Rey imparts this piece of wisdom: "When you get signed, and someone from the label tells you to do something, you have to do the exact opposite. That's very important. And then you'll be okay."

Shrapnel broke up "right after we got signed," says Rey. "It was just time, 'yknow."

Shrapnel
(publicity photo)

The Power Of Pop: Wayne Hussey Talks About The Making Of "Masque" & The Condition Of The Mission In 1992

Originally published in American Music Press (October 1992)

By Devorah Ostrov

The Mission before Simon Hinkler left the band.
(Wayne Hussey second from right)

The record company bio that came with the new Mission UK album, Masque, reads like an ersatz Bronte novel. "Standing beneath the vaulted ceiling of Beefheart Hall..." begins the romanticized prose that depicts the group's vocalist Wayne Hussey surveying his country estate — no doubt named in honor of the avant-garde musician best known for Trout Mask Replica. 

The text gets even more ambitious when Hussey (apparently keeping his desire to be Ted Nugent a secret all these years) "discards his huge wolf and weasel fur cape. Leaping onto a three-legged milking stool, he hangs his brand new, recently blooded crossbow on the wrought-iron weapons rack fixed high up on the thick granite walls."

Wayne Hussey
(photographer unknown)

Hussey himself is on the other end of the phone line, having a hearty chuckle. He's really a very jovial fellow. 

"That's all a fabrication!" he exclaims.

So, Beefheart Hall doesn't actually exist?  

"Not to my knowledge."

And you don't kill your own meat and custom-make clothing from the fur?

"No!" He's quite emphatic about that.

I'm guessing the bit where bassist Craig Adams and drummer Mick Brown turn up for rehearsals in an ex-Soviet military helicopter is also fiction, which is a shame, as I quite enjoyed that mental image.

"The bio was designed to see how many people would believe it," explains Hussey. "It's been quite amusing, particularly in Japan. The Japanese journalists all believe every single word!"

★ ★ ★

Q: Masque is so different from your previous albums. It's sort of upbeat! Has it taken people by surprise?

WAYNE: It's really... [he pauses to chuckle] divided them, particularly our audience here in Britain. I think people who have seen us play live a few times understand it a little more than the people who haven't. But you know, parts of our audience really don't understand it and even... [more chuckles] don't like it. And then some of them say it's the best record we've made. But you don't make a record with that intention. You just do the best job you can at that particular point in time. And hopefully along the way, you entertain yourself as well as entertain some other people.

Masque
(Mercury Records - 1992)

Q: Is it true that the band was on the verge of breaking up just before recording Masque?

WAYNE: Yeah, well... It's a question that gets raised every now and then, particularly since Simon [Hinkler, guitarist] left. I mean, we were in the middle of that 1990 tour when he left. And suddenly, it went from something that felt solid and invincible to something questionable and vulnerable. You constantly have to reappraise what you're doing anyway, kind of validate it for yourself. I think it's part of the creative process to question what you're doing, to question its value.

Q: Has the new record convinced you that it's worthwhile to keep the band together?

WAYNE: It's brought us closer together as people. Our friendships underwent a pretty traumatic time in 1990. It was the worst time ever. We didn't like each other very much, which was probably born out of the fact that we didn't like ourselves. So, I think it's brought us closer together as friends, which was basically what the band was founded on. I've been in bands before where friendship was never an issue. It was very much, "This is just what we do together," and that was it. It was great to be in the Mission, to be four lads in it together, and be best friends. Obviously, when Simon left, it really shook it all up.

The Mission at the time of this interview.
L-R: Mick Brown, Wayne Hussey & Craig Adams

Q: Are you still friends with Simon?

WAYNE: Yeah... I mean, YEAH! I would never want Simon to come back into the group. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to come back. There was a period when I felt betrayed by him, pretty let down. And I'm sure he felt the same way about us. But time's a good healer. He played a couple of shows with us last year, and he came to my wedding. Ironically enough, he's now a journalist [with Rock World magazine].

Q: Has he interviewed you yet?

WAYNE: No! There was a request put in by the paper to interview us, but he knows too much dirt. Haha! He reviewed the LP — he gave it eight out of ten. There were a few little digs at me, reading between the lines, but I guess that's to be expected.

Wayne Hussey

Q: I got the impression from some of the lyrics on Masque that you used the songs to, for lack of a better phrase, purge some personal demons from your head. Some of the lyrics seem really close to home.

WAYNE: It was the kind of discipline I imposed on myself with this record. In the past, I tended to deviate a little from the subject matter; get a little prosaic, you might say. I prefer to call it poetic license. But with this record, I really wanted to try to speak in a language that I speak in every day.

Q: Instead of being consciously 'gothic.'

WAYNE: Well, I never thought of it as being gothic. I think of it as being poetry, but I was kind of into the use of words for their sound more than their meaning. But that was the only discipline I imposed. Musically, it was: let's throw enough things in the pot and see what we get!

Q: I do think that some of your lyrics, for instance, "Never Again," would make wonderful poems on their own.

WAYNE: It's weird, I really envy people who write nonsensical two-line songs, but I need to qualify it to myself. And my way of qualifying it is that it reads well, as well as sounds good.

Q: Do you read much poetry?

Wayne on the cover of No. 1 magazine
November 1, 1986

WAYNE: I have done in the past. Now I read more novels and biographies. But when I was younger, I did read a lot of poetry.

Q: Do you have a favorite poet?

WAYNE: Yeah... It's a pretty common one, but it's Baudelaire.

Q: Do you have a favorite English folktale?

WAYNE: No, but I have a favorite Iowa folktale! My wife's father is originally from the Midwest, Iowa, and he's got loads of stories. My favorite one is about this guy they used to call "Dancing John." He just couldn't sit still. So, when he died, there was a massive turnout in the local community. People came just to see him lying still in his coffin. It was the first time anybody had seen him stay still! There's going to be a song on the next LP called "The Ballad of Dancing John," I think.

   I also like a lot of Steinbeck's writing. Have you ever read Travels With Charley? It's a wonderful book. It's one of the last ones he wrote, if not the last. He bought a mobile home and traveled around America with his dog. Basically, that's what the book is about — discovering America, all these folktales from wherever he went. It's really, really good!

Q: Would you like to do something like that yourself? Travel around America?

WAYNE: Yeah, I'd love to! I'd really like to have the time and the means to do it. There are so many spectacular parts of the country, particularly the Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey, Yosemite. Then you go out to Vegas — it's just very bizarre! You've got all these different things...

Poster for the band's 25th-anniversary celebration
at the Brixton Academy in London.

Q: Pop culture!

WAYNE: It is! Particularly LA. There's so much 20th-century history, and it all fascinates me. It's what I grew up with. I really can see Kelly and I living out there in a few years' time.

Q: What about the rest of the band?

WAYNE: I don't know... I really don't see the band going on forever and ever. I'm sure Craig and Mick don't either. It's something we're doing right now that we're enjoying.

Q: Is there some other work you see yourself doing in the future, like maybe writing a book?

WAYNE: Yeah, that's kind of a major ambition of mine. Whenever I read a great book, it's like, "God, I would love to..." To have a finished manuscript would be like, wow! Not even to have it published or anything. I just think it would be a great sense of achievement. But I haven't got the self-discipline to do that. I also like the lifestyle and discipline of writers. I like the idea that they get up at six 'clock in the morning and write till mid-day, so many words, and then the rest of the day they get drunk.

Q: I don't think they all do that.

WAYNE: I know they don't, but Charles Bukowski does. I'm not sure he's disciplined in his writing at all, actually. I know that's the way Steinbeck used to write.

The Mission circa 1986
Poster from Smash Hits magazine

Q: Are you disciplined as a songwriter?

WAYNE: No. I'll plunk around on the piano or a guitar. I have a studio now in the garden of my house, so I go there and mess about. If something captures my imagination, I'll pursue it. But it's very strange. I'm always coming up with new ideas, 99% of which I discard or forget. But no, I tend to write in phases, really. I haven't written a song now since we finished the album. But I'll start doing some stuff, and five or six good songs will come at once. That's the way I work.

Q: I just want to say that I'm really happy you chose "Like a Child Again" as a single from the new album. It's such a great pop song!

Wayne shares the cover of Sounds with
Miles Hunt of the Wonder Stuff - March 1990

WAYNE: It is a great pop song! I'm proud of that one. It was actually the last song I wrote for the record.

Q: There are actually quite a few great pop tunes on Masque.

WAYNE: Well, you know, I've always felt that we were more a pop group than we were a rock group. I don't think we fully realized the songs in the past. I don't think we saw ourselves too clearly.

Q: Was there pressure from within the band to change your musical direction a bit with this album?

WAYNE: As far as Craig, Mick and myself, we kind of realized even before Simon had left that we had to go somewhere else with it. But we weren't sure what to do or where to take it. Obviously, when Simon left, it forced our hand a little bit, but it actually kind of liberated us in a lot of ways. I was writing tunes and not having to accommodate another guitar player. I'd forgotten that I could play guitar! I'd let Simon do it all. But with this record, it was like, "Okay, I'll play guitar here." On the other hand, if I didn't want any guitar in a song, then there wasn't any guitar.

Q: Replacing Simon was never a question then?

WAYNE: No! The Mission is the three of us now, although we used additional musicians on the record, and we'll use additional musicians when we play live as well.

Q: You used King Hussein's personal violin player on "Sticks and Stones." How did that come about?

"Like a Child Again"
CD single (Mercury Records - 1992)

WAYNE: I asked Jaz [Coleman, of Killing Joke], who's a friend of ours, to score the track. He said, "Yeah, but ah... I'm going to bring somebody along to play violin." Abdel [Aboud Ali] works for a living in a restaurant in Shepard's Bush. He's one of those annoying violin players that comes up and plays while you're eating! But whenever there's a royal occasion or a state wedding in Jordan, he gets the V.I.P. treatment. Quite neat!

Q: And Anthony Thistlethwaite [formerly of the Waterboys] co-wrote some of the songs.

WAYNE: Only two tunes ended up on the record ["She Conjures Me Wings" and "Even You May Shine"], but there were a few other tunes that I wrote with Anthony. He's such a lovely person. He's such a great person to play with because there's absolutely no ego involved on his part. He just purely loves music and plays for the fun of it!

Q: The song "Even You May Shine," is that about Charles Manson?

WAYNE: What makes you say that?

Q: You reference "Helter Skelter," little piggies, the family, and the names Sadie and Gypsy.

Wayne Hussey
(photo from the NME)

WAYNE: Yeah, I read the book around the time we were touring California. It's bewildering to me that people would do anything for this person. But it's quite an easy concept to grasp. Being in a band, there are times when you're put into a position of power, and it's easy to see how that can be abused. That's basically what the song is about — people need to find their place; they need to feel like they're part of something.

Q: "From One Jesus to Another," is that an answer to John Lennon's "Gimmie Some Truth"?

WAYNE: No, it's more like an answer to a song called "Lovely," which was on Carved In Sand [the band's previous album]. Actually, "From One Jesus..." was the first song that I wrote for this record. It's kind of, uhmm... It's the realization that you need to love yourself, and you really only need yourself. Once you have that, everything falls into line. But the bottom line is, firstly, you need to love yourself.

Q: It sounds like you've come to this realization fairly recently.

WAYNE: Towards the end of 1990, I was a mess. My personal life was a mess; the band was a mess. I was drinking far too much and taking far too many drugs. During the last world tour, I was supposed to go out and play to two thousand people a night and be a certain type of persona. And it ended up that I'd play that persona just to please them. I was really very unhappy, and I was taking it out on all the people around me, and I didn't know why. I'm the kind of person who doesn't confront things very easily. I tend to ball it up and try to put it on one side. It's interesting what you said before, with this record trying to lay some ghosts to rest because that's definitely how it worked for me. And it's probably the best way for me to exorcise those ghosts, through writing songs. The whole time I was making the record was very much a healing time. Obviously, Kelly, who became my wife while we were making the record, was very instrumental in that as well. She helped me regain my self-confidence. It's a gradual process. But with this record, I was very much getting it out of my system.

Advert for Wayne's 2015 tour in support of his
solo LP Songs of Candlelight and Razorblades.

Q: Are you content with the Mission's status in the music world?

WAYNE: I'm fairly happy with where we are right now. There was a time when we really saw ourselves being bigger than U2, or whoever, and when Simon left, it dawned on us that maybe that wasn't going to happen. I would like to sell more records, but in terms of my personal life, being able to do the things I want to do, go where I want to go without being bothered — it's great!

Q: Yeah, Bono probably can't go to the grocery store without being mobbed.

WAYNE: But the guys from Pink Floyd can. I much prefer that kind of fame.

Q: Will you be touring America in support of Masque?

WAYNE: I think we'll probably come over. It won't be a tour in the normal sense of the word. It won't be a concert tour, or anything. I don't know what it'll be yet.

Q: It'll be a surprise!

WAYNE: Well, you know, the record surprised a few people. Hopefully, we'll surprise them live too!

Enrique Serves Up '70s Kitsch & Sartorial Splendor To Delirious San Francisco (And Detroit) Fans!

Originally published in BAM (November 1, 1991)

By Devorah Ostrov

Enrique (publicity photo circa 1991)

In an icy-cold basement just off Haight Street, the five members of Enrique — vocalists Jason and D'Arcy, guitarist Sugar, bassist Mervine, and drummer Ron ("no last names, please") — are running through the Debbie Boone hit "You Light Up My Life." 

Jason begins, "So many nights..." and D'Arcy follows, "...I sit by my window..." But when they reach the second verse, continuing to alternate lines, a problem arises — the one who starts the song gets to sing, "To say, hey, I love you!" 

Enrique performing at the Haight Street Fair
Photo: Ron Quintana

"But that's the best line!" cries D'Arcy. I'm singing it."

 

"Uh-uh," counters Jason. "It's mine."

Tempers flare, but just as quickly, everyone's giggling. They can, after all, sing the line together.

Jason and D'Arcy have always been best friends. The newest version of their childhoods has them kidnapped by a Spaniard named Enrique. He, supposedly, took them to live in a trailer park in Lodi, where he taught them to disco dance. "We grew to love him as a father," says Jason.

"Are people really going to believe we were abducted?" asks D'Arcy. He's worried about the details. "Have we been reunited with our parents yet?"

No matter. Eventually they (somehow) made their way to San Francisco, and about two years ago, mysterious flyers depicting their faces (sometimes pasted over those of the original Charlie's Angels) with the name "Enrique" began appearing around town.

"We had danced for some friends' bands a couple of times," explains D'Arcy, "and had been well received. We wanted to take it further, so we made up the flyers. We just weren't sure what we wanted to do."

Flyer for an Enrique show (with Wig Torture & Camel Toe) at Morty's.

Enter Mervine. Figuring they were advertising a group, he asked the pair if they might need a bassist. "We thought, OK, we'll be a band," laughs Jason. Sugar, who used to scoop ice cream for a living alongside Jason, was added on guitar, and the first of two drummers signed up.

Before the first rehearsal, Enrique was booked to open for the Average White Band at the Kennel Club. "It really helped us get in gear," says D'Arcy. "We could've taken six months to sit around and practice, but only having a month to get the show together pushed us to do it."

Jason, Kate Jackson & D'Arcy featured in the
Enrique billboard located at Castro & Market Streets.

He adds that their first set featured all cover songs, including Hot Chocolate's "Everyone's a Winner," the Partridge Family's "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat," and Nick Gilder's "Hot Child in the City." 

From early on, the band has shown a knack for generating publicity. Consistently amusing flyers constantly appeared, a billboard went up on the corner of Castro and Market, and Jason and D'Arcy were seen on TV 20's Dance Party. 

In their biggest coup, the two vocalists — feet clad in platforms, heads topped with Afro wigs — paid a visit to the chat show People Are Talking and asked a startled John Waters (promoting Cry Baby) how to get into one of his films. "See my casting agent," they were tersely told.

"I'd rather be on Twin Peaks anyway," huffs Jason. 

D'Arcy & Jason show off their Hostess Cupcake collection
as well as their spectacular handmade costumes!

In July, Enrique travelled to New York to participate in the New Music Seminar. Envisioning an instant recording contract, the band came away disappointed. Still, the journey enabled them to play a memorable show in Detroit.

"Detroit flipped over us," enthuses Mervine, explaining how after their set, the band had to be led through the 1000-seat hall by a bouncer. "Everyone was shaking our hands and asking for autographs!"

"They actually offered to buy clothing off us," adds Sugar. 

Determined to keep going once the current '70s revival inevitably fizzles out, Enrique is concentrating on writing new material and a four-song tape featuring all original songs is available through the Enrique fan club. "We want to make a name for ourselves as a real, solid band," says D'Arcy. "We want to be able to stand on our own feet."

★ ★ ★

Jason with Julie & Michelle -
two of Enrique's biggest fans.
Photo: Ron Quintana

Enrique at the Paradise Lounge - 2/23/1990

Originally published in BAM

Live review by Devorah Ostrov

"The ultimate Enrique experience," promised the flyers for this double-set extravaganza. With 'fro wigs, platforms, flying bread and outrageously handmade '70s attire, the show easily lived up to the confident proclamation.

While the early set featured treatments of such classics as "Kung Fu Fighting" and "Boogie Man" (vocalists Jason and D'Arcy imbuing the latter with the passion it deserves), it was the late show that reigned supreme.

Dressed in a patriotic display of star-covered blue flares and vests complete with starred cape-like appendages, the two frontmen took the stage with the rousing "Electric Company Theme Song." Hilariously synchronizing their go-go dancing, the two tore through "Everyone's a Winner" and "I'm a little Bit Country/I'm a Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll" — D'Arcy playing Donny to Jason's Marie. And they wound up the whole affair with Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" — so trashed that Phil Lynott must still be rolling in his grave.

Although it's hard to take your eyes off the singers, the musicians in Enrique should not be overlooked, especially when they transform the Partridge Family hit "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat" with a beat so funkified you'll forget how silly a song it actually is.

Despite the trappings to the contrary, Enrique is not just a '70s revivalist act. Both sets featured several self-penned tunes (such as the enticing "1-800-ENRIQUE"), which elicited just as many cheers from the happy crowd, one of whom offered up a two-volume 8-track recording of Thank God It's Friday as a token of affection.

Enrique (with Michelle) at the Hemp Festival — "in the mistaken idea they were onstage,"
adds photographer Ron Quintana.

* You can follow Enrique on Facebook! Here's a link to their page: 

Enrique Es Muy Jumbo!

Mojo Nixon Spreads Yuletide Cheer During His Horny Holidays Tour. But Where's Skid Roper?

Originally published in American Music Press (1992)

Interview by Devorah Ostrov

Mojo Nixon
(Photo from "The Mojo Manifesto: The Life & Times Of Mojo Nixon")

During his onstage banter at a local club, Mojo Nixon described himself as a cross between Bigfoot and Roddy McDowell in Planet Of The Apes. It's a pretty accurate image. He's a mountain of a man, with a booming hillbilly accent and a razor-sharp wit.

As well as getting him in some hot water with Benson & Hedges, Nixon's wicked sense of humor is responsible for the irreverent pop culture classics "Elvis is Everywhere" and "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child" (both of which he recorded in the '80s with onetime collaborator Skid Roper), as well as the wildly irreverent "Don Henley Must Die" which sneers: "Pumped up with hot air/He's serious, pretentious/And I just don't care..." (Rumor has it that the former Eagle recently joined Nixon onstage in Austin to sing the song's rousing chorus: "Don Henley must die, don't let him get back together with Glen Frey!")

Horny Holidays LP (Triple X Records - 1992)

Since September, Nixon and his band the Toadliquors — bassist Sean "New Guy" McCarthy, drummer Mid "Wid" Middleton, and Pete "Wet Dawg" Gordon on piano — have been touring the US in support of their new Christmas album Horny Holidays (Triple X Records).

The offbeat LP includes some unconventional takes on Xmas standards like "Good King Wenceslas" and "Jingle Bells." While other treats like James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto," and the perennial family fave, "Mr. Grinch," are given that special Mojo twist.

I caught up with the affable Mr. Nixon in time to give him a cheap plastic Cat in the Hat for Christmas and ask a few questions about his latest project.

Q: What possessed you to record a Christmas album?

MOJO: I've been wanting to do a Christmas album for a while. I thought that the bad eggs, the mutants, the weirdos, the doomed and the damned of the world needed one.

Q: I love that you included your version of "Mr. Grinch." Covering a song from How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a stroke of genius!

Mojo wearing a WEBN t-shirt

MOJO: It's an unheralded Christmas classic. And you know, we sing the actual, real words: "Your head is full of snot..." That's right up my alley!

Q: Where did you find all the other bizarre Christmas songs that you cover on the album? Like the lecherous "Trim Yo' Tree."

MOJO: I have a huge collection of weirdo Christmas albums. I've been collecting 'em for 10 years, and I have about 100 or so. Most of 'em are by people you wouldn't think would do a Christmas album, like "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" by James Brown or Huey "Piano" Smith's "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus." And I wanna carry on that tradition.

Q: So, it wasn't Elvis Presley's Christmas collection that inspired you?

MOJO: No... Well, that was part of it. In fact, I think on my next Christmas album, Naked New Year — the first one is always so successful you have to do a second one — we'll do Elvis' version of "Merry Christmas Baby."

Q: You also wrote a couple of new Christmas tunes for the album...

MOJO: I wrote a couple; I rewrote a couple of things... I wrote the "Little Man Song," which had been floating around in the Mojo archives for a while but had never made it onto an album, and the soul-groove song, "It's Christmas Time."

Mojo Nixon (Rock Musician) on CNN

Q: What about the "Head Crushing Yuletide Sing-A-Long"? To me, it sounds kinda like the Christmas classic "Winter Wonderland," although it's less than a minute long.

MOJO: Uh... that's actually just one of our miscues.

Q: I also want to mention your brilliant rendering of "Good King Wenceslas." You barely start the song, admit you don't know the lyrics, and just keep going "la, la, la." Did you truly not know the words, or was it planned that way?

Custom Condoms
promo merch for Horny Holidays

MOJO: It's a combination of both. I truly don't know the lyrics, and I thought it would be funny to do a song which typifies Christmas, where people sing the first two lines and that's all they know.

Q: Was the project really as spontaneous as it sounds?

MOJO: It was pretty spontaneous. We did it all in four days. We didn't know the words to any of those songs before we started. We didn't know how to play 'em. We didn't know what key they were in. We didn't know the arrangements. So, we had to learn 'em, record 'em, overdub, and mix everything in four days.

Q: Is that the way you've recorded all your albums?

MOJO: Nah! The first one [Mojo Nixon And Skid Roper released in 1985] took eight hours — four hours to record and four hours to mix! We didn't even know we were making an album. We thought we were just making demos.

Q: That's amazing! Kind of makes you wonder what took Guns N' Roses so long.

"Elvis is Everywhere" - Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
Picture sleeve 45 released in 1987 on Australia's
Liberation label.

MOJO: Right! 'Cause they're under enormous pressure from Geffen to have shit. So, they end up making shitty albums with boring songs. Who told them to do "Live and Let Die"? Who told Axl to play the piano with Elton John? Axl Rose is all pose. He looks and acts like he wants to be a rock god, but he doesn't have any rock 'n' roll songs. Where's the "Satisfaction"? Where's the "Jumpin' Jack Flash"? Their big hit, "Sweet Child O' Mine," is a power ballad. It's not a rock song; it's a slow-skater!

Q: When you were recording the song "Elvis is Everywhere" [from Bo-Day-Shus!!! released in 1987], did you think it was going to become a hit and your signature tune?

MOJO: No! After we recorded it, I realized it was gonna come out right when the 10th-anniversary [of Elvis' death] was happening. I didn't know that when we recorded it. There was just a whole bunch of Elvis stuff happening at that time, and I just kind of picked up on it and wrote a song about it. When it came out, the 10th-anniversary thing was huge! It was on the cover of Newsweek!

Q: But your timing was just a fluke?

Mojo Nixon circa 1990
Enigma Records publicity photo

MOJO: Yeah, well... I pick up on the vibrations in the universe before most normal humans.

Q: Do you ever want to be taken more seriously? Or write less humorous songs?

MOJO: Nah! There's a real trap there. Unfortunately, you're either perceived as being serious like Don Henley, and you wanna save the rain forest and critics love you. Or you're perceived as being a buffoon. There's no in-between. Even if I did an alleged serious album, in the middle of it, I'd let a fart! I couldn't stop myself.

Q: I read that your sense of humor recently got you into trouble with the Benson & Hedges people. Apparently, a quote of yours caused them to drop you from their Blues & Rhythm concert series.

(The quote in question was: "I'm running for the Presidency on the Mushroom Party. The basic overriding platform is that having sex is better than killing. The people who take mushrooms and get laid a lot aren't going to be pushing the button.")

Recent pic of Mojo Nixon and Little Steven
promoting Nixon's SiriusXM show "The Loon in the Afternoon."

MOJO: This friend of mine [Chris Morris] writes for Billboard and he was just quoting all the crazy shit I normally say, and Benson & Hedges freaked. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I was spewing forth my normal, you know, anarchy rhetoric, and some guy goes, "Oh, no! We can't have him!" I also got dropped by TNN. Same deal.

Q: What's TNN?

MOJO: The Nashville Network. That's the reason why I haven't been on [David] Letterman and stuff.

Fabulous poster for a series of Mojo Nixon
shows in Texas.

Q: That's awful!

MOJO: Hell, it's their loss. When I'm King of the Universe, they'll be sucking my boots!

Q: I've been wondering, whatever happened to your old pal and collaborator Skid Roper?

MOJO: Oh, god! He's in prison in Arkansas. He was cross-dressing at this Liberace tribute, and they don't like that in Arkansas. So, they took him to the women's prison! But Governor Bubba, soon to be President Bubba — the first draft dodger, wife swapper, dope smoker, saxophone player to be in the White House — is gonna release him before he goes to D.C.

Q: Is this true?

MOJO: Sure! Need you ask?

(Actually, Skid Roper has two albums of his own on Triple X Records: Trails Plowed Under released in 1989 and Lydias Cafe released in '91. A spokesman for the label would neither confirm nor deny Mojo's story, only saying that last he heard, Roper was running a used drum shop "just before the legal problems...")

Q: In addition to the usual Triple X label on your latest release, I noticed the name Triple NiXXXon Records. Is this a subsidiary deal you have?

Mojo Nixon
(promo photo)

MOJO: I do have a little subsidiary label. It has Fish Karma, One Foot in the Grave... Who's the next one we're gonna put out? Eugene Chadmore... crazy, nutty people who would probably never get a record deal anywhere else. Enigma's out of business and IRS has been absorbed by Capitol [Mojo's former labels], so we put Horny Holidays out ourselves. Even if I had a major-label deal, they wouldn't let me make the drunken Christmas record I wanted to make. Record company people — you can't imagine how small their brains are. If you rammed their brains up a gnat's ass it'd look like a BB in a boxcar. You get the picture? Brains up a gnat's ass... BB... boxcar.

Q: You live in San Diego, and your band [the Toadliquors] is based in Austin. But you recorded Horny Holidays as well as two other albums [Root Hog Or Die and Otis] in Memphis. Is there a particular reason you like to record there?

MOJO: The guy who produces my albums, Jim Dickinson, lives in Memphis. Although he didn't do this one, me and the engineer did it. But Memphis is just a great place. It's, you know, where Elvis is from. That's where we're going! If it's good enough for Elvis and Howlin' Wolf, it's good enough for us.

Q: Do you hang around at Graceland?

MOJO: Nah! It's kinda weird down there. There's other places to go. Secret Elvis hide-outs!

Poster for the Jello Biafra/Mojo Nixon
1994 Prairie Home Invasion LP
(Alternative Tentacles)

Q: Did you ever see Elvis in concert?

Mojo: No, I never did. When I was in high school, it was supremely unhip. I didn't quite realize it was so unhip that it was hip. I hadn't passed that hurdle yet.

Q: I've been told that you're a big collector of odd junk.

MOJO: My house is a monument to weird junk!

Q: What's the strangest thing you own?

MOJO: A shingle from the house John Wayne was born in; it's kind of a religious artifact. And I have a painting of a rooster by Evil Knievel. If I could just get Hitler and Johnny Cougar, I'd have all the big painters!

Q: Just out of curiosity, what does the Nixon household look like at Christmas? Do you put the lights on the house and reindeer on the roof?

MOJO: Uh-huh! Really hideous! The neighbors really hate it. I just saw something in a J.C. Penny catalog... My mom was making me look at it when I was back in Virginia during the early part of the tour. She's saying, "You have to pick out something I can get you for Christmas." I see this four-foot-high plastic Santa Claus, and the ad says: "New this year — Afro American Santa Claus!" I said, "That's what I want!" But she wouldn't get it for me.

Mojo's story is told by Jay Allen Sanford in this "Famous Former Neighbors" cartoon strip.