How To Make Friends and Influence Cambridge
Tony Wright of
Terrorvision
talks to R*E*P*E*A*T

It’s a cold, miserable night in Cambridge but that’s okay because The Mighty Terrorvison are back in town. From past experience I am fully aware that Terrorvision are one of the most blisteringly shit hot live prospects in the country and to say that I am excited is the understatement of the decade. And with that in mind, it is in the not so luxurious backstage area of The Junction that we catch up with Tony Wright – singer, front man and general all around super hero with Terrorvision. I will try, and inevitably fail, to play it cool. Here we go…

 


Lucy: Your band have been quite quiet for the last few months. Are you looking forward to playing gigs again?
Katie Jane Garside: I think I give very obtuse ans

Hello Tony, What’s it like to be back on the road with Terrorvision?

This is our third night tonight, of this run. We were in Leamington Spa and we did Hard Rock Hell last week and we had some time in between so, why not? And how is it? Yeah, it’s great, can’t complain. We had some time off so I don’t think we got into that stage of just repeating the same thing night after night. But yeah, it’s good. I mean, we’re all happy and that.

So what have you all been up to since Terrorvision first called it a day?

I’ve got a band called Laika Dog, Leigh did a few bands one was Malibu Stacey. We all kind of did our own thing really. We still do, some of us. You either do it or you don’t, don’t you? There’s plenty of bands that shouldn’t but…

Like who?

Not saying… it’s obvious.


Pic : Paul Broome

Okay. So what do you think it was about the How To Make Friends and Influence People album that people “got”?

Well they did, didn’t they? It was the first time that people “got” Terrorvision. It were the first time we got a gold disc so they must have got it more than the first album. Well, it’s good isn’t it? It’s honest. It was at a time when everybody was a bit serious. I mean, I don’t think we write gibberish. I mean, we write lyrics so that we’ve got a song to sing about, not because we just want to be in a band. I think it’s obvious when you listen to it. And people heard it. If we’d have had the radio play that other bands got for the album, I mean we did with “Tequila”…

Yeah, we’ll get to that later…

… I mean, well, it’d have been good if they got behind us a bit on the radio instead of playing so much shit that they play.

What was it that made you decide that Terrorvision had run its course for that time?

You’ve got to do these things. When you start, it’s as though you’re all up for it and everyone around you is and you don’t mind sharing every part of it with those people. But when you get to a point where some of them people are weighing on you but you can’t just say “look you’re weighing on us, back off”, then they’ll be like “okay I’ll just back off and you pay us for the next ten years”… It’s one of them things you sort of have to say, “Okay, we’re going to break clean”. And then there’s people who I’d work with again and there’s people who I wouldn’t work with again. I mean there’s more to it than just members of a band. Like people involved. I mean you can’t do a gig without people setting up the gear. Unless you set it up yourself but that’s just stupid. We didn’t really want to make an album for the people that we had surrounding us at that time. So we all went off and did our own things. It wasn’t that we didn’t have the songs but what’s the point of putting out an album that you feel passionate about to someone who isn’t as passionate as you about it? You know? I don’t want to, like smile and be nice and say we’re from Bradford and all that. And that’s what Rock n roll is. So it’s weird when you’ve got someone who beats around the bush in a Rock n Roll band. So, I mean, there’s no one person or anything. Just… well we weren’t going to make an album for those people who would have had a claim on whatever we did for the next five or ten years anyway. So that’s why we kind of left it for a while.

 
Video - Richard Bull

So. Tequila. What was all that about then?

What do I think of Tequila? You mean the remix? I think it’s sound. I mean I don’t not like it because it’s not metal. I mean people know us for it but before that we were that “doo-wop” band. To tell the truth it just goes by whatever your last song was by all accounts. We put out a single after that called III Wishes but I don’t think it got to the shops.

He bought it…

Did you find it? You must have bought the only copy.

Musical wise, other than your own bands, what are you listening to at the moment?

SuBo’s new album. Actually I’m keeping £15 in my pocket for whoever the x factor winner is so I can buy their album. But I like to buy it once with the cellophane on so it’s not unwrapped and one to play. No, I don’t do that at all. I listen to a lot of my old records really. I have an old car with an old stereo in it, well, stereo it’s only got one so it’s a mono, but I like to play my Led Zeppelin albums that were made around that time just really loud through the streets with the engine roaring. I like Butthole Surfers too; they’re on my I-Pod. Fantastic band. Brilliant… Really good.


Pic : Keith Nuttall

Is there ever going to be any new Terrorvision material?

Well, not if it’s no good, no. But if it’s good then, of course, yeah. Like I say, we don’t play music so we can lean on the bar and say, “yep, I’m in a band”. We write songs, that’s what you do, that’s the person you are. You write songs. And inevitably you meet people who play music, and you’re surrounded by people who like playing it. That’s the way it’s always been throughout history. We’ve got no pressure to make an album and we won’t put ourselves under pressure to make an album. But if we have a set of songs then, maybe… Too many people make a record because they think they have to. Most bands should pack it in. We don’t need another record, we’ve got it. You don’t need to keep making the same record. People feel pressured into doing it. Music would be a lot better wouldn’t it? If you just put out good albums.

What are your highlights of your time in Terrorvision?

I remember getting on the bus and I looked different on the bus that day. The reflection I got in the bus mirror, and I know we’d been somewhere but I can’t remember most of it to tell you the truth. I know I’ve played at festivals and stuff like that and it was brilliant all the time but, you know, every day’s a blank canvas. Too many to mention really but I couldn’t put one in front of the other. You know, I’d tell you now and then I’d leave here and I’ll think, “Ah, that one should have been my favourite”. I’ll be looking for you all night and I won’t be able to find you and then before I know it, it’s been printed in R*E*P*E*A*T and it’s not true. We’ve been all over the place and, when it’s people who don’t know the language and still dance to your record is brilliant. Especially when they sing the words back to you. We did well in places like Spain and Italy where they can dance but not so well in the marching style countries. You can’t really march to Terrorvision. Although you can chant, you can chant to Terrorvision songs.

 
Video : Richard Bull

Are there going to be any more re-union tours?

Well, it depends what happens. We never say never. We once said never and then we did. So, you can’t say never twice. Never, never. That cancels the first one out; it’s like an oxymoron.

You’ve done a lot of cover versions live and as B-sides over the years. Of those, which are your favourites and what would you like to cover in the future?

I like Moonage Daydream by Bowie. I really like David Bowie. We did 5ive once. Get On Up it was. It’s hard because you think of them as cover versions because you’ve heard them before but we’d have written them if we hadn’t been covering them. They just didn’t have the decency to wait until we were born a lot of the time.

Like 5ive?

Yeah. But I mean, tonight we’re not going to be covering any 5ive songs. I think we’re more JLS anyway. As long as you can dance to it. We’ll consider anything. Hell yeah.

Finally, Is there any chance at all that you’re going to play Didn’t Bleed Red?

Is it on How To Make Friends and Influence People? That’s it. 45 minutes and then the kebab house. No, but we’ll do a few songs after the set because that album does fit on one side of a C90. We’ll play a couple of other tunes. But I don’t think we’re doing Didn’t Bleed Red. Although on the last set of dates, I think we did. Did you not go to Shepherds Bush? We played it there. Loads of times in one night. Six times in the main set and five times in the encore. And then we played it in the foyer to everyone who was leaving. You should have gone.

Richard Bull

www.myspace.com/officialterrorvision


Thanks to Steve Waite for arranging the interview.

wers to questions...It's never about looking forward to it. Actually maybe I should change the
script, maybe we are looeir musicm the 3rd album?