We Start Fires: interview

Hello Becky, you’ve just finished filming a video – what track was it for and how does the track relate to the setting? Did it involve novel costumes and special hair colouring?

Yes! The track is called Let’s Get Our Hands Dirty. We dressed up as 80’s pop icons, inspired by David Bowie and Blondie! It was really good fun. We had lots of sequined jackets, heels and leopard print stuff on. We filmed it in a deserted warehouse in London and they got loads of glitter balls in. It took forever - we had to put make-up under our eyes to stop ourselves looking tired…

The band does a lot of fast, head shaking in the video for your last single Magazine. Your hair stays remarkably still – what product do you use?

We all like the Sunsilk hairspray.

Like Girls Aloud – the official Sunsilk girls!

Yes! Lots of hairspray is key. We did that video ourselves on the camcorder for £9.

Sticking on the topic of magazines, let’s talk NME. How long before you’re on the cover?

On the cover? Oooh, I don’t know. Give it some time – we still haven’t had a proper feature in there yet! Maybe next year. I don’t want it to go the way of the Melody Maker. It seems to be aimed at a younger audience now, I don’t want them to dumb it down.

Was making the new album easy – did you encounter any problems?

We got final copies back a couple of days ago actually, after mastering in March. I think it would’ve been easier if we had done it in one go, instead of going up to Hartlepool all the time to record. To be honest, the hardest thing was trying to find somewhere to flippin’ park and dodge traffic wardens! On the last day, we got a ticket! This evil woman didn’t believe that we were loading the drum kit from the studio. She thought we were horrible young people!

Ah, but were you on double yellow lines?

We were just outside the studio. It was ridiculous, she just didn’t believe we were loading and thought we were parking illegally…

What’s the best track on the album for you and why?

Let’s Get Our Hands Dirty, the new single, because we always seem to like the newest ones best.

Where do you most like to play gigs?

Sheffield. We always have really good gigs there. We love the Yorkshire folk.

What was the last song that you listened to?

Oooh, let me have a look. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Modern Romance, the last track on the album.

You’ve got one bloke in the band – does that cause issues when telling the rider to bring rosé and chocs rather than beer and Monster Munch?

No matter what we ask for, we generally get beer. Ash is always lovin’ it, but we try to give some back in return for Vodka…he always does well out of the riders.

You list Courtney Love as an influence on your website. Have you seen her new body shape – she’s lost three stone!

Fair dos if she wants to lose some weight. I bought a woman’s magazine to read about her and see the interview. It’s like ‘oh my God, this isn’t want you want Courtney to be saying!’. She said she wanted to lose weight to be more accepted in Hollywood. It’s a shame because people take the piss and slag her off but I think she’s a genius and she’s never got her dues.

What would you say to her if you had the chance and would you take her advice?

I’d probably just be really shy and scared. I might offer her some cake! I don’t think we’d ever be as drug addled as her, so I don’t think we’d need her advice!

Are you the most famous people from Darlington?

No, because apparently Vic Reeves is from Darlington!

He’s not famous anymore is he? He hasn’t been on TV since 1996…

We’ll he’s on TV more than we are! There’s been no famous musicians from Darlington though…

You’re headlining Camden’s Electric Ballroom on 13^th September. Are you nervous?

I’m quite excited actually. There’s certain venues which are legendary, like when we played King Tuts - playing the Ballroom feels a bit like that.

Hear We Start Fires here

Siouxsie Sioux isn't dead...

...it just looks that way in the photo, perhaps killed by Buffalo Bill from Silence of The Lambs judging by the insects. Happily, Siouxsie is very much alive and has made some new songs which you can listen to below.

We have more pictures, but they're slightly scary and could be perceived as erotic imagery by your HR department, so we've put them here.

1. Into A Swan
2. About To Happen
3. Here Comes That Day
4. Loveless
5. They Follow You

PC On The Radio!

Remember when you used to tape the whole of the charts onto a crusty, stinking Maxell metal cassette and listen to Bruno Brookes play Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch?
We do and despite the amount of official radio podcasts around, it's just not the same as doing it yourself. They've all got Jo Whiley and Chris Moyles gurgling over the live session broadcasts and constant AudioBranding - Zane Lowe is particularly good at that: "You're listening to the best, most awesome band on the planet. I'm Zane Lowe, I sound a bit like Tim Westwood having a shit while biting a straw - you're listening to Radio 1, we're the best because this is what we do 24/7 - only Radio 1 can do this stuff for you, the British public, dude, on Radio 1."

Anyway, with this gadget, you can record radio directly to MP3 and cut out the shit bits. Great for late night broadcasts or perhaps Radio 2 sessions that you like but don't want to stay in on a Saturday afternoon for. It's 40 quid and can be programmed in advance via your PC. So you can record a music festival while you're actually there, instead of asking mum to tape it on the telly which is - let's face it - always a bit hit and miss when she talks about watching The Red Stripes and DSS.

The Hives, covered by Microsoft exec...

There's no dignified way of explaining what happened this week when Microsoft held a big press conference in LA to show off new Xbox 360 games, so we'll just get straight in to it...

The suited monstrosity you see above is the chief marketing penis for Microsoft, Peter Moore. He announced a new game called Rock Band which ensures that the fat, slobbering and terminally anoraky Xbox massive can actually be 'in a band' without leaving their own faces encrusted habitat. Plug in plastic guitars, a mic and you'll never have to worry about wobbling on to the X Factor stage and listing your hobby as Xbox before doing a passable impression of a singing can of corned beef.

Brilliantly, to promote the game, Peter - in a particularly David Brent moment - decided to play the game, Fisher Price style, with a plastic guitar and a few assorted goblins - the team that actually made the game. There's a couple of virgins who look like they've spent a good few months wanking over a good few Dawson's Creek box sets and then there's the female lead singer. Less Karen O, more Beth Ditto fused with kids TV panto-villain Grotbags, she destroys The Hives' Main Offender with Peter on backing vocals. The girl shimmies like a glam sausage while Peter rocks back and forth like some kind of paper ghoul. The girl is called Helen. She has a MySpace page and a collection of rock photos to make even Johnny Borrell jealous.

Embarrassingly, the song (and game) pauses midway through as Peter (clearly an expert at this type of thing) manages to keep hitting the pause button, screaming "bring me back in, bring me back in!"

Shed Seven return!

Okay, so you know the drill now. We unearth some band that's reforming and take the piss and hope that they don't actually go on tour. Not strictly because we didn't like them originally (Kula Shaker we did love you) but because, well, it's a bit embarrassing. In some cases (Northen Uproar) we never liked the band in the first place.

This year, Shed Seven have decided to go on tour - at Christmas, naturally - in order to pay for the care home bills for their respective parents. We did like Shed Seven briefly, perhaps once in 1996, while we stared at girls dancing in a Devon indie disco. In fact, we remember meeting Rick Witter and his giant head and speaking with him for a magazine article of some kind. At the time, he looked like some kind of large baby cave-man and smelled slightly...

Anyway, the point is this - reunions don't often work. The trick is to not stop in the first place but, crucially, that involves writing decent songs constantly. You know, like The Rolling Stones. The recent pic of Shed Seven (above) has neatly copied The Verve's album cover for Urban Hymns, creating the ultimate in 1997 indie nostalgia! Perhaps they're hoping that you might actually mistake them for The Verve and that binge drinking in the Britpop years may have actually killed the part of your brain that detects good music and shit music. They've all matched The Verve photo well, apart from the bloke at the back, who's clearly rocking the podgy '96 Noel Gallagher chic, wondering why Andy Bell was asked to join Oasis rather than him. Fookin 'ave it, lads...

Snow Patrol: Drug Update (part 2)

We're not in the business of turning into Popbitch or owt, but we couldn't help but report that Tom from Snow Patrol (the fat, uglier one on the left) was off his tits (and on someone elses) at the Isle of Wight Festival last month. See the sorry event here. By the way, if anyone can find a pic of Tom where he isn't in shadow, to the side of the frame or hiding behind someone, you'll win a prize...

This week, however, Tom's actually been arrested and given a caution for possession, clearly taking a leaf out of the Keane book of band publicity. Snow Patrol also met with a hostile reception at T in The Park where a gaggle of crackheads from Glasgow pelted the band with all manner of fluids. It was like a mini Braveheart battle, only in slow motion with slightly shitter music.

In order to entertain the crowds, Spider-Man turned up and got the loudest cheers as he climbed scaffolding. Gary Lightbody was said to have wet his pants for the sixth time of the evening.

Death of a rock band - Live review: Ash at Koko, Camden

There’s a curious feeling as you enter Koko on Thursday 5^th July. This is, after all, the penultimate gig of the four night stand at Koko by Ash – a band releasing their ‘final’ album this month. Of course, Ash are set to release singles online after saying the album as a format is dead, but you can’t help imagining this as some kind of farewell fuck to nineties indie. The smoking ban unmasks the hideous blend of booze, bleach and sweat in Koko previously hidden by fags. In short, the gig resembles a funeral and smells like someone has actually died. When the spotlight falls on Ash, things don’t improve.

On stage, Ash as a three-piece look like a vacant triangle of flustered and frustrated musos, lacking Charlotte Hatherly and the famous machine gun guitar spunk that made them in the first place. Tim Wheeler stands at stage left, leaving the centre stage hollow, clutching his flying V guitar and remaining largely silent. He’s intent on giving the hardcore fans as many songs as possible. Cheers only come when classic tracks from the first album are played. When Ash arrived in 1996, they were younger than the Arctic Monkeys and, sadly, they’ve never been able to escape being youngsters in the heads of everyone. This is partly down to the fact that they refuse to dress in clothes made after ’96 and still behave like students and not rock stars. Striding across the stage instead of jumping around with mad, crazy, drug fuelled energy, Tim Wheeler looks like your dad in a tribute band. The cover of Teenage Kicks is as ironic as it gets, but Ash don’t get it. Still, it’ll go down well on the inevitable tour of University Balls over the next few years…