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Room 13
R13: Well firstly, apart from probably in Manchester, how did the band meet?
Vinny: I was playing a solo gig in Manchester's Star and Garter where I ran a club night [Kitchen Sink Disco] in 2004, Andy Rourke was DJing, saw the show, we got talking, Mike Joyce came along to the following gig and we formed a band. Ben Knott joined on keys and we toured as a four piece, UK, Ireland and the odd Swedish festival. Andy left the band in 2005 after our Glastonbury show...Craig Gannon joined a little before Andy's departure...
R13: What is it about Manchester that you think creates such quirky and interesting bands?
V: I think there's a sense of belief in the arts communities in general here that they are the chosen ones...where the confidence comes from I've no idea, I wasn't raised here, I'm just a grateful adoptive incumbent...
R13: Your songs have utterly refreshing subject matter, where do the ideas come from?
V: That's nice of you to say so...I think mostly I write about things that trouble or perplex me and try and make some kind of sense of them...my DIY ineptitude, youth cultures eternal flame, the consequences of my actions...confessional in some sense, regressional in others... I just wrote a song about the perfect song I never wrote...which we are about to record,
R13: With such cutting lyrics, have there ever been times when the audience really hasn't "got you" and how do you react?
V: Yes. I suppose a certain amount of concentration and engagement is not everyone's idea of appropriate audience behaviour, especially in a pub, where people want to talk and drink and fight and kop off. Audiences vary. Theatres are usually best if I'm playing solo as people tend to know their job is to listen. Mostly I tend to carry on regardless. Playing with the band is a different gig really...if there's a whiff indifference I just hit the pedal marked punk rock and turn the volume up to 11.
R13: What would you say your ambitions for the band are? I'd personally like to see you running the country but I doubt that's on the immediate agenda...
V: I love that scene in Billy Liar when he's talking about running the country...Tom Courtenay as prime minister .. Julie Christie foreign secretary...I could live in a place like that....The band are in a state of minor flux at the moment. We're rehearsing a new bass player and recording new demos for the next band album. I'm keen to move things on with the band sound wise. I feel we've been lumped in with indie pop culture which has never really suited me; we are never going to compete with the Artic Monkeys in that sense. We are never going to belong in a genre so dominated by youth culture, we are simply too old for all that. I want us to sound like Nick Cave and Bad Audio Dynamite, I think sometimes the Smiths connections sets up the wrong mindset of expectations but I digress, I could go on...but you'd asleep before you know it!
R13: You've also released a spoken word recording; do you think you could ever put your words to paper and create a novel or memoir?
V: I think a memoir would be easier than a novel, I keep a diary...I've tried writing a novel and it's really hard, characterisation, story and plot...the endless redrafting...but never say never I say...
R13: Do you think that music is something that should make deep and serious political comment, or act as an escape from such everyday tedium?
V: I think it can be both. Either can work together or alone. Often songs have a message that no one really gets or needs to...it's just a great tune and you cant stop singing it, especially if the chorus really speaks to you. Baby Bird's 'You're Gorgeous' is about a pervy camera shoot and is really quite subversive...try discussing that with the girl dancing to it on her 18th birthday and she'll tell you where to stick it. She doesn't need to know.
R13: Is there anything in your life that you wouldn't ever cover in your songs?
V: Probably not...although I do have a few secrets I'd prefer to keep that way...affairs of the heart...that kind of stuff. Love songs are pretty challenging and best avoided really.
R13: If your band was kidnapped and you were forced to replace them with any other musicians, living or dead, who would you choose?
V: I like Colin Moulding from XTC...he's my favourite bass player and he's alive.
On guitar I'd get Andy Gill from Gang of Four...he makes a right good racket.
On keys/lute Henry V111...for the green sleeves vibe and the rock n roll persona
I'd keep Mike Joyce on Drums ...I think him and Henry would get along just fine...
R13: What was the first song you ever heard which made you realise how magical music is?
V: I was very smitten with early Simon and Garfunkel...I used to write to Paul Simon when I was a kid... I still think he's a genius.
R13: What do you think of the rest of the current music scene, is 2007 good for music?
V: Without sounding too much like a grumpy old man it's hard to be objective. I think nowadays we get a shower of similar sounding/looking bands thrust upon us from every conceivable media. Some of them are good [The Artic Monkeys for one] but many still need to develop...it seems a very transient marketplace, one of instant gratification. There is little mystery involved. I think I'd prefer less bands and more diversity...there seems so little left to discover as everything is so in your face. That said I think I'm going to buy the Maximo Park record for the singers hairstyle alone...comb over style...I saw a documentary on them the other night.
R13: Having two ex-members of The Smiths in the band, I have to ask if you were a Smiths fan or if you initially found their success at all intimidating?
V: I was a big Smiths fan, at the time skulking on the back of Midland Red buses travelling to the asylum where I trained as a nurse. I never really got Morrissey though, still don't. Working with Mike, Craig and formerly Andy was never intimidating, never a problem...it's just musician to musician. I must confess though to being thrilled when they approached me and still am to be sharing the stage with these people...not because of who they were [although of course I respect and admire them and their achievements] but because of who they are today.
R13: You've recently toured Europe, what were the highlights of that?
V: Austria and Germany were wonderful. Germans are very clean- the Atomic Caf� is possibly the cleanest nightclub in the world. The shows were well received and the people were very decent. I bought a video camera in Munich going for a song...it's just broken so I need to get back there in the next few months to sort out the guarantee!
R13: Which would you prefer: Tony Blair or Maggie Thatcher?
V: Ten years ago I would have definitely said Blair...now the similarities seem irrelevant.
R13: Has anyone or anything today give you inspiration for a song or lyrics?
V: I'm finishing a song about Enlightenment...it's about a quest for spiritual type things I can't begin to understand...I just read a biog on Bill Hicks...he spent a lot of time looking to be enlightened...his life is inspiring and it's inspired this song.
R13: Your music has received plenty of compliments, what's the weirdest comparison that's been made and who would you like to be compared to?
V: When I got my new glasses Mike Joyce said I looked like Ronnie Barker...I don't really want to be compared to anyone in particular...but I do love that UNCUT quote 'if Tony Hancock had made pop records they would have sounded like this'...
R13: It being Easter, what's the best part: resurrection or rabbits?
V: Rabbits and chocolate eggs.
R13: How did you spend your Bank Holiday weekend?
V: Finishing home demos in time for rehearsal next week...
R13: Thanks for your time and I wish you tremendous luck in the future!
Penny Black Music
Once infamously described by 'Uncut' magazine as "the Tony Hancock of pop", Vinny Peculiar is the moniker of Alan Wilkes, a Manchester-based musician, singer and a one-time psychiatric nurse.
Vinny has now recorded seven albums, 'Gone' (1998), 'Non-Compliance' (2000), 'Ironing the Soul' (2002), 'Growing Up with Vinny Peculiar' (2004), 'Whatever Happened to Vinny Peculiar ?' (2005), 'The Rise and Fall of Vinny Peculiar'(2006) and 'Goodbye My Angry Friend'(2007).
Vinny's music takes on a rich variety of styles, including classic singer-songwriter material, pop, country rock, punk and even heavy rock.
Members of Vinny's current band include ex-Oasis guitarist Bonehead. former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, and one-time World of Twist keyboardist Ben Knott. Former members of his band have included Smiths bassist Andy Rourke and second guitarist Craig Gannon.
Vinny has also worked as a producer, and co-produced Tompaulin's debut album, 'The Town and the City'.
'Goodbye My Angry Friend'is due out on Pronoia Records in early January and Vinny spoke to Pennyblackmusic about it.
PB : Why do you call yourself Vinny Peculiar ? That's not your real name. Where did you come across this character?
VP : The Vinny Peculiar alias has been around awhile, since the first album in 1998. The name comes from a fave Simon and Garfunkel song, 'A Most Peculiar Man', that and the funny peculiar idiom. I've grown into it. Most of the musicians I've worked with over the last few years call me Vinny, so I'm kind of used to it...and I guess there’s a functional escapist quality to any pseudonym which I may well be exploiting.
PB : You have now released seven albums. Do you think your sound has changed much over the years ?
VP : The sound of the records change. They have to for all kinds of reasons- the way in which they are recorded is as influential as the song writing variables.
'Ironing the Soul' was the first proper band album I did, I spent a lot of time fine tuning the songs. It's a record that has some kind of narrative and sonic fluidity. I was signed to Hug records back then who supported us, [Rob Ferrier, its producer, and I] to spend the requisite time mixing and mastering. This made all the difference.
The current album, 'Goodbye My Angry Friend', aims high on sonic expectation with loads of different instruments and textures but was recorded in a bedroom with a PC and the odd bit of live percussion which of course has influenced the sound…a lo fi recording with hi fi sensibilities I like to think. It's essentially a solo album.
In terms of the lifespan of Vinny Peculiar and how that’s influenced the changing sounds, well, I guess this is down to changing influences and trying to emulate favourite production techniques with varying degrees of success…that and the writing. You need songs, obviously…and songs change over time. You acquire a few more tricks and tools and such like although mine are probably within the same limited sonic parameters as they’ve always been. I’ve not hit the jazz musical rock operatic stage yet and I probably never will....
PB : I first heard of you because you produced Tompaulin. Have you produced many other acts and what do you enjoy about producing other artists?
VP :It's funny you should mention that as I'm just mid way into recording an EP with a Barrow folk singer called Jon Byrne who's an amazing talent; like the Tompaulin album you mentioned it's a co-production job with Rob Ferrier and the first time we've worked together for a couple of years. We've just finished the tracking.
I enjoy producing/working with other artists. When I produce with Rob I tend to focus on arrangements, fixing endings and chopping up verses, playing bits here and there and generally making sure a sense of inspiration remains within the performances…there's a psychology at work in all creative environments and studios are no different. Rob leads on the technical side of the production. We have a few projects lined up for next year including a new Vinny Peculiar album…we're both going through an Artrock phase. We've got a little deal and expect to have something to release end of next year. We're currently selecting musicians for the respective songs...
PB : You were a member of the Fischers. Are you still involved in that project ?
VP : I was a kind of interim floating member of the Fischers, I did a few gigs with them and played guitar on the early demos including their current single. I've always loved Jamie's song writing and felt he was somehow restricted in the Tompaulin days by an seemingly unhealthy band politic. It’s great to see him flourishing in a new line up. And, no, I’m no longer involved with them musically…
PB : How did Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, Craig Gannon and Bonehead get recruited into Vinny Peculiar ?
VP : Andy Rourke was Djing a club night I was compering in 2004…he saw me play, told Mike and they came along to the following months' show at the Kitchen Sink Disco at the Star and Garter in Manchester. We spoke, rehearsed a week later and the band grew from there. It was great for me to finally get people who could commit as all my mates were either having babies or washing their hair.
Craig joined a year or so later. We'd been doing gigs as a three piece and needed a second guitarist. Ben Knott also joined on keys. This helped us replicate the albums in a live setting a little more faithfully.
Bonehead started off managing the band after hearing the 'Fall and Rise' album which he loved although he no longer does manage us due to time constraints and because, lets face it, it's a thankless job [so naturally I do it]. He ended up playing bass with us as a last minute replacement for some European gigs we did last year in Germany and Austria and has remained. He's a great player…not a lot of people realise quite how good he is as he was never really a high profile musical presence in Oasis...
PB :Why did Andy and Craig leave the band?
VP : Andy left the band by mutual consent for want of a better term. He was getting more and more DJ work and couldn't commit. He plays on the 'Two Fat Lovers' single which came out in 2005.
Craig also got over committed with film composition work and left March 2006. I still see a lot of Craig and we have plans to work together at some point in the future.
As for band shows going back to one guitarist proved quite liberating for me, I'm enjoying filling out all the spaces and generally turning up to 11. I did all the guitars on the last UK tour. It sort of makes us more punky, like the Attractions [or so we like to think].
PB : Is having famous ex members of cult bands good for the band, not just in their musicianship, but do they also help to bring in an audience with them ?
VP : I enjoy working with other musicians. Whether they are famous or not is kind of irrelevant really in terms of the creative process. It’s all about what people bring to the table
As for the public perception, well, that's kind of out of my control so I don't really think about it too much. If people come to a Vinny Peculiar gig to see someone who used to be in a famous band then fine. We welcome all comers, although the famous people ticket is hardly the box office draw of the century.
What I've truly loved about working with Mike, Bone, Ben and Craig is their passion and commitment. Mike especially is a wonderful upbeat person. His glass is always overflowing and he's always so positive. This has kept us all afloat at times…and of course he's a great player too.
We're taking a break from band work next year apart from a few European dates. I'll be doing an acoustic UK tour in March/April and recording the new album in-between times. I expect to revisit band shows at the end of next year once I’ve nailed the art-rock record.
PB : Are you always song writing or do you tend to stop and start?
VP : In terms of the music I tend to stop and start; with words I'm often on the scribble here there and everywhere.
PB : Thank you.
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Sounds XP feb 08
Das Leben und die Welt sind ungerecht. Wären sie es nicht, müsste der Name Vinny Peculiar längst jedermann ein Begriff sein. Zumindest wenn man sich für britische Popmusik interessiert. Seit fast zehn Jahren gibt es diesen Vinny Peculiar nun schon, der eigentlich Alan Wilkes heißt. Im vergangenen Jahr ist sein siebtes Album "The Rise And Fall Of Vinny Peculiar" erschienen. Auf einem Kleinst-Label ohne großes Aufsehen. Eigentlich eine Schande, denn der Mann aus Manchester braucht sich vor Brit-Größen wie Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn und Brett Anderson nicht zu verstecken. Feinste Melodien lässt er große und kleine Schicksale erzählen und es darf ruhig auch mal ein bisschen pompös werden. Wen wundert’s? Schließlich ist die Band von Vinny Peculiar mit guten alten Bekannten gespickt. Am Schlagzeug sitzt The Smiths-Gründungsmitglied Mike Joyce und Gitarre, Bass und Piano werden vom ehemaligen Aztec Camera-Mann Craig Gannon bedient. Kontrastradio wollte mehr über das verkannte Genie in Erfahrung bringen und hat Vinny Peculiar in dessen Heimatstadt Manchester zu einer Partie Satzbälle getroffen...
Momentaner Aufenthaltsort :::
Manchester, UK
Meine Musik in fünf Worten :::
confessional, warped, whimsical, english, pop
01 ::: Waking up today the first thing I did...
was to say "I know... it's my turn... just give me a minute".
02 ::: For breakfast I had...
three strong cups of English tea, a grapefruit and half a packet of chocolate hob nobs.
03 ::: About an hour ago...
I went for a run around the block and bought a newspaper.
04 ::: If I took a look in the mirror right now I would see...
a blurred reflection of myself as I can't seem to find my glasses anywhere.
05 ::: You could fall in love with me at first sight because...
if you were so inclined, but I wouldn't advise it as I'm not a good long term relationship prospect....
06 ::: And you would hate me for...
being secretive, manipulative, devious, all the usual reasons.
07 ::: My three wishes from a fairy would be...
a day out with Tom Coutenay my favourite actor, we'd visit all the sites from my favorite film "Billy Liar". To have enough money to live on without working a dead in the water day job and the chance to see my little girl again, we've become somewhat estranged in recent times. World peace and an end to poverty also crossed my mind but I don't want to sound like Miss World.
08 ::: I couldn't live without...
the little springs of hope and belief which occasionally come my way.
09 ::: I grew up in...
a cottage in a little village in Worcestershire.
10 ::: Now I live in...
a house in a big city in northern England.
11 ::: As a child I was afraid of...
slugs.
12 ::: I always wanted to become...
an existentialist... still do.
13 ::: The best thing about being a child...
for me it was boat races on the battlefield brook... smashing windows in the old church... getting kissed by Jackie Whitehurst... playing football on the recreation ground...
14 ::: If I could re-visit one special day in my life it would be...
the birth of my first child as I was properly smitten in every sense...
15 ::: My heart was broken when...
Geraldine Finn said NO to my undying love... it still hurts to this day.
16 ::: The first thing I remember about music...
sat on my fathers knee as he played the church organ, I got to operate the stops.
17 ::: I grew up listening to...
T Rex, Gershwin's "Summertime" and "June Is Busting Out All Over".
18 ::: The first song I ever wrote was about...
slow motion deaths in spaghetti westerns.
19 ::: To write a song I need...
the germ of an idea, a pen and paper and a guitar or piano... I can work pretty fast when I need to.
20 ::: To somebody deaf I would describe my music...
kind of funny and sad at the same time... UNCUT Magazine's description "If Tony Hancock had made pop records they'd have sounded like this" is one of my favourite quotes. In terms of how it sounds I also like "Lloyd Cole tooled up for an armed robbery" that one from the Irish Times.
21 ::: My new album...
is called "The Fall And Rise Of Vinny Peculiar".
22 ::: I couldn't have done this record without...
the label, the band and the support of my accommodating partner Chris.
23 ::: The hardest part was...
choosing the right songs that worked best with the band... endless trial and error and debate but worth it.
24 ::: The recording sessions...
went well, we were billeted in Blackburn's Bleak House, the mixing was a bit rushed to deadlines but all in all we were happy with the results.
25 ::: The line I am the most proud of...
I like the spoof celebrity name checks in "Revolt Into Style" because they make me laugh... "Martine McClaren, Angus Devine, Vivienne Eastwood and Kimberly Kline". And I'm also really proud of the song I adapted from the words of my late Uncle Jim Wilkes, a song called "Playing On The Pier". Jim, who was a brilliant jazz musician, died last year and he was always an inspiration to me.
26 ::: For my next album I would love to...
use other singers too, like Massive Attack or Beck would do... and record outside the UK, Paris seems to be the band favourite... we'll see what happens.
27 ::: If I can't make a living as a musician...
I've just been offered a job in a thrift shop in Virginia, USA which sounds very tempting.
28 ::: In 30 years from now I hopefully...
will be alive and well enough to go see the odd game at Villa Park.
29 ::: If I could be re-born as a song it would have to be...
"Another Girl Another Planet" by The Only Ones has long been a fave of mine.
30 ::: If I hadn't been busy finishing all these sentences...
watching "Captain Pugwash" repeats on Bravo Channel 4.
You can call him Vinny Peculiar but that's not his real name. He made it up all because his real one is lame. The man behind the name is far from lame though. With an array of albums to his credit and his latest offering, 'Goodbye My Angry Friend' due for release this month, I decided it was time to throw some questions his way. Hilarious and philosophical, say hello to my lovely friend, Vinny Peculiar...
SoundsXP: You've had some mixed reviews for your album, 'Goodbye My Angry Friend'. All the negative ones are wrong, we know this. How hard is it to deal with criticism if you truly believe in what you are doing?
Vinny: Goodbye…did get a rather bad review recently in the Independent on Sunday; that said the day before The Saturday Independent gave me possibly the best review I’ve ever had. It was kind of amusing really. Either way good or bad it’s nice to get reviews as a way of gauging a reaction. I’ve been lucky in the main, critics tend to like writing about Vinny Peculiar.
SoundsXP: What/who is the inspiration behind 'Goodbye My Angry Friend?’
Vinny: I recorded the songs with Tim Browne (long time musical associate and producer of 2004’s Growing Up with Vinny Peculiar) in his home studio. I’d had some of them awhile, most had proved unworkable or deemed unsuitable within a band context. Tim and I reinvented them and tried to add a little MOR spice, Billy Joel piano, Thin Lizzy guitar solos, loopy girl vocal detours, we had a lot of fun and were briefly, as Stephen Jones so eloquently said, almost cured of sadness. The title came from a post-it note I chanced upon on Tim's notice board…he’s no idea how it got there but it was obviously there for a reason.
SoundsXP: You've got quite a few albums under your belt now, is the man who sung his first words as Vinny Peculiar far removed from the person that you are now? How has your music developed and you with it?
Vinny: Some elements remain, I’m sat here now writing lyrics for an Art Rock record that will be joyful and optimistic[I promise it will no matter if it kills me] but alas the demons melancholia and introspection seem to have gatecrashed the party! Half full is a half decent result for my glass…it’ll never be frothing all over the kitchen floor. On a personal level my circumstances are not that different to ten years ago, I have what Americans call relational stability, which reminds me I must clean the bathroom in the next hour or I’m dead.
As a songwriter I’d like to think I’m getting better, as a person I’d like to think I’m getting wiser. Both are debatable…
SoundsXP: I'm quite fond of 'Ironing the soul' myself. Have you got a particular album that makes you smile inside and feel proud?
Vinny: 'Ironing the Soul' is probably my favourite sounding VP record (Rob Ferrier did a great production number on it). It’s certainly the one that I spent the longest time working on. That said the new album is growing on me…I had another listen to it the other day. 'Egg Incident' from Growing up with Vinny Peculiar still amuses me, but I’m pretty faddish when it comes to listening back, Craig Gannon and I are still arguing over the production values on the Fall and Rise…
SoundsXP: You've been compared to lots of different people but to me you're Jarvis Cocker playing cards with Perry Como. Do you mind some of the labels that people have pinned on you?
Vinny: I’ve not heard that one before but I see what you mean, isn’t that what the scribbling trade calls extreme bedfellow technique, or maybe I made that up. Or maybe it’s a band name I just thought of, EBT, sounds charming. When we played in Europe recently I got a lot of Jarvising; Perry Como, my mum would love that. Journalists need to pigeon hole and people need a reference… I have no complaints really…
SoundsXP: Does writing come easy to you or does writer's block cast a shadow over you?
Vinny: It comes in spurts much as it did for Richard Hell. Writer's block, that happens too but I’m far too dogged to succumb. It’s the Carry On mentality…although I do question why at times, who doesn’t?
SoundsXP: Your present tour band is quite the mix. How did you all come together?
Vinny: I met Mike Joyce four years ago after he came to a club night I was running/performing at, I needed a band, he joined. Andy Rourke also joined but left in 2005 after we played Glastonbury. Craig Gannon was in the band also for a couple of years and we are still work together occasionally; the new single b-side 'Ghost Camp (prelude)' is a Gannon/Peculiar song inspired by events at Salford Lads Club in WW2. Bonehead joined as last minute bass guitar replacement for European dates, he also managed the band briefly in 2006. Ben Knott has been in the live band also for about three years and joined not long after Mike and Andy. We are currently having a break from band shows although this might well change later in the year…we’ll see what happens.
SoundsXP: Have you got a favourite poet or poem? You're quite the poet yourself.
Vinny: ‘Fire Station’ by Charles Bukowski does it for me on so many levels; I guess you’d call him a realist-type writer (oh dear…is that a pun?). I tend to re-read Bukowski a lot, he’s like an old friend, reliable and strangely moving…I also like Horses by Ted Hughes, for some reason it struck me at school and still does. Richard Brautigan’s ‘All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace’ I just love, I re-read him a lot too. Billy Childish, John Hegley, Allen Ginsberg, Roger McGough, there are many…
SoundsXP: Tell me one thing that I may find peculiar about you.
Vinny: I like watching Gone Fishing on TV, the presenter laughs all the time and has an accent like my dad's…my partner thinks it’s bizarre especially for a vegetarian but I find great comfort in it…my brother loved fishing, we used to go as kids…it’s something I could never imagine doing again and yet…
SoundsXP: There have been lots of changes in the music world recently, in particular the digital download age that we find ourselves in. What changes do you like and what changes grind you down?
Vinny: Music is so much more instantly available nowadays than when I first started getting into bands, the absolute accessibility of the digital age has taken away some of the mystique, the sense of discovery, the idea of tracking down something that speaks to you…or perhaps I’m just looking back through the keyhole of nostalgia.
I also get the idea that music just isn’t dangerous anymore, although that could be because I’m too old to be scared?
In terms of digital downloads the VP stuff is available on most of the major sites like iTunes..…this is good thing isn’t it? Or would it be better to take the Factory approach to promotion…promotion as in NO promotion? Pity that, in today’s climate, playing hard to get probably means that nobody gets you. I’m going round in circles here I fear….next.
SoundsXP: I've been reading bits of Vinny Peculiar's journal and it's all quite frank and honest. You even toy with the idea of changing your name in there (don't, it's wonderful) Do you find writing a journal a form of catharsis?
Vinny: I like writing the blog but my enthusiasm for it tends to come and go. Amazingly I get regular feedback from it which is nice, and kind of always comes as a shock, so, cathartic, yes, I suppose it is. Perhaps I should do more of it…
SoundsXP: You're like a hidden treasure in some ways aren't you? I don't think you get half the exposure that you deserve. Does it frustrate you that the media is not dancing with you as much as it should be? Shouldn't it be tangoing you all around the place? Or are you going to tell me that mass recognition is not what it's about?
Vinny: Hidden treasure, not sure about that…but I like the sound of it. I would happily embrace a little more recognition as would most outsider artists. VP is hardly a household name when of course it should be! That said I’m a realist and am working within the most minuscule of promotional budgets…add that to an innate reluctance to shove my work down the throats of all and sundry and pretty soon cult status rears its ugly head, which is not really where I want to be but I’ll take it if and when…
SoundsXP: If you had to return to one of your past jobs what one would you revisit and why?
Vinny: I enjoyed work as a hospital porter, hanging out in a little cabin, making the toast and delivering the cornflakes, loads of down time to read any given riot act…the thought of returning though, that’s another thing altogether, it’s probably a lot more structured and demanding than it used to be…
SoundsXP: You've toured with many people and in many places. What particular incidents will you look back on with fondness or embarrassment from your old folk's home chair?
Vinny: I did a gig with Edwyn Collins at Birmingham’s Glee Club and got entangled in the stage curtains as I made my stage entry, a proper Eric Morecambe moment, after twizzling around a few times and with the audience gently chuckling away I had to be disentangled by security, it set the scene and served as a perfect ice breaker, the gig was great, the club kept the footage from the in-house video, a source of great amusement so they tell me. I keep meaning to ask them for a copy…
We played a Swedish festival a couple of years ago, Marcus Williams (formerly of The Mighty Lemon Drops and Julian Cope – the George Best of Rochdale no less) was on bass, and quite the gifted comedian. He acquired around 20 large slabs of cheese from various band riders which he bought onstage, he then built a tower of the stuff during the set and between us we sold the lot in-between songs to bemused punters.…it all evolved like a spontaneous part of the act, Markus was something else, we all miss him and reminisce upon his time with us with affection…
I turned up for a gig in Stoke, I think it was. I was touring with a good friend, a Liverpool singer-songwriter called Steve Roberts, the venue was packed. Ten minutes before we started the crowd swiftly disappeared…they were all off to see Moby play across the street, there were about five people left in the place including the bar staff, what you might call an anti-climax…
SoundsXP: What bands/music are you enjoying at the moment? Does other people's music inspire you or do you look to other creative arenas for inspiration?
Vinny: I am inspired by great bands sure…although far too many seem to begin with the letter K. I was explaining this to Owen Morris the OASIS producer the other day…he didn’t get it. Bill Drummond on the other hand gets it all too well.
I love the new Radiohead album, I especially like Bodysnatchers and Weird Fishes, they seem so fused as performers, like a well disciplined modern jazz outfit. Thom Yorke is such an engaging presence and he mines the emotions better than most I feel. OK so he’s not funny or quirky but he does have something raw and precious and, well, yeah, I like Radiohead, they are the only band I’ve ever seen in an arena….I loathe arenas…so cold and corporate, awful places. Give me a skuzzy rock roll dive any day. This new record has some proper tunes on it too, a good return to form.
I saw Robyn Hitchcock on Jools Holland the other night and have been revisiting his stuff; he’s got acres of wit and wonderment, although he’s not new of course he’s still a very fine writer/performer. I love the Arcade Fire, possibly the best live band of recent times, driven as performers, relentlessly uplifting, like they’re on some kind of crusade to save us, like a religious cult; I love that about them, the look, the drama, the full on full on...
I just read Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion, which is a scientific thing, (I usually read novels or poems), but everyone should read Dawkins, he makes all the fundamentalists look silly but in a nice way, an inspired read for sure…I’m going to see him speak soon, should be good. I also love Henry Rollins, great books great shows. He’s a bit of a hero too.
SoundsXP: How do you think 2008 is going to treat you? What are your plans for this year?
Vinny: I’m writing a new album, it’s mostly done and demoed, I’m going to record it with Rob Ferrier, we’ve been doing some joint production work of late, this has led to a rekindling of our collective desire to make another VP record. I expect it’ll take a while, Craig Gannon will also be involved, it’s early days but I’m really pleased with the new songs…I’m also playing solo gigs, there’s a tour coming off April/May time and I’m hoping to do more radio sessions to support the Goodbye…release, it comes out next week [12.2.08].
Buy his album. Go see him. Make the peculiar an everyday occurrence. I have.
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