TRANSVISION VAMP MAGAZINE
Issue Three - 1990
Interview with Tex and Dave
[submitted by Mandrake]

Read below or click for original interview scans...

(Click)

(Click)

(Click)

(Click)

Geoff: How did you meet up with Nick and Wendy?

Tex: I met up with them because the studio we use for pre-production is next door to my house. They were going in and out next door whereas I was going in and out of this door! We got chatting, they needed a drummer and I proposed myself, put myself forward.

Geoff: When did you tell them you'd rather play keyboards?

Tex: Immediately. I always told them if they ever played live they'd have to get a good drummer.

Dave: What about the grafitti myth?

Tex: Yes, should we perpetuate the Grafitti Myth? Well, Wendy and I did go around doing a lot of grafitti, but that was afterwards.

Geoff: So you weren't really self-styled grafitti artists?

Tex: Well, I'm an artist, this is my work - the grafitti round the doorway!

Geoff: How did you meet them Dave?

Dave: Me? Well I met them round about here. Between here and the Pub.

Geoff: So how long did it take from when you first met up to feeling you were a band?

Tex: Well two months later we did 'Revolution'.

Dave: Yeah, we did a video a few months later, but I think to actually see it as a band maybe a year.

Tex: Yes, after we started touring. They always wanted it to be a live band and so did I and Dave. Now we've got Jazz and Mallet - and it's a good unit now for live work. It's taken quite a while to find them, but they are the right people.

\Geoff: I guess it's important to get on well 'cos as Nick was saying the four of you are all good mates so anyone else who tours with you has to fit in.

Dave: And they are, the people that don't fit in don't last very long. Even people like our crew, it's one big happy family - which is the way it should be.

Geoff: In terms of recording, do you think there was a big difference between 'Pop Art' and 'Velveteen'?

Tex: Yes, I do, a big difference because 'Pop Art' was so long in the making and 'Velveteen' was done very quickly.

Geoff: Is that because you knew more of what you were about in the studio?

Dave: Yeah I think it was that we had a better direction, especially after playing live. 'Velveteen' bears more relation to how we are live.

Tex: I think 'Bad Valentine' sounds great live, probally better than it does on the Album - so they all benefit from played live.

Dave: You can see the reaction from the audience as well. Like with 'Velveteen', if you can keep the audience as interested, or concentrating as much as you are, then it's good fun.

Geoff: I think it was right not to play it in the summer, before the album was out.

Dave: Yes it helped for people to know it a bit. We had that in mind that it might be a bit complicated for some people at first.

Geoff: Tex, you said it was Nick singing the male vocal part on 'Velveteen' on the album - how come you do it live?

Tex: Well Nick tried it live but his guitar parts are too complicated and he has to concentrate on those primarily. But with my keyboard parts, I can play and sing much more easily.

Geoff: What's the word - multi-faceted?

Tex: Multi-talented!

Dave: Mmmm, I don't know about that!!

Tex: I used to play the guitar on the first tour, on Andy is dead, as well.

Geoff: What - and drums and keyboards? No bass though, you didn't play bass?

Tex: Well actually I started off life as a bassplayer!

Geoff: You were saying that when you're out touring you make the most of the places you visit. What were the highlights of Australia?

Dave: We're real tourists yeah. Actually it was winter when we were there, so it wasn't always the best of weather. Sydney was great., it must be really beautiful in the summer. We were taken to this wildlife park outside Melbourne and saw kangaroos and wombats.

Geoff: Did you go to L.A. from Australia?

Dave: That was interesting as well. Everywhere we go, especially when it's the first time we've been there, we get out with our cameras, taking pictures. I don't think you could stay in L.A. for too long, but it's got this sort of mentality about it where it's ideal for driving down the freeway with the roof down and listening to rock music.

Geoff: Where did you play there - the Roxy?

Dave: Yeah, it was really good.

Tex: I got really bad food poisoning on the aeroplane on the way over. Nick was ill as well. Qantas food! We went skiing in Australia, up in the mountains. All of us - except Mallet's the only one who can't ski. Mallet was on the floor all the time, he gave up in the end.

Dave: How we feel about different places usually depends on what the weather's like and what the country's like, generally we always try to go and see what we can. Like in Barcelona, we went to see the cathedral.

Tex: I had my golf clubs on tour so I remember particular places with good golf courses. In Australia I played at the Royal Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, I played all over I remember a golf course and then I can remember the city that goes with it. It's a good way to relax. And when I'm out there Wendy's doing all these interviews!

Geoff: Do you think she enjoys it though, 'cos she is good at it.

Tex: She's very good at it, that's why she does it, 'cos we're not. Also, if we ever do a band interview, no-one asks us any questions. You just sit there for half an hour. Every question is always "Wendy this and Wendy that"

Dave: And then the only thing they ever do ask us is "Do you mind Wendy getting asked all the questions?" (laughs)

G: So really you just completed six months solid touring?

Tex: Just over six

Geoff: So Nick's writing new songs and working on new idea's Wendy's off doing promotional tours. Are you spending all your money on new gear and checking out new programmes and sequencers?

Tex: Me? I'm playing golf, mate! Yeah Dave and I have got B-sides to do - we've got half a dozen songs to write each. Yes and keeping up with the gear, because for the next tour we're going to need a whole lot of new technology.

Geoff: Is there a lot of background work to do for a tour?

Tex: Yes, it takes probally 3 weeks to program all the machines properly for the set that you saw now. And then when it's all programmed we start rehearsing. Then you find out what parts work and what parts don't so you are constantly re-adjusting the programming.

Geoff: So what are the plans for the new album?

Tex: Well we start recording in January. The album will be ready for September, to coincide with the next tour. So it has to be ready for release then, it has to be finished by May.