In The Pink
The Psychedelic Furs have a hit single! A hit album! A hit movie! So why does Richard Butler want to hit journalists? Drat! Richard Butler is sitting backstage at the Jones Beach Theatre in Long Island, New York, happily leafing through an issue of Star Hits before the show starts. Any second now he’s going to come across the page with the lyrics to "Pretty In Pink.” Now ordinarily that wouldn't be any great tragedy, but for this particular song some Star Hits office “prankster” (It was you, Steve, admit it-Truth Shall Set Ye Free Ed.) has written “Ad lib and mumble to fade” under the last set of lyrics. A “fun” joke, yes? Much “har”? WillI Richard share in the merriment?
“Oh it’s our song,” he smiles until he spots the offending line, at which point his wide grin turns into an even wider frown. Fortunately, he's not really angry— just sort of dismayed. “I didn’t think it was mumbled in the new version. You thought it was mumbled?" He turns to Furs guitarist John Ashton. “Did you think it was mumbled?” Fortunately though, John is busy navigating a stubborn cork in a wine bottle and barely look up to shrug and shake his head in a way that could mean just about anything. That gives us a chance to change the subject, and we ask a still-perplexed Richard how the movie version of “Pretty In Pink” came about in the first place?
He brightens immediately: Well, the story goes that Molly Ringwald played it for John Hughes, the director, and he loved the song and wrote a script that was kind of loosely based on the song— or the pictures they painted for him anyway. It really was incredibly flattering. I mean, it’s pretty regular to have a song in a film, whereas it’s totally the other way around to have a film made from your song. It was great!
“And it gave us a chance to re-record the song.” John adds. “You know, we thought we could make it a bit more modern sounding for the film, more up-to-date I'm not really sure that we succeeded in doing that.” “I definitely wouldn’t say I prefer the new version to the original.” Richard admits. “I think the original’s got a spirit about it that you can’t improve.”
So was Molly Ringwald just the sort of girl Richard envisioned when he wrote “Pretty In Pink?” “Um, not exactly,” he laughs. “The girl I had in mind was bit more down-market than Molly Ringwald. But the thing I find really. Incredible is that this is a song we originally did in 1981, and now people are making a big fuss about it six years later.”
Even though Richard and John feel the new version of “Pretty In Pink” lacks the usual Psychedelic Furs “edge,” they’re clearly pleased about picking up new fans for the band. “Of course we are,” Richard states, “although even that's led to a few problens. For instance, we just played in Toronto, and it was a great gig— the audience loved us. Then we read this guy in the newspaper who calls us a ‘preppy band’ and says there were 12,000 people there due to the added popularity of "Pretty In Pink.”
"Well, in the first place" he continues, "the last time we were in Toronto we played to 11,000 people. I don't call that an enormous leap in popularity. And the crowd certainly wasn't preppy. It was just a great show and they got off on it.” He shakes his head, “To have your audience insulted is really irritating If someone were to come up to my face and say that, I would be very tempted to punch them in the face.”
Moving back a few feet, we ask Richard if he's ever actually punched a journalist,“No,” he admits, "but there's still a guy l'm gonna hit if I ever see him. He did a piece for Melody Maker years and years ago. Apparently he saw me in Californla and hid in the bushes. But I will hit him if I ever see him." “And he knows it too,” John agrees.
Ah...let's quickly change the subject again, shall we? Is it true that John used to play a vacuum cleaner onstage in the early days? “No, not me, John points an accusing finger at Richard. “Yeah, It's true," Richard grins sheepishly "It was just a sound that I thought would be interesting. I mean, that was well back in the early days— way back in 1977-78.”
He turns serious for a moment, then says “You know, the period we came up in was completely different to what’s happening now. Now the music is very pop-oriented, especially in London. I don’t think we’d be signed to a record contract now if we were to come over. With punk rock, if you knew three chords you could write three songs. With bands like the Sex Pistols and Clash, they were saying it’s the attitude that’s important. And they were right— people were forgetting about that. You’d watch Top Of The Pops on TV, and there’d be Genesis and Yes on there and Rick Wakerman with his cape and thousands of pounds worth of keyboards, and you’d just think ‘How can I ever be a musician— I can’t afford that stuff.’ And it took radical thinking for a few people to come out and go “Well, that’s a load of shit!”
“That's what it always comes down to having an attitude,” John nods as he picks up that same issue of Star Hits with a snarling Billy Idol on the cover. “I’m sure if you’d ask Billy he’d agree. That is Billy Idol— the clothes, the stance, the attitude!” Speaking of Billy, would you say he's been. influenced by Furs? “Yes, slightly,” John says, “and Steve Stevens definitely has been. “Bands that we’ve influenced come and go,” he continues. “Initially l'd say we even influenced bands like— dare I say it Echo And The Bunmymen to get off their asses and get rid of the drum machine and…”
"Even The Cult have come up to us.” Richard interrupts, “and said ‘It’s great, you know if it wasn't for bands like you we wouldn't be around.” Doesn’t that make you feel special! “Oh, yeah, definitely,” Richard smiles. “I like The Cult very much. You know, basically I have very few complaints, aside from unfair reviews. I mean, what other jobs is there in the world where people clap their hands for you every three minutes!”
“Unless you feed the seals.” John laughs.
