Victims of The Furry
“Music had stirred him like that. Music had troubled him
many times. But music was not articulate. It was not a new world, but rather
another chaos, that it created in us."
"It's quite sort of seedy but nice.”
"Arty, arty.”
"Oh, arty. Is that a new name for seedy?"
"Well, I think it is.. yes.”
We are watching a video of the Psychedelic Furs performing
their last single, Sister Europe. It is a new cut of a film shot by one of the
world's most successful home movie makers (bar Russ Meyer), Don Letts. It shows
the band standing on what appears to be decimated garbage sacks spread across
the floor.
They are singing against a grey misty background.
Occasionally, you get a glimpse of an unidentified object taken at oblique
angles. It's like a Kodak Instamatic version of Alien, set to music. We'll never
see the likes of it on Top Of The Pops but there's a good chance it could be
shown on Tiswas which is gratifying in bizarre sort of way, It's art, mate.
"All art is quite useless The opening and above pieces
of verbiage are from that well known literary genius and shirt lifter.” Oscar
Wilde
The Psychedelic Furs are more than art, cause you can
dance to them. People say we're like the Velver Underground, I think the Velvet
Underground would have been great if they were as danceable as us
Lead Raconteur/chanter Butler Rep is confident and has every
reason to be so. Little did he know (sorry Eammon) when we did the interview,
the debut album from the Furs would go straight into the charts at number 18
with a proverbial bullet, but I'm sure he had a vague idea of the band
forthcoming success. Butler is lank, gaunt and has a pallor similar to the
colour and texture of Wensleydale cheese. He is not a poser, but he is a star.
Although he looks in the grip of rock 'n' roll emaciation, Butler seems younger
than his years.
Butler writes the words although he is adamant that the
group are a democratic venture, they do get equal billing as far as royalties
go (that's the final acid test, innit?)
Butler "We're all writers, you can get a band like
Crass who say “We're a democratic band” but I bet there's someone who does all
the material.”
“Who is this Crass?” Is that the bunch who are desperate to
make themselves as obscure and unobtainable as possible? If so, they've
achieved their aim. Y'see this isn’t my normal territory, mind you nowadays I
don't know what is, it seems to be a hassle to like anything without being
penned in. It would be simple just to say I like the Furs because of the
intelligent approach to lyrics and the wonderful make, but somehow I feel I
have to defend my opinions because of my associations with heavy rock. Well let
me tell you I'd rather see the Furs than a lot of these so called ‘New Wave’
heavy metal acts who would still be rotting quietly in some doss pub doing
covers of Motorhead and Purple numbers if they didn't suddenly become a part of
some fabricated trend which is even less genuine than the mod revival which will
at least hopefully progress with the help of 2 Tone. Then again I wouldn't the
majority of New Wave bands if you paid me. That's a point of view being aired,
not a pop gospel. Back to the feechar..
I spoke to Butler and fox faced drummer Vince Ely. The rest
of the boyzz were busy rehearsing for a headlining tour was put together after
the agency who had booked them to support lggy Pop on his recent visit were
suitably impressed by the action the Furs received. So what was it like
supporting the Dean Martin of punk?
Vince "There's only one thing say about that tour, he's
on the way down and we're on the way up that was the nice thing about it. There
was two generations of bands there they were trying to put over what we
actually succeeded in putting over… trouble was we went on first.
The Furs fest album is far from perfect, but a fair
representation of the story so far. It captures their power and vitriol in a
workmanlike manner, the production could have added character, but that was
down to the band and producer- the chemistry.
"We have to decide on the right producer basically.”
explained Butler "The way we work, you’ve got so many people that design
the song. We've got to have a producer who can put it down as it is, not slick
up or do this and that it but interpret it as it really is.
Butler would somebody like Andy Warhol to do the next album
and.. Janet Street Porter, no I was once thinking- Martin Hannet.. he did John
Cooper Clarke and Joy Division and they were both pretty raw sounding. I think
what we want a producer to tell us what we can and can't do and for us to say
what we want to.
I point out that with first albums they usually end up
being a collection of songs, the crystallization of a band's relationship with
a mixing desk. Butler: "But then again I don't believe that 'cause I think
the first Velvet Underground and Nico album was absolutely brilliant.
Yeah, but in a way that was a first and last album, it was a
concept that didn't revolve around them forming a band, but presented a
collection of characters. Warhol painted a picture on vinyl and it was the
Velvet Underground, if it came out now it would probably be a New York
compilation album.
Butler: "With six people working in a band you have to
have six sets of ideas going around. We have so many people in the band that we
don't need a producer to tell us what to do and that's the basic.
problem."
How about a musical choreographer?
Vince: Well I think we need a house engineer, so we can get
a sound at keep it. Like the Police, love ‘em or hate 'em, have a sound that
has been there on all their albums, It's a good sound. We need a good engineer.
Right, that’s sorted the next album, back to the beginning,
the first album, where Mr. Butler expounds his views on many subjects with a
definite theme running through the record in his lyrical content lie the repetition
of “the stupid”, something that one reviewer mistook as a lack of vocabulary).
I've seen Butler at work, he has a manky old exercise book, to which he constantly
refers to changing and re-structuring songs. He is keen on maintaining a
certain standard of quality. Why?
“Because I think this band is an originator. For this time
the Furs are doing something absolutely original, because of the attitude we
have. I spend ages writing words, on this album the lyrics have been re-written
loads of times. This album covers basic points like the institution of marriage,
bad marriages. I think I'm changing at the moment. On the first album all the
lyrics were written around the fact that I didn't think that you could be a
good writer and sing from a personal point of view. There was a song called
"Girl's Song that was eventually dropped which was sung from a girl's
point of view, there's a song like ‘Blacks' which is sung from a middle class
prat's point of view, now I want to write from a narrative point of view.
“Rock music can't change what's going on. It can colour
things. I mean Bob Dylan was great when he was doing his folk stuff. Nobody
thought he was going to be a hit act. CBS signed him up when he was singing in
folk clubs, when he was a dirty, scruffy little bloke, but his words were so
good. If he couldn't change things with songs like ‘The Times They Are A
Changing’, which must have been outrageous at the time, d he can't change things
with lyrics as strong as that, then I think the Clash who are trying to be political,
are just a rock and roll band in comparison and very boring.
The Furs aren't trying to change the world, they just exist
for your (and their) pleasure.
Butler "We're making our music and it's gradually gaining
a lot of popularity don't want hype or a lot of push, cause we're gonna gain
popularity just by what we're doing. You get bands like the Clash who won't go
on Top Of The Pops. I want as many people as possible to hear this band because
we have something to say and I think we've got something very good to say. I
don't mind going on TOTP, miming, as long as people who see us listen to what
we say. I'd like to have something out on K-Tel.”
Now there's a thought.