The Link Interview
By Annene Kaye
PRESIDENT GAS
The Psychedelic Furs who are at present topping practically every college chart in the country embark on an extensive tour of the US to say thanks to all those who have bought their third album ‘Forever Now’, and to entice those who haven’t to go out and do so. By the time you read this they will have already warmed up in Washington and Philadelphia but further dates stretching into November include: Oct. 28, Main Event Providence, 29-Beacon Theatre NYC, 30-Orpheum Boston, Nov. 1st-Nassau Community College, Uniondale NY, 3-Concert Hall Toronto, 4-Heaven Pittsburgh, 5-Royal Oak Detroit, 6-Fantasy Theatre Cleveland, 7-University Buffalo NY, 9-Riviera Chicago, and 10-First Avenue Minneapolis. A new single ‘Danger’ is taken from the album and to celebrate The Link’s THIRD issue in SIX weeks we are proud to include an interview with old sore throat himself, Richard Butler.
MIAMI
Richard Butler has never been to Florida, unless he sneaked in at night and spent his time there under a rock. It’s as if his skin was hastily applied with a putty knife moments earlier and I can’t help but wonder what would happen if he got caught in the rain.
BAR ROOM
“Do you want a drink?” he says, all smiles. I might as well. There seems to be some problem establishing eye contact, I fumbled for my lighter…maybe if I set my hair on fire he’d turn around and look at me.
EXIT THE KING. OH HORROR.
“Duncan had been having different ideas from the rest of us for a little while. We were having a lot of arguments and he wasn’t actually writing or able to write because the ideas that John and I were coming up with weren’t suitable. He was off on a different tandem and also we were getting pissed off at having saxophones on everything. So we decided to get rid of him, and I called up John who had wanted to have more space to play guitar himself, without having a rhythm guitar going all the time, so I suggested getting rid of Roger as well and he agreed to it. It was getting redundant, we had done two albums with the same line-up. It was getting dull having the sax underlying everything.”
‘From what I heard the sax wasn’t as irreplaceable as some people would have thought.’ A grinding sound from the bar blender jolts Mr. Butler and he turns to face me.
“We’re using cells on some things, and marimbas, and synthesizers. It’s much more interesting, you could make up the song with the basic four people we have now and then decide what other instrument it needs. We have the opportunity to do that now instead of having a strict line-up.”
ENTER THE SPORTSMEN.
“We’ve decided to make the ‘Psychedelic’ smaller on the logo, however I don’t think we’re ever going to lose the name The Psychedelic Furs. In America it seems that people automatically associate psychedelia with drugs. But in England it’s a whole genre, it’s to do with art and movies but over here it just means drugs. Apparently it’s like calling yourself The Drugged Furs which we’re not. We don’t take a lot of drugs. Do you want another drink?”
A waiter drops 785 empty beer bottles into a bin full of silverware and we’re both startled into silence. I swallow hard and ask him what subject he finds himself writing about most often.
“It varies, if I read a book or see a film and the subject attracts me, I do something about that. There’s a song written for gay people, ‘Love My Way’, well not specifically for gay people…if you feel that the love you have for someone is a little bit wrong it’s a solace, and then there are songs about politicians like ‘President Gas’.”
‘A friend pointed out that a lot of the songs on ‘Talk Talk Talk’ mentioned cars….’ Oh dear, he looks confused.