It has been almost seven years since Whitney Houston gave her last full length interview, yet on September 14 she will be appearing on the new series of the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Susan Boyle gave her first interview since losing Britain's Got Talent and NBC's Today show was where all the action could be found.
Susan Boyle has opened up in her first public interview since losing out to Diversity on Britain's Got Talent. The interview is to be broadcast on NBC television next week during America's Today Show.Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
These Zac Efron pictures by Mikael Jansson for the latest edition of Interview magazine show the High School Musical star in a whole new light as he seeks to lose that squeaky clean Disney image. Interview magazine goes on sale next week and the website has the full interview with Zac.
The Specials: Lynval Golding, Terry Hall and John Bradbury
Take That's Howard Donald has revealed how he masturbated with Robbie Williams in the early days. The group wank was witnessed by Mark Owen who told Q Magazine, "That was an odd one, that. I think I was more of an observer."
The Specials
The Specials are back and here is an interview with Lynval Golding, Horace Panter and Roddy Byers from the Coventry Telegraph by2-Tone fan Pete Chambers. Tickets for The Specials UK Tour are on sale now and here is the interview talking about the upcoming reunion tour.
How does it feel to be a Special again?
LYNVAL: "It's been a really slow process, but we were intent on celebrating something we created 30 years ago. So we are finally here, and to get up there on stage again to play to the fans is going to be a real celebration. I have to stop and pinch myself, it's simply a lovely dream that I don't want to wake up from".
RODDY: "I hope it's less painful this time!"
Horace: "I think physically it will be more painful – I'm not 25 any more! Seriously, I think it's going to be a lot easier".
The Specials @ Bestival Festival in September
At Bestival (a festival the six of them played in the Isle of Wight in September) we basically got the first album, I presume the set-list this time will include the second album and Ghost Town?
HORACE: "For our dance hall shows in April/May we will be playing for 90 minutes, twice as long as we did on the Isle of Wight, so there's room for second album stuff and beyond".
When next year's tour was announced it all went mad, even I was surprised of the emotion people still had for The Specials, how was it for you?
HORACE: "It hasn't really sunk in yet".
Do you think we will see the stage invasions of 1979/80. Indeed has The Specials ethos changed in 30 years?
HORACE : "Thirty years ago I was always concerned that someone would get badly hurt during the stage invasions but the health and safety aspect of rock'n'roll shows has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. Whether our attitude has, remains to be seen".
Will you, as The Telegraph reported last week, be playing in Coventry?
STEVE BLACKWELL (Specials manager) : The answer to that is a great big YES. There is no big secret about it, the reason there is no news on the date as yet, is that it must be planned properly.
"The band are still working on plans for Coventry and no decision as to where or when have yet been made". I can assure everyone that the band want this to be a very Special gig for the people of Coventry!
Tour News and Views:
* The last time The Specials played in Coventry was at the Butts Stadium on Saturday June 20 1981, for the Rock Against Racism concert.
* A large percentage of latter-day Specials fans, are far too young to have ever seen them play. This is something the band are happy to rectify.
* The 'Where's the Coventry date' scenario, is nothing new. The Specials' first tour back in 1979 didn't include a Coventry date when originally announced either. That was also rectified before the tour was out.
* The tickets for the tour on sale priced at £32.50 in advance, except London £35. 24-hour Hotline: 0871 2200 260 / Online: www.gigsandtours.com
http://www.theenemy.eu/ - for the latest news on The Enemy
The Specials feature on the May cover of MOJO magazine and within the excellent article is an interview with The Enemy frontman, Tom Clarke. Here he talks about the lyrics and influence of The Specials:
The Enemy's Liam Watts. *pic: NME
Liam performing Radio 1's 'Live Lounge' pic: BBC
Coventry's Pint Shot Riot are interviewed in SUBvert Magazine in a two part interview with Rocket, who talks about life in the band and how they got Pepe Jeans to sponsor them.
Check out Pint Shot Riot : MySpace and their website for more information about upcoming gigs and news.
'We are not politicians, we are a band," says Tom
Clarke, the singer-guitarist with The Enemy, denying
any position as a spokesman for disaffected teens. "I don't want to be a
part of pointless politics. So many of the problems in England could be easily
resolved. All these blokes in suits with their degrees and God knows what, but
they can't see simple solutions.
"It's like Asbos - that is the
most useless bit of legislation. It is not solving a problem, it is just
labelling someone."
Though Clarke doesn't see himself as a spokesman, his band has a taste for
uncomfortable social issues, which has prompted comparisons to the likes of The Jam and The Specials (a Coventry band,
like The Enemy).
The Enemy's No 1 debut album, We'll
Live and Die in These Towns, deals with unemployment, Friday-night brawls
and social exclusion. Clarke also says that "one of the first songs we wrote
was It's Not Okay, which was the week that Peugeot closed two factories in
Coventry. That is a society thing. What you see at the end of the day is a table
with your mates sitting around it who have got no money because they have no
jobs."
Clarke is talking to me just after the Enemy have played a gig for
inmates at the chapel of Pentonville prison in north London, in support of the Wasted Youth campaign, which raises awareness of the high
suicide rate among young British men. This is a particular problem in prisons
(67 inmates took their lives last year; 59 had already done so this year by the
time the Enemy came to Pentonville).
"The statistics are shocking," says Clarke. "For every
person who dies from taking an E, there are 88 young men who commit suicide, and
suicide is at its highest in prison."
"You can't really appreciate what it's
like until you've been in the cells," says the Enemy's drummer, Liam Watts, who has taken a tour of the prison, which included
being banged up, albeit briefly, with a burly, shaven-headed man - the band's
manager. "That was dead weird," he says.
So how did The Enemy get to the point where they are
considered suitably big names to play awareness-raising gigs for charities (even
if Dirty Pretty Things are headlining)? After all, all three members are still
only 19.
"I think we expected success," says Clarke, who speaks from
the heart rather than from a manifesto. He's like an off-message Billy Bragg or
a Paul Weller less pernickety about his clothes.
"There are a lot of ways of going about success. You can start
wearing trendy clothes and getting yourself in magazines or things like that,
which I would never do. Or you can just go and gig your arse off, which is the
old-fashioned way of doing it. We have pretty much been on tour since October 26
last year. You can prove your worth on the tour circuit."
The tour circuit, this year alone, has taken The Enemy
from the toilet venues, via the summer festivals, to supporting the Rolling Stones the night before they visit Pentonville. The
band have grown in profile to the point where they will be headlining the
5,000-capacity Brixton Academy next month.
Today's gig at Pentonville, however, is rather different. Security is
understandably tight; guests have to present their passports as ID, and mobile
phones are confiscated. As we pass through a series of sliding doors, Clarke
jokes that the security is nearly as extreme as it was backstage at the previous
night's Rolling Stones show.
Walking into the high-ceilinged chapel, we are greeted by rows of
seated prisoners, with prison officers strategically placed around the room.
Media and guests aside, the audience numbers around 100, favouring a mix of
green-and-yellow overalls, prison-issue shirts and box-white Reeboks over skinny
jeans and Converse. A good 40% of the audience is black, and most of the white
inmates sport a number-one crop.
After a brief introduction from the prison's governor, Nick
Leader, The Enemy begin their set with 40 Days and 40
Nights, to a muted response. Given that most of the audience were inside
before the band was formed, it's hardly surprising they don't know the words.
But by halfway through the second chorus, heads are bobbing and feet are
tapping, and at the end of the hit single Away from Here, there are
whoops, yells and applause.
That song was written on the shop floor of the Co-op where Clarke worked as a TV salesman, and its wantaway
sentiments strike a chord. By the end of a breakneck rendition of Had
Enough, the inmates are on their feet.
Backstage, the band are all smiles while Dirty Pretty
Things set up their equipment. "That was easily one of the most
rewarding gigs we have done," says Clarke.
Later, as the band sit and
talk about music, it's not surprising to hear the names that get referenced.
"I discovered the Jam and the Clash through my mum listening to the
same tape over and over when driving me to school," says bassist Andy Hopkins (another former TV salesman). "I have the tape
in my car now. It has The Specials on it, which I didn't
realise I was listening to at the time."
Clarke reckons a key moment for him was finding a box of his parents'
old vinyl in the loft, among which nestled a copy of Led Zeppelin II. There was
something else up there, as well. "I found this old thing that looked like a
big tape player," he says. "I plugged some speakers in and turned it
on. The reel-to-reel tape on there was Sgt Pepper's."
That link to the music of the band's parents' generation means a fair
few forty somethings can be seen standing and nodding at the back of The
Enemy's gigs, including some rather unlikely fans.
"We turned
up to an HMV signing ,and we walked in and the manager goes, 'There's a
policeman in the dressing room waiting to see you,'" says Clarke.
"I thought, 'What the fuck have we done?' So we walk in and
there is this copper there and he takes his hat off and says: 'I was at the
Leicester gig last night, I was crowd surfing.'"
"He's got a few lads at
work wearing the Enemy badges," adds Hopkins. "They're wearing them
underneath their police badges."
In the event that The Enemy find themselves back in
Pentonville for all the wrong reasons, at least they'll have a
get-out-of-jail-free card.
Tom: It's been an amazing year thanks to the hard work and the devotion and effort of all the fans. The people who bought the single, the people who came to the shows, everyone who's supported the band in any way should be proud. It's been great to see every one's positive reaction so far. We never expected people to understand a bunch of songs we wrote on shop floors and in Andy's Fiesta so it's been great thanks.
Tom: Godiva is a great free festival. It's an opportunity for local unsigned bands to get great exposure. It's an opportunity for music lovers who are too young to get into venues to see their favourite bands and it's free. We're well chuffed to be playing it, I remember a couple of years ago me and Liam climbing the backstage fence to see the Datsuns side stage. What really annoys me about Godiva though, is the whinging, whining residents who every year without fail campaign about the festival and force the Council to impose a ridiculous noise curfew which makes larger touring bands more reluctant to play. It's a few days a year of culture, music and celebration, something that Coventry as a city needs. Still it's a great festival and we're looking forward to smashing it away!!
Tom: Super Furrys will be good to watch as I've never seen them live before but I'm just as interested to see what's going on in the small tent and see some local bands. Cov's got a lot to offer.
Tom: Yup, Liam bought his first sword (he's now got a collection) at Godiva a couple of years ago. We played last year, first on in the main tent, and I've been a few times before. It's a good laff.
Tom: Of course: I defy any songwriter not to be influenced by their surroundings. I grew up in Birmingham and moved to Cov a couple of years ago but Liam and Andy have lived in Cov their whole lives.
Tom: Andy came up with it, we were driving to Pizza Hut in his Fiesta and he just came out with it, we had no idea there was a magazine called NME at that point!!!
Tom: Sitting in a pub drunk, me and Andy had a moment of realisation. We were spending more time in the pub than we were earning, both selling TV's for a living, not enjoying life much. We were both aware that Liam played drums and that together we had all the components to make a band. We ended up sitting on Liam's brother's bedroom floor and agreed we'd have a bash. First time we played together we wrote "40 Days and 40 Nights" and decided we'd better arrange a few more rehearsals!!!!!
Tom: Nah, just have a bev and chillax!!!!
Tom: Touring with the Manics was class. It was one of the best tours we've done. Totally different fans, totally different vibe but a great tour and they're class guys, would go back on tour with them like a shot!
Tom: Everything.
Tom: I wouldn't. I'm a musician not a journalist. I make sounds and leave the describing to people who are good at describing music. I don't think we're easy to pigeon hole like other bands though, we listen to a lot of different sorts of music and I think different people hear different influences in us.
Tom: Nobody!
Tom: I'd be selling TV's for the Co-op, Andy would be selling TV's too and Liam was made unemployed a week before the band signed so God knows where he'd be!
Tom: Me, Liam and Andy!
Tom: Diverse. Cultured. Home.
Tom: Everyday life and everyday people inspire me, not just in my music but in general. The people that silently make the world go round that no one stops and bothers to thank. Ever shook your postman's hand? You'd be screwed without him.
Tom: We were supposedly meant to be a super group of the Kaisers the Paddingtons and Boy Kill Boy!!!!! Ha!!!!
Tom: Liam and Andy don't. I do, and she's just fine, thanks for asking.
Tom: Who know..... you're probably asking the wrong person as I don't fancy Liam, Andy or myself. I think it would be a bit weird if I did don't you?
Tom: We had one that "enquired as to what our leisure preferences were" ..... odd question...... but fair play.
Tom: Not really, I don't care about celebrities. I'll leave that to Avid Merion.
Tom: Not personally, Madonna's past her best now isn't she?
The new single "You're Not Alone" is released 17th September 2007 and the album "We'll Live And Die In These Towns" is out now. The Enemy will be touring the UK during September and October as part of the NME Rock n Roll Riot tour.
*Interview from CV One's "Feel Alive" Magazine and typed up by robmacca.
