Les Inrockuptibles Electronic interview

Only one page left! YES!!!! I shall finish it later this week. Probably on wednesday.

You're doing a great job. Thanks once again.

I love you.

Originally posted by Julijana Zitnjak I love you.

I am sure u only write that because I am badly translating this Electronic interview... Ever been to France btw?;)

Q- N.o gave an image of dilletanttism and lazyness. But now, you only talk about work. Barney - I am never lazy when I work in a studio, when I write songs. I actually work very hard then. It is true that I am very lazy the rest of the time. The only thing I am taking seriously is songwriting. It is said that English people are lazy. But that's make them imaginative people and dreamers. Johnny - The slow way of life in manchester drives me nuts, everything is very laid-back and relaxed here. You think lazyness is a virtue because groups like New Order or the Happy Mondays accomplished incredible things giving a feeling of easyness in the same time. But if these groups kept on going on, it's because they made a lot fo efforts: the Happy Mondays rehearse as much A certain Ratio and that's the only thing ACR is doing!!! It is true that a certain kind of apathy exists in England and that's what destroyed the industry here. People dont practise jobs they would be proud of. This social change dragged this lazy behaviour. There is now a generation that has never been working and never will. What they only have left is going out at night to take ecstasy or smack. Many intelligent people, because they come from unfaired social classes, have only two choices left : being in a group or taking drugs. Barney - Ive got a lot of unemployed friends. They refuse to count cookies or corn Flakes from Kellog's. They prefer dealing or stealing. It's not bad for music but it is for the society that slowly kills itself. Johnny - It has been positive for the music because of the Hacienda. The Survival or definitive closing of the Hacienda is of vital importance. 3 evenings a week, 2000 people would be unnoccupied. Its closing would be a terrible thing for Manchester. It could kill the spirit of the city, the spirit of the young people of Manchester. The Hacienda generates a state of mind. It was probably underlying but the Hacienda polarized it. It was just before Technique and Mind Bomb in 1988. The Hacienda concentrated all this state of mind in a specific space. Look at London, nobody knows what's happening there. The last real gang from London was the Clash.

Q - What are the real reasons of the possible definitive closing of the Hacienda? Barney - During the past years, we fought w/the police. The police wanted to close the club because of the drugs. But you cannot fight local gangsters. They are not even gangsters but guys w/guns. A lot of weapons have been circulating in Manchester during many years but the police has never done anything about it. The gangs are racketting, asking for money to let stores open. There was a club called the Thunderdome from whom the gangs were asking for "protection money". This club hired an other gang of "door keepers" (-I dont know the english word, sorry, they are the people who guard the entrance of the club-), like in the Hacienda. .The first ones came back to shoot the new "door-keepers". They shot their arms and stomach w/out killing them. After this kind of incident, nobody dares logding a complaint agst anybody cos a witness would be killed by a member of the gang. If someone testify agst them, he'd get shot. The problem w/the Hacienda, it's that it is a known place and that everytime something happens there, it appears right after in the press. And that's what the police does not like. They think that if youngsters stayed at home, they would be out of sight. Manchester police is intellectually limited. It's a small town behaviour w/ problems of a capital city.

Q- All the groups from Manchester have in common a sense of self derision and mockery. They want to show that they dont take themselves serioulsy. Barney - It's very natural for us Mancunians, we dont stop making fun of each other. But it's not because we feel malicious or even superiors. Johnny - we dont show off pretending we are artists. There are too many people who, because they have a little bit of success, transform their life into a myth. I hate that. I hate singers who do that. They start talking about their group history like if it was mythology. As I have been living for a very long time in manchester, I used to know a lot of people here before starting the Smiths. These people became more friendly w/me after I left the Smiths. They realized I didnot want to keep on looking like a miserable artist, like a shit. If pop music wants to evolve, it is very important that it does not take itself too serioulsy.

Q- In N.O's case, it was how you were protecting yourselves : staying in the shadow that built a small myth. Barney - It was not intentionnal, it was only a lack of ambition. We were happy w/what we were doing, we did not want to be known all over the world. Ian Curtis used to say he did not want the group to be more known that the the Kinks and we all agreed on that. Johnny - I would hate to be more known than I am now. It was the case before and that's what took away the desire of playing music from me.

Q - But mythology, for the audience, is always essential. Johnny - This is your business. But if people like us try to take care of this aspect, we will end like the Smiths. Most people spend their life trying to get out of their normal life while I just wanna be normal. I have never been an extrordinary kid, I have only known up and down. At a certain moment in your life, u have to realize what is unhealthy for you both physically and mentally. I dont wanna kill myself because of a so-called myth. If it is necessary to make real art then i'd rather make those little records that I love, have kids and family but stay alive. When a kid come to see us, wearing a Smiths or a Joy Division tee-shirt, I understand it is part of his life, but not mine.

It's done!! YES! Sorry if there are many mistakes and if my translation is bad. I did the best I could. Julijana, I hope u have an idea of what is said in the interview now.

You were wonderful and your English is excellent-I'm not a native speaker either. I don't think I'll be coming to France any time soon, but I can mail you a sixpack of finest Croatian beer if you wish.