The following is a transcription of an interview with David Baynton-Power, James' drummer, done at the Rendez-Vous restaurant in Atlanta, GA on March 1, 1997.
L = me, D=Dave, T=Travis from the Morrissey fanzine, "Wilde About Morrissey" who sat in on the interview and helped with some questions.
Leaking: So what happened after the last tour?
Dave: Larry didn't want to tour anymore, I think Tim wanted a rest. I didn't. I didn't feel it was a good time to stop, myself, we were making up so much ground. And so we had some time off, we started to try and write some new songs.
L: What about the tax evasion thing?
D: Oh, you heard about "Black Thursday"? That's basically, we were holed up in the studio and we had a big meeting with the accountants and the lawyers and they basically said "You're broke. You owe this amount and that amount and it's basically not looking so good." And it was also on that day that Larry said "Oh yeah, I'm leaving." So it was a bit of a downer. Tim had also gone off, he was working with Angelo Badalamenti, so it was all very fragmented and it was looking a bit bleak. Well really, at the end of the day we pulled it all back together, it just took a while.
L: So you went into your studio you have a studio, right?
D: I have a space to set up some equipment at my house, so with the stuff we'd already jammed at bigger studios we thought, "Alright, lets take it to a small room and start editing and basically trying out new sounds and new textures on it. We weren't really coming up with anything in a big studio where we set up as a band. It's like you can really hone in on sounds and stuff and it doesn't cost you a fortune, it doesn't cost you œ750 a day to do it, you know. You can mess around for weeks and not spend very much money doing it. So finally, things started developing to the point where we found a producer and it was like, "right, let's go back into a proper studio and put it all together." Which really brings us up to where we are now. But there were some bleak moments. There always have been in James' history. Like when disasters happen is when we sort of get going.
L: In an article the NME printed a couple of weeks ago, it sounded like Tim wasn't with you when you recorded, that he did his thing and you did yours in separate studios. Is that accurate?
D: Umm, well he wasn't when we were working at my house, and that was another reason for doing what we did. Cause like we had his rough vocals on tape, so it's like, "Alright we've got the basis of the melody and the tunes that are going on. Let's find an interesting setting to put them in, you know. But then hopefully, once he's sorted out his album, he can come back which he did." We all got together in a proper studio and got it sorted.
L: It seems like you are taking a very different outward approach these days, a real change in attitude, umm, there was that lovely picture...
D: Oh, you liked that?
L: Yeah. It's up on the webpage....
D: Good. Yeah. Just type in on your web browser "James' Bottoms."
L: It's actually Jamesbum.
D: Jamesbum? Hahaha, good.
L: But it really seems like there's been a real change. I read a while back Tim saying something to the extent of "No funny pictures." What brought this about?
D: When you look back at the photographs the press have got, you just think, "What a bunch of boring sods we were." We just thought, let's do a photo where you're going through the magazine and you go "AHH!"
L: It worked...
D: Yes. It worked. So that was basically it, you know. At that photo session it started out, Saul was sat in a chair, the photographer says "Everybody gather round him." It was like, "Lads, we've been here before, let's do something, let's make a move." You know what I mean?
L: So who's idea was that?
D: Saul's actually.
L: Not surprising...
D: Well, after I suggested that we'd been there before, it was like, what can we do? He was like "What can we do? Lets take our clothes off, yeahhhhh. Let's get naked."
L: Well Tim didn't...
D: But no, I mean you can't hide from the fact that, I don't know if I should be saying this...oh well, fuck it...
T: We know what you're going to say...
D: There is a bit of a division. Like Tim's into a lot of stuff that he's into, and we're kind of into different stuff. We thought, well, let's use it to our advantage. So that's basically why he was there holding the whip and we're the whipping boys. We thought it was a fun way to kind of show that off, you know.
L: On that subject, have you ever objected to or censored anything he's written, lyric-wise?
D: Uhh, it goes all ways. You're always going to come up with your part of a track and someone will go, "Ahh, I don't know if I really like that..." It's just the way you bring it up really. Not like "Well, I think its CRAP." You've got to be able to say "Well why don't you try THIS." It's how you do it really.
L: So tell us about Adrian, the new guy.
D: Where did he come in eh? He's an old friend of Saul's, and uh, obviously we had to find somebody else with Larry going and luckily he fit the bill. He's a really good guitar player. He's a bit more rocking than Larry, he's got a bit of an edge, which has injected a new spark into the band. It was so good for us that we didn't have to audition, put the advert in and then 100 guitar players and we're "No we'll give you a call..." It was like, "Adrian? Yeah, give him a go. Great. He works." So luckily that was quite easy for us.
L: So you were working with Stephen Hague and Brian Eno on the new album?
D: Yeah.
L: How do you feel that working with Stephen Hague, who's done so much with New Order, affected the direction of the album?
D: Umm...
T: Versus Brian Eno.
D: Brian didn't have a great deal to do with this album really. He did a lot of backing vocals, great backing vocals. There, Brian Eno. Backing vocals. Yeah, Stephen was great. Really nice bloke, easy to get on with, and he's made a lot of pop records so he has a good ear for a tune. He's one of the guys who really wanted to get involved. And he has a great track record and it was like "Oh wow!" It's always great when someone like that, when you get a phone call saying he really wants to do the record, when someone likes us.
L: So are you glad to be back on the road?
D: Well, after three years...There's no point in being unrealistic and thinking "Well, perhaps no one is interested anymore." There's been a lot of change in music. In three years some bands have been and gone you know. So you put your record out and you think, "Is it gonna do anything?" And after all this time to come back to America, and we're only doing 3 shows, a bit of a promotional trip, and we've sold them all out. It's like, it's grand!
L: So what are your plans? I know you're doing some dates in England. Then what?
D: Gonna come back over here.
L: What is the best tour story you have?
D: Uhh, oh god. They're not printable.
L: Ok, something printable...
D: I don't know. Can't you ask what's the best gig we've ever done?
L: OK then, your favorite way to pass time on the tour bus?
D: Hahaha. Sleep, I suppose.
L: What's your favorite song to play live?
D: Uhh, at the moment, I'd have to say, for me, personally, at the moment I really like doing "Come Home." Cause we've reworked it, pumped it up and modernized it and it's just like "Shit! If only we'd done this the first time..." *laughs* It so annoys us, you know, you record tracks very much in their infancy and once we've had them on the road for a while, they really start coming together and you think, "Shit. If only we had this on the record..."
L: It seems it could get really boring playing them for so many years.
D: Well it does, yeah. Well we've done this new version of "Born of Frustration," which you may or may not like, but there was always a lot of baggage with that song, because it came out at a time when the press started turning on us in England, you know. There was one point where every gig we did we got a great review. Suddenly it just turned and we got slagged off as being a stadium rock band, and being called the new Simple Minds and that track was kind of the key of all that.
T: That song broke you in the U.S.
D: I know, but for us that song has a lot of baggage with it, and when we play it we've got all this shit going on in our heads and stuff and it's like we knew a lot of people like it, so it was like, "How can we present it so it's kind of new for us and not so stadium...?"
L: But you did that slow acoustic version. Do you know what I'm talking about?
D: No. When?
L: In 1994.
D: Did we? We can't remember that one.
L: I just remember seeing you play in 1992 and being shocked that you didn't play it because it was the hit single.
D: Yeah. That sounds typical of us. We're great at shooting ourselves in the foot.
L: No, people were really into it. You may not remember, it was in Boston on Halloween.
D: Oh yeah...I remember that one. We all dressed up stupid didn't we? *Laughs*
L: Yeah. About the only costume I remember is Jim's. He looked like a big dildo.
D: Oh yeah, I remember that *grin*.
L: So what's your most embarrassing moment on stage?
D: I've never had any. *laughs* No, not really. None I can remember. Probably you can ask other people and they'll tell you something funny, but not me. I spent a lot of time getting into a headspace where I don't get nervous on stage at all and I play much better for it. You get wound up and you make mistakes, and when you make mistakes you give yourself a really hard time about it. You really have to go on stage and not give a fuck and then you play well. It's taken a while to get to that space, but I think I've managed it. It actually came from being in America. There's a bit more laid-back attitude over here. I find most Americans far mor easy going in some ways. I caught the vibe.
L: I noticed that the last time I saw you, at the Orpheum in Boston, you came out with a cane. What happened?
D: Oh yeah. I damaged my foot. We'd been, uh, rehearsing in Woodstock, have you been to Woodstock?
L: No.
D: Not the gig, the town. Cause there's a big studio there called Bayersville, and there's a big wooden barn there that bands use to rehearse and we were there for a week before we started that tour and Boston was the first show. Well, me and Jimmy, we go running and stuff, we'd go running through the woods. So I'm bombing out through the woods one day, and I just landed on the ankle and my foot turned over like that. Luckily it was this leg [gestures] and not that one cause we would have had to pull the tour. I couldn't have played. So that's why I had the cane.
L: What would be the lineup of your ideal gig?
D: Umm, I'd have to say there wouldn't be any rock bands. I'm a bit of a techno dude. Out in the mountains. No bands.
L: Just a DJ?
T: Like the Prodigy?
D: Yeah...we like the Prodigy and Underworld and people like that you know.
T: So it was your influence on the radio today? Prodigy....
D: No, there's quite a lot of us really. We're going for a lot more of that. We just find it a lot more exciting cause it's new, you know.
T: That's why you mess around with remixes?
D: Yeah, we've also started another side project as well, doing a lot of that stuff. We're fishing around for deals at the moment.
T: To put out a record?
D: We've got one ready to go.
L: So this is the trance/ambient album I heard rumors about?
D: It's not ambient really. Some of the songs are like 3-minute pop songs in a techno environment.
T: Are there vocals on it?
D: Yeah, a few, yeah.
T: Is it Tim?
D: No.
T: Who?
D: Saul. It's Saul.
T/L: Ohh, so he really DOES want to be the singer....
D: It's wild up where I live, see, I live in Wales and I only discovered this last summer, I was getting a bit pissed off living in Wales, after being in London and doing the album. I was thinking, "What the fuck am I doing here?" I only know a few people, it was a bit boring. And when you want to go out you think, "Oh let's go to Manchester, go to Liverpool to go to a club." And all the time there were these banging parties happening out in the forests. People go out with a sound system and just techno away all night. Once I discovered that, I just thought Wales is the best place on earth. And I got the lads over, I said "You've got to come to these parties, they're brilliant!" They're totally unregulated so you don't have to buy tickets, there's no security, it's just like people having fun. That's really changed a lot of things. I have to give a plus to the people who put those on. People called the Dosse Posse. Stick THAT on the net. That would be good.
L: Careful or you'll have people coming over there to try and catch a glimpse of you at these parties.
D: Yeah, well you've got to know the sites and all. It's all underground, all word of mouth, know what I mean? That's what I love about it you know.
L: Do you feel you are trying to present a certain visual image to go with the music?
D: There's never been a big game plan. There's probably more going on now than there ever has been.
L: So where did that idea for the cover art come from?
D: Don't know actually.
L: It's caused quite a stir. You have an internet mailing list that you may or may not know about...
D: I know there's a big list of like - me and Mark were we use this little studio in Wales to do b-sides and various bits and bobs and Mark brought his computer down and his modem and got hooked up to the net. I've never really surfed the net before. And he said "Have a look at this," and he pulled up this list and it was like every James bootleg that's ever been made. *laughs*
L: Oh my, I think my list is up there....
D: Hold on, I've got no problem with bootlegs. I've got no problem at all with 'em. I think they're great. I know it's only hardcore fans who buy them, it's not like its dipping into our sales, that's crap, you know what I mean? I think it's great. It's flattering that people are that into it, to be doing that shit. It was just like, lists, all these gigs. I mean bloody hell! Gigs I'd forgotten about. I was like "We played there did we?!" It was so long, I couldn't believe it.
L: There's actually 2 different pages. The one you are talking about, and then another one that has a chatboard and icons and cursors of you and stuff. And there's an email mailing list.
D: Oh we could get it up and bang a few things out as well.
L; They wouldn't believe it was you. Someone once tried to convince people he was Tim, using a bogus address. But my point was, the album cover people were speculating it was a transvestite or even Tim in drag.
D: Tim in drag? Ha. Well, I'll tell ya, all I can say is like, figure it out. *laughs*
T: Kind of like the Laid cover? It was like, FIGURE THAT ONE OUT, the dresses and the bananas....
L: That was real subtle....
D: Well, I'll tell ya, that was because we were starving. We were doing a photo session and we were all miserable and going "I'm hungry." And someone was dispatched to try and find some food and there was only a veg shop open. We were in Marseille, right that's the cathedral in Marseille, those doors. And it was just like, that's all they came back with, bananas. I'm telling you, there was no game plan. But as for the new one, you'll have to guess. Sorry. Whatever you wanna think, think it. It's probably more fun than the truth.
L: I think we can come up with something good.... There's a bit on the page that was posted for April Fools last year about Mark Hunter, that people believed....
D: What was it?
L: Well, we said that Mark had been jogging and was nearly hit by a car. So he got mad and tried to kick in the car's windshield and the police were called in. And he proceeded to moon the policeman and was dragged in for psychiatric evaluation.
D: Ha! Good work! That's far more interesting than the truth. *laughs*
L: Yeah, well, 3 months later people were still going "What happened? Was it true?"
D: Who did it?
L: Me.
D: Good work. Keep doing it. Mad stories I love it. It's a good story innit.
L: I thought so, especially after seeing that NME picture...Ok. Videos. Is there a story behind the latest video?
D: I think so. I haven't figured it out meself though.
L: No, I mean, were you trying to emulate something specific?
D: Fellini.
L: Ahh. So who generally comes up with the ideas? You or the directors?
D: Well, yeah, ideas are banged around. Then you've got to find a director, and you sort of muck a few things out with them and you end up with something. It's kind of fairly hit or miss.
L: How do you like doing them? It seems you've done low-budget stuff in the past, except for the last couple.
D: Yeah, well we don't feel very comfortable in them, you know, we're not like some bands that really go out and perform.
T: Well, based on the video in gorilla outfits, I'm sure you're REAL comfortable in that....
D: I think one of the best videos I've ever seen was New Order "Round and Round."
T: Oh, cause they're not in it.
D: Just loads and loads of gorgeous women.
T: Right.
D: I thought "That's so cool." Why can't we have a video like that, we're not even in it, brilliant.
L: I've always liked the Replacements video where it's just somebody's feet and the radio.
D: And he kicks it in.
T: I think I've seen that one.
D: Most videos have a very simple but original idea. You know what I mean? You just go "I wish I'd thought of that."
L: In the "Seven" video, you're wearing T-shirts and stuff with the numbers one through seven. There is no number 5. Was that just bad editing?
D: Really? I never noticed. There's seven of us, so what happened?
L: No no, I mean, it counts up...
D: There's no five going on?
L: 5 never shows up.
D: I wasn't aware of that. Did you watch the "Born of Frustration" video?
L: Yes.
D: Have you noticed what's weird about that?
L: Besides the wind?
D: No, you're not looking hard enough.
L: Andy in a dress...*grin*?
D: Have you looked at the guitar player?
L: What, are you the guitar player?
D: No no no. It's not Larry.
L: Then who is it?
D: It was our tour manager. Our record company never noticed either.
L: Now I have to go back and look. Heheh.
D: I'll tell you what happened. Basically it was our first trip to America. We'd run over to L.A. to shoot the video there, up in the "Troner Pinnacles." Out in Nevada somewhere, that's where it was shot. Well, the night we got into L.A., Larry got mugged. He was so shaken up he just buggered off home the next day. So he sent our tour manager out to take his place. He was wearing glasses and he wore Larry's hat and all; but no one ever noticed. So there you go. A little bit of trivia for you.
L: That's great. Is there a sample of "Bring A Gun" in "Avalanche?" Do you know what I'm talking about?
D: No, I don't actually. I haven't listened to "Bring A Gun" in years.
L: There was one bit in there that sounded like a sample from Seven, a real fast staccato bit.
D: I think it's actually Larry's guitar played an octave higher on the soundboard. For all the technical people out there who like that sort of stuff, that's what it probably is.
[waiter enters and refills David's coffee cup]
T: You're not drinking tea? You like tea?
D: Yeah, but I don't want to offend you Americans. You haven't got a clue how to make one.
T: I drink tea all the time.
D: You don't have kettles.
L: So what is your recipe for tea then?
D: Boiling water.
L: Well yeah....
T: With a bag in it.
D: You take the kettle to the the pot to the kettle, or the other way around. Cause like you order tea over here and they bring you a cup of hot water with a tea bag on the side. And they bring you cream?! No. Sorry. Doesn't work. You know what I mean. You put a man on the moon, but you can't sort your tea out. [laughs]
T: Have you ever tried iced tea? What do you think about that?
D: It's alright. Yeah. I remember doing an interview with Musician magazine.
L: Yeah, something about Earl Grey....
D: Yeah, and I said it's all about the water temperature. [laughs]
L: So, are there any songs that you've done, that you would now disavow?
D: Disown? Not want to know about?
L: Yeah.
D: Well, yes and know really. I mean it's like, the longer an album takes to make, the harder it is to listen to it. Cause then you can't have any objectivity because you're just so wrapped up in every little step of the work that went into it, and it takes years for that to get forgotten and to just listen to it and go "Oh yeeeaaah." But who knows. I really wish we could just sort of undergo hypnosis, you know, so once you finish the album, someone could go "ooooohhh" [makes noise] and you could listen to it like you've never heard it before and then you could make an objective opinion on it. But that's just one of the factors that goes with the job.
L: Are there any songs you feel like you've outgrown? Cause the sound has changed so drastically.
D: Well we do, we always change, or we'd get bored.
L: But I mean you listen to Stutter and you listen to Whiplash and it's not even the same band really.
D: That was a long long time ago. I'm sure even the Grateful Dead sounded a bit different later on, didn't they?
L: I would not know.
D: I've never listened to them.
L: You wouldn't want to start....
D: But what a phenomenon. The biggest grossing act in America.
L: And they only had one top 40 hit ever.
D: It was brilliant. Not playing the commercial game and yet still having such a huge dedicated following. I would never knock 'em for it at all.
T: Do you feel you guys play the commercial game?
D: Yes and no. You've got to toe the line somewhere. I mean when you've signed to a major label, you know...
T: There's nothing wrong with that.
D: Well, you know, it gets old. Maybe I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't playing the commercial game. It's all about exposure, doing interviews, and getting across to people.
L: Oh I don't know, if you were big "rock stars" you probably wouldn't have spoken to me in the first place.
D: I don't know. I mean you do an interview with a magazine and they send along a reporter who basically doesn't fucking like you and he's gonna do a hatchet job on you, you know. But you people actually like the music, you come to our shows. I'd much rather talk to you people, you know what I mean? It's like far more real.
L: Well, of course we think so.
D: No, we've been set up loads of times. Send over some real lad who's all "Oh yeah oh yeah mate and really like ya" and he just goes "Bunch of sods, don't like em." It's like "Fucking arsehole!" Know what I mean? Such a cheap trick.
L: It just doesn't seem worth it to take the time to do an interview if you're just going to trash a band. You could just as easily give them lousy reviews and then no more publicity and it would serve your purpose.
D: They're nasty, bitter people.
L: They're failed musicians....
D: Probably, yeah yeah yeah.
L: Ok, now I have a bunch of rather....unrelated questions. Which other member of the band would you most want to be and why?
D: No, I wouldn't. I'm quite happy. That's a perfectly ok answer as well.
L: Which song, by another artist, do you wish you'd written?
D: "Unfinished Symphony" erm, "Sympathy" by Massive Attack. Like "Damn! Why didn't we do that!"
L: What do you want the first line of your autobiography to say?
D: Oh fuck. That's probably it actually. "Oh fuck." This is the story... I don't know, I haven't got a witty answer for you, I don't know what to say. You'd probably only get a really good one for that from Jimmy or Bob.
L: Bob?
D: Bob. Bob's Saul. We've all got stupid nicknames.
L: Ahh, that answers a lot. I have an interview from a Toronto radio station and Jim keeps saying "Bob" and the DJ never said exactly who he was interviewing. "Bob" kept calling Jim, "Jim" though.
D: Stick that on the net. Saul is Bob.
L: So what are everybody else's stupid nicknames?
D: Well, I get called "Welsh," which is fine. It could be a lot worse.
L: Not very creative.
D: Uhh...Mark's "Chunny Lad."
L" Is that where "Chunny Chops" came from?
D: Yeah. It was "Chunny Pops" but they misspelled it on the cover. [laughs] We thought it was hilarious.
L: What is that supposed to mean?
D: "Chunny Lad?"
L: Yeah.
D: Uhh...fuck it. I couldn't explain it to ya. Well, Adrian, Adrian is called [laughs], "Mr. Pastry." [laughs]
T: Please don't ask him about that one....
D: Jim hasn't got one, cause he's fucking' untouchable. We've tried. They just don't stick. So we couldn't.
Frank: Teflon.
D: We tried "Teflon," it just doesn't work. So we've given up trying. Umm...and Tim's "Monty." [laughs]
Greg: Where did that one come from?
D: Uhhh, I can't...I can't say.
L: Sure you can....
G: Incriminating factors as well?
L: What is he? "Let's Make a Deal?"
D: [laughs]
L: We could go really bad places with that....
D: Well, there you go.
L: Ok, what's the worst thing you've ever been asked in an interview?
D: [laughs]
T: I hope it's not this one.
D: It's probably one of your questions. Umm, I don't do a lot of interviews actually. So, I don't have an answer to that.
L: What's the best album you've bought in the last year?
D: Uhh, I haven't bought much recently, actually. Uhh, I tell ya, umm, I don't know. Can you hold it down to a track or something like that?
L: Sure.
D: I don't know if I can tell. It's by the Scot Project, it's on umm, it's like a fucking' acid/techno album, a track. But it's by the Scot Project. I'll have to find the title out for you.
L: You're going to be up all night trying to think of it now.
D: Oh, definitely the label's Reactivate. It just reminds me of all the great parties last summer. They always used to play it when the fucking sun was coming up over the mountains.
L: What's the first album you ever bought?
D: Ahh, I think it was The Move.
L: The Move?
D: British band.
T: Never heard of 'em.
D: Going back a while, yep.
L: What's the most embarrassing item in your record collection?
D: Oh loads. These are the ones you get free off the record company [laughs]. There's quite a lot in there.
T: How about stuff you're embarrassed to like?
D: Uhh, I'm not embarrassed to like anything. I can always justify it [laughs].
L: Well, ok, what's the last book you read?
D: Umm, I don't read books.
L: You don't?
T: Good for you.
D: I just read magazines. But see I can hold a conversation about most books because I've read about them in magazines [laughs].
L: If you were a slurpee, what flavor would you be?
D: [exclaims] A WHAT?!
L: Umm, an icee or a slush puppy, sort of a virgin daiquiri, only in any flavor you want...
D: I've never had one.
L: But but, I KNOW they have them in the UK.
D: Yah I know, slush puppies. I've never had one.
L: Well, hehe, pick a flavor.
D: Make one up.
L: Ok then, choose a bubble gum flavor.
D: Pop.
T: OK, that's cola, there's a cola flavor...
L: If you could choose a way to die, which would you prefer: violent death, accident, or disease?
D: They're not very good choices are they?
L: No, they're not.
D: They're horrible choices. That'd be a Brumpton's Cocktail wouldn't it. You know a Brumpton's Cocktail?
L: No idea.
D: I don't know if they're still used. They used to give them to terminally ill people. It's just a fucking massive mix of pharmaceutical grade heroin and other things and you just fucking nuke out, you don't know a thing about it.
L: Ahh, now we just have Jack Kevorkian.
D: Yeah.
L: Ok, this one is particularly bad. If you were kidnaped by Martians, what body part would you want them to have three of?
D: Sorry?
L: If you were kidnaped by Martians, what body part would you want them to have three of?
D: [laughs] Well, depends what they look like.
L: Use your imagination.
D: 3 nipples [laughs]. You said anything.
L: Ok, uhhh, what's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten (excluding bodily fluids)?
D: They're quite alright those, usually. Umm, fuck it, I don't know. Probably some kind of shellfish. Mussels...anything like that. I'd chuck. I'd throw up.
L: It's like snot....
D: Yeah, just the smell of all that sea water. I always used to have a problem when I was a kid and I used to go to the beach. Just that smell used to make me heave. I used to dread going to the beach because I knew every time I went it was like [makes puking noise]. I've gotten over it now like, it's just one of those childhood traumas that you go through.
T: You mean the old people didn't scare you away?
D: No no no, I'm fine now. Old people rarely smell....
L: Old people in bikinis?
D: Eeew.
T: Well in England, you go to Blackpool?
D: Well only once, really, for a gig.
T: Old people sit outside in chairs. They don't sit on the beach. They sit outside and chat. It's not a beach like here, it's pebbles and everything.
D: Yeah it's horrible. It's got Sallowfield up the road banging out loads of radioactive waste.
L: Sounds great.... Ok, your most prized possession?
D: Ahhh, uhhhh.
T: Your drum kit?
D: No. [garbled] It's just something that you turn up and hit every night. Umm, I haven't got one, cause when you have prized possessions they get taken away from you.
L: Now that sounds sad.
D: Of course I'd be too attached to something. I could say my girlfriend, but she's not a possession, you know what I mean?
L: Yeah. Your worst vice?
D: You don't wanna know....
L: Haha, another place we shouldn't go eh? Then what was the first gig you ever saw?
D: Uhh, Hawkwind.
L: [laughs] and what YEAR would THAT have been?
D: Uhh, 1974...something like that. It's going back a bit.
L: Well, that's all I have.
D: Well, I've got to chill a bit before the show anyway.
[Bunch of stray garbage, i.e. us thanking him, him taking off...]
David's favorite live james song