 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
QUESTION: When did you actually meet the Rutles us individuals?
MICK: The first time I met the Rutles they all came down to see
us at Richmond and we had just completed a number and suddenly they
were standing there in their black suits, they'd just come off a TV
show and they were just sort of checking out the opposition, and then
they introduced themselves you know: Dirk, Stig, Nasty, and Barry.
They were very nice and complimentary, but that was the first time
we'd met them. They'd heard about us you know cos for a while we were
the South's answer to the Rutles.
QUESTION: Were you billed as that?
MICK: We were billed as that, yes. When we got up to Birmingham
it'd say ''London's answer to the Rutles.
QUESTION: Were they trying to sell you songs at that stage?
MICK: A bit later on they did yeh. The one for that was Dirk
really. He was a real hustler for the songs. Any old slag he'd sell a
song to. I remember they came down once and we were trying to rehearse
and they said do you wanna song and we said ''yeh.'' We were always
really open to songs cos we didn't write our own and the Rutles were
always well known for their hit-making potential ability. So they ran
around the corner to the pub to write this song and came back with it
and played it to us and it was horrible. So, we never bothered to
record it. I used to see them a lot then. The Rutles in London,
particularly Nasty. Nasty and I got on well. Barry used to get a bit
drunk in nightclubs you know and start punching out the Bigamy Sisters.
QUESTION: You were at Che Stadium?
MICK: Yeh, I was at Che Stadium with the Rutles. That was the
first big outdoor concert by a rock hand, the Rutles at Che Stadium,
so it was an exciting event, I even rented a helicopter for it. Came
in, zooming over the crowd, never aseen a crowd as big as that for a
rock concert before, ran in and met them before they went on. I think
they were nervous, you know, in front of all those people, but the
thing I remembered most about them is running out in the middle of
this field and you couldn't see 'em and there they were just miles
away. Is it really the Rutles? It might be somebody else. And
there was Barry on this eighteen foot drum riser swaying in the wind.
I thought it was going to fall over. We had a good party afterwards
though.
QUESTION: Did you hear much?
MICK: No. Nothing at all. You couldn't hear anything.
QUESTION: How long did they play?
MICK: About twenty minutes and that was it, off, helicopter,
back to the Warwick Hotel. two birds each.
QUESTION: Did you know Leggy well?
MICK: Oh yeh, Leggy, yeh you kidding, Leggy got around a bit
you know, I think he was a very big influence on them. He was like one
of those old time managers you know. do this. do that, take all the
responsibility off your shoulders: you wanna Rolls Royce? I'll buy you
one, what color do you want it, what color do you want it painted? And
that was aIl right until he started going off with the bullfighters,
and then I think they got a bit disenchanted with him and he didn't
know where to go in his life and they wanted to control themselves,
you know.
QUESTION: You went to Bognor with them?
MICK: Yeh, the Bognor thing was really funny. "The Bognor
Express" they called it in the newspapers, ''Aboard the Bognor
Express." We all got on the train together and someone was very late,
one of the girls. they're always late, Nasty thought we were trying to
get on She Rutles mystical bandwagon which wasn't true at all we were
just us eager to find out what was going on at this board-tapping
thing at Bognor as anybody. Anyway. we had a bit of board-tapping and
nothing much happened we didn't reach anywhere much and we had to
spend the night there in a youth-hostel type place and I remember I
was with Marianne Faithful and we only had single beds in the hotel so
Marianne and I put the beds together so that we could sleep together
on the floor and Nasty came in and said "Oh Mick, all you think about
is fucking sex, man. We're down here for board-tapping not sex." It
was you know a kind of funny weekend that, and then of course at the
end of it we found out that Leggy had gone off to Australia which kind
of put the mockers on.
QUESTION: Did Keith like the Rutles?
MICK: Yeh, I think Keith liked the Rutles songs from the
beginning. It influenced him a lot more than it did me. I mean, I
never used to like them very much you know, they were to me a bit
sort of too "dee dee dee dee dee dee," but Keith liked that.
QUESTION: Why do you think the Rutles broke up?
MICK: Why do I think they did? Why did the Rutles break up?
Women. Just women getting in the way. Cherchez la femme you know
QUESTION: Do you think they'll ever get together again?
MICK: I hope not.
