The Primal Minister

Now that you're not a teenager any more, do you still think pop stars should be young?
Pop stars should be (pause]... they should look like nobody else. They should be fucked-up, angry, speak for a lot of people and look out-of- this-world. Look at Johnny Rotten. On PiL's 'Death Disco' he wrote a song abut his mum dying of cancer. Nobody's going to do that today. He was the perfect rock 'n' roll star. It's all about attitude, it doesn't matter what age you are. Look at Jerry Lee Lewis - an insane, arrogant, don't- give-a-fuck outlaw sonofabitch. Still rockin'.

Have you ever been to Gatecrasher?
No, but I like the idea; kids dressing up and having a good time. Nothing wrong with that is there?

You come from guite a socialist family. What do they think of what you do?
I think they're pretty proud of me. My dad always encouraged me to be creative, be who I am. When I got into punk rock he just let us get on with it.

Is it true that in the 80s you were pretty straight- edge? You were anti-drink and drugs and you wouldn't let people smoke in your house?
I wasn't anti-drink and drugs but I was a pretty straight kid. I mean, my brother was like a glue- sniffin', fuckin' gas sniffer, drinker. He was younger than me and a bad lad. I guess my dad was guite a heavy drinker and it never appealed to me. I like to keep my cool and listen to music. I never liked smoking or drinking. I always thought it was for old people, you know, old cunts dying. The drugs I liked were always amphetamine and acid. I still don't really drink that much.

Is it also true that you once got thrown out of the house of Paul Simenon, the bassist of The Clash, for striking a match on his wall?
That wasn't me, it was Duffy our keyboard player. After we went to see The Clash documentary [Westway To The World], we got in a taxi to Paul Simenon's house, and Duffy was so drunk that as he was talking to Paul, begets a box of matches and starts striking them on the wall. It was like something from a Marx Brothers movie. Simenon was pretty cool, Hejust said to him, 'Could you leave it for the next five minutes?' A couple of days later we said to Duffy, 'Do you know what you did?' He phoned up to apologise. But Simenon was in The Clash; he must have understood.

What would I have to do to be allowed to join Primal Scream?
Mani... is the perfect member. Nothing less than Mani, You've got to be that fucking good.

And what would I have to do to be thrown out?
You don't get thrown out. You get carried out. On a stretcher.

Have you ever done anything really embarrassing on stage?
On stage? (Pause.] I threw up onstage once, that was pretty good. 1989 in Dublin, I was guite proud of that. Embarrassing? Maybe it will come to me. Some dodgy set of clothes. Let's see... when bands were dressing down we were dressing up. There was that shirt with the white dots but I had it made-to-measure so that was alright, you know.

When was the last time you took ecstasy?
Yesterday morning. Eight in the morning. It was great. I was doing guite a lot over the weekend, That and Dexedrines.

You're making this up for our benefit, aren't you?
No, I'm not! Thursday night I went to see my friend Pam Hogg DJ and did a lot of speed. Went to bed at eight in the morning, got up at three, went to Sony, did some interviews. Went to my mate's house, did Es all night, got home in the afternoon, went to bed, got up at six, went to see Blondie.,. Actually, that's wrong, I never went to bed between Friday and Saturday, I went to bed on Sunday at one o'clock in the afternoon. Then I got up at nine last night, had some food, read an interview with David Cronenberg, listened to an album by The Make Up - good album - went to bed at three. So that's what I did this weekend.

Who's your favourite DJ?
Well I thought Pam Hogg was pretty good. She plays New York Dolls, Stooges, Suicide, David Holmes was fantastic in New York in the summer. He plays everything from Royal Trux to Alice Coltrane to jungle, Rotary Connection, just a wide mix of free-flowing fucking mad music.

Do you think Primal Scream are a funny band?
Oh aye, we're hilarious. We're a bunch of funny cunts, wejust laugh all the time, Wejust did a new song called 'Pills' and it's got two voices going at the same time, In one channel it's like, "I'm going to tell you the truth, the truth about you, you've never been true," and it's really angry. And in the other we're singing through a radio mic and it's "Woke up, still drunk, throwin'up, pissin' blood cracked head, can 't sleep." At the end it just go "Sick fuck! You're a sick fuck! Fuck fuck fuck" That's funny. Or 'Rocks' - that's a funny record

What's the worst record you've ever made?
Quite a few. Probably parts of 'Give Out...' We had good intentions. Tom Dowd held us together but there was people coming off heroin and methadone in the studio. We should have allowed the chaos to come through and make it more fucked up and dark.

What's the most expensive thing you've bought?
[Long pause.] Good guestion. My house? Probably the most expensive thing the band ever bought was buying into the romantic notion of taking heroin. That's maybe a better answer.

Primal Scream made the Scotland team's Unofficial Euro '96 record. Did you catch either of the England vs Scotland games, then?
No, to be honest I'm not interested. Last time I was really interested was Wembley 1977 [when victorious Scottish fans invaded and tore up the pitch]. I love football but I'm not that interested in watching two tenth division international teams. Back in the day, when Scotland had a good team and held their own against Brazil and stuff, it was interesting. I believed in them. Footballers were more soulful back then. Now its meaningless. You knew somebody like Joe Jordan (Scottish player for Leeds in the 70s] would've died for his team.

What's your favourite item of furniture?
I'm guite minimalistic actually. Er, I think I liken fire-engine red refrigerator. It makes you happy. There's never anything in it but it looks good.

What's your culinary speciality?
I'm pretty good at making beans on toast. I never add anything to the beans, That would be a bit too exotic for me.

If you could shoot five people, who would you shoot?
I'd love to bomb the Pentagon. Then have a really good party.

Do you envy anyone?
No, I'm guite happy in myself.

How would you like to die?
Good guestion. Phew. [Longpause.] Laughing.

What are you going to do now?
Try and get something to eat.