What
was growing up in Penzance like?
Rory: Long…boring. A good place to leave.
So how come you came to Sheffield and met these guys?
R:I wanted to get somewhere as far away as possible.
John: Didn’t quite get to John O’Groats though.
R No not quite.
Was that for college then?
R: Yeah I did a really crap university course. These guys were doing art
and stuff whilst I was training to be an accountant.
PINK
GREASE ARE:
Rory
Lewarne - Vocals
Steven Santacruz -
Guitar & Vocals
Marc Hoad - Drums
Nick Collier - The
Machine
Stuart Faulkner - Bass &
Vocals
John Joseph Lynch -
Guitar, Saxophone, Synth
& Vocals
DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
This
Is For Real
All Over You
Singles
The
Pink G.R.Ease
Fever
The Nasty Show (DVD)
Shake
Working All Day
REVIEWS
Live
Camden Barfly
London Astoria
Album
This is for Real
Singles
The
Pink G.R.Ease
Fever
Really…an accountant?
R: No. Not really
J: Eddie Izzard was going to be an accountant…
Ok then what would
you be doing if you weren’t Pink Grease?
Stuart: A groupie.
R: I wouldn’t be anything. I’d be a bum. These guys have all
got extra interests, other exciting lives but I haven’t.
S: It’s important to have a hobby isn’t it?
R: Everyone needs a hobby. Yes.
S: You’re a good reader, you’d make a phenomenal
librarian. You’ve done the noisy bit now. You should try something
quiet.
J: I thought you said weeder. Are we talking about gardening?
R:
Er no, I'm not very good at that but I could learn
S: You’re very down to earth…
R: This band’s on the verge of implosion so-
S: Expect a concept garden from Pink Grease very soon!
J: Stuart’s best mates with Laurence Llwellyn Bowen. They sleep
with each other . Rory’s their wet nurse.
S: He’s a proper nice guy. LLB my main man!
John: He signed our cd for us.
Wow celebrities! Who else have you met?
R: We met Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls at Reading. That was
cool.
Are they a big influence
on your music then?
R: Yeah, yeah particularly in the conception, in the early days, musically less so now.
Where’s the
music heading right now then?
R: We’ve got a new single
out in January. It’s called Strip.
Will there be another
album following it?
S: I think there probably will be at some point but this is kind of a
limited edition thing…
J: But it’s looking toward our next album.
R: It’s a chance to work out some ideas.
You sound busy. Especially
with the big tour coming up, Australia, Japan, Italy…
J: It’s all the time. It never stops
R: You just lose your social life.
You are looking forward
to it though?
R: Yeah, no we are really.
J: Barbecues.
S: Ramsey street! I wanna bring back bits of the set. I’m going on a pilgrimage, I’ve gotta steal so much. I want
to bring back some Australian bush.
J: You should steal the sign, the one in the titles.
S: It’s welded on though.
You had a neon Pink Grease sign which was stolen over the summer,
any news of the filthy scoundrels who took it?
S: We’ve got a new one tonight. We bumped into the people who stole
the last one though.
J: We’ve got pictures of them on CCTV. They thought they got away
with it didn’t they…
S: It’s a compliment though.
R: Yeah Stuarts hard work
J: It’s probably on eBay now…
R: The new one’s really good, but he’s done the classic thing
of starting really big with the Pink then realised there isn’t much
room for the Grease at the end.
A man of many talents
Stuart.
What’s happening with The Machine 2?
Nick: It’s nearly finished. It’s kind of see-through and all different colours.
R: And there’s another ribbon on it so it can do several notes at the same time and do harmonies and stuff.
S: It sounds even more like a human voice as well, because Nick always wanted to be an opera singer.
And
the Pink Grease bus?
S: It got broken into the other day and trashed.
J: They’re fixing it.
S: We were supposed to be bringing it down today but we will have a big
party on it some time.
J: We’ve gotta sort out the logistics of actually using it
S: We had insurance problems with it and when they got sorted out it got
robbed and trashed. We had a wonderful time in Cornwall with it though.
Who came up with the
idea originally?
J:
Barry of Add N to X. He’s gonna move into it when we’ve finished
with it.
R: We’re gonna take it to Eton when it’s fixed and do a gig
in Eton with this big massive pink bus and just terrify all the Eton boys.
J: I can’t think of anything worse.
R: Well…you know, at least it’s surreal.
If you could play a
gig anywhere where would it be?
R: On a platform on the Pacific. To the seagulls.
S: On top of the Statue of Liberty
N: Underground maybe.
J: On a hot air balloon.
S: No I wouldn’t like to do a show on a hot air balloon. I’d
like to do a show, and I’d like to ride in a hot air
balloon,
but not at the same time.
J: Yeah, it’s a bit of
a recipe for someone getting killed.
R: I’d like to play in here and get paid in falafel.
What are the Greasettes
up to?
J: Living their lives. This band sucks people into it and spits them out
again.
R: Yeah there was a period where
we had very specific Greasette friends of ours. They did the costume dress
up thing and had all that sass and “trademark Spice Girls girl-power”
but yeah this band takes over peoples lives and they just wanted to go
off and do their own thing. On the album we’ve got Claire Grogan
[of 80s pop band Altered Images] singing bits.
S: (singing) Happy birthday…happy birthday…
R: You can recognise her voice aswell, if you listen and are aware of
it, you can hear that weird child-like voice.
J: Yeah it’s really clear, that weird high chipmunk voice.
R: Oh yeah but it’s beautiful too. She’s still sexy.
If you got put in government
for a day what would you change?
J: We could paint the houses of parliament pink though. They’re a bit drab.
I think Education is important. It’s the three E’s for me; education, education, education.
So you wouldn’t encourage throwing it all away for a life of sin in the music industry then?
R: Er...no, don’t do as I do kids. Don’t drink either ’cos that’s like really bad. Isn’t that right Stu?
S: There’s always water though.
R: Oh yeah, drink water. Yeah I think we’d make people drink more water. Because it’s healthy.
J:
I think we’d encourage friendliness.
Finally, where do you see yourselves in a few years time?
R: I want to take the pink bus to Tibet…
S: We could have a Pink Grease monk driving the bus, with little pink
driving goggles and a white scarf…called Butch.
R: ...no, wait we could have a pink jet!
J: We’re currently working on a new band, Pink Grease Juniors. They’re
going to replace us when we’re too old and lazy.
S: Yeah, expect big things
Interview by Ellie Plevin