Part Three

Pete: When we made the preparation for the trip to Japan this time, it was potentially very stressful, because nobody could say what they wanted. We were rehearsing one thing, they'd get in touch with us and say they wanted another. And it was just like fucking pandemonium.

But when we got there it all went so smoothly, we almost didn't know we were there. We were onstage, then off, then on the plane home. It was really easy.

And I was getting quite angry at times with "what mix are we going to do?", "are these mixes going to be ready?". But you've just go to keep sailing ahead. We did what we said we would do initially. They would have liked us to do otherwise, to perform the remixes. But the final remixes weren't presented to us until the moment of the show. And the arrangements were not performance arrangements.

In their heads, they're thinking: I'm there, they're my songs, why can't I perform them? They didn't really understand. And I couldn't possibly learn them in a day. That was it. But they didn't really harbour any bad feelings about it, you know.

Pat: Yeah, they seem fairly flexible, even though in some things they act like they don't understand. But when you didn't want to do the remixes, they were willing to pay to redo them to make sure you were pleased with them. That's a good sign, I think.

Pete: Pleased as I can be under the cirucmstances, because, you know, I can understand when people are twittering away on the message board, because how many more mixes of Spin Me Round can I possibly hear?

But it keeps pulling me out of muddy water, so it's kind of a lucky charm. I don't know what kind of enthusiasm I'll ever get for another remix. I very much doubt if I ever will.

Pat: It's your lucky albatross.

Pete: Yeah! But there are other things that they've remixed other than Spin Me Round, they've done Lover Come Back, My Heart Goes Bang. So they're done the other tracks, and they're quite good for that genre.

I can't see me putting together a live band to perform those mixes. But I've been making myself aware of other artists' stuff. I've been watching weird channels on satellite and hearing the most god awful mixes of Whitney Houston tracks that were perfectly good when they started, and I'm thinking, "Why the fuck did she let this remix be done?"

Then I think, you know why? Because it's getting a different audience. So what's it matter to her?

Pat: Some of these she might not even have heard.

Pete: Yeah, it does get like that. And like Madonna has got remixes out there that are god awful and she's got some that are great. It's just a different audience. It means the DJ who's remixed them WILL play them, cause it's ususally a big name DJ that does them. He will play them, he's a DJ with a following, hopefully his following will rub off on us, and it's all getting a bit like that.

And there's nothing I can do to change things. In the last year I've grown out of the idea that you can alter anything. You have to just float along and hope you get to the island in the middle of the ocean.

Pat: (laughs) You know, this really does pick up where we left off a year ago, because the last thing we were talking about..I was just looking at what I had typed up when I was finishing up the transcript, and you were talking about how you were learning to go with the flow, and saying "I'm not a hippie or anything", but you're learning to be more compliant with things Because otherwise you end up going nuts with all this pressure.

Pete: Absolutely. I've been on the verge of that, because I was always the one to cut off my nose to spite my face. I've done that surgically! (laughs)

Pat: (laughs)

Pete: It's pointless, because you can't win. The way it is now out there with record companies, they don't care. They'll just get somebody else who's desperate for a deal. It just doesn't matter anymore.

And I think when I started off, without sounding negative, I don't have that much good to say about the Eighties, because it was still a highly frustrating period. But I still think you got more than one shot at it. You did an album. maybe you didn't do so well, and you got to do another album. And if that did a bit better it meant you did ANOTHER album.

And there was a growth process in those days. And yet I was really unhappy with the record company, which was CBS at the time, because they kept putting their fucking noses in. But now I think, at least they kept letting us try.

Pat: I know, you look back now and it's like a Golden Age compared to what's happening now, it's frightening.

Pete: (laughs) Yeah, you know, you'd put out three singles off an album and every one would bomb, and they would STILL put the album out.

Pat: And then say, "do another one".

Pete: Yeah! God, we were so lucky! And I don't wish to have the old days back again, because I was still growing up at that time. I was highly immature, emotionally retarded, and artistically retarded as well.

But there were really good things about it. You had to be able to do a certain amount of it yourself, as well. You had to be able to go into a rehearsal room and rehearse with people, you had to go and do demos and you didn't have a big name producer doing your demos. It was so different.

And I think in some ways it's easier now for people who just come along and are starting now. But it's also very much shorter lived.

And I was getting very serious about this the other night. I can't see me stopping doing this for a very long time, with or without record company support. It just keeps landing on my doorstep, just when I think it's all finished, something comes along and I do it again. I'm always available for something that's a reasonable offer. But the actual survival process can sometimes get a little bit stressful.

TO BE CONTINUED...

(c) Copyright 2001 Pat Geary. Not to be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.