French Version
Interview Baz WARNE Sint Niklass (Belgium)
November 24th 2007
Cultuurcentrum of SINT NIKLAAS
On November 4th 2007 you played the gig with the Stranglers at the Roundhouse in London. The set was the same as in 1977. Of course you weren't with the band in 77, How old were you ?
AM : or thirteen...
Baz : On November I was thirteen !
AM : you were born in 1964. Did you know the Stranglers at that time ?
When I was thrirteen I was probably aware of them, that time in a teenage boys life, you're sort of finding a lot of things out, so music was definitely one of them and I am almost certain I would have been aware of No More Heroes, Peaches, maybe, you know...yeh
AM : Did you like them ?
Oh I loved them, always loved them, everybody knows that I love the Stanglers and I have never made a secret about it. It's a real trip to be playing with them, but I am good enough, so !...
AM : Yes you are !
Could you tell me your impressions about the Roundhouse gig ?
Obviously we were a little bit disappointed because of the technical
troubles that we had. The night before in Glasgow, and the night before in
Manchester, that was fantastic and the night before in Glasgow, fantastic,
and then we got to London and of course we've got the video cameras,
completely sold out, a lot of press, a lot of talk, it was a very big gig for
me because a lot of people were expecting Hugh Cornwell to turn out, which is
ridiculous, and so I was under the microscope a little bit and I was under
quite a bit of pressure and of course we just wanted to do the very best that
we could and having it been anything like previous evening in Manchester we'd
have been very happy but these things happen and it was nothing to do with
the band it was just something that happened to the equipment so you can't
blame myself, you can't get upset about it, this shit happens, life goes on,
so we went off stage the first time, and we were very disappointed, JJ in
particular was pretty angry about it but there is nothing you can do, you
know, and I said to them we have to go back on stage, so just smile and get
on with it and that's what we did !
If I say the words Sucker Punch what are you going to tell me ?
Sucker Punch ah yes, that is....ah...have you seen any of that ?...have you seen it ?
AM : no, it's not yet released in France
Baz : No, the producer is finding it difficult to get a release I believe.
That's a movie. JJ and I were asked to do the music and they needed somebody
who looked like me, talked like me, from my part of England to play a bad
guy, and well I was sat there and the producer said to me : "'we need
somebody who looks like a hooligan, who looks like an assassin, like a hit
man from Sunderland" where I am from, and I said well I'll do it, so I did
initially, I only had about 8 lines, 8-9 lines maybe, but apparently they
were so impressed with me, that wrote it on the scene for me to do, so I
thought I was quite good. Myself and my girlfriend went to London, we were
invited to the première in London and we went along to see it, and it's quite
a boost to see yourself on the big screen, you known, it's not really my
thing, and I did enjoy it, but it's not really what I do, but I've been asked
on the strength of that to do some more, so if the time is right and I feel
like doing it and I like the script then I'll certainly have another go.
I have acted before and I didn't like it very much but on Sucker Punch it was a
very low budget movie, everybody was doing it for free really, and so it made
the experience light and easy going, and easy to enjoy, they put me in my
ease, there was no nerves or pressure, on anything you know, if you do
something and you're not happy with it they'd say : "Do you wanna do it again
?"...you know...have a look at it and...and I don't like looking at myself on
the screen, no I don't like it, oh my god, but I saw it and I thought,
yeh...I can do that...yeh, so it was good. I enjoyed it, and when it was
finished, of course we only got involved to do the music, and nothing to do
with acting or anything, the music is really good even though I say that
myself, and we were quite proud of that, but to appear in the film is quite interesting.