Gene played Warwick University as part of their 'To See the Lights' tour. Nathan spoke to Matt (drums) and Kev (bass). And Steve (guitars) shouted at him.

How's the tour been going?
Matt: Swimmingly, actually. It's not a super long tour. There were times last year where we were touring 9 weeks in a row, and it was getting a bit much.

Has the audience response to the new songs been fairly good?
M: Yeah, well they obviously don't know them yet. Some of them do, cos we had a John Peel session quite recently, which has obviously been taped by people and people know the lyrics to some of them. The vast proportion of the audience is kind of listening.

Why have you re-released the first single?
M: We've bowed to the pressure of doing it. We didn't really want to. There were only 2,000 copies of it at first. We had so many letters asking us to re-release it, we thought we'd take our head out of the sand.
Kev: There are so many people now that outweigh those that originally bought it. It was on the American album, and people were buying it on import to get it, so we thought this is stupid really.
M: For anyone who did spend ridiculous amounts of money on it, I'm not saying I recommend that, the original is still worth that. It's to own the song and listen to it at home. There's no reason why they should pay #21 to do that, an album they've already got.

Why did you release an album of odds 'n' sods?
M: Why? well mainly for markets abroad, where the songs wouldn't be available to them. Again, our fans are people who'd dig things out and pay silly amounts of money for stuff, so we thought we'd make it available everywhere, not just on import. It is actually a really good album. A lot of people are saying its better than the first one.
K: It's good value for money, isn't it. 20 songs.

Were you pleased with it, and did you want to put it out?
K: Sure, it was our decision. It wasn't something the record company forced on us. Cos the first 4 singles weren't released in a lot of countries, there were a dozen songs people in Japan and the states couldn't get. We put it together and put some session stuff on there as well.
M: We're quite lucky in that all the releases we've put out have had 3 or 4 good songs on them. We've got a wealth of material that is all LP standard. I don't think we can really write b-sides. They've all kinda been Gene songs. We don't set out to write a b-side, a letter for the amount of quality to it. We've always put out really good stuff.

Do you ever get jealous with the attention that Martin gets?
K: No, that's why I'm the bass player and he's the drummer. I prefer that.
M: I certainly never did it to get recognised. That's the wrong reason. I only did it to write songs, and have a laugh in rehearsals.

All the songwriting credits are split 4 ways. Is that a conscious thing, or is that really the way it goes?
K: That is the way it is, yeah. Matt plays guitar as well. One of us will come in with an idea for a song, and we'll work it round for a bit. It is a four way thing, and if it wasn't the person who was writing the songs would be a bit miffed at having to do all the work, and everyone was getting the same amount of money.
M: We're 4 parts of one whole. We can all play guitar, but no-one can play guitar as well as Steve. We're all capable of putting chord progressions together, and having a concept for a song. If I'd like to do a Motown tune or something, I'd put it to the band and work it through. It can come from any one of us really, which is a nice way to be.

Does the acoustic section go down well with the crowd?
M: Pretty well actually
K: It calms the audience down a little bit, and everyone has a bit of a rest. It enables us to play 2 or 3 of our songs which we've never been able to do before, like Still Can't Find The Phone.
M: I think when you're playing for an hour and a half, you have to put some variety in it. That is another feather in our cap.

You are a British Pop band. Do you consider yourself Britpop?
K: We're a bit deeper than a pop band, I don't think we're quite so throwaway. We try and put a little more into it
M: You can't say Olympian is really a pop single, in that throwaway sense. It was quite popular. For The Dead as well is not really a pop song. I don't think we've tried to be a pop band at all. We've certainly never aspired to be a pop band like Pulp have. And I'm certainly not proud to be British either.
K: We're a Southlondonpop band.

If you don't consider yourself Britpop, your choice of touring partners would find it very difficult to deny it. People like Duffy, Elcka and Cast. Who chooses who you tour with?
M: I've got every Lilac Time album [Duffy's former band.] He has actually got a great sense of melodrama, and I have been a fan of Stephen Duffy for quite a few years. Elcka we discovered through a demo tape. They are offering something different, that kind of vaudevillian thing that they do is interesting. We've always picked our support bands.
K (muttering): In this country.

You didn't choose to tour with Cast then.
K (bitterly): Cast and Heavy Stereo was a package put together by the Germans, for about 12 shows.

One of the strangest choices on the new album is 'Say A Little Prayer' at Glastonbury. Who's choice was that?
K: We've all tried to say to people that we do like music other than The Smiths. We're all big fans of soul music, and we all love that song. We just used to jam it about in rehearsals, and we thought, "let's actually learn how to play it." Glastonbury came up and we thought, "just give it a go." It's the only time we've played it. The BBC recorded it, we heard it and it sounded pretty good.
M: I loved the recording of it, actually. It's an interesting version of it, a kind of stomp. It's a really hard sort of thing to play, and I think we pulled it off. It certainly went down well. It's a nice little timepiece.

What about the Beatles cover [Don't Let Me Down.] Are you big Beatles fans?
M: Yep, huge.

What did you think of the reformation of the Threetles?
M: Dreadful
K: I enjoyed the TV series, and getting the album with all the different takes, but Free As A Bird was.....
M: Free As A Bird was dreadful.
K: It's difficult for me to stand back, 'cos I'm such a big fan. I keep playing it and I try to like it, but
M: They got that geezer from ELO didn't they? He's the most objectionable man.

Were Martin to die, and in 20 years time you were skint, if you found one of his old tracks, would you get back together and record a backing?
K: Absolutely, yeah. We'll be doing the Butlins tour with Liam Gallagher singing for us, alongside...

Cast and Heavy Stereo?
M (laughs): Chubby Rossiter with his five chins. [Does passable Elvis impression] Thankyouverymuch.
K: Solid Silver Britpop Anniversary Tour.

People tend to either love you or hate you. Do you think it's always better to get some sort of response?
M: People who just hate us, and just think we're the Smiths or something, I don't hate them back, I just want to convert them. I was always very cynical about bands, I wouldn't get into them unless everything was right about them. I want to change people's minds about it. I want to change the editor's minds. I believe in what we're doing.

I've heard it said quite a few times that people who don't like you on record often like you after they've heard you live. Do you think there's a big difference?
K: When we recorded the album, it was the end of '94. Since then, we've done a lot of touring, and become a lot better live band. This album, we're gonna try and get a bit more of that on it. How happy were you with Olympian?
M: We were happy when it was finished. Looking back now, every song on that album is fantastic, but the production on it is not as good as it should have been. I think that stands as another little timepiece. I don't hate the album or anything, I just think that production wise, I've learnt things.
K: People don't quite get where we're coming from sometimes. Because we're influenced by bands like the Beatles, we can try different styles of music. We didn't do an album where every song is exactly the same.
M: We are a good live band. We put a sense of drama into it, and a little bit of theatre into it, without being pompous. We have converted a lot of people. This tour has been the best attended and the best responded that we've ever had.

You've always said that you'll evolve as your albums go on, but the new songs don't sound terribly different, and wouldn't have been out of place on Olympian
K: To be fair, doing a Peel session - you do that in a day - you go in and just record as a live set-up. We just recorded those songs as we've been playing them live. When we record them in the studio, we'll have more time to work on them. They were just basic ideas. I think the songs are stronger, lyrically and melodically. That's the way we wanna progress.
M: You shouldn't change for the sake of it. We've got something that's good and we can improve on. We've messed around with disco things. Some of it's worked and some of it hasn't. We'll progress, definitely.
K: I think we're in a good position in that we've always tried different styled of music. If we put an album out with ten varied songs on it, no-one's gonna think, what are they doing, 'cos we've always done that.

Would you get another artist in to remix one of your tracks?
K: What, a Chemical Brothers remix of Olympian? It doesn't work, half the time, does it?
M: I'd like to write a song for somebody else. I'd like to write a song for Marc Almond.

When can we expect a new "proper" release?
K: I should think in the next couple of months. As soon as we've finished this tour, we're gonna go and record some songs
M: It's quite tough, cos I wanna record the whole album, and then choose singles from it. It looks like we're gonna have to record the single, and then carry on with the album, which doesn't always mean we've got the best song. We've got about 8 to choose from so far. We've written at least half of the album.
K: It depends how quickly we can bash 'em down. Hopefully we can get a spontaneous recording - we've been playing them on the road before we go into the studio.

Do you ever get annoyed with the statements that Martin makes in the press?
K: erm...
Steve (from back of the room): Yes
K: (laughs) sometimes. He's speaking for himself, but a lot of the time, we're behind what he says. (Do you get on well as a band, generally?)
M: No, we can't stand each other. The others don't realise that I'm the most talented

Does he cultivate his press image?
K: That's pretty much how he is.
M: He'll waffle on in that manner all day if you let him.
K: We just don't listen to him, but other people want to listen to him.
M: He's a very verbose chap and that's good. His interviews are very interesting. He's a very charismatic person, and I think he plays up on that a little bit, but I think people want him to. I certainly do. His in between song banter is different every night. He said a brilliant thing last night, about For The Dead: "This song briefly entered the charts, but disappeared very quickly because it didn't like the company." A good excuse for the fact that it went straight out the next week.
K: I think you just slightly exaggerate how you are when you're in a band.

Have you ever wanted to hit him, or have you ever hit him?
K (diplomatically) I think we all want to hit each other at times. You're bound to get on each other's nerves a bit. We've known each other a long time, and we spend more time together than we do with our girlfriends.
M: It's been tough keeping relationships going. We [the band] are together a lot of the time. I've just split up with my girlfriend after 12 years - partly due to this band.
K: It's different being in a band - you have to focus. We're close friends. I've known Matt for 35 years. We're good friends really.

Gene were talking to Nathan, in February 1996.