Surely you can't have helped but notice that Lush are famous again. After a couple of years of near silence, Miki, Emma and co. are back and playing Warwick University. Ellen and Pat spoke to them prior to their performance and got on their good side by showing them Elliott's rather scathing review of 'Single Girl'.

Emma (Guitar / backing vox): Oooo, "Polished indie pop, utterly brainless"!

You've got a lot of new fans. What should they kmow about Lush?
E: We formed in 1987, had our first gig in Camden in1988, but that was with a different line-up. We lost that singer in sort of October 1988. Played lots of gig around London, in loads of pubs. Made a demo tape and sent it to lots of record labels, 4AD were interested, and we'd got a bit of press by then, so they put us in a studio and we did some demos. They liked them so much that they put them out as a record, our first record, 'Scar', and since then we stayed with 4AD. We did a single, a mini-album, 'Mad Love', which came out in 1990. Our first proper album came out in '92. Then we put another album out in June 94, 'Split' and then we recorded this one.

Do you feel your music has progressed recently from spending so much time in the studio?
E: We've gone back to basics really Chris (drums): I think, when we started, it was more, like, effects and stuff, it was a way of covering the vocals up... Phil (bass): 'Cause we're a better live band.
C: Yeah.

You've been accused of 'selling out' by producing a single that was going to sell. How do you feel about that?
E: Well, then every fucking.. You know, you can't win. 'Cause either we don't get in the charts and we're classed as under-achievers, you know, which happened with the last single, and so this time we get in the charts and..I don't think anyone has actually accused us of selling out.
P: It's not really an attitude that people have now, I mean, ten years ago maybe...
C: And the other thing against that is that the songs are supposedly like pop songs, like last time we had 'Hypocrite', which is not any different really to 'Single Girl' and 'Single Girl' was never written for that. It was supposed to be a B-side. But you will get it, you can't really avoid it.

Do you feel the indie-pop scene at the moment has gone a bit stale?
C: Oh, I think it's good that decent bands like Blur and Oasis are getting into the charts, and Boo Radleys. And they're all bands that've been around a long time. And they haven't really, erm...
E: They haven't compromised.
C: They haven't at all; they got in the charts because they're really good and 'cause they've got some really fantastic ideas, you know, like 'Common People' and 'Girls and Boys'. They're fucking top, you know, like 'Wake Up Boo!', that you can't help liking. It's not like they've pushed it, it all seems quite natural.

I wanted to know from a male member of the band how you feel about being classed as a female-fronted band before anything else.
P: Well, Miki and Emma do all the song-writing and it's been going on for so long now that we don't really know anything else and we're all mates and that. Seems like quite a natural thing.

What do you think of public opinion of you at the moment?
E: Don't know what it is. Well, it must be good, 'cause the record's selling.
C: You have to be really cynical about stuff like that. Because you've got to #21 in the charts, well, it doesn't take many records to get to #21. It still doesn't mean fuck all really. It's nice to do TOTP and all, but it still doesn't mean we've arrived. But the papers seem to like the idea, you know, all that stuff in Melody Maker about Lush being back from the dead, which is not really the case. They're just looking for angles, comebacks, blah blah.

Are there any bands you'd like to collaborate with, or have recently?
C: I'm not allowed to talk about that, it's my alter-ego, erm....

How is your relationship with your label, 4AD?
E: Good, it's improved. It was a bit of a low point after the last album. But it's good now. They've gone through sort of a transitional period with some new people in marketing, but it's good.

What are you trying to get across with your lyrics?
E: It's not that we're trying to get anything across, it's more of a sort of a purge. No deep message or anything, it's pretty personal stuff, most of it.

What do you think of teenagers liking your music now and not knowing anything about your past as a band?
E: It's good.
C: It is weird, we're so old, everyone is so young. People start to remember. Seven years is, in some schemes, not a long time, but we've seen a lot of things come and go. A lot of people don't know 'Split' 'cause we got so little coverage, so there's the idea that Lush might be some brand-new band from London.

Would you ever consider doing other things than music?
E: I can't see myself in this band when I'm 40, or when...Well, you take things as they come. Don't have time to think about the future really, apart from the next day.

Is there anything that you would like the students of Warwick University to know?
C:....the sandwiches are revolting.

Lush were talking to Ellen and Patrick, in February 1996.