They reunited in 2007 and will return with another studio album soon. John Perry of the excellent THE ONLY ONES talked about the colorful 'circus' of Rock & Roll. With significant contributions like Marianne Faithfull, Johnny Thunders, Evan Dando... From the interviews I can truly say that I was very pleased...
*1/ FIRST OF ALL JOHN TELL ME SOME DETAIS ABOUT YOUR FORTHCOMIN TOUR IN JAPAN.
We should be back in Japan next year, which will be our 3rd trip in 2 years. (Just now we're figuring whether to go in February, or wait till the new album's completed and go later.)
Good audiences, great gigs. I never realised we had such a good following in Japan. When we reformed I thought the USA would be our main target - but it didn't work out that way. Plenty of gigs offered, but US Immigration paperwork has got plain foolish since 9/11. Who can be bothered fillin out 20 pages of all those questions.
* Are you now or have you ever been a Communist?
* Have you ever been involved in state-sponsored terrorism?
* Have you ever taken narcotics?
* State every country you have visited in the last 10 years
And so on.
*2/ HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE IN ATHENS SOON. IS THERE A PROJECT FOR A GIG HERE?
We want to play Athens so much.
We have an agent, but we've fixed up most of the tours ourselves. I guess the busiest countries have been France, Spain, Sweden and Japan -- all places we have a lot of friends.
Athens, maybe when the new album comes out.
*3/ WHAT ABOUT YOUR MEMORIES FROM ANTI-KITHIRA REALLY?
Hah! Ok, many summers back Patti Palladin, Susanne Thunders and me met up in Athens, with the plan to wander down to Piraeus and get on a ferry. Any ferry. In other words, we had no plan whatever!
Patti (being Brooklyn Greek) took charge and started sticking pins in a map of the Cyclades, Sporades etc. etc. "Right we're going to Anti-Kithera" she says. Then we look in a newspaper and see the island has just caught fire! Weeks of 47 degree temperatures.
Next choice is Amorgos. So we get on a ferry thinking it'll take 12 or 14 hours, but the boat stops at 17 islands en route. The voyage lasts forever! At night it starts getting seriously cold. All three of us freezing to death, dressed in every item of clothing we had with us, huddled together sleeping on deck. There's a pic Susanne took, here; that must be dawn...
Photo Credit: Susanne Blomqvist
*4/ ARE YOU WORKIN FOR A NEW STUDIO ALBUM WITH THE ONLY ONES? CAN WE EXPECT SOMETHING?
Yeh the album's well under way. It's been slow but so what? After this long we might as well take a little more time & make it right.
It'll be out next year.
*5/ 'ANOTHER GIRL ANOTHER PLANET'...ONE OF MY FAV SONGS EVER...IS THERE AN 'INSIDE' STORY? WHAT A SONG... BORN CLASSIC!
Tested it on the road, and it felt good. Went into Escape Studios in Kent (where by coincidence, The Dolls recorded in 1972) and banged it down in a couple of hours. Engineer John Burns added the "backwards cymbals" idea on the intro.
Later, Peter added an organ with Ed Hollis (Hot Rods), at Island studios in St. Peters Sq.
When we came to mix it, we couldn't get any separation on the drums. Escape was 16 track, so we transferred it to 24 track tape and tried again at Basing St. (Island's main studio, in Notting Hill). Still couldn't get the drums to sound focused. So using the extra tracks, Kellie goes back in and plays his drum part again -- beat for beat -- which takes some doing. Listen to it. It's a complicated drum part.
*6/ YOUR FAV 5 ALBUMS JOHN?
Oh this changes every week. Ummmm....
A Tree With Roots. Dylan. (The complete 96-song Basement Tapes bootleg)
Coltrane At The Village Vanguard 1961. John Coltrane
Out of Our Heads Stones
Dusty in Memphis
LA Turnaround Bert Jansch
It's hard picking cos really I like individual songs as much as whole albums.
*7/ CAN YOU TELL US A REALLY GOOD ROCK & ROLL STORY? (TOO MANY I GUESS!)
I'm saving them for my book!
*8/ AND JOHNNY THUNDERS? YOUR MEMORIES?
Sweet guy. The public version and the private version of John were so different - almost opposites. And he was funny. Lovely, dry, black sense of humour. Miss him.
*9/ OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU'VE WORKED WITH, WHO WAS THE 'BEST'?
Best at what ???!!!!
I probably laughed more working with Patti Palladin and Anita Pallenberg on our (unreleased) Covers Album, than on any other record.
Hope to see you all soon
JP
*1/ FIRST OF ALL JOHN TELL ME SOME DETAIS ABOUT YOUR FORTHCOMIN TOUR IN JAPAN.
We should be back in Japan next year, which will be our 3rd trip in 2 years. (Just now we're figuring whether to go in February, or wait till the new album's completed and go later.)
Good audiences, great gigs. I never realised we had such a good following in Japan. When we reformed I thought the USA would be our main target - but it didn't work out that way. Plenty of gigs offered, but US Immigration paperwork has got plain foolish since 9/11. Who can be bothered fillin out 20 pages of all those questions.
* Are you now or have you ever been a Communist?
* Have you ever been involved in state-sponsored terrorism?
* Have you ever taken narcotics?
* State every country you have visited in the last 10 years
And so on.
*2/ HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE IN ATHENS SOON. IS THERE A PROJECT FOR A GIG HERE?
We want to play Athens so much.
We have an agent, but we've fixed up most of the tours ourselves. I guess the busiest countries have been France, Spain, Sweden and Japan -- all places we have a lot of friends.
Athens, maybe when the new album comes out.
*3/ WHAT ABOUT YOUR MEMORIES FROM ANTI-KITHIRA REALLY?Hah! Ok, many summers back Patti Palladin, Susanne Thunders and me met up in Athens, with the plan to wander down to Piraeus and get on a ferry. Any ferry. In other words, we had no plan whatever!
Patti (being Brooklyn Greek) took charge and started sticking pins in a map of the Cyclades, Sporades etc. etc. "Right we're going to Anti-Kithera" she says. Then we look in a newspaper and see the island has just caught fire! Weeks of 47 degree temperatures.
Next choice is Amorgos. So we get on a ferry thinking it'll take 12 or 14 hours, but the boat stops at 17 islands en route. The voyage lasts forever! At night it starts getting seriously cold. All three of us freezing to death, dressed in every item of clothing we had with us, huddled together sleeping on deck. There's a pic Susanne took, here; that must be dawn...
Photo Credit: Susanne Blomqvist
*4/ ARE YOU WORKIN FOR A NEW STUDIO ALBUM WITH THE ONLY ONES? CAN WE EXPECT SOMETHING?
Yeh the album's well under way. It's been slow but so what? After this long we might as well take a little more time & make it right.
It'll be out next year.
*5/ 'ANOTHER GIRL ANOTHER PLANET'...ONE OF MY FAV SONGS EVER...IS THERE AN 'INSIDE' STORY? WHAT A SONG... BORN CLASSIC!Tested it on the road, and it felt good. Went into Escape Studios in Kent (where by coincidence, The Dolls recorded in 1972) and banged it down in a couple of hours. Engineer John Burns added the "backwards cymbals" idea on the intro.
Later, Peter added an organ with Ed Hollis (Hot Rods), at Island studios in St. Peters Sq.
When we came to mix it, we couldn't get any separation on the drums. Escape was 16 track, so we transferred it to 24 track tape and tried again at Basing St. (Island's main studio, in Notting Hill). Still couldn't get the drums to sound focused. So using the extra tracks, Kellie goes back in and plays his drum part again -- beat for beat -- which takes some doing. Listen to it. It's a complicated drum part.
*6/ YOUR FAV 5 ALBUMS JOHN?
Oh this changes every week. Ummmm....
A Tree With Roots. Dylan. (The complete 96-song Basement Tapes bootleg)
Coltrane At The Village Vanguard 1961. John Coltrane
Out of Our Heads Stones
Dusty in Memphis
LA Turnaround Bert Jansch
It's hard picking cos really I like individual songs as much as whole albums.
*7/ CAN YOU TELL US A REALLY GOOD ROCK & ROLL STORY? (TOO MANY I GUESS!)
I'm saving them for my book!
*8/ AND JOHNNY THUNDERS? YOUR MEMORIES?
Sweet guy. The public version and the private version of John were so different - almost opposites. And he was funny. Lovely, dry, black sense of humour. Miss him.
*9/ OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU'VE WORKED WITH, WHO WAS THE 'BEST'?
Best at what ???!!!!
I probably laughed more working with Patti Palladin and Anita Pallenberg on our (unreleased) Covers Album, than on any other record.
Hope to see you all soon
JP