| Man Raze UK | Paul Cook Interview 2005 |
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BBC 6Music Radio - 14th November 2005
['Skin Crawl' played]
[Phil Jupitus] - "That's Man-Raze and Skin Crawl here on BBC 6 music and joining us, the drummer of Man-Raze and indeed a man whose skin-work we have admired throughout the years as music fans, Mr. Paul Cook. Paul how ya doin' fella, you alright?."
[Paul] - "Yeah, I'm good thanks...."
[Phil J] - "So this new band Man-Raze here what's that all about then?."
[Paul] - "Well, it's me and Phil Collen from Def Leppard and an old friend of his Simon Laffy from the band Girl..."
[Phil J] - "And those two lads used to be in Girl together."
[Paul] - "That's right."
[Phil J] - "Which is odd because it's a band I didn't know particularly well and then we did a show and then a lad introduced us to their work so it's certainly good to be hearing them again and I know that a certain section of the listenership in Nottingham are going nuts at the minute, knowing that they're back together. And you've done one gig already at The Spitz."
[Paul] - "Yeah we done that a couple of weeks ago. It's early days with the band. We've just got the single out, what you just played there and you know it's just - trying to get things going really."
[Phil J] - "And when you're at that stage someone such as yourself, to a certain extent Paul, an elder statesman of the music scene, when you're out there sort of trying to break it new, like the kids are as well it must be quite an odd feeling for ya."
[Paul] - "Yeah it is it's not easy you know because people have got these preconcieved ideas of like Def Leppard and The Sex Pistols and they think "uhh we've heard all that" you know. What's this gonna sound like you know.
And it's quite hard so that's why we decided to do it all ourselves, get it together ourselves, put it out without going round cap-in-hand to record companies and stuff like that."
[Phil J] - "Is that easier to do now, than it was years ago? Cause there seemed to be more of a reliance but now with the internet and the fact that people can be made aware - you know you've got things like
The Artic Monkeys going to number one of the back of their internet fans."
[Paul] - "Yeah, yeah exactly. That's exactly what we've done really. You know we got it together ourselves, done the recording at home and in the studio and stuff, put it out on the internet, on our website and stuff like that.
Cos we wanted to get going you know, we didn't wanna spend ages, like I say, running around trying to get people to release it so we thought the best way to deal with it was just do it ourselves really you know and get on with it."
[Phil J] - "But is the enthusiasm the same as when you were a kid for a new project like this?."
[Paul] - "Well for me it is yeah. I'm into it yeah because I've been sort of idle for a while actually hehe So when Phil came along and said are you interested in doing this you know I listened to the stuff, what he was writing outside of Def Leppard.
You know it's nothing like Def Leppard, a lot of the stuff. So I said we'll see how it goes and yeah so far it's been..."
[Co-Host] - "So how did you meet Phil, did you know Phil from before?."
[Paul] - "Well you just, your paths cross over the years you know with musicians like you do you meet everyone and we kind of bumped into each other over the years. And sort of stayed in touch and he's just got in touch with me again recently
you know, quite a few months ago now and said he's doing this and you know it just works like that really."
[Co-Host] - "Two old lags."
[Phil J] - "See there he is at home. And I can imagine you're sat in front of the fire and you go right what drummers aren't working? Cookey's not doing anything, Cookey's not done anything in a while
Let's give him a call. So how was it playing the live gig how was it playing The Spitz? That must have been quite a - cause I'm trying to think the last gig must have been when the Pistols got back together. Or have you done anything since then?"
[Paul] - "We done a tour, a Pistols tour in America a couple of years ago now and that was the last time I toured yeah. So it is quite hard getting back into the rehearsals and all that, thrashing through rehearsals and I'm - not a young man anymore you know."
[Phil J] - "C'mon! You're - I've seen photos of Jones! (Steve Jones), you're about the healthiest out of 'em aren't ya."
[Paul] - "Yeah, yeah you know and it keeps me in tune. It keeps me playing and stuff which I like doing. I love playing live, you know. So I was well up for doing something again really, tell you the truth."
[Phil J] - "Cool, alright excellent stuff." (talk about a CD Paul brought in by new band The Rifles "Local Boy" - song is played)
(After general stuff about the Pistols...) [Co-Host] :: "So what's your website?."
[Paul] - "It's Man, Man-Raze. Man dash Raze dot com you know so people can check out the single..."
[Phil J] - "Kids do go and check it out, they're issuing their own material there man-raze.com go there and have a look. The single's called 'Skin Crawl' um you gonna do an album Paul?."
[Paul] - "Yeah well we've got an albums worth of songs set up so hopefully now you know wer're just trying to get a bit of interest going and maybe someone will come along and say 'ee are' (that's "here you are" - for all the Americans hehe) or we'll have to
do it ourselves you know it depends how it works out if..."
[Co-Host] - "Phil's got a lot of money hasn't he? He's got stacks of cash."
[Paul] - "hehe Phil can fund it then. Is that what you're saying yes?"
[Phil J] - "Yeah, exactly me or the bloke that can sell out Finsbury Park! I wonder who's gonna?..yeah...."
[Co-Host] - "I didn't mean you I meant Phil Collen!. Or you can pay for it if you want."
[Phil J] - "I can indeed, you know what, I like to support new artists - new artists!. Um so which one is your favourite out of that?.."
[Paul] - "What's that?."
[Co-Host] - "Band called The Sex Pistols."
[Phil J] - "I've got some Pistols tracks here."
[Paul] - "What ones are these? um..."
[Phil J] - "Look at those, remember those! It's your past Paul! staring you in the face."
[Paul] - "Oh 'God Save The Queen' I don't know them songs...what are they. Let's play, seeing as we're in a big corporation at the moment let's play E.M.I."
[Phil J] - "Let's play E.M.I. A fine choice indeed from a fine band. Eh Cookey thanks very much indeed for coming in mate er go to man-raze.com to check out
what Paul is up to these days and still no news on The Sex Pistols...screwing even more cash out of us, we do love 'em when they do it though um Paul thanks very much indeed fo coming in. Cheers, Ta."
[Paul] - "That's OK." (Sex Pistols "E.M.I." plays.) - Transcribed by Man Raze UK.