| Man Raze UK | Phil Collen Interview 2005 |
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Classic Rock Magazine - October 2005
On The Road: Man-Raze ' Leppard guitarist teams up with a Pistol and a Girl, the trio play a one-off 'showcase' in London.
A power trio comprised of Def Leppard's Phil Collen, his one-time colleague in Girl, Simon Laffy, on bass, and former Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook play a small showcase gig at The Spitz in London on September 27. Guitarist/vocalist says that the new group - whose Skin Crawl EP is now available via their own Surrealist Records label - can't wait to test the water.
You're currently on tour in the States with Def Leppard, playing huge venues. Do you really expect us to believe you're excited by the prospect of playing a gig in a club above a pizza restaurant?
I'm really looking forward to it. To me it's more of a release party than an actual gig. It's just a bit of a chance for people to find out what Man-Raze look and sound like.
You really don't mind leaving the ernormodomes of America behind in order to do that?
No, honestly. We're [Leppard] doing these baseball stadiums, so a show like that'll be totally different - the style of music and everything. Whatever The Spitz is like, I'll have played a lot worse: from a cave in Morocco with the sea coming in [with Leppard in 1995] to... well, God knows where.
However you want to describe it, will this be Man-Raze's live debut?
Yes, absolutely. The fact that it's our first anywhere makes it all the more exciting.
We've been told to expect a fairly short set, a bit of deejaying and perhaps some special guests.
Simon [Laffy] deejays, so he'll probably do some of that, make it a bit like a party round someone's house. Whether friends drop by... I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Given that Paul Cook is the drummer, and that people will inevitably expect a bit of the Leppard and Girl sounds, should potential customers leave all preconceptions at the door?
Yeah. When we started this thing we tried to exclude those elements. I mean, it's impossible to completely ignore them, but Man-Raze is about the things we couldn't do within Leppard or Girl; those dub and full-on punk things wouldn't work in contexts like that. Some of it sounds a bit like The Police. It's the classic three-piece style: Nirvana, Hendrix...
Will you be playing any covers?
Some wanker'll probably shout for Pour Some Sugar On Me or God Save The Queen. We'll probably ignore it, but you never know.
Schedules permitting, will Man-Raze be touring when the album comes out?
That'll be in January. And although we may not do what you'd call a full tour, there will definitely be a string of dates.
Def Leppard have just added more US shows. Will they be playing any UK shows?
Well, we're currently mixing our covers album [Yeah!]. We want to treat it as a proper release - do some promo and have a full run-up. We've added our version of David Essex's ['73 hit] Rock On to the set and it's going down a storm. So we'll set up the covers album in February, followed by a proper world tour that starts in March.
© Classic Rock 2005 - Transcribed by Man Raze UK.