| Man Raze UK | Radio Show 2005 Page 2 |
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[Host: Pandora] - "I do so like that. That is so absolutely brilliant. It gets me in all the right bits."
[Phil] - "Ooh lovely!."
[Pandora] - "Tickles my bits perfectly. It doesn't make my skin crawl it makes my skin tingle I think you should change it."
[Simon] - "That sounds great."
[Phil] - "Ooer - Ooh lovely yeah."
[Pandora] - "How come 'Skin Crawl'? And for those of you that have just wandered into the Rock Box here on Radio Caroline. I'm Pandora and the two voices that are there finally, not on the telephone anymore but here in the studio is Phil Collen the - THE guitarist, the only - the one and only guitarist from Def Leppard and Simon Laffy who was with Phil in a band called Girl, in the 80s and we've got an Anthology here which we're going to play something from in a while. And Simon and Phil have got a new band alongside the Def Leppard - everything, called Man-Raze. So why the name Man-Raze? And why Skin Crawl? and will you change the name to 'Skin Tingle' please?."
[Phil] - "Well we will now obviously although we've 'ad some printed up. It'll be a bit - they're gonna be annoyed with us!."
[Pandora] - "Do you want paper and pencil so you can write down the questions? Cause that was a lot of questions there."
[Phil] :: "The name OK. Um again. Originally I had this - you know Faye Wray? The girl who was in King Kong? She died last year I think. But um that was her name and 'Faye-Raze' seemed like a great name for a band, me and Joe Elliott - I said wouldn't that be a great name for a - you know sometimes you go that'd be a great name for a band."
[Pandora] - "Yeah, yeah."
[Phil] - "That come up and I suggested it to Simon and he went 'Ooh I don't know' He said it's a bit victim, it's a bit you know she's the King Kong chick and she's a bit victim ad it's a bit nancy sounding and all this. So he said what about Man-Ray? Like the surrealist...."
[Pandora] - "Like the stingray."
[Phil] - "Well or stingray but - ."
[Pandora] - "No isn't it called a man-ray - a Manta-Ray."
[Phil] - "Man Ray's an artist actually a photographer - surrealist photographer. Turn of the century - actually he just died..20 years ago he died..."
[Pandora] - "They're all dead!."
[Phil] - "They're all dead yeah. He said what about that instead? Man-Raze - because it doesn't sound so girly and 'Oh help I'm in trouble...King Kong's here...'"
[Simon] - "King Kong's coming!."
[Phil] - "I know - so I said yeah that sounds good to me so it was that easy."
[Pandora] - "And that's a great song."
[Phil] - "Thanks, thankyou."
[Pandora] - "So 'Skin Crawl' why?."
[Phil] - "Well that was one of the first songs that we recorded properly - and actually after we leave here we're actually gonna do some more mixing and recording, it's an ongoing thing. It's a lot of fun to do that especially after we've been rehearsing all week. We go "oh no let's stick this bit in because it'll be really good". But that one 'Skin Crawl' yeah was one of the first songs - it's about someone losing it. You know actually just um having enough and having a breakdown really..."
[Pandora] - "Happy song."
[Phil] - "Happy song yeah. Lovely."
[Pandora] - "OK another email from the list here - oh yeah Mel - I'd said you were coming by helicopter - try space travel, have a cup of coffee and enjoy the show." (More about a radio guy in Germany - says he sent them good thoughts for the traffic)
[Phil] - "It did work once we got out of London. Once everyone started talking funny - funny accents "OOH ARR!" and stuff, you know. You - the further you get out..."
[Pandora] - "Question for Phil. What made them cover that Badfinger song?. Them - Def Leppard I guess."
[Phil] - "Them? yeah I'll kind of answer that with a question as well. Them being Def Leppard I think. We've got a cover's album - we, Def Leppard that is.... have a covers album coming out next year. next year. We decided to do this thing - cover all these songs from the 70s and not just the big classics not like Zeppelin, Sones, Beatles. We tried to avoid those ones and do songs that meant something very personal to us like there's a T. Rex song there's a Bowie song. And there's a Badfinger song which we you know 'No Matter What you are' (sings)."
[Pandora] - "Hasn't he got a lovely voice - ahh more, more, more."
[Phil] - "I don't know the rest of the words but the reason we done that one is it was one of them songs that you heard as a kid and it was like wow and it just stuck with you. It was a rock song that was also a good pop song. And that was the reason and that album's coming out next year. It's gonna be called 'Yeah!' and it's gonna come out in March."
[Pandora] - "Cause you also did 'Waterloo Sunset' on the Best Of Def Leppard."
[Phil] - "We did but the American version of that Best Of has that song on there. 'No Matter What' and they'll be a bunch of others. There's 'Rock On' by David Essex which is great and we've been doing that live."
[Pandora] - "What about your own? you do enough of your own stuff fantastically!."
[Phil] - "I know - no it's a bit of a problem we have all these songs and we only have 2 hours to do 'em. So that's good though we revolve 'em."
[Pandora] - "And compliment Phil for getting so very near the original sound. In fact the first time I heard it I thought it was Badfinger. From Pat"
[Phil] - "Well that's very good or very bad. Depending on which way you look at it. It means that we sound like some old 70s band."
[Simon] - "Lo Fi."
[Phil] - "Lo Fi!. No that's very good that is a compliment and thankyou."
[Pandora] - "OK there was quite a few: Damian had said why this Man-Raze? Def Lep not enough for ya?."
[Phil] - "Obviously not! Too much time on me bloody hands. Obviously."
[Pandora] - "OK we'll go on to a few more in just a few minutes er in the meantime there's something cued up but I haven't an absolute clue in hell what it is."
[Phil] - "That's always good though."
[Pandora] - "Which button it's one of those Pandora blonde moments here in the studio talk amongst yourselves oh I know it's this one."
[Phil] - "Ahhhh OK."
[Pandora] - "Ohh come on CD - it's on the computer too but I wanted to play it like this." (Let's Get Rocked plays)
[Pandora] - "Ding Ding it's 5pm when oh gosh I normally say there's only an hour left in the box and I'm gonna say it again only one hour left in the box for this afternoon.
My guests in the studio supposedly co-hosting the show but sitting so laid back."
[Phil] - "Well it's - we're exhausted from our drive. That you put us through. Ya didn't tell us that there was a demonstration going on!."
[Pandora] - "I'm not wearing a tour guide hat."
[Phil] - "I know I'm useless without my tour manager - Malvin, where are ya?."
[Simon] - "And we had to get a police helicopter to get down here."
[Pandora] - "Yeah, yeah how come you didn't get a police escort?."
[Phil] - "There is that. We didn't wanna appear flash. So we just parked the helicopter round the corner and just walked round the corner."
[Pandora] - "And you were late because you couldn't be bothered to get up on time - You were here all the time. You were watching when Neal was there on the floor
at my feet as I was starting to - thank god you didn't turn up actually - because...."
[Simon] - "You haven't got a webcam in here have you?." (laughter)
[Pandora] - "On the ship yes here no. That came out completely wrong! He was actually trying to get the speakers working."
[Phil] - "I was gonna say but I didn't."
[Simon] - "It conjured up a very interesting image."
[Phil] - "It did yeah."
[Pandora] - "Yes definitely but that's radio for you. You're So Wrong! So Wrong! Isn't that perfect? Perfect."
[Phil] - "I know, absolutely."
[Pandora] - "This next song is Man-Raze. Leads perfectly into it. 'You're So Wrong' your new s..."
[Phil] - "Maxi-Single. There you go."
[Pandora] - "Maxi-Single from Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen and Simon Laffy and Paul Cook." ('You're So Wrong' plays - very uptempo and rocking/great 'fast' guitar solo.)
[Pandora] - "No no no that shouldn't be - that wasn't Oh I didn't cue that..." (ad plays followed by Sex Pistols 'God Save The Queen' - banned on UK radio when it was first out in 1977).
[Pandora] - "Well if you're gonna play the Sex Pistols I guess one of the ones you have to play is that one."
[Phil] - "Absolutely - we mean it man!."
[Pandora] - "'God Save The Queen' by The Sex Pistols before that Man-Raze 'You're So Wrong' from their maxi-single which we're now calling it out on Surealist Records. And do check through pandorasrockbox.com
which is my website...And um this Paul Cook person who didn't bother - actually is he the big star that couldn't be bothered to come into the studio?"
[Phil] - "No I don't think so I think you said it before Pandora or Football?. He supports Chelsea, I don't even know are they playing at home today?"
[Simon] - "I don't know."
[Phil] - "But you know, perhaps he's with his wife and kid, could be."
[Simon] - "He trusts us to come with you anyway. He wanted us to represent the band. (laughs) Is this working?."
[Pandora] - "Football! grown men running around a field after one ball how pathetic! Don't even get me started on that."
[Phil] - "Well this is unfair of us to actually assume he's over at Stamford Bridge to be quite honest. But cause it's Saturday..."
[Pandora] - "He's either at his wife's house or somebody elses wife's house."
[Simon] - "He's probably tuned in intently listening to what you're saying about him."
[Phil] - "Absolutely."
[Pandora] - "Alright..see you on Tuesday."
[Simon] - "And you're gonna meet him at the gig on Tuesday."
[Pandora] - "Yes, yes but still."
[Phil] - "You can ask, you can ask him Football or Pandora?."
[Simon] - "It's his loss anyway Pandora."
[Pandora] - "Especially with that lovely coffee, it smells so good. Now is this song 'Hollywood Tease' by Girl anything to do with you."
[Phil] - "Phil Lewis the singer - of that band."
[Pandora] - "It's something to do with you two isn't it?. Girl."
[Phil] - "Well it's us - it's us playing on it."
[Pandora] - "Yeah, that's what I meant."
[Phil] - "I thought you meant lyrically, god. Yeah I'm playing guitar and he's playing bass. That was the second Girl single off of the 'Sheer Greed' album, our first album so this is like 1979."
[Simon] - "1980 yeah. Does it stand the test of time..."
[Pandora] - "Well let's hear it and you can tell me more about it." (the song is played/'Spastic' lyric an' all...)
[Pandora] - "This should be brought out again now. This is absolutely brilliant."
[Phil] - "Thankyou."
[Pandora] - "I think you guys should do it as Man-Raze."
[Phil] - "Oh that's an idea we hadn't thought about that. Yeah we could do a Girl song or two couldn't we?."
[Pandora] - "A girly song."
[Phil] - "A girly! song yeah. Wow."
[Pandora] - "I think that's absolutely lovely."
[Phil] - "Cheers, yeah it sounded great actually I haven't heard it for a while."
[Pandora] - "2 minutes 37, perfect."
[Phil] - "Was it?."
[Pandora] - "Yeah."
[Phil] - "God."
[Pandora] - "And I think that is so new sounding that you can probably get away with it on quite a lot of radio stations."
[Phil] - "Yeah, you wouldn't believe that was 25 years old. Wow, how weird."
[Pandora] - "'Hollywood Tease' the band is called Girl. This is an album called 'The Anthology' and it is out on Sanctuary Records. Right if you've just
tuned in I'm Pandora and he is Phil Collen, the other one who's just gone to the toilet and just come back and asked my permission to go! - how rock and roll is that?
Last week I had twelve 18 years olds here in the studio - celebrating an 18th birthday and they were all so well behaved."
[Phil] - "Really."
[Pandora] - "I said "Excuse me I wasn't like that when I was 18"."
[Phil] - "Well, where were they from?."
[Pandora] - "Maidstone - here."
[Phil] - "Ahh well there you go that's alright they're all well behaved in Maidstone. We noticed that as we was coming in eh."
[Pandora] - "Darren has emailed saying "Tuning in for the first time - ooh a virgin on Radio Caroline - haha virgin in my box (...good lord!) Please say hi to Phil and Simon from me and could you please ask them
how they feel about playing their first Man-Raze show in London on Tuesday?."
[Phil] - "We're actually really excited because we've been talking about this for a year now. And um the band has been like developing - we've been rehearsing and we've been recording and going
back and we was actually rehearsing yesterday. And it's got to the point where we're so excited about how the band sounds and feels that we just wanna share it with other people so we're really looking forward to it."
[Pandora] - "You're all ready and playing a small venue is going to be amazing."
[Phil] - "Yeah it'll be great."
[Simon] - "It'll be fun Phil for you particularly instead of the ernormodomes of America."
[Phil] - "Yeah last gig I played was 2 weeks ago in Chicago. No it wasn't that many but it was up there."
[Pandora] - "What 50,000 people?. Simon while you were out of the room I suggested that you guys do that song there Hollywood Tease."
[Simon] - "You like that do you?."
[Pandora] - "I think that Man-Raze should resurrect it because that is a hit."
[Simon] - "It is a good tune - we actually Gerry and I. Gerry's the guitarist, the other guitarist from Girl. we had a band called Sheer Greed that did a cover of Hollywood Tease as well and it is a great song.
It's got an electricity about it."
[Phil] - "Totally yeah."
[Pandora] - "I think you should do that - there you are. Fred in Manchester. How did you start getting into the big time? I play guitar and
and it is so difficult is it different now?."
[Phil] - "It's a little bit different because you have more outlets you can actually do things yourself online - internet and that whole thing which didn't exist
before. But it's still - if you wanna get into the 'industry' per se, it's still as difficult as it ever was it's very clique-y, you gotta know people and
and even if you do - cause I know millions of people and it's still really, really 'ard. So it comes down to a lot of things but the great thing is..."
[Pandora] - "Did you sleep with the record company people?."
[Phil] - "I always sleep with the record company people!. From everyone - the doorman to...all the way down."
[Pandora] - "'Cause when they talk about women in the industry it's always "Oh you've gotta sleep with the record company boss". But, so what happens with the men in the industry?.
How do you actually, when you go and give your demo to the people in the very beginning - think back to 50 years ago when Def Leppard started!"
[Phil] - "No I think one of the band has to sleep with someone, hehe I think that's how it works."
[Simon] - "Or at least offer up their girlfriends."
[Phil] - "Absolutely. I gotta say actually one of the big draws we had - (laughter) one of the big draws! there was so many women that would come you know we was this glam - we had all this make-up on and we were this
Glam-Metal Band or whatever it was. Post-Punk I don't know what it was and there was always lots of women around so that would always attract a lot of men as well. Not to us! to the concerts - to the shows."
[Simon] - "Yeah it's funny all these 'rock stars' kept turning up - Richie Blackmore and Michael Schenker..."
[Phil] - "Roger Taylor."
[Simon] - "Yeah they'd all be at our gig and you know they were only there because the women were there."
[Pandora] - "And you were there because of the music or the women?."
[Phil] - "Both!. We figured if we'd play the music the women would come."
[Simon] - "And they did."
[Pandora] - "Literally."
[Phil] - "Literally."
[Pandora] - "That leads us quite nicely into this next song which is Def Leppard and the song called 'Four Letter Word'." (song played)
continued on page 3.