Post by ©KAJAMANIA Board Team (Slim K) on Jun 9, 2004 23:38:44 GMT -5
hi Kajamaniac's 
PART I
here's a Brand-New Interview w. Nick Beggs by the REMEMBER THE EIGHTIES ...
NICK BEGGS, YOU ARE A MUSICIAN, PRODUCER, JOURNALIST, MANAGER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR, HUBAND, AND FATHER, YOU'RE ALSO WORKING ON RELAUNCHING KAJAGOOGOO AFTER TWENTY YEARS... HOW DO YOU FIT IT ALL IN?
The way it always to work is that either everything happens at once or nothing happens at all - at the moment everything is happening at once!
SINCE REFORMING KAJAGOOGOO FOR VH-1's 'BANDS REUNITED' YOU'VE DECIDED TO CONTINUE WORKING TOGETHER, ALBEIT AS A THREE-PIECE... WHERE ARE YOU AT WITH THAT WHOLE PROJECT?
There's a story there, because after the VH-1 show we were offered a tremendous amount of work touring, and I said to the guys that we should meet up and talk about it all because there was so much interest...
MONEY TO BE MADE, AND FUN TO BE HAD!
Exactly! Anyway, a lot of water has passed under the bridge and the VH-1 thing was very good spirited and we thought OK, let's give this a go... so we sat down and had dinner and I explained the various offers... this in Europe, this in America, this in the far East... and unfortunately - and this is the sad part of the story - Limahl pulled out a list of conditions that we kind of felt was unfair...
WASN'T THAT KIND OF THE SAME SCENARIO AS WHEN LIMAHL LEFT THE BAND TWENTY YEARS AGO?
Yes it is, they accused us of learning nothing from life - my experience is don't make the same mistake twice... we are still very happy to work with Jez and Limahl but it cannot be on the same footing as we left off twenty years ago.
SURELY THAT WAS WHY YOU LEFT OFF TWENTY YEARS AGO...
Exactly. We are more than happy to have them come back with us and tour with us and be part of the project, but just to turn the clock back twenty years as if it never happened and wipeout a whole lot of business and financial ramifications that we have had to deal with but they haven't - therefore it has become... I wouldn't say acrimonious because I don't feel acrimonious to them, but I think that Limahl feels very acrimonious about it all and I'm really sorry he feels that way...
HOW DID YOU ALL GET ON FOR THE ACTUAL VH-1 SHOW - ALL THE REHEARSALS AND EVERYTHING, WERE YOU TOGETHER A LOT?
We weren't really, but Steve, Stu and I are still company directors and we're still best mates and we wouldn't be doing any of this if we didn't get along and like each other, and with Steve and I being neighbours and working together practically every day that's really the proof of the pudding, and Stuart is part of that too...
GIVEN HOW WELL THAT TRIO GETS ON, WOULD KAJAGOOGOO EVER HAVE REVIVED EVEN IF THE VH-1 SHOW HADN'T HAPPENED?
The thing is, to be honest with you, I had implemented certain precursive measures that facilitated the VH-1 thing because over the years different people have approached us about reforming and each time we've evaluated it we felt that something bigger was around the corner, and in preparation for that we even went out and bought an analogue 8-track Tascam machine to transfer the backing tapes onto digital so that if and when we were ever in a situation where we had to play live very quickly we would have a backing track situation and that's why the VH-1 thing came together so quickly because when it did happen we had already done over a week's worth of preparation expecting something to come along at some point in the future, so I think there was a certain inevitability to it all. I think that's one of the reasons that the VH-1 thing turned out so well!
WAS IT A FUN THING TO DO?
It was just great... it was totally fantastic and genuinely real... the only thing I will say - the one thing I wasn't happy about was the way in which Limahl's reasons for being expelled from the band were broadcast. The idea that he was too pop and we wanted to be more rock. That was a little bit too saccharine for my liking and there were a tremendous amount of subtexts to the reason why he left the band. I suppose, because we thought if we're going to do this we're going to do it with the right spirit, nobody did the big slag off and nobody got the knives out and we're still not going to do that, but that whole idea... you start to get a bit of backlash, people going 'Oh you shouldn't have sacked Limahl, you guys would have been more successful with him' and that's all based on people only seeing the tip of the iceberg...
I IMAGINE THAT OVER A TWENTY-YEAR PERIOD IT MUST BE VERY EASY TO DILUTE DOWN A DIFFICULT SITUATION INTO SOMETHING THAT'S REALLY NOTHING MORE THAN A SOUNDBITE...
And of course America loves it's Disney endings... often what you mean and what you say are left on the cutting room floor, so it was a little saccharine, but other than that it was a very good bit of TV... probably the best of the series!
SO ARE KAJAGOOGOO WRITING NEW STUFF AT THE MOMENT?
Yes, we've written a new track called 'Tears' which is a very ambient kind of sound... we're listening to a lot of stuff like Air and I think that's the kind of direction - if it's going to translate - that the band's going to go in...
I don't think we're going to be looking a major record sales or anything like that. If we're lucky we'll get a release through EMI but failing that we'll do something through the website. But I love the track, even if the vocals haven't been mixed properly yet... but as you can tell I can be very analytical over everything and I like to take time over every little aspect of what we do, or whatever I do because basically I don't have to rush at all!
I WAS ABOUT TO SAY THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE WAY IT SHOULD BE, BUT I SUPPOSE IT'S ALSO A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD WHERE YOU DON'T REALLY HAVE AN INCENTIVE TO EVER FINISH SOMETHING?
I think particularly in this case - because it's the first thing we've released in twenty years - we want people to go 'That's really Kajagoogoo, but I can hear a new sound in there'... so I want to be happy with it you know?
SO WILL 'TEARS' BE A SINGLE?
We did think about it as a single because it's the first thing we've done, but we actually have so much material that we could record... we could probably do three albums but the thing is the time aspect; Steve and I have to get Industrial Salt done and we have also been working with EMI to remaster all the Kajagoogoo albums...
YOU HAVE SOME US APPEARANCES COMING UP - WHICH I ASSUME WILL BE PA-TYPE PERFORMANCES, BUT WILL THERE BE MORE THAN THAT SORT OF LIVE SHOW IN THE FUTURE?
Well last night we were offered another bunch of shows in America...
FANTASTIC!
Well it is and it isn't... what we have here is an embarrassment of riches - we have a lot of work coming up, and possibly more that we're actually capable of doing, but I do want us to do shows - I see it as a sort of personal challenge now, at 42, to go out and make a statement, live and valid and for the fans to say 'God those guys sound great' - I take that very personally where before it was a very daunting thing.
SO THE WHOLE THING HAS SORT OF FLIPPED OVER FOR YOU?
Yeah... when we went out as Kajagoogoo without Limahl I was the lead singer but I didn't play very much bass because we took a bass player with us, but now I'm going to be playing the bass parts and sing and that's a lot of work to get under my fingers and honestly I don't think I would do it if it hadn't been for the time that I worked with John Paul Jones... he taught me that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, and he showed me that I was capable of doing anything that I put my mind to because he pushed me to such a limit, beyond my physical abilities, that it was like doing a University degree!
WORKING WITH SOMEONE LIKE THAT MUST HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLE...
It was truly an honour... it was like the thumbprint of God on my back and that's the way I still feel it was, because those records - every one of those Led Zeppelin records that he made - resonate for me and are among the most influential music ever made, and I listened to that while I was growing up; John Paul Jones and Chris Squires from Yes, Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath and really totally absorbed what they were saying through their instruments. It was almost like somebody speaking in a really crowded room and no-one could hear this voice except me, and when I put these records on there were bass-lines that were so intelligent and eloquent they told you so much about the person who made them, they just seduced me and that became the thing that I had to do.
[read part II ->]
thanks to www.remembertheeighties.com/
peace & love
SLIM K
PART I
here's a Brand-New Interview w. Nick Beggs by the REMEMBER THE EIGHTIES ...
NICK BEGGS, YOU ARE A MUSICIAN, PRODUCER, JOURNALIST, MANAGER, MUSICAL DIRECTOR, HUBAND, AND FATHER, YOU'RE ALSO WORKING ON RELAUNCHING KAJAGOOGOO AFTER TWENTY YEARS... HOW DO YOU FIT IT ALL IN?
The way it always to work is that either everything happens at once or nothing happens at all - at the moment everything is happening at once!
SINCE REFORMING KAJAGOOGOO FOR VH-1's 'BANDS REUNITED' YOU'VE DECIDED TO CONTINUE WORKING TOGETHER, ALBEIT AS A THREE-PIECE... WHERE ARE YOU AT WITH THAT WHOLE PROJECT?
There's a story there, because after the VH-1 show we were offered a tremendous amount of work touring, and I said to the guys that we should meet up and talk about it all because there was so much interest...
MONEY TO BE MADE, AND FUN TO BE HAD!
Exactly! Anyway, a lot of water has passed under the bridge and the VH-1 thing was very good spirited and we thought OK, let's give this a go... so we sat down and had dinner and I explained the various offers... this in Europe, this in America, this in the far East... and unfortunately - and this is the sad part of the story - Limahl pulled out a list of conditions that we kind of felt was unfair...
WASN'T THAT KIND OF THE SAME SCENARIO AS WHEN LIMAHL LEFT THE BAND TWENTY YEARS AGO?
Yes it is, they accused us of learning nothing from life - my experience is don't make the same mistake twice... we are still very happy to work with Jez and Limahl but it cannot be on the same footing as we left off twenty years ago.
SURELY THAT WAS WHY YOU LEFT OFF TWENTY YEARS AGO...
Exactly. We are more than happy to have them come back with us and tour with us and be part of the project, but just to turn the clock back twenty years as if it never happened and wipeout a whole lot of business and financial ramifications that we have had to deal with but they haven't - therefore it has become... I wouldn't say acrimonious because I don't feel acrimonious to them, but I think that Limahl feels very acrimonious about it all and I'm really sorry he feels that way...
HOW DID YOU ALL GET ON FOR THE ACTUAL VH-1 SHOW - ALL THE REHEARSALS AND EVERYTHING, WERE YOU TOGETHER A LOT?
We weren't really, but Steve, Stu and I are still company directors and we're still best mates and we wouldn't be doing any of this if we didn't get along and like each other, and with Steve and I being neighbours and working together practically every day that's really the proof of the pudding, and Stuart is part of that too...
GIVEN HOW WELL THAT TRIO GETS ON, WOULD KAJAGOOGOO EVER HAVE REVIVED EVEN IF THE VH-1 SHOW HADN'T HAPPENED?
The thing is, to be honest with you, I had implemented certain precursive measures that facilitated the VH-1 thing because over the years different people have approached us about reforming and each time we've evaluated it we felt that something bigger was around the corner, and in preparation for that we even went out and bought an analogue 8-track Tascam machine to transfer the backing tapes onto digital so that if and when we were ever in a situation where we had to play live very quickly we would have a backing track situation and that's why the VH-1 thing came together so quickly because when it did happen we had already done over a week's worth of preparation expecting something to come along at some point in the future, so I think there was a certain inevitability to it all. I think that's one of the reasons that the VH-1 thing turned out so well!
WAS IT A FUN THING TO DO?
It was just great... it was totally fantastic and genuinely real... the only thing I will say - the one thing I wasn't happy about was the way in which Limahl's reasons for being expelled from the band were broadcast. The idea that he was too pop and we wanted to be more rock. That was a little bit too saccharine for my liking and there were a tremendous amount of subtexts to the reason why he left the band. I suppose, because we thought if we're going to do this we're going to do it with the right spirit, nobody did the big slag off and nobody got the knives out and we're still not going to do that, but that whole idea... you start to get a bit of backlash, people going 'Oh you shouldn't have sacked Limahl, you guys would have been more successful with him' and that's all based on people only seeing the tip of the iceberg...
I IMAGINE THAT OVER A TWENTY-YEAR PERIOD IT MUST BE VERY EASY TO DILUTE DOWN A DIFFICULT SITUATION INTO SOMETHING THAT'S REALLY NOTHING MORE THAN A SOUNDBITE...
And of course America loves it's Disney endings... often what you mean and what you say are left on the cutting room floor, so it was a little saccharine, but other than that it was a very good bit of TV... probably the best of the series!
SO ARE KAJAGOOGOO WRITING NEW STUFF AT THE MOMENT?
Yes, we've written a new track called 'Tears' which is a very ambient kind of sound... we're listening to a lot of stuff like Air and I think that's the kind of direction - if it's going to translate - that the band's going to go in...
I don't think we're going to be looking a major record sales or anything like that. If we're lucky we'll get a release through EMI but failing that we'll do something through the website. But I love the track, even if the vocals haven't been mixed properly yet... but as you can tell I can be very analytical over everything and I like to take time over every little aspect of what we do, or whatever I do because basically I don't have to rush at all!
I WAS ABOUT TO SAY THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE WAY IT SHOULD BE, BUT I SUPPOSE IT'S ALSO A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD WHERE YOU DON'T REALLY HAVE AN INCENTIVE TO EVER FINISH SOMETHING?
I think particularly in this case - because it's the first thing we've released in twenty years - we want people to go 'That's really Kajagoogoo, but I can hear a new sound in there'... so I want to be happy with it you know?
SO WILL 'TEARS' BE A SINGLE?
We did think about it as a single because it's the first thing we've done, but we actually have so much material that we could record... we could probably do three albums but the thing is the time aspect; Steve and I have to get Industrial Salt done and we have also been working with EMI to remaster all the Kajagoogoo albums...
YOU HAVE SOME US APPEARANCES COMING UP - WHICH I ASSUME WILL BE PA-TYPE PERFORMANCES, BUT WILL THERE BE MORE THAN THAT SORT OF LIVE SHOW IN THE FUTURE?
Well last night we were offered another bunch of shows in America...
FANTASTIC!
Well it is and it isn't... what we have here is an embarrassment of riches - we have a lot of work coming up, and possibly more that we're actually capable of doing, but I do want us to do shows - I see it as a sort of personal challenge now, at 42, to go out and make a statement, live and valid and for the fans to say 'God those guys sound great' - I take that very personally where before it was a very daunting thing.
SO THE WHOLE THING HAS SORT OF FLIPPED OVER FOR YOU?
Yeah... when we went out as Kajagoogoo without Limahl I was the lead singer but I didn't play very much bass because we took a bass player with us, but now I'm going to be playing the bass parts and sing and that's a lot of work to get under my fingers and honestly I don't think I would do it if it hadn't been for the time that I worked with John Paul Jones... he taught me that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, and he showed me that I was capable of doing anything that I put my mind to because he pushed me to such a limit, beyond my physical abilities, that it was like doing a University degree!
WORKING WITH SOMEONE LIKE THAT MUST HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLE...
It was truly an honour... it was like the thumbprint of God on my back and that's the way I still feel it was, because those records - every one of those Led Zeppelin records that he made - resonate for me and are among the most influential music ever made, and I listened to that while I was growing up; John Paul Jones and Chris Squires from Yes, Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath and really totally absorbed what they were saying through their instruments. It was almost like somebody speaking in a really crowded room and no-one could hear this voice except me, and when I put these records on there were bass-lines that were so intelligent and eloquent they told you so much about the person who made them, they just seduced me and that became the thing that I had to do.
[read part II ->]
thanks to www.remembertheeighties.com/
peace & love
SLIM K
