THE LIST
image. the ghost of
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‘ g“ 7" 4 ‘We did actually show the
i ,, :j'backers part of the script,
- - but they weren't really interested, because the whole thing was just about laundering their taxes.’
_ Oliver Schmitz. South African director of ‘Maparrtsula’, which was banned In that country for potential ‘dangereus
' ; . A political etiects' (Issue 85,
3.1? 13-28481! 1989)
:‘I don’t obviously have a " _. lot of time for the press. _lt’s with a great deal of = ., 5 reluctance that l’ve done 7 this,but it says inmy ‘1‘}. gf contract that I have to.’ ' I“ ‘Lesile Draniham (Den), .\ 'WMW his A I, pest-‘Eastanders' series ‘ I E'Vilaneraane Lesars' (issue 3.. "f ‘88. 28 Feb-9 Mar1989)
.1}. ’Everyone had problems
#33:: coming down aftera (fig; mecess-post-orgasmic , depression, right?’
"g "They’ve been charged 5 $50 for either a concrete, seven-year-old version of , an English musical or tired, knee- jerk plays. For . the first fifteen minutes after the curtain goes up they read the playbill and then they look around confused, trying to catch ‘7 - , Vupwith what’s goingon ' 4'" and then they usually go to , I " sleep. Let it die. andwhat will come next time will be. .. good and interesting.’ . Ike Richeis. directoroi , Marking Dirt, on the tare “ f lip tohmerlcan " , theatre-goers (issue 91. ' 7-298” 1909)
-- "I would like to write
:: songs, believe it or not. for l’ Morrissey. because I think ’: (that Stephen Street guy sucks! He makes shitty music.‘ Black Francis. Pixies (Issue 92, 21 April-4 May 1989)
‘1 said to Prince. "Well. nothing‘s really changed - you‘ve got a big car with black windows the same as John [Lennon] had“. and Prince said. “Well. have a look inside my car“. and in the back he had a fax machine and a telephone and a secretary. and that was his office. And it‘s tax-deductible — I suppose that's the Eighties. you
see.‘ Victor Spinetti (Issue 94.19 May-1 June 1989)
EARTH CALLING BASINGSTOKE
‘l‘m immensely proud of “Sweet Invisibility" as a musical achievement. as it combines a post-structuralist lyric about the vaporising of political consciousness after Scottish deindustrialisation with this incredibly ethnic Latin track.‘
Roe and Cry's Pat Kane displays why he's no ordinary post-structuraiist ethnomusicological pop star (Issue 83. 9—22 December 1988)
‘Sex is everywhere. It isin the air. the street -tallting to a journalist. I consider that is a kind ofscx too.‘ Peter Mamonov of Russian rock group Zvuki Mu (issue 92, 21 April-4 May1989)
skeleton first . . .and,you know, built a dog. with what a real dog has got- you kn0w. a skeleton, flesh, lungs and everything.‘
Funny man Human Lovell watches 88C technicians moving in a mysteriousway (issue 95, 2-15 June 1989)
‘I am actually expecting the audience to levitate.’ Dead serious man Michael Dita oi Swans. on the band's 1989 concerts (issue 95, 2—1 5 Jun 1989)
PARANOIA, THY NAME IS AL
‘Every time they say my name they put a dash and
then Mr Nice Guy. What they mean is Mr Softie.l don‘t think they mean . something decent by it. ; they mean something pejorative.‘
Alan Alda (issue 25.19 Sept—2 Oct 1986)
NORTH OF WATFORO
“Brezhnev” is the movie where the working class speak in their own tongue. We‘re quite used to watching bastardised versions- like “The Liver Birds“ — where they vampire our class.‘
Margi Clarke, actress (Issue 5. 29 Nov-12 Dec 1985)
‘There‘s a very
patronising attitude. an
offensive attitude. both in Scotland as well as outside. about all that white heather stuff. It seems quite at variance with our national traits and characteristics that we should be patted on the head for being a cosy wee couthy television station.‘ Bus Macdonald, head of Scottish Television (issue 22, 8-21 Aug 1986)
‘We don’t have a tradition of O‘Casey, Synge, Beckett and Yeats to look back on. We don’t have independence as a nation as Southern Ireland does. We’ve always had a very difficult cultural identity problem to cope with.’ Tom Mcarath, playwright (issue 24, 5-18 September 1986)
‘People say “What on earth are you doing, doing Ibsen and Schiller and Lermontov and Proust in the Gorbals?” and the answer is of course that if you really believe that these are the great works of art then you must believe that they can and should be shared. ’
Bliss Havergal, theatre director (issue 76, 2-15 Sept 1988)
“If we get any complaints, it’ll probably be because they can’t understand the language , but there‘s a side of me that says tough titty to that, because there's a lot of people out there who truly don‘t get to grips with a lot of the programmes made in London and it’s never an issue. i mean. how many people in Parkhead truly understand ‘Network 7‘? ‘lialiway to Paradise' producer Stuart Cosgrove on his show (issue 78, 38 Sept-13 Oct 1988)
‘People accuse them- and me — of preaching to the converted. but the fact is that ifall the people who‘ve seen our shows had been converted we would have a very different kind ofcountry.‘ John McGrath, playwright. on the 7:84 (Scotland) Theatre Company (issue 87. 18-23 Feb 1989)
‘It was because you can afford to bring Americans over for the good parts. but not for the one-liners. and that was the solution I found. Funnily enough. I then read a history book which said that the French aristocracy didn‘t consider themselves to be from the
same race as the French peasantry. and in actual fact they believed the peasantry to be Celts of some kind.‘
Stephen Frears on whythe peasants in Dangerous
‘ Liaisons were larger
played by Scots (issue 89, 18-23 Mar. 1989)
‘lt is very similar to London because a lot of dockland people have been forced out. The people who live there are the people who can afford to live there. and that‘sthe end of the story.‘
Denis Lawson on his hometown, Glasgow (Issue 90, 24 Mar-6 Apr 1 989)
POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS
‘lfl were a bad lyricist. there‘s a vague possibility we might be more successful.‘
The ever-so-modest Lloyd Cole (Issue 5. 29 Nov-12 0881985)
‘Comedy is actually one of the most profoundly pessimistic things. because what it actually says is that nothing changes.‘
Liz Lochhead. poet and playwright (Issue 8, 24 Jan-8 Feb 1986)
‘No, son. you‘ve got it wrong. I'm a fat rich bastard.‘
Demard Manning responds to accusations of being a fat bastard (Issue 18. 18-26 .lune1986)
‘Fucking Arts Council. they don‘t know. “What is a painting? Can you shoot it?"'
Robbie Coltrane (Issue 35. 28 Feb—5 Mar 1986)
’We saw it as a response to the Russians. in fact. it was Kennedy cove ring his arse.’
James Burke on the entire US space programme (issue 98, 24 Mar-8 Apr1989)
‘Nobody talks about guys falling in love. I mean, people think of homosexuals as people who go out and suck a lot of dick. and nobody really talks about homosexuals and their very common human problems.‘
Harvey Flerstein, writer at and actor in “Torch Song Trilogy' (issue 94.19 May-1 June 1989)
— EXCESS
‘I had worked very hard to get that haunted. haggard look by staying up too late and drinking too much. and all [my wife] saw was this debauched figure with a guitar. banging away through a loudspeaker.
and she told me to come back when it was finished. Even my neighbours out there have only just started speaking to me again.’ - Maurice Reeves on his role as ‘Tutti Frutti”s Vincent (issue 88. 19 Feb-3 Mar
1988)
‘l was doing two grammes of cocaine, twenty
Pe rcadon pills and about two quarts of alcohol a day. The only difference between John Belushi and me is that he’s dead and l‘m not.’
Richard Dreyfuss (issue 81 , 4—1 7 Mar1988)
‘Trocchi made a feature of his addiction, and I loved that arrogance that was in him. Though it destroyed a very great literary talent, somehow I prefer that to what happened to other talents. They’re on TV now. marketing their books.’
Tom McDrath. playwright, mourns novelist Alexander Trocchi (issue 85, 29 April—12 May 1988)
‘lt‘s the head-fucked cure for the head-fucked head.’ Frank Gilchrist, playwright, Falklands veteran. HIV-positive ex-iunkie, on heroin addiction (issue 95, 2-15 Jun 1989)
MIDNIGHT’S CHILD
‘l’ve always rather enjoyed the fact that my books have received such different readings depending on the experience of life the reader brings to the book. I think this book is no exception.‘
Saiman Rushdie. in Edinburgh the day that the
Indian High Commission banned ‘The Satanic [ Verses' (issue 79, 14-28 5 October 1988) ; ‘He‘s suffered a unique and terrible form of literary criticism.‘
Howard Brenton.
playwright. on Saiman l
Rushdie (Issue 92. 21 Apr-4 May 1989)
IIIIIIIIIIIIII RELIGION
‘lfthis film gets through to people to make them understand that Jesus is more than a piece of plastic on a car dashboard. that his message is the most important thing that has been handed down to us, and is essential for our survival as a species, then I think we will have done something good.’
Martin Scorsese defends the much—misunderstood ‘The Last Temptation of Christ' (Issue 77. 18-29 Sept 1988)
‘You know, Mother Theresa came to my show the other night. She was sitting there in the stalls. i thought, “That's Tess, isn’t it?". And she said afterwards that she came out feeling a better person.’
Dame Edna Everage (Issue 79, 14-28 Oct 1988)
‘I always like to drop his name at cocktail parties. him being Jewish, same as me - or is he Christian now?’
Amoid Brown on Bob Dylan (issue 95. 2-15 June 1989)
THE MEANING OF
‘Laugh. because it‘s an enema for the soul.‘ Robin Williams (Issue 78. 3O Sept—13 Oct 1988).
LEST WE FORGET. . .
‘The business of Netherhind Strike Centre was concluded on 4.3.85 at 12 noon. Here endeth a chapter in history.‘
The linai entry in striking Ayrshire Miner Billy Hodge’s book of minutes. (issue 9. 7-20 Feb 1986)
The List 11- [7 August 19893