NME 27th November 1996 Issue



THE SEAHORSES
From the Seahorse's mouth

JOHN SQUIRE talks exclusively to TOMMY UDO about The Stone Roses, his new band Seahorses and why they're only playing in secret...

JOHN SQUIRE's new band, Seahorses, made their eagerly awaited live debut at Buckley Tivoli on Wednesday, November 27. Advertised as a Candyskins show, Seahorses surprised the crowd of about 200 by replacing the headliners at the last moment.

"That's the new policy," Squire told NME in an exclusive interview hours before the gig. "Our managers will pencil us in somewhere and not tell us where the gig's going to be."

Squire and the rest of the band were apparently placing bets in the van on the way to the gig as to where it was going to be. The plan is for the group to play a few extended rehearsals in front of small crowds to get them used to playing together and working with the sound crew and technicians.

"I think there would be a problem if we came straight out of rehearsals and started recording. But if we get five or six shows together before we start recording it'll be brilliant. It's going to be difficult for the rest of the band. There's going to be an unnatural amount of attention for a new group."

One witness at the Buckley Tivoli gig reported that vocalist Chris Helme looked slightly nervous and kept glancing sideways at Squire for reassurance.

Apparently, when a member of the audience shouted, "John, you've come a long way since Manchester Roadhouse," Squire responded by wandering over, shaking his hand and taking a swig from his can of Red Stripe.

The band played 14 new songs: 'Blinded By The Sun', 'Suicide Drive', 'Around The Universe', 'Boy In The Picture', 'I Want You To Know', 'Love Me And Leave Me', 'A Night To Remember', 'Dreamer', 'Happiness Is Egg Shaped', 'Sale Of The Century', 'Movin' On', 'Kill Pussycat Kill', 'Hello' and 'Love Is The Law'.

The eyewitness added that the Seahorses didn't sound particularly like the Roses, rather more like The La's, except for 'Love Is The Law', where Squire played a virtuoso solo reminiscent of 'Fool's Gold'.

"I'm really into it", Squire said of his new band. "I don't know what the parallels are with what's gone before. The rehearsals have been like a religious experience, remembering what it's like to play music."

WHEN SQUIRE left The Stone Roses in April this year, there was enormous speculation concerning his next project. He was, after all, the major creative force within the band and, when the others decided to carry on, the set they played in Europe and the Reading Festival was still drawn from Squire's legacy of songs.

The Roses ended in acrimony, with accusations at the Reading press conference that Squire's drug use had delayed the now infamously long recording process that led to the eventual release of 'Second Coming'.

"It was a relief when I left," Squire responded, "But I did get quite angry about it. It seems there was a lot of gloating and jeering going on at Reading."

Now everyone seems to find the comments regrettable.

"It was Mani particularly, wasn't it?" Squire said. "He was always on a short fuse. I doubt if he meant it."

When he spoke to NME in October, Mani said he wanted to talk to Squire and made his comments in the heat of the moment. Have they spoken since he left the band?

"No I haven't. I meant to get in touch," he said. "I miss going to the match (to see Manchester United) with him."

Mani is rehearsing with Primal Scream for their forthcoming live shows.

"That was a surprise," Squire said.

What about Brown and his new career? Do you even care?

"Yeah, I care. But I hear a different rumour every day about what the line-up is."

Do you have any regrets about the way it all turned out?

"Not at all, no," he said. But after a long pause he added: "I wish it had been different."

Are you happy?

"I am musically.

Personally?

"I don't know if it's an achievable state. Do you?"

Well, yeah.

"Permanently? Deliriously?"

No, just moments of temporary respite.

"If you try and stick a pin in it and mount it on the wall, it's gone. You just watch it go by."






THERE WERE several rumours flying around in the wake of Squire's departure from The Stone Roses; one being that Liam Gallagher was about to join his new band as vocalist.

Squire's appearance onstage with Oasis at Knebworth scotched these rumours.

"I met Liam for a drink in London and he asked me to play," Squire said, "Then, about five minutes later, Noel phoned up on a mobile. Initially it was for the new band to support them, but we didn't have a drummer at the time."

However, Squire and Liam have written a song together, 'Love Me And Leave Me', which was included in the band's debut set.

"I did most of it, so it's a Seahorses' song," Squire said. "He did the verse and the melody. It's a good tune."

Has Liam got it in him to be a songwriter? Can we ever expect a Liam Gallagher solo album?

"Yeah, he has got it in him," he said, "He's a good singer. One of the best."

Squire's enthusiasm for Oasis is genuine, although you might expect the prime mover behind The Stone Roses to feel some resentment towards them for casually sauntering up and snatching the title of Most Important Band Of The Decade.

"Bitter? I'm not bitter at all. I think they deserve it," he said. "They look right, they sound right. They work their nuts off."

Squire began to assemble his new band almost as soon as he quit the Roses. The first recruit was bass player Stuart Fletcher.

Said Squire, "The night I left the Roses, me and the guitar tech went out to get pissed and Stuart was playing in an R&B band called The Blue Flies. It was his first gig and I was very impressed. A week later I gave him a tape of songs."

Squire had only written a few songs before leaving the Roses and has put most of the set together over the past eight months. Singer Chris Helme has also written five songs. Initial reports that Helme was the ex-singer with the Steamboat Band proved false.

The other prevalent rumour at the time was that, for some unknown reason, Squire was trying to recruit an Irish drummer for the band.

"I wouldn't have minded one! But, no, the drummer lives in London at the moment, but he was brought up in Durham. He's called Andy Watts."

And what about the rumour that he chose the name Seahorses because it's an anagram of He Hates Roses?

"We were originally going to be The Seahorses, but when NME printed that, we all agreed that it would just be Seahorses. A seahorse is a dream symbol for travel and adventure and also, after Stuart decided he was going to be in the band, we went for a drink at this club. And at the bottom of the stairs was a 6ft 5in model of a seahorse. I'd been toying with the idea and took it as a sign."

The band's immediate plans are to continue with rehearsals and low-key gigging before flying out to the US to begin work on the first album.

"We were going to go away on December 5 to start recording in the States. We couldn't get the visas in time so we've put it back to December 27. Geffen (Seahorses' label) reckon that the first release could still be in time for March," he said. Geffen was the Stone Roses' label and picked up the option to sign John Squire when he quit the band.

Of the debut album, Squire added: "Tony Visconti (legendary 70s producer who was behind T Rex and Bowie's classic glam hits) is going to produce it. He's a really nice bloke. I thought he might have an attitude because of some of the stuff he's done in the past.

"I'd never heard of him until we worked with John Leckie and I asked him who was his favourite producer was and he said Tony Visconti."

Visconti's trademark were his lush string arrangements.

"I know he's renowned for it, he's a really great string arranger," Squire said. "But I don't think that this is going to be an orchestral album. Maybe the odd little one."

The new band members are all significantly younger than 34-year-old Squire.

"Yeah, I think there's nine years' difference between me and the oldest one!"

Does that make a difference?

"Not that I've noticed. Maybe I've always been a bit juvenile. It may cause problems later on when my back goes and all my hair falls out. Then I'll have to go and stand at the back."








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