NME 21st August 2004 Issue



"THE NORTH FUCKING RULES You know full fucking well!"




In a pre-V Festival salt-of-the-earth summit, Primal Scream's Manc bass behemoth Mani is happy to shoot the shit with Leicester's sonic upstarts Kasabian. But what's this? Drink has been taken and they've got something to get off their chests.

"Ask the guy out of Keane to cut his arm, and will it bleed rock'n'roll? Ask him if he bleeds, ask him if he'll bleed, right? Ask the fucking guy yourself, 'DO YOU BLEED ROCK'N'ROLL?' Is it really in your body? He won't say FUCK ALL!"
Tom Meighan, Kasabian, Manchester, August 2004

Gary 'Mani' Mounfield knows a thing or two about rock'n'roll, having injected the funk into The Stone Roses, become a poster-boy for Madchester and put the beef back into Primal Scream. But with all the old Hacienda heads either nursing nasty smack habits or doing yoga in Chorlton, the torch needs to be passed on to a new generation. And he's chosen Leciester's favourite anarcho-baggy farm boys Kasabian to carry it on. NME was on hand to make sure nobody got burned.

NME: Mani, have you met Kasabian before?
Mani: "We're on our third meeting, but it already feels like we've known each other for a lifetime. Like-minded people attract, kind of thing."
Tom (Meighan, vocals): "It's the same fuckin' radio station, innit, that we're all tuned into."
Mani: "There's a frequency that we all hit and other people can't. Yeah, we're tapped in, man. We don't know what it is, it just is."
Tom: "No bullshit man, it's no bullshit."
Mani: "It's people who recognise things in music. Like I recognise something in Kasabian that's been missing from fucking British music for ten years. What it is is a great sense of style and people doing it 'cos they love it and doing it in such a way that no other cunt can fuckin' touch, y'knowhatimean? It was the same with Oasis and now it's gonna be the same with Kasabian. D'you know what? I'll fucking show my arse on the town hall steps if these guys don't become massive."
Serge (Pizzorno, keyboards): "That's enough said already innit, it's over!"

Kasabian, how do you feel about Mani?
Tom: "Oh my god, this is a fucking idol, man. This is fucking what we've grown up with, man."
Chris (Edwards, bass): "We were in Oldham and Mani was talking about influences and he said, 'Who are you into?' It's like fucking, 'YOU! Exterminator man'. You hear that fucking bassline it's like, 'FUCK OFF'"
Tom: "(Primal Scream's) 'Kill All Hippies', man. That was the thing that got us triggered in Kasabian, took those fucking guitar solos from the '80s and turned the bass into one of the main instruments."
Mani: "That's good, right, 'cos that's what's good with Kasabian. You get the bass played as a lead instrument, and anyone who's got the fucking balls to even attempt to do that deserves a gold star on their chart immediately, man."

Do you prefer the Scream to the Roses?
Serge: "Both the same, man. I think the Scream changed it a lot with dance-indie and shit like that."
Tom: "The Scream should be fucking recognised. You hear people blather on about other bands and - shit, man - the Scream are the blueprint for, like, future music."
Mani: "Cheers, man."
Serge: "They ain't scared, man."
Tom: "Are they fucked scared."
Mani: "Apparently we're too old."
Tom: "That's bollocks!"
Mani: "That's what NME have been saying for fuckin' ages as well and you know what, for the record now, we're all fucking 14 and we haven't even fucking started yet! It's not about age, man. Johnny Cash was great, Frank Sinatra was great, they were 14, we're 14."
Serge: "Paul McCartney's still great. You can't fuck with McCartney."
Mani: "When I was fucking 20 with The Stone Roses I used to think, I'd hate to be 40 doing it but now I am 40 doing it I'm like, 'What a prick for saying that.' It's even better now than it was then. I'm getting such more enjoyment out of it, on my own level. But I'm always conscious about what's coming up. You've got to, right. Just ask Liam Gallagher or Noel Gallagher - they do it. And when I see people like Kasabian coming up it makes you go, 'Fucking hell!' We've got to try hard to keep these young brats at bay but also, yes, the baton is passed. And here's some guys who have watched and learned."
Tom: "Yeah, Mani. When we were fucking 16 we used to go to band rehearsals and that. And it's something you've fucking got; you did it, you're still doing it now. Cut your fucking veins open and bleed rock'n'roll. That's what you are. You can't fake it, it's something you're given."
Serge: "Look at all these fucking new bands coming out; there's no soul. I fucking pray for these people because there's no soul in the bands."

Mani, you come from (grubby north Manchester suburb) Failsworth and Kasabian live on a farm. What exactly are you handing over?
Tom: "We're all fucking farmers in straw hats! Nah, we grew up in Leciester, mate."
Mani: "I've got a quote from King Monkey here. 'It's not where you're from, it's where you're at.' Brownie's a fan. I was speaking to him the other day about Kasabian. We recognise a bit of ourselves in you, and Noel and Liam recognise a bit of their selves in you."

While we're on the subject, Ian Brown played a set full of Roses songs the other week.
Mani: "Yeah, I heard. Why not? Ian Brown's probably been itching to play 'em for fucking years. But he could have phoned me; I'm a better fucking bass player than that cunt out of Fools Gold. And prettier!"

He told NME he did it because he was outraged at Squire butchering them, because they were 'sacred', and he had to take them back.
Mani: "But d'you know what? You should hear Primal Scream's version of 'Fools Gold', it knocks spots off what The Stone Roses did with it."

Are we ever going to hear the Scream's version?
Mani: "We do it at soundchecks and that for a laugh. Is it fuck ever going to see the light of day! Why would you tamper with an original? No-one should ever tamper with an original. You should tell Will Young, Gareth Gates, fucking Backstreet Boys and all these fucking gel-wearing puffs to fucking get the fuck aaaaht!"
Tom: "I think Jim Morrison turned in his grave, bless him, god bless his soul. That kind of guy (Will Young) covering that kind of shit, man. FUCK OFF!"
Mani: "If I was them I would've give him the back of my hand at warp factor five!"

What connects the Roses and Kasabian?
Mani: "They've got great hair, great fashion sense, they've got a top attitude, right. For me, right, they've got the attitude of the fucking Roses, the good looks of the Scream and the fucking having-it- largeness of the Mondays, and where can you go wrong with them three attributes?"
Tom: "But you know what connects us together with Mani and The Stone Roses and Oasis. You know what it is? We're fucking normal geezers; we're the salt of the earth. And any fucking other band in London will tell you the same. All of us sitting round here, we're the salt of the fucking earth, man."
Serge: "Our job is to keep the trendy perplexed, man. Those cool fuckers, they don't know fuck all."
Tom: "It's cool, man. Like you said, we're from the North man, the North always fucking rules. You know fucking full well; It's pure, it's full fucking salt of the earth, it's roots man. It's grown into you. You can't fucking wish it, think it, wear it; it's there."
Mani: "It can't be bought, it has to be felt. London seems to think it has a divine right to everything, and that's why when you're from Manchester or Leciester or whatever, you know how to do it, you've got nothing to live up to. All you've got to live to is getting off the fucking dole. Let's be like this and we'll get the fucking world, and eventually everyone turns round to your way of thinking, and I've proved that point a couple of times myself, and these guys will probably do the same."
Tom: "The best thing is people that read this interview will say, 'Oh they're talking the same old same old'. Well fuck off, think I'm bothered? The real roots always come through, man. And that's what happens, you plant the seeds, let them grow."
Mani: "Here's the one thing that's got on my tits, right. I'm gonna have a right proper moan now. Why are they fucking kicking lumps out of Primal Scream in your magazine and then putting The Strokes on the front cover? The Strokes are shit, man. And if any of them ever wants a fight I'll fucking have the lot of 'em! A lot of people have said that we've been the best thing that they've seen live on the festival circuit or whenever and yet we haven't got more than a column inch - 'a band with a combined age of 876', remember that quote? At Glastonbury the other year we were fucking ace; we dragged people away from watching REM who were supposed to be a big band to come and watch us on the NME stage! (Erm, there hasn't been an NME stage at Glastonbury sicne 1995 - Ed) and we were fucking outrageously brilliant and people said, 'Yeah they were good for a band with a combined age of 876.' What the FUCK is that all about, man? Get behind your local fucking team!"
Serge: "We'll back you up, if The Strokes was a go!"

And there we have it, war is declared - and battle come down. This is Madchester calling.









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