DATE OF INTERVIEW:

THE GLITTERATI

28th November 2009

PAUL GAUTREY; JOHN EMSLEY

METAL DISCOVERY: Is it right you don’t have a website and just a MySpace?

PAUL GAUTREY: [laughs]….we have got one, but this is what happened to the website. Atlantic’s people ran it and once we’d ended up not being on Atlantic anymore, they just left it and it got completely taken over by porn spam!

(John Emsley on what body parts fans of the band haven't asked him to sign yet)

"I’ve never signed a bollock, I’ll be honest!"

The Glitterati backstage at Rock City, Nottingham, UK, 28th November 2009

Photograph copyright © 2009 Mark Holmes - www.metal-discovery.com

Interview & Photography by Mark Holmes

RELATED LINKS

Official The Glitterati MySpace:

THE GLITTERATI DISCOGRAPHY

The Glitterati (2005)

Albums

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Jen Normandale at Global Music for offering and arranging the interview.

Are You One Of Us? (2010)

MD: Really?!

PG: Yeah, so it got really ruined, and we couldn’t get whatever you need to update it. It was still advertising a single from 2005/2006, so we were like, fuck! Eventually, we have managed to get it back into us but we need to get it all tarted up.

JOHN EMSLEY: It’s all under control.

PG: Yeah, it’s all under control…that’s a good term! We’re back in control of it!

MD: Has MySpace been a good medium for promoting your band?

PG: I think it is the only medium at the moment! A couple of others we’ve got as well, like your Facebooks and Twitters, and things like that, but MySpace generally is just a website. I mean, if we have the website as well I can’t see what would be different on it really, but I think it’s something we’re adjusting to because first time around it wasn’t a big deal.

JE: I still can’t get my head round the fact that it is a big deal. Ultimately, I’m a musician, we’re musicians. It’s important, I know it’s important, but it just seems…

PG: It’s so different from the first time because, for us, I think we’re just kind of adjusting to it because downloads weren’t even an issue. They were such a small percentage of sales and we didn’t even have a MySpace page until after the album came out. The difference now is that every band in the world’s got a good MySpace. The label didn’t even think it was important to have a MySpace page and when you look at the difference now, it’s like…

MD: It’s a convenience thing really because people go on MySpace and they can hear the songs straight away, and it’s a one-stop website I guess.

PG: It’s great, yeah. And I think for the fans…the crowd of people who are into us really appreciate interaction as well. When I was a kid into bands, I would have fucking creamed to be able to talk to the guys in the band or whatever, you know. Things like that now are so accessible, and I think it’s a good thing as well.

JE: Do you know what, you’ve just convinced me!

[laughs]

MD: You’ve toured with a pretty eclectic mixture of bands…

PG: Very eclectic!

MD: Like I’ve written down here - The Wildhearts; Evanescence; Avril Lavigne; Kings of Leon…what are the happiest memories for you now in retrospect…what’s the happiest tour you’ve done?

PG: We actually did the David Lee Roth tour and we came off that tour and I think went straight on The Killers tour, which was a weird change of…

MD: How big were the venues?

PG: Kind of like this size but maybe a bit bigger. We didn’t play here, but I’d say they were this size - the Astoria and that kind of thing. They were two of our first tours and I think it set us off to just be like we don’t really care, who we’re playing with is good. If you play a festival, you can go on before or after anyone and you still try and win the crowd over whatever it is, and I think we’ve kind of had that along the way. Even if we take a few it’s worth doing. Even W.A.S.P., we wouldn’t necessarily be who people would think of as an ideal support band….

MD: I think it’s quite compatible actually.

PG: Well that’s cool; brilliant.

MD: The crowd seemed a bit motionless though. I think when people come and see a bigger band like W.A.S.P. they’re just like waiting for the main band.

JE: When we went on and you kind of see blank faces, and after the first song you still see blank faces, and by the time you get to the third song there’s a couple of guys nodding; fourth and fifth a couple of girls nodding; at the end of the set I looked out and people on the balcony were clapping. You don’t see a mosh pit or people jumping around but most people dug it.

PG: To be honest, it was similar when we were on tour with bands like The Wildhearts and nobody knows who you are, like any of those tours, but you’ve got to try and get as many interested as you can to check it out again.

MD: That’s where MySpace comes in then people can go there the following day to listen to your music.

PG: The thing is, as our singer, I have a tough job because I want to promote this free single, I really want to promote this free single, but it just happens to have the longest link I’ve ever…imagine trying to say that onstage every night! [points to the URL on a sheet of paper]

[laughs]

JE: Is that a URL? Is that what that’s called?

MD: Yeah.

PG: Look at it! Imagine trying to say that onstage and anyone taking it in!

[laughs]

PG: It would be easier to say the MySpace because you can link it, but…

MD: That’s why you need your website back, you know!

PG: That is the thing man. If you go on the MySpace you can just click on something that’ll take you straight to it so you can try and promote it that way, but…

MD: A random question now…what’s the most random or surreal thing that’s happened to the band or a band member on tour?

PG: It was quite a random night last night!

JE: A bit of a saucy night!

PG: A bit saucy! [laughs] Left to our own devices! Something random happens to us everyday. Just things like, even this week, we had a single that was supposed to go out on Monday but didn’t make it out until Wednesday evening. We turned up to the first night of the tour and we weren’t actually playing. I could do you a daily random list!

[laughs]

MD: What’s the weirdest thing a fan has asked you to sign?

JE: Well obviously you have people asking you to sign their tits, but is that so weird?

MD: A question there would be how many tits?

JE: Generally two at a time!

[laughs]

PG: If there were any girls with three tits, that would have been weird.

MD: You’ll have to keep a count of how many pairs. You could maybe have a tit signing counter on your website as like a gimmick or something, you know!

[laughs]

JE: The weirdest thing that I saw was…I remember turning up to a gig and it was maybe like a hundred dozen proper gigs we’d played and some guy showed me his tattoo…a Glitterati tattoo. That’s pretty weird.

MD: That’s pretty cool.

PG: I don’t think we should put that under weird because it kind of discourages….

[laughs]

PG: Weird for us though.

JE: I think it’s funny but I personally can’t get my head round people who like us so much…well obviously I do, but…

MD: Have any of you got Glitterati tattoos?

PG: No, no.

MD: Well, there you are, that’s dedicated then, isn’t it!

[laughs]

MD: I did ask that question once to…do you know Turisas, the Finnish band? Their old accordion player apparently had to sign somebody’s bollocks once!

JE: Oh, you’re joking me!

MD: So they get the bollocks, you get the tits!

JE: I’ve never signed a bollock, I’ll be honest!

PG: I don’t know if I would. I think I’d have a go. I think you’d have to…

JE: You’d have to stretch it.

PG: I think you’d have to cup it to get a good…

[laughs]

JE: I wonder if you’d actually sign the scrotum or sign the actual kind of like…on the actual ball.

MD: I don’t know. You’ve got more scope on a tit haven’t you, but a bollock’s a bit…you need one of those…like when you go into Argos and they give you those tiny little pens…

[laughs]

MD: What’s the weirdest gift you’ve ever received from a fan?

PG: I think it was quite sweet actually but what it was, it was this girl who was a big fan and she’d done a scrapbook but it was like really weird. It was things like bottle tops that we’d had on the stage and they were all stuck in. It was bottle tops, and tags off bottles, a bit of hair - weird things like that and they’re all stuck down in a scrapbook. Pictures of us coming out of hotels and stuff when we didn’t know anyone was taking pictures! Like really creepy!

MD: Stalker kind of territory!

PG: Yeah, but she was so sweet and it was like ahh, it’s so lovely.

MD: I’m sure they all seem like that, stalkers! Never go back to her house - Alan Partridge territory!

PG: [laughs] Yeah, a full body tattoo of us!

MD: She’ll have a room with all your pictures in. She’ll give you a coffee in….“that’s right, it’s an Arielator!”

[laughs]

PG: Oh, he’s from Leeds isn’t he! The stalker’s from Leeds! [laughs]

MD: Finally, for anyone who will be reading this and hasn’t heard of your band before, why should they rush out immediately and check you out?…obviously on your MySpace and not your website just yet!

PG: Why not?! We’re a good band; we’ve got good tunes. I think it’ll definitely be a worthwhile visit for ‘em to our MySpace, and why not find a new band that you might love!

JE: Grow some balls, put your NME down and try and check something out that’s not in NME!

PG: [laughs]

MD: Marvellous! Thank you very much for your time.

PG: Thank you so much.

JE: Cool. Good to meet you.