CAST

Cast were touring in America when I got in touch with John Power. The 4th of July celebrations meant it took several attempts before I got through to him in his Detroit hotel room.

What's it like where you are? "It's roasting, there's a big Independance Day thing going on outside. I'm just staying in but outside there's a massive free American festival going on." In London today it is raining and cold. "Maybe Cliff Richard will sing again [John is reffering to the incident at Wimbledon where the tennis as rained off and Cliff got up and sang]. I'm just imagining it just now, were the crowd singing along?" I don't know about that but I think a tennis player was. How is America? "Oh America is cool, we're having a great time. We've just come over and we're travelling in our submarine with wheels and just playing. There's a good vibe for us here, everyone's very interested and they're coming and checking us out." I was on the phone to a mutual friend earlier and she said she missed you at the Viper Rooms, where were you? "Oh yeah, we all went to the Viper Rooms! You know what it's like in LA, you've got all these friends from Manchester and Liverpool who have all gone out there on the scam years ago, we ended up bumping into a lot of them and just getting off our cakes! LA was a mad one." What are your audiences like over there, is it much the same as in Britain? "They're all human. Yeah, there's a little bit of cultural diference but really what it comes dow to is something that isn't British or American, it's music. Music has no nationality, people just inject that into their music. What I'm saying is that music is the universal language and I don't have any problems with different audiences at all, people are relating to it. We're connecting, I can see it in people's faces. The west coast was sold out and even outback places have been very interesting, places where you expect only a cowboy and a mule to turn up are still getting people who have heard rumours checking it out. America is now getting into rock and roll without the long hair and leotards, the pantomime is over for rock and roll - at least that's what we're trying to tell them."

John and I had attempted a summer related questionaire which had not gone down too well, when I suggested we might go over it again to expand on what he'd written he said "Oh, do we really have to? It took me ages, it was like a school report. I can't really think of anything, my brain is stuck. When you asked me a good summer memory I just can't think. Y'know, special days are just special. They just evolve, you don't write them down." When you were a child you said you used to spend your summers dressed as a Brazilian footballer... "Yes, well, that's what the big thing used to be, Brazil were the best team. But those weren't really special days." What about when you were young and you got to the summer holidays, do you remember what that was like? "Yes, but I can't put that into words. Words are very limited and I'm not an author. I have the memories and I'm fond of them but when I recap, I recap in vision. If you ask me about a holiday, I can see that holiday but if I try to put it into words I just couldn't do it. I never think in those realms, I'm not trying to be awkward or strange but this is how I am. Everybody has memories and a lot of them are the same but when you try to pin them down, you'd have to be very skilled in writing words to do it. What I do remember is the heat wave of 1976 and we went camping in Cornwall, that was cool."

Are you a fan of festivals? "As a fan I used to bunk into Glastonbury. Glastonbury is the festival really and I've been to every Phoenix there's been, except for this year. I think I've played every Phoenix on some stage or another!"
Do festivals suit you? "I love being outside. When it's a sunny day and you've got your eyes closed there's a special festival soundtrack of people talking and all the stages combining and you're in the cross-over teritory of it all. At festivals no-one is going to phone you up, you've got no interviews to do, you haven't got to go home for your tea and you've no washing to do. For those three or four days you can just get wrecked. You're into a whole mood which is different from just walking down the street and getting wrecked. Everyone is on that vibe."

Can you imagine your perfect summer day? "My perfect days are here. People think that what they're after is so far away that it's unobtainable but it's usually right next to us. We've got to be aware and receptive so that we can find the things that are right next to us. A perfect day can be a moment within every day."