Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Hitchcock was born in London 53 years ago. He formed The Soft Boys in 1976 and later fronted a solo project called The Egyptians. Both sold bugger-all but were enormously influential on the likes of The Replacements, Johnny Marr and, in particular, REM. He plays Islington Academy on Thursday – his backing band, The Venus 3, features Peter Buck from REM
Robyn Hitchcock
1 He’s known REM for years…
‘I met Peter Buck in 1984. It was outside the Highgate branch of the Cat Protection League. He was looking to protect a cat. So was I. Anyway, we got talking and he had some of my records and we both liked the same ’60s pop. Joe Boyd was recording them at a studio in Wood Green. I got a phone call from Peter: “Hey Robyn, we’re in back of Bejam, come join us.” We’ve been in touch ever since, playing in each other’s bands.’
2 His current band features half of REM…
‘It’s very incestuous. You’ve got Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey and Ken Stringfellow, who are all in The Minus 5. You add Bill Rieflin from Ministry, and you’ve got most of REM. Take away Ken and you’ve got The Venus 3, my backing band. Then take away me and add Robert Fripp and a few others and you’ve got Bill Rieflin’s Slow Music. There are lots of permutations. It’s like Lego.’
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3 He acted in a remake of ‘The Manchurian Candidate’…
‘The director Jonathan Demme made a live film of me called “Storefront Hitchcock”, where I performed in the front of a New York shop. Then, a few years later, he needed someone to play an evil British villain in “The Manchurian Candidate”. So he asked me. My character is supposed to have tortured Denzel Washington’s character during the first Iraq War, which I find hilarious. I’m sure Denzel would make mincemeat of me.’
4 His song titles include ‘I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones’…
‘I like to write songs with titles that have never and will never be used by anyone else. “Where Are The Prawns”, “I Wanna Be An Anglepoise Lamp”, “It’s Not Just The Size Of A Walnut”, “Madonna Of The Wasps”, “Evil Duck”…’
5 He describes his early stuff as ‘psychedelic pub rock’…
‘We played psychedelic music but, you know, in pubs. We did try psychedelic light shows but our first bass player Matthew had problems with strobes.I was never into psychotropic drugs, it was more about the music. I could spend hours talking about this but essentially, I see psychedelia as something that changes when you look at it closely. ’
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