Music

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.’

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. ’
6 He’s more popular in America…
‘I’m not sure why. I think in Britain in the late ’70s and early ’80s there was a definite vision of what was wanted from a punk band. We played on punk bills but never really fitted in. We were seen as too proggy, and thus ideologically unsound, and too unashamed of being middle class. In America they’re not really bothered about all that. It’s all just rock music.’

7 He only sings in an English accent so we can hear him…
‘Partly it was copying Syd Barrett – that flat, Home Counties delivery. I was also listening to a lot of traditional music – I’m an absolute Martin Carthy obsessive. But I think that certain rock voices develop to cut through shitty PA systems. You need a certain beak in your voice to cut through the upper to mid range. Lennon had it. So did Dylan. I think that’s why I sound so nasal when I sing. Actually, if I hear my voice in a shop I find it really annoying. “Open your larynx, dammit!” I think. “Sing like Spandau Ballet!”.’

8 His guilty pleasure is ‘silly soul songs’ from the 1970s…
‘Stuff like “The Hustle” by Van McCoy, or “Rock Your Baby” by George McRae. I hated them at the time, but I now appreciate them as elegant pieces of quality music. They’re structured perfectly, like a Jane Austen novel.’

9 He makes a mean prawn curry…
‘There’s lot of garlic, cumin, turmeric, ginger and fried onions. It’s made with a great deal of love.’

10 He often plays charity gigs at the Three Kings in Clerkenwell…
‘They’re for Medicins Sans Frontier and they’re organised by my wife Michele Noah, who’s an artist. We don’t publicise them because they sell out by word of mouth. I did one where we played the whole of “Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” and another where we performed “The White Album” in its entirety. We’re going to be doing “Sgt Pepper” next…’