It’s fair to say that Inspiral Carpets can quite easily be considered as legends. The band formed in 1983 and have a very unique garage indie sound that saw them release some seriously amazing albums and singles. Coming to prominence in the late 80’s with the rise of the Manchester scene they had a string of hits in the 90’s with such classic as “This Is How It Feels” and “Dragging Me Down” before a break in 1995. Back now with their original vocalist at the helm, the band are putting new music out again. We were lucky enough to be able to send a few questions to the way of Craig Gill, drummer for Inspiral Carpets since day one…
Hi, thanks for chatting with us at Lights Go Out, what’s the current mood like in the band?
Optimistic, Chilled, Vibing…
You’ve just announced a UK tour in December, what can we look forward to hearing on this tour?
All the hits played by twits, garage classics plus a few new singles.
Your new album is due out soon, is it all finished and ready to go now?
It’s been ready for ages, were just finishing off loads of extras for the Dulux edition, it includes RSD singles a DVD and a paint brush.
Also, does it have a name or is it going to be self titled?
We were thinking of calling it ‘democracy doesn’t work’ but it was outvoted for simply ‘Inspiral Carpets’.
What can we expect from it?
12 new tracks, it’s very diverse as there are 6 different writers on it.
Is it a huge shift in sound from your previous releases?
No, it’s trade mark Inspirals but played in tune.
It’s coming out on Cherry Red Records, how did you come to work with them?
Not sure really, this guy called John Reed was stalking us for ages, turns out he works for them, they then bribed us with loads of great indie CD’s, it was a done deal.
Is it much different to when you worked with Mute?
It feels like we’re a priority at Cherry Red and they dig the music, Mute are a great label but we were a square peg in a round hole.
What bands have inspired the Inspiral Carpets sound?
Husker Du, The Prisoners The Bunnymen, The Wombles
Obviously Tom leaving the band was well publicised on social media, how is it having Stephen back in the family?
Like returning to your real family after foster care.
You came to prominence during the whole “Madchester” scene with the like of bands like Happy Mondays and Stone Roses, did you feel your style fitted in well with those bands?
Yes it fitted in but musically it was diverse, Madchester was about being different and expressing yourself, there were common threads such as clothes and influences.
Back in those days you were well known for your cow logo and the “Cool as Fuck!” design, where did these come from?
Just a catch phrase at the time, the cow was Clint’s drawing, he has a cow fetish.
Also it is very well documented that Noel Gallagher used to be your roadie, were you surprised to see how well he did with Oasis and are you still in contact with him at all?
Not surprised at all, he’s a very clever bloke, he took our work ethic, the Mondays notoriety and the coolness of the Roses, we all opened doors for them, Oasis took them off the hinges.
Also which bands that you’ve played with over the years still stand out in your mind as your favourites?
We’re all massive La’s fans, The Real People were good lads also.
Were you disappointed that you didn’t quite break into the top 10 in the charts?
I don’t think anyone was expecting it to chart, who listens to the charts anyway?
You put out “You’re So Good For Me/Head For The Sun” for this year’s Record Store Day. Do you feel it’s an important event for bands to support?
As an ex record shop owner anything that gets people in to them has to be a good thing.
How do you feel when you see the release up on eBay the same day for a large figure?
I’ve got more pressing things to worry about.
Is vinyl still an important format for the band and will the new album be available on vinyl?
The record will be on vinyl, I like the idea of kids realising that they are an investment and don’t depreciate like CD’s, I don’t think people should be music snobs though, I think spotify is great.
Can you all remember the first record you ever owned and if so, what was it?
Yeah my Dad took me to Asda and said pick two LP’s, I picked ELO because it had UFO on the cover and the Star Wars soundtrack. I still love a bit of ELO now and so do the kids. First single I think was Adam Ant off Oldham market.
These days the internet seems extremely important for bands, do you feel this would have been a huge addition back in the 80’s/90’s for you?
There’s pros and cons. Honestly I don’t know how anything got done back then, we had to employ a small workforce in a massive office in Central Manchester to do what I can do on my phone these days.
I have at home a promo fish for “Revenge Of The Goldfish” that you open up and an elastic band makes the sound of a machine gun. Who came up with this idea and do you have any idea how many were available?
I never even knew about a lot of the stuff, I had a life size cut out of myself, I used to stick it in the window when I went on tour to deter the burglars.
What are you currently listening too and which artists should we be checking out?
Listening to a lot of tinnitus at the moment, I have been listening to The Monkees, headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius… LP’s quite a lot recently, Afghan Whigs are back with a great LP ‘do to the beast’.
So other than the new album and the tour, what else is in the pipeline for the band?
See what we get offered. I would like to do more abroad.
Have you any final words you’d like to leave us with?
How much is it to Oldham?
www.facebook.com/OfficialInspirals
http://www.inspiralcarpets.com
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.© Lights Go Out – A punk fanzine from the UK. All rights reserved. RSS Feed | Best viewed in Mozilla Firefox
site by ledbyexample | admin