Riot going on for Primal Scream
MANI is talking about drink. Okay, as opening sentences go, it isn't exactly surprising.
After all, few have played up to the Loaded-sponsored image of rock 'n' roll translating into beingtest-pilots for narcotics more than Primal Scream. But youth is a Visa and once it has expired, living in a state of perma-inebriation looks a bit... well, depressing.
Aged 45, Mani, bassist in the group, had this Road To Damascus style when receiving the 'Godlike Genius' accolade at last year's NME Awards while mingling with the indie gigeratti.
"Someone said 'Who do you think the biggest caner of the night will be?'" he remembers. "And someone replied, 'Definitely Mani'. And I suddenly thought 'do I want to be known for being a caner or do I want to be known for making great music?'"
Certainly, Primal Scream are held up as the pinnacle of the 'Live fast, die young' mantra, with frontman Bobby Gillespie's lyrics stylising substances and antics that might even raise eyebrows in the Court of Caligula.
"Undervalued"
Gary 'Mani' Mounfield feels this image has caused the band - which he joined full time in 1997 after contributing bass to their single Kowalski - to become 'undervalued'.
"I think the lifestyle that a lot of us in the band led for a few years, I think we've conspired to negate ourselves in a lot of ways," he muses.
"But the good news is we're all well-behaved at the minute. Everyone's getting older, everyone's having kids. Personally, I haven't had a drink in nine months."
"Everyone thinks we're just a bunch of up-for-it party-all-night guys living that stupid rock'n'roll dream. And to some extent, that's true but we're a more focussed unit now. We're all in our mid-40s now; it's time to pass that baton on to Mr Alex Turner and his Arctic Monkeys. "We just want to concentrate on the music now. And I don't want any of us to die either."
As it turned out, that was a genuine looming shadow of a concern. Having survived Madchester with his sanity intact, Mani started witnessing people he knew and cared about succumbing to liquor-related deaths.
"There's a few friends I've noticed around Manchester who've been dying in their early-30s. That was a big wake-up call. A kid who used to run the hat stall in Affleck's Palace, he died aged only 42. I look at people like Tony Ogden from World of Twist who was a great guy and an absolute icon in my eyes; he's gone early.
"I want to live for ever, as Noel and Liam would say. It's a great thing to aspire to. And I want to leave more or a mark in life."
CityLife is here to talk about, Primal Scream's ninth studio album, Beautiful Future, which sees the group after 24 years, going pop - the musical genre, rather than exploding as one might have previously expected. "I don't think we've tried plundering that genre yet," says Mani cheerfully (frankly, he's a man whose glass is half-full in every possible sense).
"For a bunch of guys who keep getting written off as party animal junkie Stones-alikes, were getting good at confusing and surprising people with each LP we do."
Shamelessly
Indeed, while critics have accused The Scream of shamelessly apeing the Rolling Stones' or Stooges' back catalogue, they found inspiration in an unlike source: Abba.
After a collaboration with Mark Ronson fell through, five tracks were produced by Björn Yttling, of indie-popsters, Peter, Björn and John, at Atlantis Studios in Stockholm, where the likes of Knowing Me, Knowing You was recorded.
"It's amazing," beams Mani. "We've got the Dancing Queen grand piano on a tune. The marimba from Money, Money, Money is on the record. And Bobby Gillespie's on the phone, speaking to Agnetha (Fältskog) every day. It make us step up to the plate.
"We didn't want to go in there and knock out a crock of **** when Abba have done all that amazing stuff there.
"We've got reputations to uphold, albeit not good at the best of times."
As ever, Primal Scream have assembled a coalition of different talents to lend their expertise to the album, including Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Lovefoxxx from CSS ("We first met when we played a festival in Sao Paulo and me and Bobby stayed up until stupid'o'clock in the morning partying with them," he recalls), and on a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Over And Over, 60-year-old folk singer Linda Thompson.
An alumni of the Stone Roses, Mani couldn't be more evangelical about the Manchester music scene at the moment.
"Hats off to The Courteeners, they're going great," he beams.
"I was in contact with Liam (Fray) a couple of weeks ago. They were off on their first Japanese tour so I was giving him a bit of advice and hooked them up with friends I've got in Tokyo who'll look after them."
"We need people like them to combat all this Brit School nonsense. You can't teach music. It has to be from the heart and the groin, never from the mind."
Primal Scream headline the Rock 'N' Roll Riot Tour at the Apollo on Friday, December 12. £22.50.
Click here to book. Beautiful Future is out now.
Click here to read a review.
Published: Tue, 29 July, 2008
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