My First Week On Medium

I've been making a concerted effort to publish some articles on Medium. I'm still new at this and working out how it ticks.

Monkey Tennis?, about how Alan Partridge singlehandedly created the TV landscape of today.

An Interview With Velvet Chain, a band that appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Why I Adore The Station Agent And You Should Too, a brilliant yet underrated film. I was pretty excited, because this article got 'curated'

An Interview With The Discworld's Falconer Dave 'Hodgesaargh' Hodges, the real life individual who inspired Terry Pratchett to include him in his Discworld novels.

My Sixteen Month-Old-Son Made This Fauvist Masterpiece And What It Taught Me About Parenting

What's The One Thing Most Billionaires Have In Common? It's not garages.

An Interview With Pulp. I have a habit of asking the wrong questions.

I Asked Dr. Pulp

From 1997 to its close in 2002 I was a member of Pulp People, the fan club of the Sheffield band. Over the years newsletters were sent out as and when there was enough news to fill them. Many included a feature called 'Ask Dr Pulp' in which assembled members of the band would answer questions sent in by fans.

Since GQ have recently printed an interview with Jarvis their editor conducted for The Sunday Times in 1998 practically verbatim and passed it off as new, it seems as if anything goes. So here are the questions the good Doctor asked Candida Doyle, Jarvis Cocker, Mark Webber, Nick Banks & Steve Mackey on my behalf, presented here as if in the form of a continuous interview. I seemed to have a knack for asking the wrong question:

Why is The Day After The Revolution “so bloody long”?
Candida: “Don't ask me!”
Jarvis: “The song itself is only the regulation four minutes”
Mark: “What kind of a stupid question is that?”

How democratic are decisions made within the group?
Nick: “Sometimes it's difficult for decisions to be made by committee. Pulp democracy changes depending on the subject in question.”
Candida: “I'll have to come to an agreement with the rest of the band before I answer this one, unless Jarvis has a particular answer.”

Do Pulp think Britpop is dead, and does it really matter?
Candida: “Well, I never liked the Britpop idea but the sad thing is, now that it's gone - which it has - what we are left with is much much worse, and that does matter.”
Nick: “Thank god, yes, and not in the slightest.”

What goes into consideration when deciding on a set list?
Mark: “Far too much. It's not interesting.”
Jarvis: “Biorhythms, chakra alignments, I-Ching forecast, personal hygiene, proximity to ley-lines centres of earth magic, closing time.”
Steve: “Whatever Jarvis feels like playing…”

Originally published in Issues 24 to 28 of the Pulp People Newletter.

The Wizard's Knob - Dave Hodges Interview

In 1998, I interviewed Dave Hodges, the falconer who inspired the character of Hodgesaargh in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Lords And Ladies & Carpe Jugulum. This interview was finally published in early 2000 in Issue 14 of the brilliantly named The Wizard's Knob:

How do you feel about being associated with a very unlucky and tactless falconer, namely Hodgesaargh?
I'm very happy to be associated with Hodgesaargh and I don't consider him unlucky or tactless, it's just that the best birds are often temperamental (the operative part of the word here is mental)

Come on then, give us your sales pitch: what is your book The Arts of Falconrie And Hawking about and why would a discerning Discworld fan want to buy it?
It is the first book written by a Discworld character, it does contain real useful tips about training and hunting with birds of prey. It benefits a charity that Terry is the patron of, also there are only 500 copies of the first edition and I will be doing a falconry display (yes, the real Lady Jane will be there) at the Clarecraft Event where a figure of Lady Jane and me will be launched. I have been working with birds of prey since 1981 and know a bit about them.

Terry has written a foreword for the book. Is that an indication of how long and how well you know Terry?
Terry wrote the 'About The Author' and I have met him at many events over the last ten years. He knew the Hodgesaargh name started long before Lords And Ladies.

Is the book written as if by Hodgesaargh or by yourself?
Hodgesaargh.

How did you come to inspire Hodgesaargh?
Terry knew I worked with birds of prey and had heard of Lady, he also knew of the reaction of people at conventions to seeing me arrive. I run a humorous database used to raise money for various charities and I'm always bullying people into writing things for it - people see me and say "Oh no it's Hodges - Aargh" and then run away. The database is The Real Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy and I've run it since 1986.

In Lords And Ladies Hodgesaargh is presented as a no-nonsense, seen-it-all-before tough guy whose only weakness is birds of prey.
Most people who keep birds of prey are rather single minded.

Is Lady Jady as cruel as some of the birds Hodgesaargh has to put up with?
Lady Jane is the worst.

Why did you choose The Orang Utan Foundation as the beneficiary from the sale of the books?
As Terry is the patron and he created me I thought it would be a good idea.

Will there be a sequel?
Yes, a revised and expanded edition should be ready in time for MilleniCon Hand and Shrimp.

Are you happy in your work?
Yes. Lady has been reasonably famous for many years now, in 1981 Terry Wogan was making jokes about us, a few years later I had to take her to Abingdon Hospital as they had so many customers due to her they wanted to meet her.

Buffy The Fangzine - Velvet Chain Interview

I am a huge Buffy fan and after seeing their performance in Sunnydale I became a Velvet Chain fan as well. I conducted the following interview with two of the band for the Summer 2001 issue of Buffy The Fangzine:

I was lucky to get an exclusive interview with Erika Amato and Jeff Stacy the driving forces behind the ultra-talented fan favourite Velvet Chain who appeared in the first season episode ‘Never Kill A Boy On The First Date’ performing ‘Strong’ (which is available on the Buffy OST) and 'Treason', played at posting board parties and almost gave us the theme to Angel. Oh yeah and not to mention they’re really talented.

Can you give us an account of your time on the set?
JEFF: We had a really good time that day. Everybody was friendly, and everybody really liked the band. The cast and crew kept coming to us and asking if we had any CDs for sale. We sold about thirty CDs that day.

ERIKA: Yeah, it was great. The cast and crew were so nice to us. Charisma (Carpenter, the actress who played Cordelia) even ate lunch with us. We ended up making a really strong connection with the show that day…quite a few of the cast and crew have come to see the band a lot in the years since then. And of course, we’re big fans of the show, as well. Total mutual admiration society stuff.

Why do you think your Angel theme was not picked up? Were you given a reason?
ERIKA: I’ll let Jeff answer that…

JEFF: Because there was another theme submitted that they liked better. It is my understanding that the decision was very close, but in the end, they opted for something a little more classically gothic, with a cello lead. Our theme was a bit more ‘street’ sounding, and was actually quite a bit less traditional than what they chose. I do think, however that the theme they chose (by Darling Violetta) is an outstanding one and very suitable for the show, perhaps even more suitable than ours. It’s kind of hit-and-miss with something like this. You get some basic parameters of what the show is about and the overall vibe, and then you take a shot at it. You make a piece of music that is your interpretation of what the show is probably going to feel like. Whoever creates a theme that is closest to what the show’s creators are looking for is going to get the placement. That’s how it works. As an artist, it’s actually a really fun thing to do, and I really had a good time making it.














How did the collaboration with Seth Green (who played Oz) come about? What did you think of his musical ability?
JEFF: The collaboration with Seth came about primarily because Seth liked the band quite a bit, and because we hit it off on a personal level. Seth is a very cool, down-to-earth, and funny guy. We thought it would be fun if he showed up on stage with us. That idea lead to the idea that I would record him on one of our songs for The Buffy EP so we could have Seth on one of our albums, and Seth would have a legitimate album credit, even though he can barely play. It was all done for fun because we wanted to do it and it was something a little different. As a guitarist, Seth is really just a beginner, but he enjoys playing and actually has a lot of fundamental musical talent. If he had time to play a lot there’s no doubt he could become very good.

ERIKA: He has an amazing sense of rhythm, and is a very musical cat. He could have pursued music instead of acting, I’m sure but he ‘ain’t doing too shabby in the acting department, so it seems like he made a good decision!

What do you put your continued involvement with Buffy down to?
JEFF: Our continued involvement with Buffy has a lot to do with the fact that the exposure Velvet Chain got from the show has lead to a dramatic increase in our fan base. We have almost 10,000 people on our mailing and email list now, and it’s safe to say that over fifty per cent of them came directly from our exposure on the Buffy TV show and the Buffy soundtrack. Being an independent band, this kind of exposure is critically important because we don’t have the money for radio promotion and major PR like big labels. No matter how good your band is, if people don’t know you exist, you might as well be releasing records on the moon. Buffy created a great opportunity for us because it’s a vehicle for lots of people to find out about us and discover us. Being somewhat intelligent we have taken advantage of this opportunity to the extent we could. We remain as involved as possible with Buffy because that’s where a lot of our fans are. You go where the love is.

ERIKA: I think it’s because Buffy fans have great taste, so they like us! No really, we’re just very appreciative of all the support the fans have given us over the years, and we’re also really grateful to Joss (Whedon, creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly and now Dollhouse) for giving us the opportunity in the first place.

Who are your influences, musically or other?
JEFF: Roxy Music, David Bowie, Robert Fripp, The Doors, Radiohead, Herbie Hancock, Tower of Power, The Beastie Boys, Gang of Four, The Cure, Portishead, Pink Floyd, The Police, William Orbit.

ERIKA: The Police, U2, Annie Lennox, Ella Fitzgerald, David Bowie, The Cure, Tears for Fears, Chrissy Hynde, Radiohead, Duran Duran, New Order, Bach, Prokofiev, Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby, Fiona Apple, Beck and Portishead.

Jeff has said “UK fans have better taste in music”, are you fans of much British music, and if so who?
JEFF: Well, it just seems that an abnormally high percentage of really good, inventive, creative, and unique music comes out of England. In the US you get Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20. In the UK you get Portishead and Radiohead. I think that people are generally a bit more open minded about music in England, and I think they appreciate uniqueness more. I don’t know if this is actually true, it just seems that way to me.

ERIKA: Actually, I think Third Eye Blind may be Canadian (they are actually from San Francisco), but I agree with Jeff. With the exception of Beck and Fiona Apple, there really aren’t that many American acts I like right now. Well, there’s Garbage too, but Shirley’s Irish, I think (sorry Erika, she’s Scottish), they’re kind of a hybrid.

Are any of your currently unreleased tracks, some from the first album or the Angel theme, likely to resurface?
JEFF: Yes, I am planning to create something next year that will allow people direct access to these tracks. Basically, the idea is that you will be able to go to Velvet’s Chain’s website and create your own CD and in what order. You will be able to choose from any of the tracks from Warm, The Buffy EP, Moody Groove Music, or Velvet Chain Live At The Temple Bar. In addition, unreleased tracks will be available, as well as instrumental versions of several songs. You pick the songs, we make the custom CD and send it to you. This is the kind of thing an indie band can do, and we’re going to do it. I think it’s a really great idea, although it’s going to be a super big pain in the ass.

Would you like to reappear on Buffy (or Angel) and what would you do?
JEFF: We would love to reappear on Buffy or Angel. We would like to do the song ‘Watching You’ from the Moody Groove Music album, but what song we played would not matter that much. It would be a lot of fun and we would get a ton more exposure. It would be a huge thing for the band, so, of course, we’d love to do it. Almost any indie band in the world would love to have an opportunity like that. If we get it, we’ll take it.

ERIKA: Actually, I would love to get on either show as an actor, which I am, by the way and I’d love to be a vamp. Yep, that’d be great. Hint, hint, Joss.

Are you happy in your work?
JEFF: Music work, yes. Non-music work, no. Whenever I’m not working on music I feel like I’m at a red light.

ERIKA: Same here. I hate my day job and no, I am not going to discuss it.