*****

Steve Maloney - Apart from it being a hat-nod to the great Bard Of Northampton, Alan Moore - it being "borrowed" from his V For Vendetta - we liked it because it seemed to sum up the confrontational aesthetic that all the people we like share. If pop music is modern cabaret, vaudeville for the masses, then what we do is vicious cabaret - snide, spiteful, and malicious.

We like art that challenges people's preconceptions, that gets in their faces, as opposed to bland "entertainment", which is designed to pacify the slaves. As Kafka said: "I believe that we should only read those books that bite and sting us."

How would you describe that Vicious Cabaret sound (he asked, blatantly ignoring the press release instructions)?

Steve - Well, if you're going to ignore the press release I'm going to ignore the fact that I know you've read it, and repeat what it says!

Some of it's quite abrasive, some of it's a little smoother - we try to present as wide a range of musical textures as possible!

The corporate mentality is to say "this is what this band does, this is their sound", and tell them to go away and write another ten songs that sound like the one the company has decided is going to be their "hit". It's a bit like being typecast as an actor - sure, you can make a career out of it, but it's pretty fucking dull playing the same role for forty years.

The "rock noir" thing came about because, despite what we may have said in the past about not wanting to deny people the pleasure of sticking a label on us, we figured if anybody was going to do it, it should be us!

Clearly, we are a rock band; this is guitar music, and whether or not that's still hip by the time people read this isn't really of any concern to us. It's what we like. But we wanted a term that set us apart from some kitsch party band like The Darkness, and "rock noir" seemed to encapsulate the general vibe of what we do. Whatever the musical backdrop, the tone lyrically is usually cynical, sarcastic, with a generous dollop of black humour.

Who did each group member pretend to be when posing about in front of the mirror with a tennis racket as a youth?

Steve - Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols. I particularly enjoyed "pretending" to get sucked off behind my amp.

Pete Devine – Naturally, it would be "air drums" as far as I'm concerned. In which case there can be only one: ANIMAL.

Phil Laycock – I never really pretended to be anybody else - I was always happy being myself. However, I did used to play guitar in front of the mirror, because I’m vain!

Vicious Cabaret formed a brief 12 months ago "via the miracle of the Internet". How else has the world wide web changed the way a modern rock n roll band operates?

Steve - I'm not sure how it's changed the way bands on major labels operate, but I think it's been an enormous help to underground bands.

Anything you might possibly want people to know about you can be uploaded onto a website, accessible to anyone, whereas before you had to rely on other people writing stuff about you. You can keep in regular contact with people via online newsletters for next to nothing, whereas before you'd have had to spend time and money printing up newsletters, stuffing them into envelopes, etc. We've been able to reach people via the Internet who probably would never have heard of us otherwise; and similarly, we've all discovered great bands who have never appeared in print.

As regards distributing recordings, the Internet has got a way to go before it completely undermines the conventional music business. But all good things come to those who wait.

What publications do Vicious Cabaret employ to "keep up" with developments on "the street"?

Steve - Well, apart from your good selves, there are various web 'zines we read - organart.demon.co.uk and fivemileshigh.com are good for new bands, and buddyhead.com has a healthy sense of irreverence, to name a few.

As far as print magazines go, personally speaking there aren't any I read religiously - RockSound is one of the better mainstream magazines, but that's not saying much. The Wire's good for more avant-garde stuff, but it costs a lot so I always read it in the shop.

To be honest with you, I don't read that many music-orientated 'zines any more, because frankly most of them just ape the style and tastes of the mainstream. Rather than trying to establish a true alternative scene, the people writing for them seem like they're just waiting for that call from NME or Kerrang! The same as independent labels - whereas the original idea was to circumvent the mainstream, now the indie sector seems like little more than a test bed for the majors.

Plus, there is more important shit going on in the world. I spend more time reading stuff like disinfo.com, anxietyculture.com, and voxfux.com. They might not say an awful lot about music, but then most music doesn't say much about the world right now. Right-wing lunatics trying to take my rights away are of slightly more concern to me than some showbiz ligger's Top Ten Records Of The Year.

Your press release hints at a dark sense of self depreciating humour running through the middle of Vicious Cabaret. What/who makes you laugh - & why?

Steve - As you might guess, I like satire - well-aimed, venomous barbs of pure spite! Jello Biafra's lyrics I've always found hilarious. And I still think one of the funniest writers I've ever read is Hunter S. Thompson - no one captures the "bad craziness" of our epoch with more malignant humour.

As to why - well, a lot of the time, if you didn't laugh you'd fucking cry, right?

Phil – Bill Hicks – way ahead of his time.

Pete - Things that you’re not really supposed to laugh at. Black humour. I like to see how far I can push people before they say "You're not allowed to say that!" That's like dangling the carrot before the horse.

As the guitar group frenzy of the "Great Garage Scare of 2001 (copyright Mike Stax @ Ugly Things)" begins to subside, how do Vicious Cabaret interpret the contemporary rock n roll landscape & their own chances of success?

Steve - Well, if you haven't been invited to the party it doesn't really matter whether they're jiving to rock, techno, or Bavarian Oompah bands. But the question is, would you even want to go? The reality of the music business is so repellent, its sensibilities so at odds with the values that made you want to be in a band in the first place, it's hard not to question your sanity for even wanting to be a part of it.

The reason we all continue to do it is because, if you can ignore all the shit about market trends and units and demographics, there's still something innately inspiring and uplifting in creating and listening to music. It's the middle men - all these fucking parasites who make their living off the surplus value generated by the simple act of a bunch of people making music and another bunch of people listening to it - that have made it such an unpleasant, skin-crawling experience. Unfortunately, unlike in Douglas Adams' imagination, these worthless turds have yet to be blasted off into space.

As far as success goes, it might sound like some kind of dubious new age platitude, but success is just enjoying what you do. And I get inordinate pleasure out of telling people how fucked they are, whether they want to hear it or not! I guess I'm just not a very nice person.

You appear to have a healthy disgust for all things DJ. Do you apportion any blame to 'deck-sterility' for the piss poor state of the UK rock n roll scene?

Steve - I don't deny there is a skill involved in DJing, but it does seem absurd that you get these 'superstar DJs' making more in one night than the people whose records they play probably make in a year.

I'm not down on dance music either, per se - fifteen years ago the rave scene was the just about the most rebellious thing going on. But its claims to subversion are long past their sell-by-date. Now, with the return to dominance of the Great British Town Centre Meat Market, the utopian new psychedelia of the Ecstasy evangelists is but a fading memory; and the drug itself is starting to look more and more like Soma.

And before all those dewy-eyed Hacienda casualties chirp in - yeah, I know rock music isn't really offering much in the way of subversion at the moment, either. Everyone is too worried about getting blackballed by Clear Channel, or whoever. But in both cases, it's the content, not the style, which is at fault.

Your excellent debut recording are available via - www.viciouscabaret.com - are there any plans afoot for a traditional debut 45?

Steve - Yeah. Regardless of who actually makes it, or how it's distributed, it's still nice to have a physical thing with your music on, rather than a bit-stream.

We've been talking to a few labels, but we're keeping our options open for the time being. We may just release it on our own imprint, unless someone bribes us with hard drugs and promises they know they can't keep. We are all prostitutes, and we all have our price…


What are Vicious Cabaret planning next in their quest for world recognition?

Steve - Maybe a high profile political assassination. Even fucking Max Clifford couldn't beat that in terms of press coverage. We'd never get to enjoy the money our records would make from that kind of notoriety, of course. But by the time all the middle-men have taken their slice, how would that be any different from being on a major label?

*****

Steve Maloney spoke to Little Linda at The Mayfair Mall at the end of August 2003...


Introduce the band members to us and explain what each members role is.

Well, there's myself on guitar, Phil Laycock on guitar, Jason Armstrong on bass guitar, and Pete Devine on drums. I sing lead, and everyone else contributes backing vocals, to some extent.

When was the band first formed and how did you all meet?

We all got together during the spring of this year, over a period of about three months. I hooked up with Pete via an online bulletin board. Then we auditioned a bunch of bass players and guitarists until we found Jason and Phil. I think the line-up was completed in May, so it's still early days.

The band's name 'Vicious Cabaret' sounds quite aggressive. Where did it come from and what does it represent?

The name comes from a comic book called V For Vendetta, by Alan Moore. It's the title of a song the main character sings, which extends the metaphor "all the world's a stage" - i.e. life is a vicious cabaret.

The name brings to mind a lot of things for me. On its most basic level, I've always thought that rock music is the modern equivalent of cabaret, vaudeville, etc. It's popular entertainment for the masses. But it also brings to mind the confrontational aesthetic of Artaud's 'Theatre Of Cruelty' and Dada's Cabaret Voltaire, among others, which is an influence - the idea that performers should do more than just entertain, that they should provoke people and force them to question their values.

And 'vicious' is one of those words that has several different meanings, depending on the context - it can mean spiteful, but it can also mean immoral, or defective, and I like that ambiguity.

Who writes the songs that you perform? Is it a solo or a joint effort?

I had a bunch of songs written that we used to get the ball rolling, so to speak, but now we're starting to write as a band. I still provide most of the lyrics, though.

How would you describe your style of music and who do you think it would most appeal to?

We like dynamics - some of the music is quite abrasive, some of it is more subtle. It's guitar driven music, of course, but beyond that I wouldn't want to label us at this early stage. As to the lyrics, they're cynical with a black sense of humour - just like me, really!

As regards who it might appeal to, well... it's been my experience that different people can get very different things from the same band. People will home in on different aspects of what you do, and it can often surprise you how they interpret your work.

What bands/artists have influenced you the most over the years?

A personal favourite of mine is Iggy Pop - I've always been impressed at the way he can go from making some profound observation about the human condition, to singing about his dick, often in the same song! Likewise, I always loved the way Richard Hell was able to weld interesting intellectual ideas to concise, driving, rock & roll.

Some music you love because it engages you on an emotional or intellectual level, other music you love because it makes you want to get loaded and shake your thang - the best is music that can do both at once.

Are you signed/unsigned at the moment?

We're not working with a label at present. We've all had dealings with "the industry" in previous bands, so we're going to be quite selective about whom we work with.

What musical experience do the new guys have? Are you all pretty much the same age?

Yeah, give or take a few years. As I say, we've all played in bands before - I was in Johnny Zhivago, as you know; Phil's last band was The Poison Hearts; Jason has recorded and toured with several bands, most recently The Sneetches; and Pete was playing the circuit in London with a band called Silver Top up until last year.

Given that not everyone wants to be discovered through Pop Idols, do you think there is enough support for fresh new talent out there?

I don't think there's any encouragement for anyone to do anything that breaks the mould, and that's not just in music. The whole system is set up, from the time you are sent to school at five, to create obedient drones who accept their place in the corporate hierarchy. This isn't just some paranoid conspiracy theory, either - if you read the stuff the people who devised public schooling wrote, you soon discover their motives weren't at all altruistic.

Which ONE band do you dream of touring/performing with?

I don't really think in those terms. It's kind of like being asked whom you'd most like to meet - there are people you admire you think it might be cool to have a drink with, but they probably wouldn't meet your expectations.

At the end of the day, you infer qualities you admire in others, qualities you like to think you have or would wish to have, and it's hard for someone to live up to that. Likewise, the reality of touring with some band you grew up on probably wouldn't be as glamorous as it reads, and you'd just end up disappointed. Better to hang on to the fantasy.

Does rock have an age tag to it? Are you ever too old or too young to rock?

There's a quote on the back of a Clash record, I forget from whom, that says something like "a clash between the generations is not as significant as a clash between rulers and the ruled". I think this whole focus on age is divisive, it's another way the hegemony has of keeping people in line. What it's really saying is "sure, you can let your hair down when you go to college, dye your hair if you like, get a few piercings, mess around with soft drugs for a few years, then it's time to get back in line and get on with the serious business of making other people rich".

As regards musicians, there are many older people doing credible work and lots of younger people making dross, and vice versa, so I don't think age is the criteria by which artists should be judged.

If you could ask one of your heroes/someone who's inspired you a question, who would it be and what would you ask them?

It'd be Henry Miller, and in light of his present circumstances I guess I'd ask him what it's like on the other side.

With all the changes that music has gone through over the years, what do you think of the current music scene?

I think it's the same as it ever was - there's a lot of dross, but if you take the time to seek out interesting stuff it can still be found. It's very easy to slip into false nostalgia - oh, music was so much better years ago - but that's only because there is so much old music to mine that of course it seems like there was all this great stuff around compared to say, the dozen or so bands that the media are fawning over at any one time.

What I would say, however, is that the music business seems to be a lot more conservative than at any time in the past. I think years ago a lot more mavericks were able to slip through the door, because the labels didn't really understand it. You had a situation in the sixties where Elektra Records hired Danny Fields as a kind of "office hipster", just to sit around getting high all day telling the business heads what was "groovy" and what wasn't, because they really didn't have a clue! And that's how great bands like the MC5 and The Stooges got picked up.

Now, as with everything else, there are armies of marketing "experts" on hand, and everything is put through the consultancy wringer before it gets exposed to the general public, reducing everything to the lowest common denominator.

What's the 'grand plan' for your band? Are you aiming for anything like fame, fortune, artistic acceptance etc?

Well, we wouldn't turn down a large sum of money if it was offered to us - it just depends on what we had to do to get it! It's not a very fashionable position anymore, but I value integrity more than wealth or fame. It's amusing the reaction you get from a lot of people when you say that, though - that sort of idealism is seen as terribly corny and immature, whereas the pursuit of little pieces of paper of arbitrary value is seen as completely normal and unquestionably noble.

But then, we live in a culture where people will intentionally humiliate themselves on daytime talk shows just for the dubious honour of appearing on TV, and you get worthless individuals like that smug prick on Pop Idol justifying his existence by virtue of the fact he's made a fortune cluttering up the planet with equally worthless records. I guess it'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

How do you feel about the internet and the effect it is having on bands and independent music?

Well, I'm an information junkie so I love the Internet. And certainly, as a musician who's never had the benefit of some huge publicity machine working on my behalf, it has enabled me and the bands I've been in to reach people who otherwise might not have heard of us. Likewise, I've found a lot of interesting stuff online that the mainstream media largely ignores.

Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to all our readers out there?

Heh - I guess I'm supposed to try and sum up my whole raison d'etre in one catchy little sound bite here, right? That's what the marketing "experts" would try and have you do, isn't it? In that case, all I'll say is I don't trust anyone who's shallow enough they can sum themselves up in one sentence. And neither should you.