IAN ASTBURY - VOCALS / OCCASIONAL GUITAR & TAMBOURINE

PATRICK SUGG - GUITAR/BACKING VOCALS

MATT GARRETT - BASS

SCOTT GARRETT - DRUMS

"I guess I just wanted to go home", explains Ian Astbury, who has recorded the first album with his new band HOLY BARBARIANS in his hometown of Liverpool, England.

"It was a brilliant place, Parr Street Studios, right in the centre of Liverpool near Slater Street and the Jackaranda Club. Loads of dark old Irish pubs and newer places. We were going to new bars, and the club Cream every night it was open. The city is really alive. There was so much going on because we were recording at the same time as the Liverpool music festival and Crash FM had just started with Janice Long and Pete Wylie. There was a tremendous sense of community. People were very sincere in accepting us and that meant a lot. My family are from Birkenhead, so I went to see them and could go and see Everton play every other week. It also meant the band could see where I'm from."

If the other Holy Barbarians, Patrick Sugg on guitar and brothers Scott and Matt Garrett on drums and bass respectively, were truly going to see where Astbury was from they would have a lot of travelling to do. Raised in Liverpool, Glasgow and Hamilton, Canada, Astbury's musical career has taken him from Yorkshire to the West Coast of America via London, Paris, New York and a million one-off nights. Astbury is a nomadic musician, thriving on the vibes and experiences available in different cities. Los Angeles may well have been his base during the most successful years of the Cult, but it has also squeezed him away from his original musical intentions.

Of the Holy Barbarians Ian says,"I had been back in England looking for a new guitarist to work with after the Cult had broken up and I chatted to various people including Bernard Butler and Adrian Oxall from Sharkboy. I was looking for something new, but the people I was meeting were working on other projects, so eventually I came back to LA decided to get on with it with the first person I really liked. I met Patrick at a Wayne Kramer gig at the Dragonfly. He was working with Lucifer Wong, which was a punk band featuring the guys who run the Fuct! clothing label, and we were both passionate about music, so we got on with it.

"We demo'd songs in my garage which is just full of British paraphernalia like old Beatles stuff and pictures of Everton and "Cream" is what we came up with. Patrick contributed a lot. He had his own songs and chord structures that he wanted to use. He is a very melodic guitarist. He's 25 and he's something like a cross between Bernard Butler and Jimmy Page. Then we built up the rest of the band. Scott had been drumming with the Cult and then his brother, Matt, joined in and we shacked up in this really old studio in North Vine for a fortnight. Stevie Wonder and the Jackson Five and Marvin Gaye had all recorded there, it was really dark and dingy, an old post office. Once we had put the songs together properly I started to think where to record the album. I wanted to go home, back to England. London seemed like it would be too much of a distraction, and Black Grape, Oasis and the Roses were all working at Monmouth and I didn't want to be seen as trying to hitch onto something there. Then I thought why not record in Liverpool and see my family and Everton at the same time."

As in the past Astbury hasn't been afraid to change both his location and his personnel, but the split from longtime Cult partner Billy Duffy finds Ian's distinctive vocals given a new backing. The Holy Barbarians has the raw feel of a new band working together. There's a naivetéto the work that Astbury believes had long since been lost by the Cult.

"Obviously I really love and care about Billy, but for too long I went along without fighting for my musical voice to be heard, and eventually I had to get out. I don't care what happens commercially with Holy Barbarians - if it doesn't sell big I can live with that because I've had five years of that being the main concern. Now it's back to the music and I am doing something I believe in. The Cult hadn't recorded in England since I986 for the "Electric Album". That got trashed before we re-did it with Rick Rubin. And recording in Liverpool really got me excited again. The Cult had become too one dimensional. When we started we had been naive, idealistic and provocative, we were going against the grain by using guitars, we were making psychedelic music when other people were jangling around in pullovers being fey. We came to America and became taken in by it. We were doing so well we were playing six or seven month tours and that was too long. We were coming back exhausted and wanting to get fucked up all the time. A lot of it became a blur. I had family problems, my father was ill and my relationship wasn't right and all that just obscured what we were originally about."

In 1990 as an aside from the demands of the Cult's success, Astbury set up the groundbreaking Gathering Of The Tribes event, bringing together musicians of different styles, rap, rock, dance, a forerunner to the Lollapalooza tour. This inspired Ian, but by now the Cult had created a profile and it was difficult, and perhaps commercially suspect, to step out of it.

"It was tough to leave that kind of lifestyle and music, that pressure to continue what we had with the success of "Sonic Temple". But I wanted more. I had recorded "The Witch" with Rick Rubin, which was more rhythm based rather than lead guitar led and that's the way I saw the Cult going, whereas Billy had locked into rock. We were still selling out shows and receiving good reviews and were rebuilding bridges we had sometimes burnt. And I could see just see it becoming what it was before, so I decided to get the fuck out. I wanted my music to be organic, real. In 1982 I wrote a song called "Spiritwalker" and Southern Death Cult didn't want to record it so I broke the band up. That song literally set the template for "She Sells Sanctuary" and much of the Cult's success. And now I'm breaking away again."

Astbury's driving force has so often been his passion for music. There's a surge of electricity once again running through his conversation, his songwriting and live shows. He talks passionately about today rather than dwelling on the past.

"People go on about Blur and Oasis being the Stones and the Beatles, but they should let the past go. Those bands are good enough in their own right. They shouldn't be tagged with the past. Our song, "Magick Christian" is about putting all that behind us. People are still harping on about the Sixties, about Bobby Moore lifting the World Cup, about the music, the freedom. The Arts were in harmony in the Sixties, but they are today as well. Trainspotting is a good example, Pulp are too, as are the Chemical Brothers. We should be revelling in our own time. Let's stop comparing and going back. With the Holy Barbarians we're going forward."

James Brown, March '96.

- Brothers Fights

- Dolly Bird

- Cream

- Blind

- Opium

- Space Junkie

- She

- You Are There

- Magick Christian

- Bodhisattva

-- Nick Duerden, "Q" Magazine

Vocalist Ian Astbury wanted to break away from the straight-ahead rock of The Cult and he has done it with this LP. Craem harks back to the sheer abandon of his former band in their first flowering. Astbury has a most distinctive voice but he has now dropped the melodrama and the tendency to scream "Baby, baby, baby" at regular intervals With a touch of Oasis, Cream is a record of psychedelic pop with a loose dance feel and nods to Led Zeppelin and Primal Scream. Refreshing.

-- Richard Fairclough, 29 May 1996

Transcribed from an Interview by Steve Baker / Teeside Express / October 1996

What effected the decision to take the Cult to America full time?

Ultimately the majority of guitar based rock 'n' roll music during the mid to late '80's in the UK was always considered to be extremely crass, until The Smiths and The Stone Roses came along. The Cult had world wide recognition and had a strong following in N.America, Australia, Far East, Europe and UK, - we were a truly international band. The perception has always been that we split England for the glam of LA. In reality, we were touring and recording around the world, doing tours that lasted a year and LP sessions that went on for 3 to 4 months. Los Angeles was just a good, central watering hole. I always had a UK residence, and always will.

How big did it get over there ?

Our first US tour was 1984, mostly clubs - pre Love album. We were touring in a van with a junkie tour manager, staying in crap motels, no money etc... By 1989 we had headlined the Toronto Skydome to over 30,000 people and sold millions of records. Commercially and artistically we were well received overall. In the UK we were selling several hundred thousand LP's and doing multiple sell-out shows at Wembley arena.

What were the deciding factors that split the Cult?

For me, I think I was bored with the routine and the ludicrous restrictions put on our creativity by media, peer pressure, pressure to maintain commercial success. I felt complacent. Although the last Cult LP from '94 is my personal favorite since Love in '85.

Looking back, what are the specific occasions / gigs that stick in your mind from the days of the Cult?

I know I must have played close to 1000 shows in my life, including the Southern Death Cult, which I started at the age of 19. I've been arrested,had broken bones, fainted, been electrocuted, beaten, spat on, shot at, stabbed, laughed, cried - the whole spectrum. Perhaps Atlanta, Georgia in February 1990, because my father died before the show and the band members decided not to tell me because they thought I wouldn't perform.

What's it like, effectively starting a new band?

The Holy Barbarians is a looser set-up. I'm incorporating influences that didn't fit into the Cult; techno, trip hop, Plastic Ono Band, glam, Leonard Cohen. We are in our infancy so we shall see what prevails.

Do you see the Holy Barbarians picking up where the Cult left off, or developing in a very different direction?

As a friend of mine once remarked, "never be a pioneer, you will always end up with arrows in your back!". I believe we are doing some unfamiliar things, perhaps, but certainly with the traditional roots. Songs are written with guitars and the band jams. Although we are experimenting with loops and samples.

What has the response been so far for the Barbarians?

Reviews have either been very supportive or reluctantly complimentary. Live shows have surpassed my dreams. I know we have an excellent, perhaps one of the best live shows in the world right now.

You've lived in LA for a while, is it really as 'Rock 'n' Roll' as it's perceived?

My domestic base has always been in the UK with extended periods of time in California. 'Rock 'n' Roll' is a tired old cliche. I see more decadent behaviour in London. Your average Hollywood citizen is not that far removed from anywhere else. It's just another big city with a village of celebs, just like New York or London.

What was it like returning to Liverpool after the glitz of LA, and what did you miss about Liverpool?

I was born outside of Liverpool, in Cheshire, spent the longest period of my life in Merseyside. So going home was a lot of fun. Liverpool has always been a glitzy place anyway. We've had our fair share of celebs and have made our mark on pop culture for quite a while. For me the main difference between the UK and LA is the climate and racial segregation. UK is certainly more cross cultured... and the US telly is poo!

How did you enjoy the Phoenix festival and is it true you were using a tent full of beer to entice members of the press to interview you?

The Phoenix Fest was a blast. I took the train from London and walked 8 miles to the site. I camped out, saw my friends, played football, got sunburned, raved and saw some great bands. I did not see any violence, negative scenes, not even any couples fighting. The weather was supreme... I spent most of the time in the 'Loaded' tent, that's where all the degenerates and journos alike hung out. My tent was a bit of a wreck inside. I was rarely in it, as I only slept 3 or 4 hours a night. There was too much to do.

You've got to hand it to Ian Astbury, rising as he is from the ashes of one of the world's largest rock bands, The Cult, and returning to the sweaty phlegm-drenched clubs from where he began. The Holy Barbarians admittedly sounded like the Electric era Cult, with plenty of bluesy hard rock and a nineties sonic edge. Yet to dismiss them as a poor imitation would be doing them a vast injustice. The single, Space Junkie, came across like the Kinks meeting Zeppelin head on - all fuzzy guitars and repetitive grooves, while Dolly Bird and Cream took the anthemic route.

The crowd were treated to the delightfully familiar trip-hop rock of The Witch, an old Cult classic, before a rather barrel chested, Gallagher fringed Astbury returned to the stage for the encores. A manic rendition of Helter Skelter was followed by Wild Flower, which induced fever pitch amongst the crowd.

As they went from the stage, The Holy Barbarians left the audience in raptures. On this night they paid a respectful tribute to the frontman's formative years, whilst presenting a set of new material which showed there's life in the old dog yet.

- John Honour

Another Holy Barbarians site