Contd.
FRM: What has been the musical highlight for you up to now?
RR: My musical highlight without any doubt, would be
working with John Leckie. He knew how to get the best out of you. Some of the simplest things he suggested made such a big difference
and you knew he was 100% committed to the songs he was working on. When you think who he has worked with since - The Stone Roses and
his most critically acclaimed work with Radiohead, OK Computer - but also as a person, he was great. After Beggars Banquet let us
go, we kept in touch. We were doing a single with Rough Trade Distribution and he found out we were in London to listen to an acetate
of our next single and to bring it back to get pressed. He came and assisted with the final levels and it turned out one of the production
guys had worked with him at Abbey Road when they were first starting out in the business. They had not seen each other for years
so when we had finished we all went out and celebrated. Some of the stories we heard that day were amazing and the last postcard I
received from John was hand painted by Bill Nelson.
FRM: Moving on to the hardware side of things, what's your favourite piece of equipment?
RR: My favourite piece of gear would
be my old Gretsch. Its a 1963 Chet Atkins Tennessian with a Bigsby. Looks great, bought it in the mid-eighties. Went out one day to
buy some kitchen units and came back with the guitar! The girlfriend was not impressed!
FRM: This is one of our standard
questions - what has been your most enjoyable gig to date?
RR: My most enjoyable gig to date? That's easy - I was in Negatives
In Colour and we played the Scunthorpe Baths with John Peel. It was a full house, people that we knew - and spending time with John
Peel was extra special!
FRM: If there was an "undo" button for bad gigs, which one would you use it on?
RR: We played
a place in Bristol with LKMD. It had had a strange vibe throughout the night but when we went outside to the van we thought we were
in a scene from Mad Max. There were fires and sirens all over the place. We were in the St Pauls area in the middle of the riots!
FRM:
Barfly are keeping you busy at the moment but do you have any more musical projects in the pipeline?
RR: At present I am just
enjoying doing what I am doing, just playing guitar for fun. But if the past is anything to go by, one thing always leads to another!
FRM:
Many thanks for chatting with us Roland and we wish you the best of luck with the current band.
RR: Thanks for asking me.
FRM: Some of your music has done well in Japan of all places - tell us a little about that.
RR: We were unaware that our single,
"Ultimate Solution" had been released in Japan until we started getting fan mail and Japanese magazine reviews. It was also put on
a compilation album in Malaysia that had cult status and was played on Manilla radio a lot. We found that out through the PRS.
