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AN I LENNOX On th1rcase or a bit unhinged?

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The more things change the mon they stay the same, the saying goes, and with DEL AMITRl'S new album, lntrlgu!ngly titled Change Everything, they

haven t changed very much at all. Stlll, it comes highly recommended to all you folks

with problems In the old love-life deparbaae..t. Interview by Craig 'not me, mate' McLean.

LEMENTARY STAGE.CRAFT, lesson one: "Putting the feet on the monitors but the most difficult bit is when yo~ clap your hands over your heads."

Lesson two : "You ha ve you r guitar strap as long as possible, as long as you can cope with . Also, the

importance of sneering." On the stage, such is the modus operandi of

De! Amitri. On the_ page, their biography helpfully weighs in with Thin Lizzy, Neil Young and Free compari sons as furt her justificati ons of the vera ci ty of Del Amitr1's live roc k animal reputanon. Justin Currie and lain Harvie laugh at this artifice and so do I, 'cos for a start we're all mates together here, and for a finish I know they wanted to put Nazareth instead of Free. The Del boys had plumped for the former since, never entirely persuaded by the codes of rock 'n 'rollness, rhcy "thought it was quite funny." They might like big guitar solos, big boots, big waistcoats and big facia l hair, but as Justin had revealed last rime we spoke , "we 'd rath er be th ought of as embarassing and gauche than as rock stars."

Del Amltrl have been cmbarassing and gauche for nearl y ten years now. Very soon, with the release of Change Everything, they will have released three albums in that time. Not very impressive is it? A decade's worth of slog - a milestone or a millstone?

"We've actually been telling everybody we've been going round for ten years for quire a while," says Jusrin. "It's just that it's actually now true."

Was that 10 give the band some sort of historica I perspccti vc-strokc-contcxt I

month to write a song, actua lly to get the 1angly guitar end of things together. By which point Justin would have written reams of lyrics which wo uld then have 10 be crammed over three minutes of jangly guitars. "

Thereafter, in the summer of 1986, in what the guitarist calls "an act of desperation - we had nothing else to do and necessity being rhc mother of invention ... " the band headed for the Unired States for a six-week rour organised by rhcir fans there. The deal with Chrysalis may have fallen through but...

The singer butts in . "Nor so much foll cn through as we, confident little f• • • crs that we were, thought we could get another record deal. So we asked to leave Chrysalis and after a frw months they said yeah. And then no other record company would touch us."

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what you're doing. · Wakin~ Hours smJt)e, werr a u~ m point.

Tr-avclhng 10 Glasgow for thl\ 1nttTY1rw. 1 tnrhc 1am had gridlocked the car ldk-r flx:k1ng .aaos, the ~M 1pcctrum, the rhump,ng mains of Km This Thing Goodbye lud suddenly and unann1ly appeared. Pnsnnc 1r sounded. anthem,c.. a drrvmg driving song. periect over rhc a1rw-avcs and on tbc motorways. Same goc:s for Stone Cold Sober and.. at a push. Move Awa y Ji mm y Blur: rad10-fricndly, car-chummy country-rock rockers al l. But did rhcy chart? D,d th(")' doodly-squar. ft rook a m1scrabilis1 di rge about rain, lonchnrss, and Martians landing in car-parks and nobody giving a ross 10 finally rake Del Am1rn·s second album ro the mas ses. With :-lothing E,·cr Happens something did happen. And wnh Sp11 In The Rain. Clearly. strangely. downbc,11 and sombre ruminauons on rhe fl ighty fl1 rtings of lo,•c arc fru1rful for these boys.

Could this be why Always The LHt To Know, Change Everything's hors d'oeuvre single (and, heck. just about every track on rhc dJmcd th ing) is even mo re mel ancholic th2n 11s predecessors?

"You rhink so ?" asks Justm scrpncJ lly "Well. yeah ... " replies me confidently. "Oh wel l. .. " " Yeah, " cont in ues me . less .: onf1dcnrly,

scrnmbling around in rhe face of this denial oi · from my point of view - the obVlOlh. "There's J low-kcyness to 11, a lot of ir seems to do with, I suppose, crm ... amourous despondency.·

LJtcr on I WIii be q111te chuffed w11h 1hink1ng up rhis phrnsr m rhe face of .tdversiry. At the nmc rhough, Ju st in 111 st 11ocs • J mourous despondency ... ?" in d1sbchcvmg it.1hcs Jnd I fed J right jerk. But I'm right .rnd they know 11. F~ct 1s, Chnngc Everything 1s h1g 11mc sombreness, Almost but not quite, a tOtJ I downrr. At lc,1:1t WJkrng Hour, hc.1r1brc.1k w.1> J1lured hy .1 few , rndcnr bchcrs and n frw 1ron1c ohscrvanon,.

"You're describing the new rc-.:ord, Jnd rcah. that's what it sound~ like," Justin C\Cntuallv concedes, "but we don't J, tually ~ct out 10 Jo anything in pamcul.tr. You 1u<1 get this ..-olk\."tion of songs and record them. You don't sit down and go, Oh rh1s i, .1wfully mdanchohc The) 're

• Ach no, it 's just that for the last four or five years there 's been no point in pretending th at we're a new band. We actually did think about changing our name before we put Waking Hours our bccau1e we thought ir was so different'. But that's like being ashamed of your past, which we're not."

"I've gone through times where I really think that we've got It all under control and we know exactly what we're doing. But obviously H you think that,

you're totally kidding yourseH." Said past is now a thing of myth and legend.

The story of how the foetal Del Amitri rclc:1sccl n single in 1983 on Glasgow's No Strings label (the same label that brought us the first glimpses of Kevin McDermott, pre-Orchestra). And of how our hcroc1, along with Teenage Fanclub, owe Big Star, the label (an indic offshoot of Chrys11li), much l1 kr The Shop Assistants' and The Mighry lemon Drop,' Blue Guitar) that released their cponymou) debut nlhum in 1985. Like they said, rhe pabt was different, different from the clean· burning, slcck•turning rock motions of Wnk1ng Hours and now Change Everything.

Nome the mcn11011 of The Shoppir~ nnJ The umon Or .. p, 111 brackets b.ick there. Spookily tnough, mix rhosc 1wo with a , plndgc of The Bodine, and you've prelt)' mur h l!0t the early Del Am1tri )U~~cd. Gu1t ,1rs a-1a11 14lc, l)•ri.:s .1-packcd whh vtrbmuy .ind anf!SI, 11 rnngle of unkempt 1du1 and h.,l f forn1cd notu1111 of a 111us1,al plot. 511mct1rnt~ 11 w111 knl, ~01ne11111es not.

Rcc~IIN ln111, " II used 111 rnkc ns 11 1 len~1 a

Flnally, two ycnrs Inter, lots of record compnnics would wnnt to 10 11ch them. Del Amitri' s new demos, the songs 1h01 would become Wa king Hours, lnndcd them <1 dea l wi1h A& M, 1hr company probabl y token with whnt the b1n)I describes in cvcry1hing-but-ki1.d1c11-smk h1shi,m ,i. "n hybrid of clnssi, American rock/blucsfruunr ry trappings.• "We just got l1 bit 111tm· cn 1hohc 111 our tastes," ~uys lain. "We were young nnd 1dc.1l1,11.: when we made rhc fi rst rccorJ . Refused IO h, rcn 10 any records rlrn t didn't hnvc 1,1111)ly 11u1111r, ,,n them ... "

In swnpp111g the j<1 11gly h1 i- l,11 <omr ro, k, poppy bits, Drl ,\mun (rvc11 111,1lly) h.i.l ,1 w111nrr in W.1 k1ng Hour, . A pre p!Jnnr d , pr e prognunmcJ swirch 111 dirc.tion? Not .1 h11 ,,t 11. Ju stin rcrurns 10 11 fJ md1 .H 1hcmc: " I've 111111c

thro1111h 1inrcs where I rr.1lly 1h111k tllJI we\ c )\CII

ir ,111 under ,ontrol nnd we know r , ,1111>• wh.11 we' re doi ng. 1\111 ohv1ni1, ly 11 Y" U 1h111l. 1hJt, )'Oll ' rc 1n111lly k1dd111µ y~111r,clf. You 11r1cr k1111w

just the ,ongs 1h11t were rhcrc \'!;' r ' rc ah~ .IH trying to put happ" \ong, ,m Jlln1111,, hur the" never hr. And we do11 't 1ultf tha1 m.1111 hJ('r1 song, .ind W C dn11'1 \\fill' 1h.tt 111,lll\ ur1r111po ~ong,~ . .,

Th,· f1 r~1 rrn, k on ~1Jc two. fhc llnrs l h.11 You Lmc Le.id ' ' •Ju N1l\\hrrr 1\ qu11r upt·cmf"l.

"Well , 11 c " crc att11ally gonna lr.1,c rh~t Ill! the rl.'\.ord. 1hcn wr 1huu1tht , Oh dr.1r, 11 r·J bttter nut , n1h crw1,r it ' ll .;ct .1 hit t1lu t• " 1111<

1111~1·r,1ble." " I 111c,rn, 1hcv'rr ,111 lo,r hlllg,," ju,1111'1

,on11nuing .. 111d 1'111 11omlrnnjt 11 hr II rHr run uu1 lli hro~t n hcJrt~.

"Well 11-. bound tu grt rr<ll\ l,, ,, mJ! • h-, laugh,. " llut I ,u11ld 11c1rr tur,c nn,dt "' 11n1r Jhu,11 •ome1h111jt ~hr. I ha1 ·. 111,1 \\h~1 l J,,. I cu11 '1 re.ill ) thu1i.. Il l ,11111hu1g , l, r •

Jn,1111 •hrni;,. IJ11\ , h,1nlr., l ,1 ml',lth1\t', Ju,\ wr .111 put ,1111 tc-r t 011 thr 11w1111111, I'd \ 111,111 rn11 k 1\ut ,111lr Wt \ h .J

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