T.Rextasy

After a high-octane performance at the well-attended Glasgow Pavilion, Music-News’ Claudia A. hooked up with charismatic T.Rextasy frontman Danielz and his band for an interview in the Pavilion’s ‘Green Room’.

Music-News:
This evening you dedicated the Ben E. King song ‘Stand By Me’ to the Paris terror victims - was did the decision come about?

Danielz:
All of yesterday the news items, the papers, things I was hearing you know… I was getting texts from folks saying “Oh my god, did you hear what’s happened?” and then more and more people were dying or rushed to hospital. It was so atrocious what’s happened that at yesterday’s gig at Glenrothes… it was then that we decided, as a band, to play ‘Stand By Me’. The song is actually in the set for the whole duration of the tour, so it’s not just a song that we’ve rehearsed and done for that purpose, you know. In fact we first rehearsed and played it when Ben E. King died back in April. And with yesterday’s gig and the Paris events, it was the only kind of song – lyrically – that touched people. There aren’t many Marc Bolan songs that touch people’s hearts lyrically if you know what I mean. But ‘Stand By Me’ is one of those songs which Marc recorded, so it gave us a license to play it live and it just seemed nice. And yesterday I just got a little bit upset and the events touched me personally, so that was when we played it last night. Seeing how this is the last run of the gigs before we go home I thought we should perform it again today, and we dedicated it to the people of Paris as well.

M-N:
With those terrible events in Paris, other bands like ‘Foo Fighters’ and ‘U2’ have already pulled out and cancelled their gigs. Do you think the on-going terror threat will have a long-term effect in Europe with regards to live gigs?

Danielz:
Oh yes, in fact I was talking about this earlier on. Major capital cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester… major cities in general, I think it could possibly effect numbers. Who wants to be a target? And it could happen, you know. No one can say “It’s not gonna happen”. I mean, no one would have thought that in the Bataclan Theatre something like that would happen… and at a rock gig! So well, hopefully it will not come to this country but you can’t say ‘never’.

M-N:
The year is almost over… what’ planned for T.Rextasy in 2016?

Danielz:
Next year is 40 years of the release of ‘I Love To Boogie’… though the strange thing is that our last two tours have been called ‘I love to Boogie’… Because time goes by so quickly and it was only when our agent said “Is there anything we can hang on to next year’s tour?” and I said “Well, maybe we can go on one more year and call it ‘Forty years of I Love To Boogie”. So next year’s tour is actually called ‘The 40th Anniversary of I Love To Boogie Tour’! That song has become so popular, more popular than ‘20th Century Boy’ or ‘Jeepster’ or even ‘Ride A White Swan’. Everyone know ‘I Love To Boogie’ now, whether it’s from the movie ‘Billie Elliott’ or the single, it’s a strange thing because it’s not necessarily one of Marc’s greatest songs but the tune is nice, it does boogie along nice and the fact that it was only a demo (it was never a finished recording) makes it even more special. People simply love it.

M-N:
Are you planning on releasing any new material in the New Year?

Danielz:
Well, the last release is not that old really, and we rather take our time than releasing stuff for the sake of it. I mean, what’s the importance, where’s the excitement? We treat T.Rextasy almost like a band in our own right, which is a tribute to the spirit of Marc Bolan. So you know, to that extend we release a CD like a regular band, that is once a year or once every two years. That’s the way I wanna do it, you know. I don’t wanna do a hundred CDs of the last gig and then get them to sell quick and without a sleeve, without liner notes, without photos. I think that’s cheap and I don’t think that’s what we’re about. If we do an album then it’ll be the studio, it will be recorded properly and we’ll be on a proper label. It will have everything from liner notes to photos and booklets. I think that’s the only way you get respect rather than just issuing a cheap CD from a live gig.

M-N:
Are you/the band never grow tired of playing pretty much the same repertoire?

Danielz:
No, never! Every time I go on stage it feels like the first time. You know, I’m always nervous before I go on stage, I just want to go on and play. Usually they give you a five or ten minute call before the band goes on stage, and if it’s longer than five minutes then I get really kinda irritable and agitated, like “Come on, come on… what’s the hold up…” I just want to go on stage and do it! But once I’m on then it really does feel like the first time and I really enjoy playing!

M-N:
Where do you see T.Rextasy in six or seven years, say?

Danielz:
(Laughs) Oh god, well… with T.Rextasy it’s kind of from year to year, mainly because the agency/our booker – and in that respect we’re very fortunate – books our gigs almost a year in advance whereas it used to be only three or four months in advance. For example, next year we have already so many gigs booked that the PR agency have actually started to take bookings for 2017!

M-N:
Do you have any plans/ambitions yet for a life AFTER T.Rextasy?

Danielz:
When I had my auto-bio ‘The Spirit of Marc Bolan’ published a few years ago, the publisher has been on to me for the last two years at least wanting me to do another book about Marc Bolan. And over the past two years I simply haven’t had the time… you need to spend some time to do what you wanna do and get the book sorted out, you know. So maybe, after T.Rextasy… that would give me the time that’s needed to do another book on Marc. The thing with T.Rextasy is that it takes up a 100% of my time; I never have time to do anything else. When we’re gigging, I have about five interviews to do for radios, and if I’m not doing that then I I’m getting things ready for the next gig. So there are always things to do with the band, although next year we really want a holiday and so we get about three weeks off in one chunk. That’s the only three weeks in a chunk were we can say “Right, no gigs to play in that time and that’s it!” So come summer next year, we gonna take a break! It’s nice to sometimes just go away and re-charge. I mean, we don’t even have a proper Christmas break as we’re playing New Years eve now, and then we’re starting again on Jan 8th! But you know, I wouldn’t do it if I wouldn’t like it, for I love playing Marc Bolan’s music – it’s my passion!

M-N:
How does Danielz like to relax when he is at home?

Danielz:
I like reading. I also like listen to music but I go through phases, you know. For example I listen to four hours of Be-Bop Deluxe, though last night I listened to Deep Purple. At home I do read a lot though and I love reading biographies. One of my favourite writers is called Bill Bryson who writes basically travel books. So my geography has improved enormously because I know all these little places around the UK which otherwise I would never have heard of. I read the last Ozzy Osbourne biography and also the last Johnny Rotten bio, which is superb. I read the Bob Dylan Chronicles twice as it’s a bit intellectual for me. The way Dylan writes is that his sentences are line after line with no punctuation, so you really got to concentrate on the writing. Also 100% recommended comes Morrissey’s auto-bio titled ‘Autobiography’, which is typical Morrissey. It really is absolutely brilliant! I tend to read biographies every few weeks as I read to tend quite quickly. Art-wise it would be books by Oscar Wilde, or about Salvadore Dali whose work I love.

M-N:
Danielz, in your opinion… should Scotland gain independence from England?

Danielz:
If I were Scottish, I would wanna go on my own and run by a Scottish government, especially seeing how the English government is run! I think they treat the Scottish Parliament really badly. They’re not taking any action from the Scottish Parliament and I think that’s wrong. They’re either with us or they’re not, I don’t think you can afford to pick and choose what they’re allowed to be. So yes, if it was me and I were Scottish then I would vote for being… Scottish!

Interview with T.Rextasy (Neil Cross / Rob Butterfield / John Skelton):

M-N:
John, how do you keep fit apart from drumming, do you still do your horse riding?

John Skelton:
I don’t really keep that fit, unfortunately. I don’t really do horse-riding anymore… I’m into motorbikes now. Of course, riding motorbikes doesn’t keep me fit at all, does it? Horses would have been better, I suppose.

M-N:
Apart from Neil you are one of the longest standing members of T.Rextasy. Is there any friction sometimes, seeing how you guys are touring so much?

JS:
No, no. We are all quiet as you know (twinkles) and we all have our separate dressing rooms, so no one treads on anyone’s toes. It’s been going on like this for donkeys years and there’s never been a problem. Well, if we GET four dressing rooms, then yeah we all have our own space and that helps. Even if we are in the van for seven hours or so, and tomorrow is going to be a long one for nine hours, we usually keep to ourselves and listen to our music.

M-N:
What was your favourite moment this evening during the gig?

JS:
I think the real moving part was the ‘Stand By Me’ dedication, and that was last night as well. In fact, last night they had the red/white/blue lights on the stage and stuff, so that was quite moving. But really it’s the whole gig that’s a buzz here. As soon as we walk on they’re all ready to go you know, we don’t have to warm them up. Glasgow is always out for probably one their best gig of the year, no doubt!

M-N:
Rob, you’re the new kid on the block…

Rob Butterfield:
Yes I am, and it’s my first weekend with the band!

M-N:
How did your new ‘employment’ come about, and what’s your experience so far?

RB:
It’s been just the most amazing weekend, it really has! They told me yesterday that this (the Pavilion) would be a quiet gig and that we’d get about a two-hundred people in… and then they did confess earlier on this evening that it’s about eight-hundred! So I’m glad they told me! They just like to wind people up…

M-N:
So you’re here to stay then?

RB:
I hope so! I hope to come back next weekend!

M-N:
I take it you are a huge Marc Bolan fan… what was the first T.Rex album that you bought and why?

RB:
Well, the first album that my brother bought was ‘Electric Warrior’ and that’s what got me into it. Between us, we bought everything that Marc ever released! I used to run a venue, Esquires in Bedford. When I took over the venue the first band that I booked was T.Rextasy, because I’ve seen them play before and I was impressed!

M-N:
And now you’ve ended up playing with them…

RB:
Yeah. I just kept in touch with Danielz I guess, and with Neil. Once a year we’d talk and we got a common interest with Steve Emberton the photographer. He used to live in Bedford and is a friend of mine. Anyway, I got an email from Danielz saying that they were looking for a new bass player and whether I’d be interested, and I was like, “Yeah!”. So after five weeks of meetings, phone calls and attending gigs and strange auditions ‘round John’s house I got a phone call saying, “You’re in!”. Of course I was over the moon, absolutely over the moon!

M-N:
Neil, what do you have to say for yourself this evening?

Neil Cross:
Is that a question or an idea? Well let’s see… right now I’m really hungry!

M-N:
You gave it your all on stage and now you’re really hungry, right?

NC:
Yeah, and that’s a quote, haha!

M-N:
So what was your favourite moment during the gig tonight?

NC:
Er, well… to start the gig, go off and get it running. The whole process is great.

M-N:
Many thanks for the interview, Danielz, and many thanks also to you John, Rob and Neil. It was great catching up with you guys, and all the best for 2016!

(Please read my ‘T.Rextasy at Glasgow Pavilion’ gig review in our LIVE GIGS section)