SOUNDS
15th September 1984
By Jane Simon
Photos Gavin Watson

SCREAMING BLUE MURDER!

In six days, The Screaming Blue Messiahs recorded 12 tracks. On the seventh day, in keeping with union regulations, they rested. And on the eighth day, or perhaps it was the ninth, they sold six of those tracks to Big Beat who released them as the mini LP 'Good And Gone'.

Some albums grow on you. 'Good And Gone' is more like a squadron of kamikaze pilots crashing through the french windows while you're watching Brookside. Suddenly everything changes.

Meanwhile, back in another version of reality, two of the three Messiahs, Bill Carter and kenny Harris are downing pints like there's no tomorrow. And just what, I enquire, are they screaming about?

"You're screaming for survival – that's what you're doing. People don't realise the score, y'know? You ain't got much time, and it's not a joke."

'Good And Gone' turns at 45rpm. Bill Carter's mouth runs laps with Carl Lewis every morning. "When you write this up, just print the answers," he instructs.

"This band is about Sex, Violence and Personal Freedom," pronounces Bill. "It's about the right to be individual – and it's about that with a vengeance."

"We're going to give current music the biggest kick up the ass it's had for years," vows Kenny.

It was Kenny's drumming that apparently attracted producer Vic Maile to the band, but this has led to a few odd conclusions being reached – like comparisons with Dr Feelgood – when The Messiahs have never played a 12-bar blues in their life.

"We're not an R 'n' B band," declares Kenny. "We got tied in with that because Vic was well known for producing the Feelgoods, but Jesus, he produced Motorhead as well – did'na say we sound like Motorhead, thank God!"

"It's a pity people have to look backwards instead of forwards," says Bill.

When you do look back, you discover that Bill and bassist Chris Thompson last played with Motor Boys Motor while kenny drummed for True life Confessions – but we're meant to be looking forwards here. So we'll turn instead to the story behind their name.

"It's hard to believe, really," Bill tells me. "Our manager, John, used to live in this house in new Cross – and there was this really bad atmosphere there. People who stayed there had really terrible nightmares and things. So in the end, they moved out and on the day they were moving, John felt this horrible kind of presence. They were in the corridor just about to leave and he turned around and on the top of the stairs there was this little blue gargoyle looking at him and shimmering. That's a fact."

I wonder if perhaps the Screaming Blue Messiahs are defying the occult, but they shrug it off. Magic, they say, is a big part of the band – or you could call it chemistry.

"We do things sometimes that are phenomenal. Things that just couldn't happen. A band couldn't get together an play like that – it couldn't happen."

They insist that music isn't just a product of liking other music, so where does it come from?

"What you end up doing isn't just determined by the music you've heard before." says Bill. "It's produced out of what's going on and stuff. It's not that two-dimensional."

But that's not to say they're overtly political, not in a conventional sense anyway.

"It's only political in the sense that we're living in probably the most sophisticatedly suppressed country in the western world. The power of the media is frightening. This country is flattened by the media. People's lives are RULED by media and the beauty of it is – they don't know! They're living under the illusion that it's free!"

What would you do if you weren't a Screaming Blue Messiah?

He considers the question carefully before he replies. "I wouldn't mind going to Mexico and doing a bit of gun-running – something like that. That's another thing. I think everyone in this country should carry a gun and it should be part of the education system to know how to use one. This country is ruled by bullying and it should be equalised.

"You wouldn't get people walking into MacDonalds and saying 'Freeze', because some ten year old kid who went to school and knew how to use a gun would just blow him away. I think it's part of survival. People gotta grow up."

Excuse me just a moment while I point out that this is the most ludicrous suggestion I have ever heard. For fear of stating the obvious, we don't have people walking into MacDonalds, that happened in a country where people do carry guns, and furthermore, if I had a gun right now and had been taught how to use it, that could well be the last pint you ever drank.

"Well, there's flaws in every theory," admits Bill, unperturbed.

Where would you like to be in five years' time?

"I'd like to be surprised. If I had any idea what I'd be doing in five years' time, I'd do something else."

Bill Carter gazes out of the window, contemplating perhaps, his first commandment: 'Never score dope in the All Saints Road'. The interview is over. I decide he isn't a messiah – he's just very, very weird.