An interview with Amelia, Peter and Eithne.



Cripes! Can this really be Talulah Gosh speaking? Heavens, they’re not
wearing anoraks now, but T-shirts with (gasp) breasts on the front.
The Cuties are dead—long live the Butchies, says Jonathan Hero

The Cutie backlash was a very short time coming, mainly administered by groups who had suddenly been lumbered with the label by a bunch of journalists who had fabricated the term in the first place.

Talulah Gosh are more than aware of this, having been on the receiving end of the Cutie tag since they started, and an attempt to ‘butch’ up their image has now been undertaken. As Amelia (now lead singer after Elizabeth’s departure to go onto ‘thrashier’ things with one of the Razorcuts) says, “We’ve been very naughty in a lot of places, but no-one’s managed to write about it yet. It’s just a matter of time.”

Liz’s replacement, Eithne, a spitting image of the puppet Pod from Channel 4’s ‘Pod’s Programme’, is ideal for challenging their misleading reputation. No Cutie would ever be seen dead in her T-shirt, which sports a pair of breasts on the front. “I don’t think anyone’s interested in Cuties anymore, it’s just a convenient tag.”

Peter, the other member present, goes further. “Quite frankly, I think the idea of Cuties and anoraks has to rank among the least important concepts of the century. The idea of a group giving a toss whether or not their audience are wearing anoraks is so childish.”

Amelia, on the other hand, is more sympathetic. “I still think there was nothing wrong with what was going on behind the whole Cutie scene. The problem was that very few people got the joke, it was too subtle. There were all these people wearing anoraks without knowing why.”

Their new single, ‘Talulah Gosh’, has been a live favourite since the start, so won’t that make it even harder to get away from the Cutie image?

Amelia: “It’s not a particularly Cutie song and it’s just really good. We pandered to popular demand ’cause everyone wanted it released.”

Peter: “I don’t feel we are trying to get away from what we’ve done before. We’re basically still playing the same style as before and we’re not going to change anything very radically about the band. Liz has left, but it’s extremely debatable as to whether she was the Cutie element in the band.”

So, what other music do Talulah Gosh listen to?

Amelia: “The Cult album, I worked out every single chord on the whole Cult album yesterday.”

Peter: “What, both of them?”

Amelia: “No, the new one. I made a total of four chords on it.”

Peter: “They’re a total rehash of everything else, but they are quite fun to listen to.”

Eithne: “I really don’t think rehashing matters, as long as you do it in a good way.”

Peter: “Yeah, we stick up for the Cult!”

The Cult seem to prove the point that goths are simply heavy metal fans.

Amelia: “Goth has really changed ’cause at the start it was how the Cure were four or five years ago.”

Maybe it should have been a bit of fun, like the Cuties should have been.

Peter: “FUN!? Dressing up in those clothes? It’s not my idea of fun! It’s not fun going around being a f***ing smelly hippy!”

How do Amelia and Eithne feel about the recent Pop Will Eat Itself remark that they needed “a good shagging”?

Eithne: “I think they should do it! They’re real men.”

Amelia: “They’ve been to see us and they were stuck in the bar the whole time.”

So would a bit of PWEI-style gossip be welcome, if only to disperse the Cutie accusations?

Amelia: “Yes! It’s really unfortunate actually, ’cause just when Liz left we’d just decided that we were going to turn into a local drug-influenced band. We were trying to figure out how to get all these drugs.”

Peter: “Amelia, you’re just talking through your arse, you really are! We never did anything of the sort.”

Amelia: “Me and Liz did.”

How about doing a totally outrageous pastiche along the same lines as Zodiac Mindwarp?

Amelia: “I’d love to do a video like theirs. I’d like to zap people and then come up in leather mini-skirts.”

Talulah Gosh certainly don’t sound like Cuties to me. They sound like the grooviest, Smartie-poppingly glorious and damn well fun band since the last one, and this is one Beatnik Boy with a chamber in his heart reserved specifically for them. Amen.

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