Feeling Groovy SOUP DRAGONS DISH IT UP

Rip It Up, Issue 161, 1 December 1990, Page 8

Feeling Groovy SOUP DRAGONS DISH IT UP

It's been no easy road for the Soup Dragons. Survivors of the then influential, now derided C-86 compilation of jangly British bands, the Scottish group seemed unable to forge an identity of their own. Their sound smacked too much of other acts, they screamed second division obscurity.

Which just goes to show how unpredictable this rock and roll lark can be. Because the-Soup Dragons have emerged with a blisteringly fine single and a superb dance / rock album to confound the doubters and push the group firmly centre stage. The only ones unfazed by this reversal of fortunes is the band themselves. Having conquered the homelands and made major inroads in Europe, the Soupies have their sights set firmly on the biggest marketplace of all. Lead singer Sean Dickson is ensconced in a five star hotel in New York. The single'l'm Free' is doing rather well, pushed heavily by the influential college radio network. After negotiating a series of telephonists ranging from the near catatonic to the downright rude, I finally hearthe broad sweep of Sean's Scottish brogue down the line. "It's like how they say over here, there's a definite buzz for us. We've played a couple of industry things in New York and a part of it is bullshit, all the dollar talk and stuff, but if you can cut through all that there's people who have a genuine interest in the group. We've been headlining gigs here, around 5,000 seaters, and we've been amazed that a number of people seem to know such a lot of our stuff. Yelling out for real early stuff which we don't play,

incidentally." Okay, you've been together five years now, you came out of the now infamous C-86 scene. "Let's not talk about that!". Okay, a lot's happened since then. There was the disappointment of being on a major label at the time of the This Is Our Art album and having things not work out. 'Yeah, it was disappointing after a fashion. It's easy to make excuses but we were screwed around a lot, weren'tgiven much leeway and in the end we came to regard the album as a compilation more than anything." You returned to yourfirst label, Big Life. With the dance explosion Big Life is now one happening label. Do you feel a part of all this energy? "For sure. It's become a cliche for white guitar groups to say Tve always been into dance music' but we've always been around it. You can't help but absorb some of the vitality. There is the other side of the can, of course, and that's getting slagged off for incorporating any kind of dance sensibility into a rock format. Some people have real problems with that and suddenly you're jumping on the bandwagon when in reality you've been using things like samples for ages. You just have to listen to This Is Our Art. What about bands like Primal

Scream who were the very definition of the indie ethic—leather trousers, rock and roll - and now seem to want to be a soul band. "I don't really want to get drawn into a slagging match and there's nothing inherently wrong in wanting to change but I'm very suspicious of a group like that. We produce and . arrange all our stuff whereas if you ask me any success a band like Primal Scream has had is very much down to who's producing their records." . The decision to reinterpret'l'm Free' seems to be one of those inspired moves that open up doors • and transform careers. How did it happen? "I just heard it one night. The song itself didn't strike me as all that

wonderful but it seemed to suggest lots of ideas. I picked up on the bare bones of the song and thought I could do something with this." In a quote somewhere you said you'd dearly love to produce a song that would capture the mood of the times and it seems to me you've done it. Although with someone else's song. "Yeah, things just came togetherjunior's toasting, the gospel choir — it was an immense feeling when we played it back for the first time. I think we knew it was going to be special, be important for us." I wonder if there's a slight disappointment there as well, knowing yourfirst major hit is not your own song after all.

"No, that never came into it. Sure, it's a Stones song but we transformed it, it's barely recognisable to the original and anyway hopefully we'll have lots more hits off the album." (laughs). It's impossible not to be struck by the sheer wealth of ideas on Love God. Repeated plays reveal new surprises, different perspetives, seems the Soup Dragon's time has finally come. "We would have been very disappointed if we hadn't got some positive feedback from the album. The band believes in it very strongly and I think, to be honest, for one reason or another it's the first stuff we've done that we could endorse

100 percent. What else is out there in the marketplace? I don't think we've gottoo much reason to be frightened of anybody. Luck and circumstance haven't always been with us but we've gotthe material and the confidence now, it's onwards and upwards." Finally, what's on the immediate horizon for the Soup Dragons? 'When we finish the American tour we'll probably have a holiday. There's a European tour at some stage and we've goto remixed version of 'Mother Universe' out. Hopefully we might even get down to your neck of the woods."

GARTH SEEAR