Franny Aspirin Spacer's Neighbourhood

Rip It Up, Issue 237, 1 May 1997, Page 10

Franny Aspirin Spacer's Neighbourhood

It’s midnight in Liverpool, and Space keyboards and dance beats man Franny is really cool, and really friendly, and happy to talk about the band whose contagious ‘Neighbourhood’ niggles at your psyche. I soon learn Franny doesn’t go to bed until 2AM, and that he does remixes (from Earthling to former members of Take That) under the names Franny Aspirin or Space. Are the other guys in Space into dance music? “No, to be honest, they don’t have a clue about it. They’ve only heard about it since I joined the band.” Franny recalls being on the tour bus: “They’d shout, ‘Turn it off!,’ when I first joined the band. Now they bring their own dance albums.” ‘Neighbourhood’ was a big UK hit in October last year, but it was the second time it was released. A year earlier, with the Dunblane massacre, the song’s lyrics were considered to be in poor taste... ‘ln 666 there’s a Mr Miller, He’s our local vicar and a serial killer... ’ “Radio stopped playing the song and we stopped marketing the song out of respect. It wasn’t a problem the next time.” Franny admits that my favourite, ‘Mister Psycho’, goes off live but, “It might have the same problems again. Maybe the radio won’t play it or the TV won’t play it.” With songs like ‘Mister Psycho’ and ‘Love Child of the Queen’, one would assume that the band’s lyricist, Tommy Scott has a very active imagination. But Franny says Tommy just watches movies. “He loves movies. He gets all his influences there. He loves Midnight Cowboy, Planet of the Apes etc. We all sit down and listen to CDs, but he sits down and watches movies, about two a night. “We like our music to sound like soundtracks. Tommy doesn’t listen to music. He loves stories. ” Space chose producer Stephen Xironi after hearing his work with Black Grape. “There were a few producers’ names put in a hat. Some didn’t know where we were coming from. Stephen was open to

all kinds of suggestions. He put in ideas. We wanted to use a lot of technology and a lot of the producers have a ‘back to roots’ sound.” Singer and lyricist Tommy Scott explains the band’s rock ‘n’ roll meets dance sound. “It’s a happy accident,” says Tommy. “Jamie and I pass the songs on to the keyboard player [Franny] and he puts all the rave stuff and his weird sounds in and it all just seems to happen.” Space enjoy the Liverpool lifestyle. “I just bought a house in a posh part of Liverpool,” says Franny. “None of us would leave. London’s too hectic. We don’t like all that pop star business, being at the right bars. Liverpool’s the place for people who don’t have an ego.” Franny then explains the -Manchester debt to Liverpool. “Oasis, they took the sound from Liverpool and went back to Manchester and called it their own. Bands came to Liverpool and saw Real People. They were the start of everything but they never'took off. Oasis took ideas from the La’s and Real People.” But Franny likes Oasis. “They have a real something about them that’s real cool. Something that makes them big.” Franny loves Earhling, a band he has remixed. “We love that band. It’s a great honour for them to ask. It was like a dream.” The future? “The guitar thing is big but dance music is really taking off. People in guitar bands are really into dance music. There’s crossover now ... everyone’s having a go at it. It’s taking off real big even in America.” Are you working on the next album? “There will be dance stuff there but not four on the floor, more adventurous beats. We might release a dance track as the next single. There’s gonna be a lot of everything there, even rock ‘n’ roll stuff. We’re in the studio in July. We’re going to totally blow people away with something very hard and very strong.”

MURRAY CAMMICK