Musicians in interviews - should they EVER be believed?

By the way, this is my last post for a week or so, as I'm catching a plane now to Thailand. Then again, that may be a lie, and I may just have decided to lurk for eight days. Whether it's an interesting lie will depend on what anecdotes I make up and whether I introduce Thai nose flutes into my sound on my 'return'.

Hey, I've seen Labyrinth too

James Havoc is the pen name of the founder of Creation Books, and he wrote two creepy books, Raism and Satanskin. He's like that guy in Kids In The Hall who had the 'slave' The Evil Hecubus, and was an acolyte of Prml Scrm around '88 or so which is why he got to found Creation Books with help from the Ginger Prince. James bought Alan out some time in the early '90s. Yes he is massively into Gilles de Rais but it's pretty safe to say that Gllsp is more into Jn f Rc.

Back to the subject. Speaking as someone who's interviewed gazillions of musicians/recording artists right across the spectrum, from utter dolts to total geniuses, I'd say most of them try to answer honestly and simply those questions put to them, provided one of the parties isn't boxing clever. Nobody's asking interviewees to reinvent the wheel. But now, when the really huge stars have their PRs wave a pre- interview question censorship document in the face of journalists, it's more difficult to get meaning, never mind honesty, out of one's subjects.

On subject of Gilles de Rais and James Williamson of Creation Books, did you know that in Raism there's a masturbating demon character called Momus? And did you know that to publicize that book Alan McGee and Williamson appeared on Tony Wilson's TV show 'The Other Side Of Midnight' and McGee claimed to hate all musicians and only be interested in writers? Suspension of belief required on that one, I think.

By the way, one of the stranger aspects of today has been receiving two e mails from Alan himself asking why I've been nasty about him on this bulletin board recently. 'Cockneyred' was not McGee, as some thought. We haven't spoken for eight years, but have now patched things up and will be meeting up in Japan in a couple of weeks.

And personal note to Robin Carmody: no, I am not impersonating you on in recent threads!

Sorry for using this one to tie up loose ends. Off to watch Thai boys pole dance now... or whatever you're supposed to do here!

2) People assuming others' identities on public forums. This has been done to me in the past (on other boards, and on mailing lists) and it is fucking frightening. I don't think Robin is over-reacting, it is really scary, both in the "why is someone doing this to me?" way and the "what if other people really believe that it is me, and what if they have done it elsewhere that I'm not aware of the situation to attempt to rectify it?"

In one case, I had a stalker (of the ex-lover variety) actually hack my email account and send posts to mailing lists I was on and to people that I knew. That was terrifying, and I had to contact my ISP and have my password changed. In another case, it was a board such as this, and a well-known troll just decided to co-opt my identity. (Conveniently misspelling my name, as well as leaving their IP address in plain sight.)

The thing is, it's usually the most prolific or high profile posters who are the victims of such pranks. (Robin, in a way, you should be freakily complimented. ;-) It means you're "high status" poster.) But with prolific posters, it is fairly easy to grow to recognise their writing style and personality. If you see a post which is drastically out of character, it is often safe to assume that others will realise that it is an imposter.

Good luck ferreting the freak out.

3) Good god, all the big lizards read this board, don't they? I'm afraid. :-)