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From: rhill@netlink.cts.com (Ron Hill)
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 01:09:28
-0800
Subject: Lionheart Promo Cassette 1978, EMI Canada
LIONHEART PROMO CASSETTE
Interviewer unknown
1978
[Transcribed by Ron Hill. Thanks to Tom Richards for supplying me with the tape]
This is one of the most interesting interviews I've seen in a long time. It is apparently from an official EMI promotional cassette issued in Canada.
I: How did the sleeve design come about, of Lionheart?
K: Well that was just an idea that we had that was basically around the title Lionheart. We wanted to get across a vibe within me of a lion. And for the front cover it basically comes from an idea that my brother had, which was an attic setting with me in a lion suit, so it's slightly comical, but just a really nice vibe on the front that would take away the heavy, crusader, English vibe, because Lionheart is always associated with Richard the Lionheart. And I think it's a word that could become more readily used, it's such a beautiful word. It's kinda like hero, and hero's a very cliched word now. It's used in so many songs.
["Symphony in Blue" is played]
I: Have you or will you be writing more songs on classic English themes?
K: Not intentionally, no. But I think that's already been done a little on this album. There's a song on in called "In Search of Peter Pan" and it's sorta about childhood. And the book itself is an absolutely amazing observation on paternal attitudes and the relationships between the parents - how it's reflected on the children. And I think it's a really heavy subject, you know, how a young innocence mind can be just controlled, manipulated, and they don't necessarily want it to happen that way. And it's really just a song about that.
[The song is played]
I: Which have you most enjoyed recording, so far?
K: Well, I think I there are probably two, for me. I've really enjoyed recording "Wow". I'm very, very pleased with my vocal performance on that, because we did it a few times, and although it was all in tune and it was okay, there was just something missing. And we went back and did it again and it just happened, and I've really pleased with that, it was very satisfying.
[The song is played]
I: Can you tell me how you enjoyed recording in France?
K: Ah, it was an amazing experience. I mean it's the first time I've ever recorded out of the country. And the environment was really quite phenomenal, I mean it was just so beautiful, it was so unlike anything I'd seen for a long while. And I think there was so many advantages to it, but there were a couple of disadvantages - the fact that it was so beautiful, you couldn't help but keep drifting off to the sun out there, you know, that sort of thing. But you just didn't feel like you needed a break, because the vibes and the weather and everyone around was just so good, you know, you didn't feel like you were working. It was really, really fun.
["Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbreak" is played]
I: Can you tell me, why is it called Lionheart?
K: Well, again it's similar to the last album, in as much as it's the title after the title track. And the title track on this album is called "Oh England, My Lionheart." And it's really very much a song about the Old England that we all think about whenever we're away, you know, "ah, the wonderful England" and how beautiful it is amongst all the rubbish, you know. Like the old buildings we've got, the Old English attitudes that are always around. And this sort of very heavy emphasis on nostalgia that is very strong in England. People really do it alot, you know, like "I remember the war and..." You know it's very much a part of our attitudes to life that we live in the past. And it's really just a sort of poetical play on the, if you like, the romantic visuals of England, and the second World War... Amazing revolution that happened when it was over and peaceful everything seemed, like the green fields. And it's really just a exploration of that.
[The song is played.]
I: Did you find that this time writing the songs for the album came easily to you, or was it quite difficult?
K: It was a difficult situation because there was very little time around and I felt very squashed in by the lack of time and that's what I don't like, especially if it's concerning something as important for me as my songs are, they're really important to me. But it all seemed to come together and it was really nicely guided by something, it just happened great. And there were quite a few old songs that I managed to get the time to re-write. It's a much lighter level of work when you re-write a song because the basic inspiration is there, you just perfect upon it and that's great. And they're about four new songs so they all came together, it was great. In fact, we ended up with more then we needed again, which is fantastic.
["Fullhouse" is played.]
I: And where will you be touring?
K: Well, in February we're hoping to start in England, and then go on to Europe.
I: And America?
K: I don't think that's actually be thought of yet, I think we'll play it by ear as we often do when the time comes.
["In the Warm Room" is played]
I: Have you got plans for the third album yet, or is it....?
K: Oh, no. No, I think, that has to be written yet. I never think of it in those terms really. When we're still very much involved in this one, I think it would be unfair to neglect it. I think all the attention should be focused on it, until the very last fader has been lifted.
["Kashka From Baghdad" is played]
I: Are there any other tracks that you could explain the meanings of to us, from the album?
K: Yeah, well there's one called "Coffee Homeground" which was in fact inspired directly from a cab driver that I met who was in fact a bit nutty. And it's just a song about someone who thinks they're being poisoned by another person, they think that there's Belladonna in their tea and that whenever they offer them something to eat, it's got poisen in it. And it's just a humorous aspect of paranoia really and we sort of done it in a Breteen [?] style, the old sort of jamming [??? vibe] to try and bring across the humour side of it.
[The song is played]
I: And a single, any idea of a single?
K: We've got a short list. And I'm sure we'll know which one it is, it'll tell us in a few days.
["Hammer Horror" is played.]
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