ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

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PINK INDUSTRY: LEADMILL

I can tell that Pink Industry are gifted and extraordinary — but I can’t prove it because there’s no one directly to compare them with. Its somewhat unnerving to encounter a band who are, as near as damn it, original.

Afterwards Jayne of the insidious and insinuating voice, tells me:

“I used to listen to people like Lou Reed and really like them, but I’ve hardly paid any attention to records in the last two or three years”.

“The ‘Low Technology’ and ‘Who Told You You Were Naked’ LPs came out in rapid succession, didn’t they?”

“Yes — we had a real glut of material around then — they both represent the same stage for us”.

“I know that you haven’t yet released a single — is that because of the logistics of record release or the form of your material?”

“We ran our own record company, called Zulu Records, which fortunately gives us control of production, packaging and promotion — because we do it all ourselves! We’ve thought about a single (“Don’t Let Go” was a popular suggestion) but nowadays promoting a singles is an extremely specialised and direct business, something we’ve not had the chance to go into yet”.

“So it’s a case of not doing it unless you’re going to go into it wholeheartedly?”

“Exactly. I really admire what Holly has done. They set about trying to take over the charts and got just what they were after! We’ll have a compilation album out soon with a song they recorded for us two years ago, suddenly Rough Trade are jumping all over the place saying we’ve got the Frankie Goes To Hollywood LP! Don’t worry, it won’t be billed that way.”

’At the end of your set tonight when you said “I don’t know what’s on the other side of the tape but we’ll experiment’, had you really no idea of what was coming?”

“I really hate the idea of a pre-programmed set, but the tape limits you very much in terms of orders of songs. When we started this series of gigs we decided to put together some drum-machine track on tape, completely at random”.

A strange kind of freedom, based on a willingness to test and stretch themselves.

Despite early problems with the notorious leadmill P.A.Pink (“We’re not industrial”) Industry manage to produce some clear yet pretty damned weird sounds. If you’re bored with sound-alike bands, go see them immediately.

Simon Cook

Pic by Amanda Barson