FRANKLY CHARMING
SO ex-Frankie deity, PAUL RUTHERFORD, has teamed up with ABC’s Martin Fry and Mark White to release a cover of Chic’s “I Want Your Love” on Island records, not much to get excited about really, just three of the six or seven most important bands of the last 10 years, all on one piece of plastic.
“I suggested that we do a cover version of ‘I Want Your Love’ (the outstanding single of 1978, you will recall). I thought that, if we could pull it off, it would be absolutely brilliant. It’s dead poppy, it’s just a really nice record.
“I like beautiful music, big swirling strings, nice round fat basses, things that can affect you physically. Ilove it when you near a record and you go, ‘Whoosh!’, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. All the best music does that to you.”
What kind of records affectyou in that way?
“‘Spacker’, ‘Shame’, ‘I’m Every Woman’, Chic’s ‘Warm Summer Night’ and ‘Will You Cry’, ‘Cyndi Lauper’s version of ‘What’s Going On?’ We were listening to some of our tracks, the stuff we’ve been doing for my LP like ‘Oh World’, or ‘Catch A Falling Star’ and they’ve got that really beautiful sound. It’s music for the mind and body, to make you feel good and, hopefully, thats what my music will do to people.”
“I Want Your Love” is Paul’s second solo venture, a lissom reshuffle of the original’s heart-stopping sweep, taken from the long-player which will be available this summer. His first single was “Get Real/Happy Face”, which came out last autumn, a slab of Acid for the radical dance faction, all squiggly synths and slithery bass, and for Paul a way of getting his love of Acid out of his system.
“‘Get Real’ was so off the wall, even with the whole Acid thing going on, there was something special about it. I knew no one would understand it, but Island said it was a definite Top 10 hit. It got to Number 46, with no publicity whatsoever, but it wasn’t made for that. It was done because I was so happy about music at the time, and there were some major records flying around. There was a nice spiritual feeling, and it made me want to get involved, and it was also a thank you to all the people in Chicago and Detroit for the records they were making. ‘Happy Face’ is well radical, too, mood music that you can dance to.”
How did Frankie prepare him for this?
“I’m glad I went through it because it made me a lot stronger, a lot wiser. It f***ed me up, but I want different things now.
precious about it all, a lot of people go through it, it’s just another job in the end.”
What do you want now?
“Living is more important to me now this (points at sunny London day, gorgeous, green Holland Park) counts for more. It sounds dead hippy, but I don’t give a f**k. I lost a lot of friends, people like Pete Burns, who I used to live with. Actually, I’m very relieved now. I want to lead a simple life. I’m more interested in people than things, than being surrounded by my
own little empire. It’s too much baggage to carry round. I don’t need a washing machine!”
If “I Want Your Love” goes to Number Two like Holly’s “Love Train” did, will you do things differently this time?
“Yeah, cos I’m more relaxed now, I don’t think I’d get so carried away, I’ve done it all before, you know. Life is so rich, by the time I’m 50 I think I’ll end up as some shaman, sitting cross-legged on the floor, emitting good karma! I made money with Frankie, true, but money’s not everything. Acid House made the world see it can be a more spiritual place. We need more love.”
Are you in love?
“I’ve been in a stable relationship for eight years.”
Is “I Want Your Love” a love song or a lust song?
“It’s about lust, definitely. You get that feeling of lust all the time, when you see someone you fancy walking down the street. I like lyrics that say things in the simplest way possible, so ‘I Want Your Love’ is just saying I want to f**k you, so let’s just admit it.”
Is it possible, even dangerous, to mix sex and love?
“Only with dangerous people!”
PL