Personal file: Nasher Nash (Frankie Goes To Hollywood)
NAME: Brian Philip John Nash
BORN: May 20 1963 — the year of ‘Beatlemania’.
WHAT DID YOU GIVE UP FOR LENT? Sweets
PETS: I got a cat called Clancy for my girlfriend. It’s dead ‘ard and evil. It hates me. Sits on my knee and goes A-A-A-A-R-K! Digs the claws in and leaves marks. And it’s always leaping about everywhere. When I was a kid I have a budgie named Perry, after Perry Como, but it died a week after our house got broken into. I’d like to have a racehorse and get someone to ride it.
WHAT ARE THE FIRST THREE THINGS YOU PUT IN YOUR SUITCASE? Underwear, socks and t-shirts go right down the bottom because they’re the last things the customs officers look at.
WHAT COLOUR SOCKS ARE YOU WEARING? These are my white “Pleasure Dome” socks. Lovely, aren’t they? (Laughs). Only £6.
LAST CONCERT ATTENDED: The Jacksons at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles. Michael was brilliant but the rest was techno-flash rubbish.
WHAT DO YOU THING OF BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN? He’s like James Dean — not brilliant, but just the right attitude. He looks like a rock ’n’ roller. He weats jeans and denim waistcoats and people really get into that. You know — he’s real down-to-earth. He plays rock ’n’ roll.
CURRENT READING MATERIAL: Christine by Stephen King.
FAVOURITE JOKE: A fellow goes into the Doctor and says to him ‘ever since I came home from a party last night, I can’t hear a thing anybody’s saying to me’. So the Doctor has a look in his left ear where he sees this great big load of jelly. ‘Mmmm, that’s interesting,’ he says. Then he looks in the fellow’s right ear and that has all this custard and sponge in it. ‘That’s even more interesting,’ he says. ‘It appears you’re just a trifle deaf…’
WHAT HAVE YOU GOT IN YOUR POCKETS? A used tissue, a wallet, a hotel key and £1.20 in loose change.
LAST NIGHT’S DINNER? After the show I went upstairs and changed, then came down and had a drink before going out to an Italian restaurant with my fiancée. I had fillet of steak in a red wine sauce with herbs, plus a bottle of Soave.
MOST RECENT NIGHTMARE: I dreamt that someone put a load of drugs in my room and these two policeman on horses came riding into my hotel room. There’s got to be a law against… racial hatred and sexists.
WHAT ARE THE BEST AND WORST QUALITIES OF THE OTHER FRANKIES? Paul is really honest, down-to-earth and trustworthy and (campily) he’s got a lovely body… But he doesn’t stand up for himself too much. Holly is crazy when he comes out of his closet — ooh, I hate to use that word — but what I mean is he can be really mad and a real psycho when he wants to be. But then he also talks a lot of bull. Ped makes me laugh, but he’s really bad when he gets up in the morning. And a real bastard when he starts slagging everyone down. Mark is a good bass player and he always waves to the audience; bad points are he’s vain and he’s a lazy and a totally unreliable bastard.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I EVER SAW: Was flying over San Francisco in a helicopter at dusk.
WHAT’S IT LIKE TOURING AMERICA? They see us more as a rock ’n’ roll band. Most of the people who come to see us are College kids. When we tour Britain, we might travel 50 miles to the next gig, which is nothing in America — it takes 50 miles just to get out of New York.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF AMERICAN SLANG? American swear words are brilliant! Like this bit from a Stephen King book I read: “I was walking down the road and this guy was giving me a big hassle so I flipped him the big bird…“ And son-uvva-bitch is especially brilliant coming from a woman. Cam you imaging Joan Collins saying it?
WHAT’S THE PRICE OF FAME? Having to sit in a hotel room because there’s kids everywhere outside, and having to barge past people as you’re coming out of a gig. It makes you feel a bit stupid. It’s also hard to cope with people screaming at you, especially when I think that only two years ago I was working and no-one was screaming at me but my boss.
WHICH MEMBER OF DURAN DURAN WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY GOLD WITH? Andy Taylor — if we could manage to get out of the club house standing up.