INTERVIEWS
Clash Magazine UK 2006
Clash Magazine
CLASH MAGAZINE - The Big Three Special (December 2006)
3 Records that got you into music?
Jean Michel Jarre 'Magnetic Fields' (1981)
It was the very first record I bought as a pre-teen. I heard one of the JMJ tracks on a disco sampler which my mum used to play. My mother was a disco follower.
We had a massive HiFi system in our (parents) living room. I am now using these HiFi speakers from the very same HiFi (from the 70's) in my own living room, 30 years on! They are built to last for another 101 years. The sound is unbeatable.
New Order 'Blue Monday' (1983)
This was major! It was the record where I thought, right, I need to save up to get one of those instruments that make all the bleeping future sound. The vocals on it are incredibly cool. This record was a milestone in my life. I remember that summer in 1983, I stayed at my grandfathers house on the country side in Austria. I went down in the garden opened all windows of the house and had it running on my tape recorder -full blast. Mind you, we had no neighbors. My pre-teen school mate Bernhard (from the current band 'Red Chamber') and I got into buying vinyl from New Order's 'Blue Monday' on.
Kraftwerk 'We Are The Robots' (1978)
The German title was 'Wir sind die Roboter' . Kraftwerk did both an English and German version. Back in the 70's I used to have a little tape recorder, it must have been around 1978/79 . I didn't have a record player in my room. We only had that enormous HiFi system in my parents living room, which I wasn't allowed to use up until 1981/82. My mum played Abba and Boney M on it. Anything disco. So whenever my parents went out for an hour I sneaked into the living room, playing 'Wir sind die Roboter' - on max volume.
3 Favorite gigs you've done?
My first school gig 1981
My first gig was at school (around 1981) with my school mate Bernhard from the (current) band Red Chamber. I made some lyrics to Jean Michel Jarres 'Magnetic Fields'. We didn't have any proper sound system so we turned on a ghetto blaster.. I really don't recall the reaction of anyone as we had a ball doing it anyway..
Battersea Power Station London 1996
The first gig as Martin 101 was under the name of 'Mighty M' (don't ask). It was at Battersea Power Station London. The night was entitled 'Fantastic'. I went down with (producer) Barry Stone, (Dead or Alive) Pete Burns, Lynne Burns (Petes wife at the time) my mate John Green and his wife Emma. Emma did the backing vocals. The stage on which we performed was accessed over a 2 meter ladder. I remember backstage Emma got really scared of Pete (Burns). Prior to our gig we got plastered on vodka so that I nearly fell off the 2 meter ladder while climbing the stage. During my performance I saw absolutely nothing apart from Petes black hat in the very front row..it had two over dimensional 'Mickey Mouse' ears.. it was all very surreal but had a lasting impact!
Ministry of Sound London 'Pushca' 1997
No one noticed the gig as actual live performance .. for some reason the lights on stage didn't come on during our show ..people thought it was a record and we we're miming to it... we had a laugh afterwards about it!
