SEAN IN JAPAN 99

Although the band are now millionaires, the reality is that Sean lives in a housing estate near Bristol with his girlfriend of 14 years, Rhian. Sean admits to a liking for modern, high-tech gadgets but the largesse of being in one of Britain's most successful rock bands is not just not flaunted - it's looked down upon.

"It's not that we've done anything extraordinary, or anything special or anything beyond our means. We've achieved it just by doing what we do". I ask him if that doesn't give him any satisfaction. "That's the thing, it doesn't. For me, it's life. You get up in the morning, you wash, you put your clothes on, you eat. I never get too over-enthusiastic about anything because I always find it's very short-lived. I take things on face value and I take things as they come. When it's good, it's fantastic. But I never tend to dwell upon it because it's in the past, it's gone. We've been through so much as a band, it's a very difficult thing to enjoy yourself".

Sean says that the band still has a lot to do. That they haven't broken big in America. That they expected Generation Terrorists to have been the biggest album in the world and now they still feel like they're nowhere near the success they thought was their due when they started out. "It's like Groundhog Day - you keep going back to that first step all the time".