Small Quotes 1996

VOX JULY 1996

Sean gets engrossed in a card game on his Mac powerbook... Sean makes comments on the following songs.

Kevin Carter: On the last UK tour, Richey started wearing cameras round his neck like Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now. Even down to the exact make of camera. He was obsessed with that film... Interiors: (about Willem De Kooning, artist with alzheimers) His work did dip, and it was reverting back through his earlier years, then it picked up. Now it’s gone forward a bit now. In the middle period, his work was very simplified.

NME 12 OCTOBER 1996

Sean is unwinding after the Troubador gig, musing aloud that they should make this an every-four-years event, just like the World cup. “Maybe Wales might actually qualify next time” he laughs.

SMALL QUOTES 1996 and 1997 by Jessc (we are unsure of some of the actual years)

“Splitting up was perhaps a possibility right up until the first time we practised together. Then we knew why we were there and the purpose of it all” Select.

It should be noted that Sean distances himself from these political cross currents. The smallest, calmest, stillest Manic, he dutifully tootled his trumpet on strikers marches but denies much influence from local “culture”, even venturing to suggest Gwent never seemed “truly Welsh” to him. “I didn’t tend to look around me” he says unapologetically. “From the age of 10 I was very much isolated as an individual, entirely self-sufficient. I live from day to day” Q magazine.

James qualified for university and Sean for music college but when their friends came down from Swansea they sacrificed their places to dedicate themselves to the band full-time. “It was absolutely everything to me” says the drummer “my idea was about true, natural talent, something you’re born with. We always knew the band was going to work and that it was just down to us to make it happen” Q magazine.

Sean concurs “I don’t know if it’s some Nietzschean thing, but art, expression, is a strength within you” Q magazine.

“I don’t think there’ll ever be a “resolution” for us”, says Sean. “As individuals we’re totally uncontent. Maybe from our earliest days in school we’ve been striving to make people understand us. They still don’t” Q magazine.

Sean is typically unmoved by the evenings proceedings “It was hard, really hard. I didn’t really enjoy it but we’ll keep plugging away” Select 97 after Nynex in May.

NME after The Brats: Legendary for his refusal to give interviews, he’s not keen to talk about the awards - “I’m not breaking the habit of a lifetime” - but as an ardent Liverpool fan he will give an exclusive about Liverpools 4-2 pasting at the hands of Chelsea. “I missed the first half but when the 2nd half started 2-0, I thought “Oh great, brilliant! Here we go!!” But three minutes later it was 2-1, 5 minutes after that 2-All, then when it was 3-2 and I turned over straight away. Fucking Chelsea”.