Friday 25th March 2000 @ the record company

The new album, Onka's Big Moka - explain???
Julian: The title is taken from a documentary film made in the early seventies about a guy called Onka who gives all his possessions away to his rival and in doing so gets loads of power. We just thought it was a nice little story, though some people think it's a bit saucy.
Joe: We've been asked, "who's Onka and has he really got a big Moka?" But it's nothing like that - we're nice boys.

What was it like working on the album with Dave Eringa, who produced the Manic Street Preachers' last album?
Julian: He's really cool and a young guy too. He'd never worked with us before and we'd never worked with a producer, so it was all fresh and new.
Joe: It only took a month to record the whole album and then two more weeks to mix it down at Abbey Road. So it was a mad six weeks, but It was a very creative time.

You're about to tour the UK to promote the album. Will the show in your hometown of Eastbourne be special for you?
Joe: It's always nice to go back there. The younger people are well into what we're doing, but the older population of the town don't quite get it. They just want to know when we're going to be on Top Of The Pops because they don't understand how the music industry works.

Eastbourne? Has anyone else ever made it big from your hometown?
Joe: I dunno, was Tommy Cooper from Eastbourne?
Julian: No, he just lived there. It's a place people go to retire. We're putting it on the map in a way. Well, like they say, someone's got to.

You've played live on TFI Friday and Dancing In The Moonlight was the Virgin Radio Breakfast Show's Single Of The Week for two weeks running. Is Chris Evans a mate of yours?
Joe: We've had a few pints with him, but I dunno about him being a mate. It's not like we'd go round to his for a cuppa tea or anything, but he's been right behind us since day one. He's a top guy though, he's alright.

Will you consider re-releasing previous singles Achilles Heel and Let The People Know off the back of the success of Dancing In The Moonlight?
Julian: Achilles Heel is pretty much definite. Lots of people have told us it's a top ten song, so now we can re-release it and hopefully it'll go down really well because more people have heard of us.
Joe: Dancing In The Moonlight was deliberately chosen as the last single because it's more mainstream and that opened up lots of new radio airplay opportunities for us, which is just what we needed.

There are so many music festivals to choose from now. Which of them gets your vote?
Julian: Glastonbury is a different festival from all the rest. It's definitely the one. Others, like Reading, are just music days really, though we did play Guildford last year, which was really nice and chilled with a family atmosphere. But Glastonbury's so spiritual, it just doesn't compare.

A water pistol fight with Fatboy Slim - what was that all about then?
Joe: We were camped in the backstage area at Glastonbury and because I was hoping it would be sunny I'd been out and bought one of those big water cannon things you need a back pack for and the lighting guy had one of those laser pens which we stuck on the top. It turns out we were camped next to Norman (Cook) and Zoe (Ball), and one night we were sitting round the fire and he came round with these two dinky little water pistols so we put the laser sight on his head and took him out like snipers.

Who's idea was it to create the morphing images of you all on the Toploader website?
Joe: A guy called Russell came down to our rehearsal room when we were first trying to get the website together and asked for photos of us when we were young.We were all like, "what?" So we all went home and said, "Mum, we need pictures of us as kids".
Julian: I really like it, it's worked really well. It's funny how angelic we all looked, then you turn into these weathered, pickled old men.

Who was the cutest as a child?
Joe: Dunno, Rob looks like a little angel but he was really a little sod. There's a dark glint in his eye though if you look closely.
Julian: Joe just looks funny, with a head like a football. Matt probably looks the cutest, but it's not really for us to judge, is it.

What are your childhood memories?
Joe: I've got a brother who's seven years older than me and one thing I remember is him writing things on bits of paper and him putting them up where I couldn't reach them. He used to wind me up with things like 'Joe is a fatty'. It seems ridiculous now, but at the time it got to me. I got him back though.
Julian: Same for me, I've got an older brother too. I remember all the competition between us. If you've got an older brother you've got to work a bit harder, which is a good thing.

What's in store for Toploader next?
Joe: Well, it'd be nice if we got a top 10 with Achilles Heel. Being optimistic it would be great if the album went top 10 as well. The tour starts at the end of March, and then Dancing In The Moonlight's being released in Europe. We've had an excellent response from the States too, so we'll just keep going and see where we end up.

Taken from the Official Toploader Website