Andy Interviews...

SKUNK BY NUMBERS

Andy Extance goes to Portsmouth Pyramids to see Skunk Anansie, and while he's at it, have a nice chat with lead singer Skin and lead guitarist Ace.

Formed in January 1994, Skunk Anansie have achieved a rapid rise to fame, with their lead singer Skin starting to become a media personality, and their album "Sunburnt and Paranoid" charting in the top 10 British albums. 2 years later they are on their first headlining tour, getting rave reviews for their wild exhibitions on stage.

"We want to get rid of our hangovers," says guitarist Ace, "so we sweat all the last night out, sweat all the toxins out of our body".

The aggressive stance that they take against such hairy topics as fascism (Little Baby Swastikkka), religion (Selling Jesus), which often seems to manifest itself in aggression towards the audience is also easily explained.

"We are with them, rather than trying to shock them and confront them, because generally I don't think we shock, we just excite people. We don't say, "You should do this," or, "you should do that," we say, "this is what we think, what do you think?""

Well, for tonight at least, the good people of Portsmouth seem to think that their ideas strike the mark. Coming on stage with a squad of blow up dolls, in fluorescent colours, Skin adorned with ultra violet sensitive lipstick, and Ace covered with blue lipstick kisses all over his shaved head, you might not think of Skunk Anansie as political animals, but a sharp rendition of "Little Baby Swastikkka" soon sorted that out. They then continued to play a new number called "Punk By Numbers".

Ace explains: "The big thing in '96, we're hoping is gonna be "The New Rock". Whatever that is this year, 'cos they have a different name for it each year. One year they call it "grunge", this year they're calling it "punk", we're hoping that's gonna be the big thing this year, rather than any wimpy-arse hip-hop rubbish."

From there the set blossomed into an hour long seething riot of favourites from their album, and about half a dozen new songs, raking the audience into such a frenzy that even the softer songs "Charity", "Weak" and "100 Ways To Be A Good Girl" were getting jumped up and down to. Skin tried to explain the reaction:

"If you're on drugs you dance fast, if you're sober you dance to the bassline, and if you dance to the snare you're f...ed up."

All the more appropriate, because the bass and the snare feature heavily in Skunk Anansie's music, alongside Ace's mad guitar and Skin's powerful voice.

"When you get your own band, and you finally get somewhere, all your years of training and influences start to be recognised," says Ace, "When I was a kid the first thing I got into was Punk rock, and it's got a bit of this in there, and a bit of reggae, 'cos Skin likes reggae, and Cass likes funk. When we got our band we just put them all together and said, "That works, let's do it." If it's a good song, and it works, it doesn't matter."

And their songs certainly seem to work. Everything from "Paranoid and Sunburnt" was greeted with the same reaction, a mad throng of hopeless kids and crusty adults rushing forward, and pushing each other around, and even the new, unknown songs managed a similar effect. And if they work like that the whole tour, Skunk Anansie's continued increase in popularity seems inescapable.

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