Martin Atkins Interview by Vittorio Carli

Were you in PiL during the famous American Bandstand incident? Can you tell us anything about it?

Yes it was PiL's first American tour and we had no idea who Dick Clark was. We had no idea what American Bandstand was. He came in the dressing room and said “Heyyyyyy!!!!” I think we were all supposed to go “Oh my god, it's Dick Clark.” But our bass player said, “Hey, I'm Jah Wobble, who the fuck are you?' The host freaked out because no one had ever spoken to him like that. We thought it was a cable TV show. But that was not unusual.

 

Is it true that you traded instruments during the show?

We were supposed to lip-synch, and pretend like we were playing live while the recording was on. After a certain point it all got ridiculous. So I started playing the bass and Wobble started playing the drums. We invited the whole audience on stage and Keith gave his guitar to an audience member to play during the song and left.

 

Did you know that's considered one of the great rock'n roll moments?

Yes, it still gets played on VH1. And that was 22 years ago. And the new Pigface album just came out. How blessed am I? I am the most proud of that album because of the scope of the performances. It's really cool to still be on the edge.

Is it true that after awhile, Lydon fired the whole band?

I was fired three times. I was fired at the end of the American tour for the first time. Keith and I never got along very well because he did heroin. I objected because I worked hard as a musician, and I had a healthy respect for the audience. If they pay fifteen or twenty dollars, they should get a good show. Keith was smoking coke on stage and shooting up. His arms were so swollen he couldn't play. It pissed me off. Some of the tunes were sloppy because Keith wouldn't hearse. We got back to England and Keith fired me. Maybe John agreed with him. I was only making $100 a week anyway. They spent six or seven months working on “The Flowers of Romance.” I had my own band, Brian Brain. They called me and said will you come in and do something? I came into the studio and worked on some tracks. I did “Under the House” and ‘Four Enclosed Walls.” I did the title track too, but I didn't get credit for it. John admitted a few years ago that that it was me drumming. And they used the track for an African Bambatta track and a commercial. Thanks for ripping me off, John. Well at least he got it off his chest. They hired and fired me again. They asked me to rejoin at the time of “This is What You Want, This is What You Get” after I had moved to America. Brian Brain had just had a show at the Mudd Club.

 

Can you tell me about Brian Brain?

Yes, it was early punk/anarchic performance art meets disco madness. The show was 22 minutes long. I had all the drum parts on tape, so I could sing and jump around on stage. We drank cases of brandy and beer every night, and did lots of speed. There were three of us in the group. I still have a bill for the removal of banana pulp. One night we got sick of waiting for the audience to applaud, so we started pelting them with bananas. We didn't anticipate that they would throw them back, and it turned into a big banana fight. It was wild. Five years after that show, people still smelled bananas. There was still banana pulp in the light fixtures.

Have you been influenced by performance art or other drummers?

Not really. I did see Blue Man Group recently. People attribute all kinds of influences to my drumming with PiL like Can. Chris Connelly sat me down and played me some can only a few years ago, and everyone says they're an influence on my work. I can't think of any direct influences. I just try to push the audience.

 

Didn't Brian Brain get a reputation for violence?

Some of the shows verged on extreme physical violence. I was bottled at a club in Washingon DC. I threw G.G. Allen on the floor and threw microphones and a speaker at him. He did nothing. Two and a half-hours later, he broke my nose and jaw while I was pissing in a bathroom stall Brian Brain was pretty wild. Margot from the Go Gos even joined for a while. We switched from drum tracks to live drums. We brought in a graffiti artist –remember it was 1983, and other members. It was always changing.

 

Since you were in New York in '83, was rap a big influence?

We absorbed everything. It was a big melting pot. Futura 2000 were doing graffiti. The Beastie Boys were emerging. They were called Young and Useless back then. The Clash and all of us always used dub.

 

How did you end up in Killing Joke?

I chose to leave Public Image. I had a house in Los Angeles, and a swimming pool, but I was still unhappy. It didn't make sense. If you're British, if you have a swimming pool and a palm tree, that is a luxury. I moved to New Jersey and I thought, “Fuck this. Fuck music.” I started a construction company. As soon as it stated doing well Killing Joke invited me to join their band. I listened to their latest album. “Outside the Gate” and I hated it. It was appalling. I loved early Killing Joke. But “Outside the Gate” was a milestone in horrifying bullshit. A friend asked would they sound better with you in them? So I went to England and ended up managing and playing in Killing Joke. I also put out a few CDs by some local bands I wanted to help out on Invisible Records.

 

Is it true that the original Killing Joke singer quit the band to move to Iceland and wait for the end of the world?

Well, that was before my time. They had a single in England and they were asked to play on the Top of the Pops. The lead singer, Jaz Coleman, was in Iceland and started hanging around a lot with Bjork who was in the Sugarcubes at the time. So the band ended up playing the Top of the Pops with a mannequin in a boiler suit to take Jaz's place. Jaz and Geordie and the whole original lineup are interesting people. I invited the original drummer to join me in Murder Inc. and later Pigface's “Notes from Thee Underground. “

 

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I think we were all supposed to go “Oh my god, it's Dick Clark.” But our bass player said, “Hey, I'm Jah Wobble, who the fuck are you?" The host freaked out because no one had ever spoken to him like that.