| Batttttty
preys upon Quireboy |
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Strangers In The Night Dot Com has always been a family
website, and as such, we like to include the whole damn family wherever
we can. But Nigel Mogg is so much more than just the snotty little
kid who used to put spiders in Uncle Phil's milk-shake. Nigel is the good-lookin one outta The Quireboys, and he is also a bit of a David Bailey in his spare time. Yeh! The photo on the right was taken just after I asked him to take part in an interview for our website. You can see how delighted he was. Anyway, I've tried to avoid the obvious questions, such as 'Did Spike really do it?', 'Is Ginger ginger all over? and 'Do noses run in your family?' So, without further ado, here ya go..... |
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The re-birth of the Quireboys in 2000 - did it feel new and fresh and vibrant and exciting and meaty and sweaty and salty and, well, you know, was it something that fired you up for more and got your creative juices going? How different was it from the first time around? Was the reaction from fans what you expected? And from the press? And from the taxman? It was all Spike's doing. I was living in New York, when the phone rings and it's Spike... always means trouble.... 'I got us a record deal', he says. 'Do you want to do it?' 'Well, how much?' I says. But it did cross my mind, would anyone be interested. Well, we started playing some old tunes and a couple of new riffs and, well, I must say that first day it sounded incredible (plus we all play better now). We did a couple of gigs in L.A. and straight away people were like 'where you been, why didn't you do this earlier?', and the same happend when we came back to the UK - people were genuinly pleased to see us at it again. The press of course weren't so nice but at this stage of the game for us it doesn't matter. |
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Here
in SITN we love all this kick-it-up-and-head-it-high party stuff.
What are your favourite memories of Ginger and Spike? Any embarrassing
moments? Ever get stuck in a cocoon that wouldn't open or not been
able to find the stage? Everyone who's been
in a band at some time has lost the stage .... Ginger always had
a chip on his shoulder, and it was his first big band, and alot
of piss-taking went on. Picture this - Spike's little flat in South
London, Pete Way upstairs in the spare bedroom, Phil , Ginger, me,
Guy Bailey all over the living room.... the piss-taking never stopped.....
Yeh, I can imagine... Was Pete Way an influence to your bass playing? Or to your partying? If Pete was ever to hang up his rocknroll nail-varnish, would you consider taking his place in UFO, and if so, what sort of a reception do you think you'd get from die-hard UFO fans? Pete was a huge influence on me, waddaya think! Thunderbirds away....! I'd like to play with Phil one day (we only jammed a couple of times can you believe) but if I had to do it, it would be grand, but Pete's like a cockroach - he ain't going anywere.... on his last trip to L.A. he nearly killed me "Na na don't go yet, just one more drink go on..." Pete? Surely not.... |
| Hey, on your website you have a great idea where you get your fans to suggest the setlist for your gigs. How useful do you think the internet is to rocknroll generally and to your band in particular? Can you imagine life without it? Do your fingers start to sweat if you can't log on to the internet the minute you walk through the door. Do you wake up in the night and look at the clock and know exactly what time it is in 38 different countries across the world and wonder which of your friends is online and waiting for you to talk to them? Do you feel shaky if you know you still have emails waiting to be answered more than 20 minutes after you've received them? No? Oh, it must just be me then. It's great for bands to be able to chat to fans, etc... it's all a bit new to me but addictive. NigelMogg.com is now online so check out my photography.... Photography? Dodgy photos? Hmmm... ok, we'll come back to that later. |
1990 was a triumphant year for the band - do you remember much of it? Any of it? Tell us all about the highs and lows of your life so far. In fact, what was the highlight of your career - apart from advertising Calvin Klein underpants of course. It was actually Calvin Klein perfume and I got to dance around with Kate Moss!! Highlights? The usual stuff - opening for the Stones, Aerosmith, Donington, flying in a B17 bomber with Keef Richards. Yeh, all the usual stuff...Hey, I remember you were once managed by Sharon Osbourne. Is she really as scary as she wants us to think she is? Yes don't mess with Sharon - the last thing she said to me was "I'm gonna cut your balls off and shove them down your throat you little £^&$". And did she? No... Just as I thought - she's all talk....In
a celebrity deathmatch between Phil Mogg and Spike, who would
win? (I mean singing, not a knuckle-fight). OK then - in a fight?
In
a fight don't mess with Phil, but as you know... Spike's a little
handy, that whole Schenker thing .... if you heard Phil tell the
story it's hilarious Yes,
well, here in the privacy of SITN we really would like to hear
his version of events...... maybe one day... |
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Have
you ever looked at Phil's lyrics and thought "What the hell
is he going on about?" Phil's
lyrics? Well have you heard Spike's? Hahaha. Yeh,
you're right, I hadn't thought of that...
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| Where do you go from here? What's next for Nigel Mogg? What's next for the Quireboys? What's next for rocknroll? Like I said, check out NigelMogg.com ... I do my first show of my work on March 6th in L.A. so anyone in this area check it out. As you might have guessed they're mainly Rock-related photographs. I did most of the stuff in the last Quireboys sleeve, did a Lemonheads, Dandy Warhols, single sleeves and all sorts of odds and ends. It's something I've been getting into in the last few years, but started document stuff while still on the Bitter Sweet tour in 90'something. As for the Quireboys, well, on the last tour (November 2002, opening for Alice Cooper) we got a couple of shows filmed and should have a live DVD and live CD out pretty soon, with shows to back it up. We have a couple of festivals lined up, so those shows will be August or September sometime. |  |
| OK,
well, I think you'll be the first to admit that the interview up
to now has been a bit boring, but feel free to tell us anything
else you think we'd like to know, such as tattoos (where, how big,
how many, that kinda thing), whether Ginger really is ginger, stuff
like that, and anything else you think we'd be interested in. I
have a star on my hand about an inch across... I have so many stories,
Pete Way and Spike at my Mum and Dad's house, being on Sex and the
City, trying to get away from C.C DeVille on a small airplane ..
borrowing Pete's bass which he forgot to tell me wasn't his ....
flying with Keef - wait for the book! Damn you, I wanna hear all this stuff NOWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Okayyyy, well, promise us you'll come back and talk to me again soon, ok - and if you need any help with this photography thing, you know, nekkid stuff, well, you know where I am. You gotta keep your socks on though. |
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OK,
So there you have it - for now. As soon as Nigel has finished his roll of fillum and packed away his zoom lens, there will be another round of exciting and exhilarating questions for him to answer. In the meantime, mosey on down to THE QUIREBOYS website for a little bit of what you fancy. And don't forget to have a look at Nigel's PHOTOGRAPHY website. |
