Placebo with host David Bowie Chat Transcription. Part 2

David Bowie: They are, aren't they?

Steve Hewitt: We saw a gig of theirs in America at the end of December, and they were amazing.

Stefan Olsdal: I think tomorrow we're going to see Les Paul play in town.

David Bowie: Les Paul? Are you a fan? At Fat Tuesdays, isn't it? I saw that listed.

Brian Molko: We managed to see Chaka Khan in Chicago, which was superb.

David Bowie: Les Paul's amazing, he sells his cassettes at the door.

Stefan Olsdal: Can you get them signed?

David Bowie: Yes! He's so generous with his time.

Stefan Olsdal: How old is he?

David Bowie: Oh, he's way into his 70's. He is something else, he's absolutely fabulous. And going in to watch him play at the club is like looking into a Who's Who of guitar players, you cannot believe most nights. Because they know he might give up playing altogether very shortly, so it's always packed with an extraordinary amount of people who are very well-known.

Brian Molko: There are plans to go and see, at Wembley Arena, Little Richard.

David Bowie: Oh, yes!

Brian Molko: It might be the last time that he plays England, so can't miss that.

David Bowie: It was so depressing when he put all that mirror stuff on in the 60's I mean, why did he feel that was necessary?

Brian Molko: He was fantastic. He was a black man wearing make-up, screwing white girls and white boys. In a time when that was unforgivable.

David Bowie: There was a quasi-drag queen working in the same town that he came from - anybody out there know the name? See if you can get online and tell me that Richard took a lot of the stuff from, even the singing. And he openly admits it. I think it's kind of a tradition with these kinds of artists. Did you know he was born on Christmas Day?

Stefan Olsdal: Really?

David Bowie: Another question "Any Smiths influence? Your cover of Big Mouth on the tribute album is fantastic."

Steve Hewitt: Yeah, Smiths influence, definitely. We still listen to them now. I remember discovering The Smiths when "How Soon Is Now" came out, it blew me away.

Brian Molko: I don't think there's a particular Sonic influence, but I think there's a kind of lyrical one Morrissey was also very confessional.

Stefan Olsdal: What was it like to tour with them? I mean, without Morrissey.

David Bowie: I wouldn't know! (laughter) I was terribly disappointed, I really wanted him to complete that tour. Morrissey started work with me a couple years ago, whenever it was two, three years ago? He did a couple of shows, then got ill, and we never saw him again, which is a shame. I really admire him very much.

Brian Molko: So there is an influence, yeah. The Smiths were often a soundtrack to every rainy teenage afternoon. I grew up in Luxembourg, where it rains quite a bit he even wrote a song about Luxembourg.

David Bowie: Oh, Sable's back again Sable writes: "Do you remember your fans after your shows?"

Yes we do! (Chorus).

Brian Molko: We try to sign as many autographs as possible, get as many photographs as possible, but we're only human, and sometimes we're tired and sometimes we have important people that we care about on tour.

David Bowie: Let's have their names, then! (laughter).

Stefan Olsdal: They leave lasting impressions on you, though. (laughter). Kansas springs to mind.

David Bowie: Kansas leaves a lasting impression on everyone.

Brian Molko: Lawrence, Kansas.

David Bowie: Lawrence, Kansas. Nice chap. Used to play fiddle behind John Lee Hooker.

Brian Molko: It was after William Burroughs had died, so naturally I had to talk for a while about Burroughs on stage. It was an emotional moment. But, you know, "Without You I'm Nothing" can be seen on three levels, I think. It's us, the band, talking to ourselves; its me talking to certain people in my past; it's also us talking to our fans.

David Bowie: "Without You I'm Nothing" is Placebo's new album, and it's on Virgin, available at all reputable corner stores. Rush out and buy your copy now. Burroughs, I was privy to a meeting of the minds one night at his place, called The Bunker, on the Bowery many years ago must have been the early 70's. And Terry Southern came over for the evening with a doctor's case full of every conceivable drug that you can think of and poured them out onto the table. And he and William were like two crazed 12-year-old (Burroughs voice:) "Hey, I haven't seen one of these in years!" (laughter) It was fabulous!

Steve Hewitt: Did you indulge, eh?

David Bowie: No, I just watched. Well no, I just watched. PeeWee47_15 asks: "Has you, David Bowie, has any effect on the band members?" You'll notice, if you're a discerning listener, you'll notice I've never actually pulled them up to this, because I'm quite liberal about the way that my music's used one of my songs that they've used probably more than any other, and rewritten it or appropriated or whatever, is "Laughing Gnome". It's not something that I'm particularly happy about (laughter) I'd quite like you to move on now, you know, there's a lot of other songs. I think that if you listen to "Pure Morning" you'll hear "Laughing Gnome", I think it's somewhere during the second verse. It's very disorienting for me, as you can imagine.

Steve Hewitt: Have you ever heard that?

Stefan Olsdal: I've never heard that song!

David Bowie: We actually have someone here, folks, who's never heard "Laughing Gnome!" (laughter).

Brian Molko: Bravo! (laughter).

David Bowie: Your life has probably had three or four years added to it!

Brian Molko: I remember telling you, David, that I actually stole a lyric from you. Have you found it yet?

David Bowie: Well, I heard something that may have had a passing resemblance to a certain wanking line.

Brian Molko: No, I stole the phrase 'valuable friends' from "Ashes to Ashes".

David Bowie: Very few borrow, plenty do steal. (laughter). From I_Am_A_Placebo: "Brian, how did you meet Stefan?" Worthwhile question.

Brian Molko: Stefan and I went to school together at the American International School of Luxembourg. A small country stuck between Belgium, Germany, and France. We were never friends, we had different social circles, and we were very different heights.

David Bowie: Of the social circles? (laughter).

Brian Molko: No, physically, and we still do. We never mixed, in the whole sort of eight years we went to school together we probably spoke eight words.

David Bowie: Oil and water, eh, oil and water?

Brian Molko: It was strange. Life can be like that sometimes. You end with the people that you think would be the least likely to end up with, forging lifelong relationships with. When we met again in London, by accident, I'd finished drama school and Stefan was studying music, and when we finally went for a drink we found out that we had a lot more in common than we ever could think.

David Bowie: And that's when you switched roles, you studied music and Stefan studied drama. (laughter).

Brian Molko: So there you go. Steve he's known for ten years one of the first people he met when he moved out to London. He was in a band called Breathe, which I admired, and it was through a mutual friend, a girlfriend, that we met in a Burger King in Lewisham, in the south of London. (laughter). On Lewisham High Street.

David Bowie: I used to play in a club on top of a place in Lewisham quite a nice ballroom on top it.

Brian Molko: I have a question to ask you, David. I've been reading this thing about John Major's dad?

David Bowie: Yes! Isn't that bizarre! I put it up on my site, it was so weird!

Brian Molko: So what's the deal?

David Bowie: I know nothing about it! It's just incredible!

Brian Molko: Major Tom?

David Bowie: Yeah, I wonder what kind of synchronicity it is?

Brian Molko: Shall we explain it for the people who may not know? John Major's, the ex-Prime Minister of Great Britain, if you can actually call him that, his parents were circus performers and you're from South London.

David Bowie: Brixton.

Brian Molko: And he used to be called Tom Major, and he'd perform under Tom Major. Obviously, there's the famous Major Tom from "Space Oddity" and "Ashes To Ashes", so there's a wonderful little coincidence there.

David Bowie: And "Laughing Gnome", he used to wear a gnome outfit. (laughter). Maybe not when he was in power, but one of them used to wear a gnome outfit. I swear it.

Brian Molko: They were a circus family.