|
Nothern Lights
The Guardian (19 May 1998) Health: Rock therapy Singer Louise Wener tells how, after a life of rock'n'roll excess, she's now at least thinking about exercise... Louise Wener, lead singer of the indie band Sleeper, which has just completed a national tour, leads a life of strict rock'n'roll debauchery - late nights, booze and take-aways. She has spent her life indulging to excess and avoiding physical exercise. And diet? `Salad', she says, `is strictly for decoration, it's not the sort of thing I would ever consider actually eating.' She has done nothing to stay thin and beautiful, so you do have to wonder, does she have her portrait hanging in the attic? `No, not a portrait,' she says, `but I do have an exercise bike in the basement... well, at least a few parts of it. Before the last tour two years ago, I decided I needed to do some exercise in preparation. I bought the deluxe bike with a speedometer and assembled it at home in front of the telly, but pedalling hurt my legs, and it seemed an enormous amount of effort. I think I only used it twice, and then it got dismembered.' Suddenly, she becomes defensive, a flash of her famed indie-girl attitude passing over the unblemished face. `You sure you want to interview me for a health page? Just the idea of joining a gym seems like treachery to me. I haven't done a day's exercise in my life.' Louise's dread of physical exercise goes back to her school days. Asthma meant she was bad at sports and always the last to be picked. Two decades later, the mental scars remain. `For me, games teachers are sadistic beyond belief. One in particular made it her life's work to humiliate me. She'd show me up in front of friends, then make me sit in the freezing cold. I can't remember her name, I've repressed it and I'll need therapy to get it back, but if I see her again I'll punch her on the nose.' When Louise reached 17 her asthma miraculously cleared up. Unfortunately, at the same time she split up with her first serious boyfriend and drew comfort from cigarettes. `I smoked for about three years, which destroyed any health I had begun to get back. Then, when I was 20, my father got cancer. I gave up smoking instantly.' Next stop was an English and Politics degree at Manchester University. Louise dropped out, signed on and started a band which later was to be named after her favourite Woody Allen film: Sleeper. `Back then I'd go out clubbing every night, sometimes dancing all night. I don't think I could do that now.' Three cerebral and successful albums later - one gold, one platinum - Louise hit 30. Now her attitude to health and fitness is beginning to change. `I looked at my friends and realised most of them were alcoholics. I had been drinking beer and wine every day for four years. It started to make me feel depressed and I put on weight.
Source: The Guardian
|