Liquid News: 9 August 2002
transcribed by Vu
Liquid News: Citizen Kane best film of all time. Do you agree with it?
Louise: I saw it when I was 17, and I have to admit I was quite bored. I love Dr Strangelove and The Godfather, which I'm a huge fan of. But Citizen Kane didn't really do it for me.
Liquid News: What do you think of "Pop Idols"?
Louise: Erm, I just love it. It's so brilliant. I've watched everyone of them. I'm quite addicted.
Liquid News: I love you! Because, erm well, I mean, you're the first pop star who said they've quite enjoyed it, as opposed to saying it's ruining the charts.
Louise: I mean I like watching them. Having the best time of their lives ever. The only problem with it, is that they don't have talent. They just get pretty models and someone to write their song. It's such an easy gift for them.
Liquid News: She's not a work of art or anything. It's not my work, but the work of my very special music guest tonight, Louise Wener. As the face of Sleeper, she was there at the height of Britpop....
Now she's back with her first novel... We'll talk about book and sex, but first here is a musical flashback: (live clip of Inbetweener and Sale of the Century, and the beginning intro of Nice Guy Eddie.)
Liquid: Yes, good outfit! How do you feel when you look back on those songs? Do you miss it?
Louise Wener: Yes, nostagic really. I don't really think so.
Liquid: You look excellent. And earlier you said you had the time of your life. It was bad at the end, there were good bits and bad bits. Did you agree though, that you have the time of your life.
Louise: It was fantastic. You see the world and on top of the pop charts.
As a kid, it's great.
Liquid: But how do you get from there to writing a novel?
Louise: I got bitten by the bug and I started writing it and had a lot of fun doing it.
Liquid: You couldn't get to a more different profession. Because one: you're on a tour bus and there are so many of you and then you're...
Louise: You're in a room, it's good, it's really nice. It's just I've really think creative things with other people for so long. To be writing by yourself, it's really nice.
Liquid: How do you make yourself do it? Another to make yourself write songs, is it different?
Louise:
I've written my whole life.... When you're in a band, you work at night. You get up around one, or you have someone wake you up.
You get really, really lazy and spoil.
Liquid: You're still with and I believe still living with a guy in the band?
Louise: Yes, yes.
Liquid: Is it A. Romantic, and B. Do you find it strange that he used to know girls doing pop and who now doing...
Louise: He really likes it. When we used to work and live together it was quite difficult.
Liquid: OK, tell us a bit about the book
Louise:
It's about a group of three male friends in a band in their late 20s, trying to make it in a pop band. And I wrote it from the view of a man.
Liquid: Why do you do that?
Louise: I didn't want to write my story. I wanted to write about the back of the van with a bunch of guys. I love the sort of humour and comradely you have.
Liquid: I love the fact that those guys got groupies, but you didn't.
Louise:
I never got groupies.
Liquid: That's so unfair! What kind of boys got up to you?
Louise: Very pale faced who bought me poetry.
Liquid: Aww...
Good luck with it. Thank you for coming and telling us about it.
