"Influencing the stars
of tomorrow, ripping off the
non-entities of yesterday," was how Billy Childish sub-titled
his 1994 Thee Headcoats
album, Conundrum.
And with the likes of Beck, Kurt Cobain and The White Stripes
all naming him as an influence
on their work it could be a motto
for Childish's 30-year career.
"The aim of a lot of music today
is to supply soundtracks for television commercials," he says.
"I am interested in the elemental aspects of music and art. Other people usually do a digestible version of what we do. It's like we are the wholemeal bread and people prefer Mother's Pride.
"Artists and famous people say
they like what we have got. They like
to court us, then they take elements and ideas, use smarter marketing
and get applauded for doing what
we have done in a watered-down way.
"It's okay. They are at liberty
to do that. I wasn't counting on being
a cult artist or an inspiration but
apparently that is our lot."
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With more than 2,500 paintings,
100 albums and 40 collections of poetry behind him there is a lot to inspire.
The latest in the long line of outfits he has set up is the trio The Musicians Of The British Empire, which
is visiting Komedia.
A lot of the ideas encompassed
in the new band focus on the
changing times we are living in.
"I feel more akin to my grandfather's generation who aren't with us any more," says Childish. "Once the chaps who fought in the Second World War died off, people seemed to have been allowed to behave more abominably.
"Thatcher gave permission for
people to exhibit their worst traits."
His feelings about the modern world have been captured in the songs Joe Strummer's Grave, the forthcoming Thatcher's Children, which is the title track to his next album, and in 2006's Snack Crack, which predicted the credit crunch with the lines: "Here's a little sweetie to rot your perfect teeth/ here's instant credit to help you have belief".
"It's a contemporary commentary," he says. "I like doing that every now and again, but people get quite upset
if you say things about things you
don't like. Today you are meant
to be somebody who likes everything, you're not allowed to be a critic."
Despite more than 30 years on the music and art scene, he still feels
like an outsider and dislikes the tags his work is sometimes labelled with.
"I have been blamed for the lo-fi thing," he says. "But I don't consider what I have done as lo-fi.
"People sometimes mistake
directness or simplicity as being
wilfully bad, but we think we are
wilfully good. When you make a record it should be at the level of your first album. It's trying to tap into that
primal energy available to anybody."
After 30 years he is talking
about reducing the amount of touring
he does, although it doesn't look
like he will be cutting back his
workload any time soon, with the Thatcher's Children album due for release later this year, and a blues album on the cards soon too.
"I upset people by doing too much
in all areas," says Billy. "They feel
it makes it all worthless. You can't have unmetered expression if you are
English. There is a lack of commercial sense in what I do, and that means
I must be stupid. At the moment I am
an embarrassment to people who are working in those fields.
"Once I am dead it will be all right. My position will be assured."
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