paperback writer
recently suede fanzine had the chance to talk to david barnett about his suede biography, love and poison (l&p), and its paperback release.

sf: it seems like the publication of l&p has made you a bit of a celebrity in your own right. i’ve seen numerous people asking you for autographs and photos. you were rushed off your feet at the ica. that must be how you hurt your ankle – running from your public! how do you feel about that? are you gonna have to become a recluse and have your new pairs of jeans shoved through the catflap or are you handling it ok?

db: undeniably that sort of thing can be quite enjoyable but it also means that you have people resenting you and making assumptions without even meeting you, which can be a bit disconcerting. so i’m quite happy to be a recluse now.

sf: was a paperback edition of l&p always planned or did it happen cos of the split or cos good sales warranted it?

db: it was always planned as long as the hardback did well. it actually did much better than anticipated and they reprinted the hardback only a couple of months after the initial print run.

sf: how much work did you have to put into the paperback edition? was it just a matter of adding the coda or did you originally intend to include other info that didn’t make it? i thought recalled you saying something about amending the chronology?

db: to be honest i didn’t really want to have anything to do with the paperback. i felt it was far too soon to add another chapter. i would have preferred the dust to have settled a bit, or brett at least to have released his new masterpiece. understandably none of the band wanted anything to do with it either, so i didn’t really feel it was worth writing any new bits. but the publishers were adamant and it turned out i was contractually obliged to write a new epilogue!

sf: do you think it was an asset or liability writing the suede bio while actually being employed by suede? surely, you had really good access to all info and people, but on the downside, there must have been pressure to advance a certain master narrative, that is, the band's history as the band sees it, kinda eliminating the opportunity for you to inject your own assessment of things. in particular, it seemed to me like the whole head music is the shambolic pipehead album and a new morning is the lovely i’ve-kicked-my-drug-habit-and-am-at-one-with-the-universe is most decidedly brett’s construct and one that actually doesn’t work to explain either of the albums adequately. did you feel that you really had a lot of freedom, or was there a sense that certain things were absolutely expected?

db: i was amazed at the freedom i was given. i wrote it as honestly as i could and was expecting it to be censored left, right and centre. in the end only about five paragraphs were substantially altered. obviously being in the thick of it gives it a slightly skewed perspective, but the idea is that it is the true “inside story”. and it is.

sf: at times, it seems like l&p’s subplot is a litany of brett’s confessions of bad behavior. do you think that’s true? or is it simply accurate that brett was running around getting into trouble and getting fucked up left, right and center while the other band members were much more low key?

db: i think it’s more than a subplot. i think the various lifestyles of all the band members immediately dictated the band’s direction, for good or bad. it’s probably more obvious with brett because he wrote the lyrics. and probably took more drugs than the others!

sf: was any event 'enhanced' for the sake of creating a juicy story?

db: inevitably, when anybody tells a story there’s a bit of chinese whispers involved. that’s why there are a few incidences when there is more than one version of the same event described. the truth as always is probably somewhere in between.

sf: it sounds like brett got a bit tweaked with you for saying in interviews that poor sales played a part in the decision to split. in the last chapter you write that he sent you a rather tersely worded email. but in the harshest analysis, a band needs to be a successful business in order to keep afloat. so was it really at least partially about money? had they run out of cash? and, if so, was that cos somebody finally taught brett how to use a cash machine?

db: i find it hard to believe that dwindling sales can’t have made some impact on the decision to throw in the towel. it certainly wasn’t a financial decision, as they were still raking it in live, especially abroad. but if it was me, i’d find it hard not to think “what’s the bloody point?”

sf: of all the people you interviewed for the book, who you would say had the most impact on what you wrote?

db: brett anderson.

sf: in hindsight, is there anything you’d change about the book? things you wish you could add, things you wish you could remove or say differently? any anecdotes that you were just dying to get in there that didn’t make it for whatever reason?

db: it would be nice to correct all the stupid spelling mistakes and all that kind of thing but the only thing i’m really pissed off about is that ridiculous editing of the last paragraph that makes it completely nonsensical.

sf: you seemed to put the book together incredibly rapidly. did you encounter any serious obstacles along the way, though?

db: bernard not wanting to be interviewed was a disappointment, though hardly unexpected.

sf: why didn’t bernard want to participate in the project? that was a shame.

db: to be honest i would have been amazed if bernard had agreed to it. i think you only have to read the book to understand why. it was obviously a very painful time for him and something he’d much rather not have people like me raking up. if i was him i’d have told me to fuck right off! it was quite a thrill to meet him at last, though, if a little daunting.

sf: is it true that l&p sold more copies than singles did? have you been surprised by the sales of the book? is the paperback also selling well?

db: i don’t know the sales figures for the singles album, but i’m pretty sure they’re much more than the book has done. i’m very pleased with the sales of the hardback. i’ve absolutely no idea how much the paperback has sold and i don’t really care. i think they have to sell about another billion before i see another penny from it!

sf: were you pleased and satisfied with the people at andre deutsch (publishers of l&p)? in my experience, rock bios are just about the lowest organism on the food chain at any given publishing house and aren’t given much attention in terms of editing and marketing, etc. did they do right by you?

db: as with everything, i was pleased with some aspects and displeased with others. they turned it around very quickly and it looked pretty good, so they deserve a lot of respect for that alone.

sf: did you and dave thompson have a conversation at any point about your book projects? it seems that you were both sitting down to write suede bios at just about the same time.

db: none whatsoever. i believe he’d started his long before me. although i’m not sure why i believe that. i’ve actually recently been approached to go over his copy to check for factual errors. i really must get round to that soon!

sf: why does brett have a bee in his bonnet about graham norton? i heard that graham has always been a suede fan.

db: i’ve no idea. i love graham norton! i think brett’s humour is perhaps more sophisticated than mine.

sf: have you any inclination to write another book? or is the focus on being a famous boyfriend now?

db: not for the foreseeable future. perhaps i will write the official history of the boyfriends one day.

sf: was there/is there presently acrimony in the suedey world? are the band members speaking to one another? do former staffers still speak to any of the band?

db: i really don’t know, i haven’t really seen much of them this year so i wouldn’t like to say. actually, i saw alex last week, but we didn’t talk about suede at all. and that’s true!

sf: to revisit a famous suede.net poll question, which member of suede would you personally most like to punch in the face? and finally, which member of suede would you be most likely to exchange longing looks over the urinal with?

db: i don’t think i’ve ever punched anyone in the face and i don’t plan to start now.

sf: ah, you diplomat!