The Greatest Drug Of All

Photo by Gavin Watson

The Big Pink are two friends called Milo and Robbie who make noisy shoegazey music with an ever-revolving band of musicians including people like Akiko from Comanechi and Daniel O’Sullivan who plays with SunnO))) and Ulver. They’re causing a real flutter among the indie tipsters of London town right now, not least because pretty much everybody who turns up to their shows is in a hot band or a party promoter or a journalist. I like them mostly because of the way they sound like a druggier Mary Chain and the way it goes with the gay imagery they use in their artwork. For this article we got Gavin Watson to recreate one of his most famous shots from the Skins book but in a “homo-erotic” way as a tribute to the Big Pink’s innate gayness. Vice: So that was a pretty fruity photo shoot. And all the imagery you use is pretty gay. Are you gay? You’d make a cute couple, I think. Milo Cordell (keyboards, vocals): Well, we were thinking about this and I guess the gay thing is an affectionate thing of how much we love each other. But we’re not gay. Didn’t you go to boarding school together or something? No. How we met was on millennium eve at this stately home that’s owned by this guy who’s into a load of really weird stuff to do with obtaining higher states of consciousness through various surgical procedures that are odd to me. There would be up to 300 people dancing to drum and bass in the biggest country house you’d ever seen. In the morning, the mum would come out and she’d have a silver platter full of fruit like mangoes and watermelons but it would all have MDMA sprinkled all over it. That’s how we met. Robbie Furze (vocals, guitar): I was there once and I walked into a room in the house and the mum was in a ballerina’s outfit, spinning around the room and the dad was on all fours barking like a dog. They were feeding me drugs. And then the son walked in and said, “Mother! This crack that you gave me! It’s just not working.” They brought a big tray of drugs out and there was just anything you could imagine on there: crack, coke, pills, acid, 2-CB, 2-CI, heroin. Milo: You’d be in a five-way. Like an orgy with the mum and dad dressed as a dog? Milo: Haha. No. I meant five different drugs at once. The orgy wasn’t happening. Anyway it was an amazing night and we became friends after that night. After that we started a noise label in 2002 called Hate Channel and we put records out by acts like Robbie’s band Panic DHH. Robbie: And then I did a record on Digital Hardcore after I played with Alec Empire after Atari Teenage Riot and stuff. Milo: Then Robbie went on a weird Berlin squat thing for about five years. How was that? Robbie: It was fun. We would travel around in a crusty van and we would play for diesel until some crusties told us that we should never ever pay for diesel. Milo: I only went out there once and there were these girls that became part of Panic’s convoy and we pulled over to pay for diesel and they were like: “Vy vud you pay for diesel? Nein, nein, nein.” And they took us to a place where there were all these lorries and they would creep up to the lorries, take the petrol cap off, get a hose and suck it out and start stealing the diesel. Robbie: The thing is, all the squat scene is cool and stuff but it’s a bit, well, they say they’re anti-fascist but they all have very defined rules about how to behave when you’re in there. If you don’t look right it’s not good. It’s all about fashion and fitting in and it’s a bit lame and, well, narrow-minded and fascistic. Why don’t you go back to the country house and play a show there under the same circumstances as when you met? Robbie: I get a bit scared of that stuff now. It’s been the only time when I’ve come to from not being unconscious. I’d been out of operation for four hours and I came to and there were about 20 pills in my hand and I was like, “What have I just been doing?” and the people there were like, “Well, you’ve been here partying with us.” And I asked, “Where did I get these 20 pills from?” and they said, “Well, you’ve been talking to that drug dealer for the last three hours.” Haha. Okay. Well, I think I’ve got enough. Milo: But all we’ve done is talk about drugs. ANDY CAPPER
“Crystal Visions”/“Too Young To Love” is out now on House Anxiety Records. myspace.com/musicfromthebigpink