The first part of Andrew co hosting Offbeat magazine in typed version. I will try a life once I am ready with part three, promissed!
Andrew interviewed by/co moderating with Christian Eckert
Eckert: "Welcome to Off Beat!The great night has taken place, the reviews were very mixed, in my opinion it was as chaotic as it should, only one point bothers me a bit, that is Philip Boa. For he made a remark:(inserted video of P.Boa on stage, saying "Yes, I know, but it wasn´t our choice!")
We were wondering what he might have meant with that, and we didn´t find out. Andrew and I couldn´t figure it out, either. He is, by the eway, my studio guest, Hi Andrew!"
A.E.: "Good evening!"
Eckert: "Good evening!"
A.E.: "Good evening!"
Eckert: "Good evening! Well, good evening or not; Phil gave us a riddle there, for what did he mean? Did he mean he didn´t want to appear on stage or he didn´t want to appear with playback? For it came out that many people said we had forced him to use playback. But no, that was his very own wish to use playback! It must have been when he was on stage that he noticed what a major mistake he had made there, as he got his reward immediately. (Inserted Video of P.Boa onstage, getting a shower from the audience and leaving the stage in anger while the musictape goes on playing)
Yes, "Splut" it went.."
A.E.: "his own fault!"
Eckert: "His own fault, isn´t it? Andrew, what do you think about it? You can´t let anyone say such things about you?"
A.E.: "No"
Eckert: "Would you do such things?"
A.E.: "Absolutely not!"
Eckert: "Absolutely not.. Andrew Eldritch, The Sisters of Mercy, Hamburgian by choice, fencer, contemporarily on holliday, a longterm holliday. You have more or less just returned from Los Angeles. What did you do there?"
A.E.: "I got pretty bored there."
Eckert: "You got bored there, can that happen there?"
A.E.: "Oh yes! It´s the best city for that!"
Eckert: "It´s the best city for getting bored?"
A.E.: "The best of all!"
Eckert: "You have to explain that."
A.E.: "There is nothing there! Nothing at all, no people, only traffic."
Eckert: "And that´s why you have retreated there. (Andrew confirms) But you are a person who doesn´t like being in public anyway?"
A.E.: "I take a look at it."
Eckert: "Just stand asside an watch people."
A.E.: "Yes, I have difficulty when it comes to taking part."
Eckert: "Maybe we should just listen to some music to get your tempers up a bit. Do you have any wis...?"
A.E.: "If the need be.. Go ahead!"
Eckert: "Go ahead? A bit of music: (This Corrosion video played)
Andrew Eldritch is here as guest today, my co-moderator. Did you ever do such a thing before?"
A.E.: "I never did. It´s rather badly paid, isn´t it?"
Eckert: "It´s very badly paid.."
A.E.: "That´s why!"
Eckert: "(laughs)Do you earn enough, meanwhile?"
A.E.: "Hmm, nah."
Eckert: "One never earns enough, right?"
A.E.: "(hesitates) Well, I don´t"
Eckert: "When exactly did you come to Hamburg?"
A.E.: "About three years ago."
Eckert: "And why?"
A.E.: "That´s a long story.. a quite mortifying one!"
Eckert: "Why mortifying?"
A.E.: "Ah, just go on, please.."(Andrew toys around with cigarette and lighter)
Eckert: "(laughs) You can´t keep telling me to go on all the time.. It´s allright if you light a cigarette. Okay. You live at Hamburg, I won´t tell where for otherwise you´ll have all the girls in front of your door.. You have been living in the city for a while?"
A.E.: "Every now and then.."
Eckert: "..now and then.. And you are member of a fencing club. What do you do there, fencing? Is that the kind of sport for you?"
A.E.: "One might say so, yes. I was forced to do it as pupil as I couldn´t play rugby."
Eckert: "You couldn´t play rugby. I never liked that either, an awfull sport!"
A.E.: "Man simply is too brittle for playing rugby!"
Eckert: "And that´s how you got to fencing to keep the people at distance? Is it still like that today, a bit of Zen or the art of fencing?"
A.E.: "(thinks for 5 seconds) Yeah. In a way. That all sounds rather pompously in a way, but it´s true."
Eckert: "How many times a week do you go fencing?"
A.E.: "Two or three times, if I can spare the time for it."
Eckert: "And that´s really hard training?"
A.E.: "Yes, it´s quite strenuous."
Eckert: "So you really feel it in your bones?"
A.E.: "I feel it in my knees."
Eckert: "So, despite avoiding rugby, you have problems with your knees?"
A.E.: "Yes. But I survive fencing!"
Eckert: "You survive.. There are various kinds of weapons. Foil, sabre and rapier, which do you use there?"
A.E.: "Well, I am a sabre master."
Eckert: "A sabre master. Is that the heaviest? It isn´t the heaviest, is it?"
A.E.: "No, rapier is the heaviest."
Eckert: "Do you have enough training opprtunities at Hamburg?"
A.E.: "Actually not, cause here in Hamburg sabre is hardly used, so I have to fight with rapier. Which stresses the wrist."
Eckert: "Wouldn´t you like to go to Tauber-Bischofsheim once?* To take a look?"
A.E.: "For a short holliday!"
Eckert: "For training?"
A.E.: "For a hollidaybattle!"
Eckert: "That would be something?"
A.E.: "Sure."
Eckert: "I fear we have to watch even more music so that your tempers get still better. (Andrew giggles) Do you know "Turnpike TV"?"
A.E.: "No. Never heard of it."
Eckert: "Never heard of it? Well-That´s an english company, founded about 1981, which produces freaky video programmes. You never heard of them?"
A.E.: "Well, I don´t have a TV set, so..(laughs)"
Eckert: "So, Turnpike TV is a company from England that started years ago to make very abstruse and really really good videos available for sale. We allready saw some of the videos the Turnkipe boys made, for example "Two Cut". There also is firm belonging company called "The Turnpike Cruisers". And here comes the big deal for all Off Beat watchers: If you want the full catalogue what videos they offer, that´s everything from wallpaper videos (Turns to Andrew)Do you know these? (Andrew shakes his head)No? You put in a tape, and see, for example, an aquarium!"
A.E.: "(Whispers)Oh my...!"
Eckert: "Yes, but really good! Or, for example, one is called "Baby". And you only see a baby, one hour of nurseling! Anyway-really crazy stuff"
A.E. Interrupts Eckert: "Well, I´m only intersted in nude women and drugs!"
Eckert: "Nude women and drugs! We´ll continue there in a minute! In a minute!" Introduces a video by the Turnpike Cruisers)
*Germany´s fencing centre. Training site for the olympic teams etc.