BRIAN WHITTAKER

Formerly bass player with REVENGE

When and where did you meet Hooky, CJ....???

My first meeting was at my interview for the band, at the Dry bar in
Manchester, everyone else was boot licking at the interview and i was
just my natural self.......I was on my way to a gig with a covers band
I was in and was in a rush and didn't think I would get it
anyway.............there were 95 applicants for the position...
And i was just me. and somehow managed to fool them into thinking I was
the ideal man for the job.....actually I think I only got it cos I
already had a 6 string bass.

When did u join Revenge?????
errrrrrrm about June 91,my 1st gig was the cities In The Park one at
Manchester I think I joined about 6 weeks before.
So I had to learn the full set, fortunately I had a lot of time off work
and was able to do it.
I got the position from replying to an ad in the Manchester Evening
News for a Joy division/Faith no More style bass player.
I was just about to retire (again) from music and thought the ad looked
interesting and managed to fight off about another 90 odd hopefuls, having the Shergold 6-string bass helped I think ha ha. 
 

Can u tell me who was on the Hidden track of Gun World Porn (on CD) a woman voice leaving a message on an answering machine stating " Give us a   ring when u get up, u won't believe what's been going on here this morning, so give us a buzz ".???

One for CJ I think, ill ask him, I know its a genuine call and it sounded
so good it was put on. People were always leaving strange things on the
Revenge answer phone.

Do you think Revenge would have been still around if New Order did record again???

Not sure really it got to the stage where something was going to
change, Hooky was pissed off with the direction and I think we all
were, the later songs we were producing were strained and not really
rock or pop.
CJ and Pottsy were experimenting more with samples and sounds and
trying to drag the music forward, I remember we spent a week rehearsing
and getting it all perfect with a cracking version of slave with the 5
string bass and lots of sequencing, only for Hooky to turn up from his
recording with New Order to kibosh the lot and say he wanted it to
sound more acoustic, hence the live version of Guard dog I've sent
you (Pottsy forgets his kapo at the beginning we were in tune but not
him).This track showed loads of potential, but when the electronics were
stripped out it fell flat on its back.
There was a lot of frustration especially for cj with the lack of money
coming in and with Factory going down the pan. no label, and Hookys day
job back on, it never really split it just sort of faded out.
I remember speaking to cj about 3 months after our last rehearsal, and he
said he was leaving, and in my mind I think we all knew it was over, for
me it was being at work, and watching TOTP live from the set of Baywatch
with New Order doing Regret, and I just thought well that's it.
 
Did you have the chance to listen to New Order "Get Ready"??? What
do you think about it???

I liked a couple of the tracks, cos I love that bass sound, but its
really one of those albums for me that's not really New Order I think the last
one for me was Technique everything after that has been for money and
is very formulaic and just cashing in on the past. Sad to say.
To be honest I could do one myself I think I've got all the secrets of
that bass sound. lol


Brian, what's it like to backup Hooky? He obviously has his own
distinctive sound, not the usual bass player - I guess having 2 bassists in the band allowed him to do a lot of things he otherwise couldn't?

-I was more the bass player and him the lead bass player playing most of
the lead lines and solos with the six string bass. It was great to play
with my guitar hero, as I'd learnt to play by listening to Joy Division,
and fantastic to hear that sound that he'd created, although the gear that
he used was always breaking down due to its old age. The racks that he had
were in actual fact at least 2 of everything because the gear was always so
temperamental.
 
Have you heard Monaco? What's your opinion on them? Would any of you work with Hooky again if he asked?
 
-Ha Ha! Yes I actually bought the first Monaco album ("Music For Pleasure")
a while ago, it's got a couple of the late Revenge songs that were made
into demo form, like "Tender" which we actually gigged in the final days.
And I do recall CJ getting a phone call asking him if he wanted to play
live for Monaco! To be honest, I thought the album was a real mish-mash of
styles with no direction and not a lot of depth, a bit like a load of
outtakes not sure what sort of fashion to go for, hence the dance tunes
with synths and the stone roses type guitar tracks. So not a lot of
consistency for me, not really my cup of tea, the single ("What Do You Want
From Me?") was good though - very catchy hook line.

Was any studio work done after "Gun World Porn"? New songs were
apparently written (a couple of them later ended up on "Music For
Pleasure"). Was a second Revenge album planned?
 
-No major studio work, just demos enough for an album. But Factory went
bust and Hooky went back to his day job (New Order) which really put
Revenge on the back burner.

What's your opinion on Factory Records and Tony Wilson? Obviously they had huge financial problems at the time. Revenge continued a while after Factory went on hiatus - were there plans to sign to another label? Were the 1992/93 gigs funded by the band or did you have sponsors?
 
-The gigs were always funded by the band, I don't think we made any money
out of them at all, it all seemed to disappear into the abyss of day-to-day
running. I think you'll hear this from a lot of Factory
bands. I made nothing out of the band at all - in fact I left considerably
poorer than when i started. It's not all glamour, you know! As for Factory,
well it's nice to put something back into the music scene, and I think this
is what they thought they were doing, only they spent the lot!
 
The drummer in the end was Mike Hedges. Is that the famous producer Mike Hedges (The Cure, Manic Street Preachers etc)?
 
-Ha, Ha! No, definitely not! I haven't seen him for about 3 years. Mike,
where are you?

Who wrote the songs? Was it a shared thing, or did Hooky write all
lyrics/bass lines, CJ all the keyboards/drum programming, and Hicks/Potts the guitars?

-When I was there, it was the usual band writing process. CJ or Pottsy
messing about on the computer with drum loops, etc, and everyone else
piling in.

You apparently played a few New Order songs live, what was the crowd's reaction to that?
 
-I think, to be honest, that's what half the crowd came for. But it was
nice to play them and to see the reaction.

In 1992 there was a gig at the Hippodrome in Oldham. Revenge were
headlining and the support band would later be known as......Oasis! Did you do any more gigs with them? 

-No, but I remember phoning a friend and trying to talk to him over the
racket of the support band. God, they were awful. That haven't changed
much, good cover band, good at ripping off the Stones, Beatles, Sex Pistols
etc. Surprisingly, they've made a very good living out of it! This, for me,
was one of the defining points in my decision to quit. I was still working
after joining Revenge, I remember checking my bank account to see if my
wages had gone in. They only just covered the overdraft. Revenge was
costing me money big style!
 
Any other Manchester bands from that era worth remembering? Any good upcoming bands?
 
-Molly Half Head, had the pleasure of sharing a rehearsal room with them in
a later band. Puressence, absolutely Manchester through and through.

After Revenge came a band called Hooky & The Boys -- they never recorded anything but appeared regularly on British TV, "The Mrs Merton Show". Were any Revenge members involved in this?
 
-Only Hooky and Pottsy, and my old bass amp! God, that was embarrassing
too, but Hooky used to say "any publicity is better than no publicity". The
theme tune was of course a bastardised version of the unrecorded Revenge
song "Born To Kill" (later released by Monaco, re-named "Under The Stars").
 
Dave Hicks' new band (ehh...I forgot their name) released an album a couple of years ago... have any of you been involved in other musical activities since Revenge?

-No!
 
Any anecdotes from touring with Revenge? Good/bad moments?
 
-There were some happy times, I'll get back on that one.
 
What's your favorite Revenge track?

-A track called "Soul" which was never released because it sounded to New
Order-y. It was a rip-off of an old 1960's song too, I remember Hooky
playing me the song and the melody was the same! That one, and of course
"State Of Shock", which I must say I think is better than New Order!

Thank you so much Bri!

Thanks much to Robert Elfving for his help