You know the song, you know the video, you know the chorus: Tequila, it makes me happy , and whether you love or loathe it, you can t deny that it s a catchy motherfucker of a tune. A marked change of direction for its composers, Terrorvision, who are more famous for big rifferamas than pristine pop. Did they foresee how successful the single was going to be?
Sort of, answers singer Tony Wright, in a broad Bradford accent which wouldn t sound out o place on Coronation Street, but you can never say a single is going to be successful. I think the worst songs in the world are usually the ones that climb the highest in the charts. I think a lot of it is to do with the radio play that we got. If every single was bandied on the radio like Tequila was, then we d be the biggest band in world.
Surely the video must have helped too, with the band and friends in a happy party vibe, knocking back gallons of the Mexican firewater. Our own Sean Hughes even makes an appearance.
It was pretty rushed actually, admits Tony. It was like here s #50, go make a video . So we all ran out and learnt a dance and invited a load of people down to a place called Arizona in Camden and just got a party vibe going. It was enjoyable to do because we hadn t been sat around for weeks thinking really hard about it. It was all on the spur of the moment, go with the flow.
Speaking of tequila, Terrorvision have garnered quite a reputation for consuming vast amounts of the spirit, as well as any other alcoholic delights they can get their hands on. In fact, the song itself is reputed to be about Tony s infamous tequila binge in Madrid, when he tried to prize the H from the Hard Rock Cafe sign only to fall and break both his ankles. So is their hard-drinking reputation intact, then, or have they learned their lesson?
I think if there s four in the band, then one will learn and the other three will carry on. By the end of the tour, the one who has supposedly learned will think I m not doing this all the time , and will join back in. It s like there were five in the bed and the little one said roll over , he laughs.
The amount of times I ve laid there in the morning and thought that s it, that was the last drink ever. I think we ve all done it, he admits ruefully. But since Tequila , we re being bombarded with bottles of tequila now. It s alright. We can drink. I mean, we re grown blokes and that but when you have so many bottles of tequila that you have one each, every night of the tour, you become pretty ill with it, actually. Maybe we ll call our next album Bicarbonate of Soda or call it after some hangover cure.
Terrorvision are touring in support of their latest LP, Shaving Peaches, which is a departure of sorts for the band. Instead of utilising the talents of long-time producer Gil Norton, the Bradford lads opted for four different producers, including Edwyn Collins and Utah Saints.
Tony explains: If you want a loaf of bread, you go to a baker; if you want a joint of meat, you go to a butcher. You can go to a big supermarket chain that have all these things inside but the quality isn t as good as the specialist in each thing. We had all these songs and they wanted to go in different directions, because a song can write itself as much as be written by a band. We thought that instead of getting a big supermarket producer in, that can fit them all into their genre, why not take them all to the extreme.
Some people have said that it s a bit of
a mish-mash and it takes a long time to get into. But there s no point in making the same album again. If you want to listen to the old style Terrorvision, put the old album on.
So, a new and innovative Terrorvision make up your own mind. But one thing for certain is that the Bradford boys have endured way beyond their contemporaries, probably due to the fact that they were never obsessed with looking cool.
We ve seen so many people who try to be cool, muses Tony. And they re only what
is cool at that moment. It s really uncool when you re one thing one minute, another the next minute.
I think the coolest person in the world is probably Paul Kossoff out of Free, but there s no point in me going out and trying to be Paul Kossoff from Free: I m Tony Wright from Terrorvision. You ve got to be yourself and be a bit honest, he says before adding with a bruised laugh, But a lot of people think we re pretty cool anyway. n
Shaving Peaches is out now on Total Vegas.