Hot Press Gets Up Close & Personal In London With Eddie Vedder

Hot Press was in London yesterday for a Pearl Jam album playback event in the Lafayette hosted by the main man himself, Eddie Vedder who was accompanied by his eighteen-year old daughter Olivia.

Resplendent in a rakish hat and sporting a Zapata-style moustache, the singer was still buzzing after jumping up on stage and performing 'The Punk And The Godfather' with his heroes of heroes, The Who, the previous night at a Teenage Cancer Trust gig in the nearby Royal Albert Hall.

"There are books that I've maybe read five times," he told us. "I might have watched 2001: A Space Odyssey two hundred times. I've listened to Who songs a million times, maybe two million times!"

In a further reflection on the role music plays in people's lives, Eddie joked: "There are people who fucked at Pearl Jam shows. Maybe not at them but afterwards. And continued fucking. They've had kids and named their kids after me. That's weird! I'd prefer them naming their dog after me. 'Here Vedder!'"

As for Pearl Jam, "We're a family," he said, "who've been through all these things together. Getting along... because we haven't had artistic decisions to make for two years now! How are we going to handle that (this time round)? Is someone going to take the position of devil's advocate? We don't need Satan in the room!"

In addition to telling numerous yarns – we loved the one about driving out to a secret Fugazi gig in the desert with a pre-release copy of Nevermind for company – Eddie was also in top tequila pouring form with, Patrick Kielty eat yer' heart out, free shots for everybody in the audience.

He also threw shapes, lip-synced, air guitar-ed and goofed around with the invitees as Pearl Jam's twelfth album, Dark Matter, was played in its entirety. All we can tell you about it at the moment is that it's an absolute belter, and is seriously going to rock the masses when it's released on April 19 and then dipped into on June 22 when they play Marlay Park with Richard Ashcroft and The Murder Capital. See you down the front!

We'll have more – lots more! – words of wisdom from Eddie in the April issue of Hot Press.