Fuzzbox

April 2010

It was only a couple of years ago you said: “It's not something that I'd want to re-visit. We keep getting all these opportunities to reform but it just doesn't appeal to me at all.” Explain yourself.

(Laughs) What a turncoat. Well, I changed my mind. I didn’t have any intentions of doing this again but Never Mind The Buzzcocks got in touch for me to go in the line-up. And they were so lovely to me. It struck me that people still quite have a fondness for Fuzzbox. After that lots of people contacted me on MySpace, then a big agent got in touch to set up a meeting to discuss Fuzzbox. I thought it wouldn’t hurt. I liked what he said. He wanted it to be a proper live band. It’s one of the reasons I’d not done it before because I thought they’d want us miming to backing tracks. I couldn’t do the Bananarama thing. Then we had a meeting with the other girls and that went really well. We’ve all had such a good laugh.


How long had it been since you’d spoken to the others?
Well they’d been to a few of my gigs with Vix & The Kix. I suppose we hadn’t kept in touch a lot. Everyone had gone off and done their own thing. Maggie works for the NHS in IT. Jo works for a car manufacturer. Tina is a teacher.


So all four originals are on board?
Tina decided not to. So it’s me Jo and Maggie with the bassist from Vix & The Kix and a new drummer. All girls of course.

Why did you split in the first place?
We just couldn’t agree anymore. It was very intense for the first five or six years that’d we’d been together. And we were growing up a lot. We’d starting the band at 16 and with all of us being in to the alternative scene it was just so easy to write together. But by 19 and 20 we were all changing so much and everyone was pulling in different directions. The other three had really had enough of the media circus.

But you loved the attention?
I wouldn’t like to say I was an attention seeker because there were lots of things I could have done to get fame but I love writing songs, I love making videos, I love dressing up, I love the creative process.

Being so young when it started do you think you missed out on anything?
I’ve no regrets. It was a riot. We were touring everywhere and having a right laugh. After Fuzzbox finished I just went mad on doing courses in reflexology, percussion, dance -- I really wanted to learn stuff. So I caught up on educating myself I suppose.

Your next single is a cover of M’s Pop Muzik. Why that track?
It’s something fresh but familiar. It’s fun and I think we’ve made it in to more of a proper pop song. We are doing a remix of Pink Sunshine for the summer as well.

Is this a one-off tour and single?
Chances are it will continue because the interest has been really good. As long as we are still happy to work with each other then we’ll continue. There’s talk of festivals and European dates. There’s every chance of a tour in the autumn with a new album. We’ll just keep going until we don’t enjoy it anymore.

Fuzzbox, The Bodega Social Club, Pelham Street, Wednesday May 19, 7pm, Tickets: £10, 0871 310 0000, myspace.com/fuzzchix