These were early times and nowadays so many acts especially Rap bands just rap over a pre recorded backing track. But back then it was taboo. I thought that too, but I couldn’t control the way this looked. The more I denied it, the more they printed it again. By the time I did my first appearances on American TV I was billed as the “Man who swindled 6 million dollars out of EMI for a band who couldn’t play.....”
This was not in the script. Ill winds were gathering force and I never saw them coming.
Because I had an album to make.
We had arranged to go to L.A after the tour. Recording in L.A.! Another dream come true. I pinched myself and forgot about all this negative press nonsense...
Oh, one other “on the road story” before we leave the tour..... Assassinate Thatcher the Prime Minister!
Two girls came into my hotel room one night, well... ok... um... stayed in my room one night. At a critical moment they said that if I gave them £20,000 that they would kill the Prime Minister and give Sputnik the film rights for our next video... er cant we talk about this in 10 seconds time I said, I'm not really focused, a man with an erection will say yes to anything ultimately... anyway, next day I was joking about it and my lawyer overheard... he called the police immediately. Next thing ten Special Branch men were in my room questioning me. In detail. Every detail.
This is madness but true... a press blackout was placed on the story thank God - Janet would never buy my excuse - and they looked for the girls, by coming on tour with us. This is suddenly more than just a laugh now. The girls contacted me again back in London... "We are in a hotel paid for by the News of the World, drinking champagne... they love the story... and by the way, that night we taped the whole thing...". Ever had that sinking feeling?
Eventually Special Branch caught up with them and it was the last I heard of it thank GOD... but I still go cold thinking of all those Special Branch guys listening to that tape and transcribing it...
It livened up the last dates on that U.K tour though. Sex and Violence. All Rock and Roll bases covered then. The tour continued in our amateur-like way, with our crew of UltraVixens, all looking the part but totally unprepared and not knowing what the hell they were doing. But that was our thing, larger than life actors learning on the job! Jessica Vixen, the sound mixer was driving the bands tour bus at 100 miles an hour as well as mixing the sound. No one mentioned to me she was out of it on a mixture of dangerous drugs. Everyone of the cast screeching their heads off. What had I created? I would sit in the tour bus regarding my cast of crazies with a directors eye. I’m amazed we did not all get killed and there were some hairy moments on the M6. Now that would have been a story.. After one stupendous hit record too. Perfect. On with the movie.
I wonder now what the others were feeling and thinking, my actors placed in my increasingly out-of-control movie. It simply never occurred to me to ask or to wonder. They seemed to be having the time of their lives, growing every day more and more into the roles I had created for them although it did concern me slightly that they appeared to be more focused on being stars than being musicians, but who could blame them - that is why I had chosen them in the first place....
Meanwhile I was on the portable phone and planning the next scene.