Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

New Musical Express JULY 11, 1992 - by Brian Eno

MATERIAL WORLD

A QUESTIONNAIRE

Where are you and what is the ambience like?

Brian Eno: I'm at home half-watching a programme about the CIA. The ambience is increasingly paranoid.

What was the last thing you cooked?

Brian Eno: Potatoes sautéed in sage, broad beans, marinated chicken legs.

Who are your current favourite cultural icons?

Icons aren't really my scene but I'm interested in Salman Rushdie, Frank Gehry, Richard Rorty, Mimmo Paladino and David Salle.

Would you make a good game show host?

Brian Eno: Absolutely terrible; I can't pretend to be unfailingly interested in other people's lives and feelings.

What books are you reading?

Brian Eno: Barcelona - Robert Hughes; We've Had A Hundred Years Of Psychotherapy (And The World's Getting Worse) - James Hillman and Michael Ventura; Artificial Life - Steve Lacy; Essays - Peter Halley.

What was the last video you rented?

Brian Eno: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! - Pedro Almodovar.

Name a piece of music that can make you cry.

Brian Eno: Even Me - Mahalia Jackson.

Name a piece of music that can make you dance.

Brian Eno: Zombie - Fela Ransome Kuti.

What sports do you enjoy?

Brian Eno: Watching: football. Playing: snooker.

What was the first piece of music you ever heard?

Brian Eno: Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?

Fave radio programmes?

Brian Eno: Letters From America, analysis.

What causes would you support with your music?

Brian Eno: 'Citizens Against Fundamentalism', if it existed.

What are your most underrated virtues?

Brian Eno: Paying attention, acting on a hunch, daring to improvise.

Where do you spend your holidays?

Brian Eno: Spain, Italy, wherever I can book at the last minute.

Fave condiments?

Brian Eno: Patak's Biryani paste, raw garlic.

CD - salvation or curse?

Brian Eno: Convenient, ugly, over-priced, reliable.

Who makes you laugh?

Brian Eno: Ian Hislop, Paul Morley, my brother Roger, Bono.

Fave writers?

Brian Eno: Vladimir Nabokov, Salman Rushdie.

Fave composers?

Brian Eno: Webern, Shostakovich.

Punchline to a fave joke?

Brian Eno: So the first horse turns to the second and says, 'Well I never, a talking dog!'

Fave board game?

Brian Eno: Scrabble

What's the worst lyric you've ever heard?

Brian Eno: "If you pull down the blind, I'll go out of my mind / You have let yourself into my head" - Brian Eno, 1970.

When were you last drunk?

Brian Eno: Really drunk - two years ago. Somewhat unstable - eight months ago. Agreeably tipsy - last week.

Which public figures do you most dislike?

Brian Eno: Rupert Murdoch, Andrew Neil, Lady Olga Maitland, Albert Goldman, most evangelists, although I don't spend much time thinking about any of them.

Who's overrated?

Brian Eno: Nobody.

Who's underrated?

Brian Eno: I read this as 'Who would I like to receive greater attention' - Jon Hassell, Richard Bailey, Tony Benn, Stafford Beer.

Who's sexy?

Brian Eno: Vanessa Del Rio, Billie Whitelaw, Rosie Gaines, Virginia Bottomley (mostly the name).

Fave cities?

Brian Eno: Barcelona, Frankfurt, London, Rome, Amsterdam.

Fave Roxy Music songs?

Brian Eno: Mother Of Pearl, Same Old Scene, Beauty Queen.

Which four Abba tracks would you do a cover EP of?

Brian Eno: Fernando, The Visitors, Knowing Me, Knowing You, erm...

Fave painters/sculptors?

Brian Eno: Mimmo Paladino, Pierre Bonnard, Frank Stella, RB Kitaj, Paolo Uccello, Karl Schmidt Rotluff.

What are you frightened of?

Brian Eno: The impending collapse of American society and the global nastiness that could be released. The catastrophic convergence of any number of ecological crises with the inherent selfishness of fundamentalism.

Worst rock festival memories?

Brian Eno: Lincoln, 1972; howling wind, Passchendaele mud, continuous rain (and we were on stage).

Investment tips?

Brian Eno: Go long on roads and building stock (three years or more). Long on pesetas, Austrian, Dutch and Irish currencies. Short on dollars and yen and sterling.

I don't invest, by the way.

What was the last gig you went to?

Brian Eno: U2 at Earl's Court.

Which TV shows do you try not to miss?

Brian Eno: Transworld Sport.

Most embarrassing records in your collection?

Brian Eno: I'm embarrassed to say there's nothing I'm really ashamed of. My taste has always been vindicated by history!

How would you like to be remembered?

Brian Eno: As having been vindicated by history.