Te Inspiral Carpets need no introduction. You already know all their organ led
anthems..Saturn 5, I Want You, Dragging Me Down, Indian
Rope..the list goes on and on. I had a super chat with legendary dude and keyboard player Clint Boon, also known for being a DJ on Radio X, about where the Inspirals’ cow design came from, how John Peel helped the band and why he always shaves before his radio show. Tis is how it feels to be in a perennially successful and well loved band for nearly 30 years. Newbies, take note.
How did you come to learn keyboards? It was a proper accident really. As a kid I wanted to be in a band and be a popstar, but I never studied instruments at school, I just wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll singer. I was born in 1959 so I grew up through the 60’s and 70’s and as a teenager 1950’s rock n roll music was my first love, people like Elvis were a real inspiration. When the punk rock thing happened in 1967 I was 16 or 17 and that was the moment I realised I could actually do this. A lot of the punk rockers I was watching like Te Buzzcocks and Te Fall and Te Clash weren’t amazing musicians, they were working class people like me so I realised that I might have a chance at doing it too. Seeing Te Sex Pistols in December 1967 made me get off my arse and start doing it. I tried a few instruments and I just built my own set of really lo fi recording equipment at home through the 80’s, collecting microphones and tape recorders, guitars, and then I stumbled across the Farfisa Compact Duo keyboard which is what I still use now. Tat sound is now what I’m known for, and what people associate with the Inspirals.
12 / December 2015/
outlineonline.co.uk
Who has inspired you as a keyboard player? Te obvious ones are people like Ray Manzarek from Te Doors, Dave Greenfield from Te Stranglers and Phillip Glass. I couldn’t play alongside any of them! Tey’re the best in the world and I’m still a punk rocker, I’m not a great keyboard player, I’m a well known keyboard player. When the Inspiral Carpets started out, what was the aim, and who were your initial inspirations? When anyone starts a band, you don’t
assume you’re going to make any money, you just want to make a record, and that’s usually just a single. Back in the day when the format was vinyl that was a real achievement. You’d find the money to record, if you couldn’t find a label to release it you’d do the pressing yourself, so by the time you got your vinyl in your hand that was a massive achievement. So our aim was just to make a record and to make music that sounded like our heroes; we were emulating the Velvet Underground, Jefferson Airplane, the
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