03
May
19

The Martin Atkins Interview

Martin Atkins Extravagant Behavior Interview and photo shoot. Photos © Billy Bennight all Rights Reserved.

On a Tuesday afternoon, I join longtime friend Austin’s cultural arts and SXSW insider Peggy Ellithorpe with her friends for drinks at the Hampton Inn and Suites’ balcony for happy hour. I had been in Austin since Saturday for SXSW and it seemed to be the perfect time to get together and catch up. The balcony overlooked the Austin Convention Center from the east along with clubs, bar and venues interlaced and resting around the nexus of SXSW activities. It was a lazy and friendly affair as introductions were offered and conversations developed between us. Soon a stately gentleman with a definitive Rock and Roll persona and a young lady joined us for drinks. This was when the energy in our circle ramped up. The gentleman was Martin Atkins and his manager, Molly. Martin Atkins has legendary status as the drummer for Public Image Limited besides being a producer, a creative and driving force in Brian Brain, Public Image LtdMinistryNine Inch NailsPigface, and Killing Joke over the passing decades. We enjoyed an introduction and brief chat then I struck up an enjoyable conversation with Molly and arranged an interview with Martin the following day. 

Monday through Thursday the Hampton Inn has a happy hour starting around 4 and going till 7. The second floor of the hotel is a comfortable space with a welcoming interior and the “NOLA styled balcony” outside with big picture windows offers a satisfying view of the city. It was there I met up with Martin again and slid to a quieter corner of the hotel’s common area for our meet-up. Over the years I’ve met many people who were associated with the Sex Pistols or PIL. Among them were Steve Jones, Jah Wobble, Glen Matlock, Dennis Morris, and producer Nick Launay. The former three I’ve had extensive conversations with about those early heady days about the Pistols and PIL. So it is understandable I was excited to get yet another authoritative point of view from a key member of this musical watershed that spun out in so many directions changing music and the relationship of music to its audience forever. Martin is a smart and detailed individual keenly focused on his work with his own artistic and business contributions offering me a compelling insightful view of the workings of the Post Punk phenomenon of Public Image LTD. He further honed in my understanding of those tumultuous years with Johnny Rotten (aka John Lydon) at the helm of these musical juggernauts with portraiture and analysis of who Johnny is as a person and as an artist. Martin’s many gifts outside of being a talented drummer is an entrepreneur, an engineer/producer, head of his own record label, a writer, a college instructor among other things. To say the least he is busy and has his fingers in many different pies. 

We sat down for the better part of an hour and chewed the metaphoric fat and got down to a very matter of fact discussion of PIL, the music business and the creative forces that drive a creative genius like himself. Dig in folks because this is one hellacious wild ride and one interview I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. It’s that cool!

Extravagant Behavior: The first thing that came to mind when I was reading the article… I spoke to Nick (Nick Launay) when he was there (in the studio for Flowers of Romance years ago) when him and John locked out the producer. It brought back that memory. I thought, were you there when that happened?

Martin Atkins: I’m not sure. I remember some of these stories and I have my own stories I remember.

Extravagant Behavior:…and you can tell those stories.

Martin Atkins: Right… I do remember we recorded, I think Nick could be talking about something called “Home Is Where The Heart Is”. I think Nick has talked about doing a couple of dub versions. One extremely insane dub version, which was his first credit. When you listen back, you’re like “oh my god”, it’s like anything you overuse some tools when you first discover them. Then he re-did “Home Is Where The Heart Is” that was kind of chilled out. Around that period I also remember an assistant engineer that we put in the vocal booth and say okay we are going to have you test the mic. But he wasn’t testing the mic, he wasn’t testing it with the track. (the engineer called out) “Hahaha!, I had the oven repaired. Home, home is where the heart is…” and John just took whatever he was saying and turned it into a song. Which then they miscredited to Jim Walker the original drummer. Then Quintin Hailen (sic), who I will see in Tulsa Oklahoma, he wrote a book called “Rise and Fall” about PIL (Public Image Limited). He then dissected my drumming and juxtaposed it with Jim Walker’s drumming showing evidence that my drumming – Jim Walker was so much better than I was because of my drumming on “Home Is Where The Heart Is”. Which I drummed on and co-wrote was miscredited. I’m just like… yeah! But I know that was a really special time for Nick. It was his first 10 weeks in the business and part of my first 10 months in the business. The relationship I had then with Nick was kind of gleeful… would be the word I’d use. Gleeful children, because we were. I think I was 19, maybe twenty. I don’t know how old he was, probably the same age. Gleefully in the studio where Phil Collins recorded “In The Air Tonight” – just me and him! I’ve heard, and I talk about this in my book a bit. It’s about memories and how we remember things. John now thinks he was the mastermind behind the stuff as does Keith. The truth is, Nick and I laid down the basic tracks, if not, 90% of the musical part of “Home Is Where The Heart Is”. “Banging The Door”, “Four Closes Walls”, (it was in) 1981 and this was released as part of the “This Is What You Want” sessions. But this was released as part of the Flowers Of Romance recording sessions. For one reason or another Keith, John didn’t choose all of those tracks to be on Flowers that might have been more cohesive than it ended up being. I might put a Spotify playlist together of… 

Extravagant Behavior:…of what it might have sounded like?

Martin Atkins: Yeah! I do remember we, I just did a bunch of tracks and left on tour with my punk band Brian Brain in the US. I know there is a song called “Vampire” which was released on the 40th year box set. And I just thought, “Oh shit!” I’ve been holding onto this track for 40 years, maybe 35 years. So I went to Spotify to listen to it with just my drums. I don’t know what they’re doing by releasing that because I have the version with bass. keyboards and fully formed vocals. “Why wouldn’t they say hey Martin?” Because they know I’m gonna say, “what are you going to give me?”

Extravagant Behavior: Because it’s still works, and it’s still your artistry.

Martin Atkins: Yeah, and I’ve held on to it and they didn’t, so fuck off!

Extravagant Behavior: I know you’re in the process of writing a book around this particular theme. Keep banging the door?

Martin’s “Get The Fuck Out of Bed” coffee blend.

Martin Atkins: Keep banging the door, John, there was a couple of songs, where something I talk about in the book is this like (with) journalists and this might be a chapter in my book and all music journalist are cunts! And I say that because, you know, I have my masters degree now. I left school when I was 16 and I was a catastrophe at school… I take a slightly learned approach to my own background or the history of Punk, or whatever I am looking at. Most of the reporting I see about PIL goes along with the idea that if John is the singer, therefore, he walked into the studio with finished ideas in his head, relayed those ideas (to the band) much as a singer with a guitar, well okay, here’s the song, “She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah…” Things must go like this, and I want the bass to come in like this, then go up to the G and the band says yeah. I understand that, but I think that is lazy reporting, lazy investigative journalism. The truth is if you talk to me or Nick, John was miraculous in a way that most singers aren’t, most people know about are not. I heard somebody talk about a singer that did this as well. I forgot who it was… So we had fully formed songs that had bits, ebbs, and flows, ups, and downs. John came in and sang “Home is Where The Heart is”, “Four In closed Walls”, “Under The House” and whatever else was involved as a one take, fully formed, in his head, with bits we’d never think would go there and it was quite miraculous! And so the problem I have with people going along with these ideas, where I’ve seen interviews, with John where he’s taking credit for the engineering and production on Flowers of Romance, you know, which is obviously, not the case. I think Nick Launay made his career of it as I have made mine. To go along with his story is to actually deny the true genius of the miraculous genius of the guy, which I found quite breathtaking! I find the idea of a guy coming in with lyrics and the idea for a song, mapping that out for the rest of the band to be quite mundane and boring.

Extravagant Behavior: So, the American Bandstand… (Martin chuckles) That was a fun moment. I saw the video and I think I saw the video when it came out, but obviously many years later I seen it (again) and I enjoyed that performance. I had read that they had re-edited the song, so you really didn’t know it. When you came on stage was there a conscious effort or it just became a phenomenon and you all went with it?

Martin Atkins: So, once again… I hardly want to destroy the myth, the legend, of anarchic questioning, turning the tables, the whatever! But! Yeah, the truth is in every hotel room before that, 10 cities we played before that (American Bandstand). On the rooming list would be “Listening room”, okay, listening room. What the fuck was that?! We don’t want to listen to anything. About 4 or 5 cities in, I think Wobble might have said, “I was in that listening room and you can order food and do room service in that room and fuck Warner Bros.” “I” not realizing it was all our money anyway. So it wasn’t until the day before American Bandstand that somebody said you can’t do a 7-minute “Poptones” and an 8-minute “Careering” on American Bandstand. It’s a 4-minute format and our engineers have edited the song and we put a boombox in there (the listening room) for you to listen to the edits. So you could pretend to mime more effectively. It didn’t really affect me because the beat was the beat, or Wobble or Keith, really. But it affected John. And so, John not knowing when the words where going to come from, ran away. Started to camouflage… Started by pulling audience members, running away from the camera, which if you look at the work the cameras did a fantastic job. What was it, ABC? They did a fantastic job of four cameras covering (Martin is snapping his fingers to heighten the immediacy of his statement). I have some great photographs, they’re online actually, of all the shots behind the scene of Dick Clark looking despondent… But really, we didn’t know the songs and John did a great job of camouflaging it. And then, because, and we didn’t care. So I started playing the bass, Wobble started playing the drums… Oh well, this isn’t real anyway. Not realizing for a second the iconic show that American Bandstand was. They still show in the UK with the best of American Bandstand. My mom calls me, “You’re on the television again!” I remember as we walked into the ABC lot I remember going, Oh my goodness! This is where they film Soap the TV Show” that blew me away! Not that we were going to be on Bandstand. At that point Walker/we had done the front cover of Melody Maker. We did John Peel. Were did something in the UK called Old Grey Whistle Test, which was live. So it was the silly American mime thing.

Extravagant Behavior: That so many people had mimed before…

Martin Atkins: Right! There was definitely an “Emperors New Clothes” situation with PIL in general. We played The Palladium in New York second show on the tour. 

Extravagant Behavior: Was that the one with the sheet?

Martin Atkins: No, that was the Ritz! It was a few years later when I was not there. There was a Jazz drummer that Keith had employed – who didn’t get it! Made things much worse. But with the show at The Palladium John and Keith, Ted Cohen who was there yesterday crawled onto the stage… There we are with 3,000 people at The Palladium and John and Keith kind of gone off stage for a minute… Ted Cohen crawled on to the stage while I’m playing the drums says to me, “John and Keith…” I said, “Yeah…” John and Keith have gone back to the hotel. …and yeah!  And so I told Wobble, Wobble stopped and started playing one of Wobble’s tracks from the “Betrayal” album. Which I thought was really smart of Wobble and then we left. The New York Times came out the next day and I thought “oh, here we go!” John and Keith, we’re all going to get a pasting here from the press. The review was unbelievable. It said, “Just as the show began with drums and bass blah, blah, blah… It ended magically. Stripped back down to the foundation… and “aw fuck”, you know, John and Keith just went back to the hotel. Shortchanged the audience. Shortchanged the band. When you can’t do anything wrong, you might as well let people interpret as they may.

Extravagant Behavior: As opposed to saying, hey I mess up… Did you or you, or may have not been on the tour? I saw Public Image in Pasadena… 

Martin Atkins: Pasadena Civic

Extravagant Behavior: Yeah, were you there?

Martin Atkins: Yeah, I was there. I was in PIL from 79’ to 85’  except for the Ritz show.

Extravagant Behavior: Okay, great! This is my experience and then I want to hear your experience? We’re outside, and (the stairs) descend down. We’re all packed up against the doors (of Pasadena Civic). The bouncers pop the doors. They all have mace! They spray all of us! And then we all back up and then eventually we wait a long time. They eventually let us come in. Savage Republic is playing…

Martin Atkins: I still have that postcard, yeah.

Extravagant Behavior: Awesome! And my friend got mace in his eyes. So we went to the bathroom and there was a host of skinheads there selling LSD. (Yes, I’m laughing) And the band (Savage Republic) Then I went out to the front (entrance area at Pasadena Civic) where Bob Moss, a person I eventually came to know, but I didn’t know at the time was having a discussion, I guess with the manager about 10,000.00 dollars in cash, right now or the band doesn’t play! 

Martin Atkins: Bob Tulipan?

Extravagant Behavior: No, his name is Bob Moss. He was the promoter. You wouldn’t know him, I wouldn’t think. Anyway, he had to go to the bank to get $10,000.00 at like 9/9:30 at night. Then the band (PIL) didn’t play for 2 hours. We were all standing around. You may remember the skinhead crawling up the (the speaker stack) then you see him…

Martin Atkins: (we simultaneously) Diving…

Extravagant Behavior: Missing, the people…

Martin Atkins: Yeah.

Extravagant Behavior: Soo, how was it on the other side?

Martin Atkins: So Pete Jones was on bass. I can tell you what I remember. Backstage there was quite thickly sliced white turkey on the deli trays. I remember that, and we were playing something called Vectrex. It was a portable video game with “very rudimentary asteroids” and there were pictures of me, Keith, John and Pete around this little screen. And that’s why I remember. I think I might of said, this is all we fucking got out of this band was the $200 video game. I know there were riot police. There were helicopters. I think someone died. 

Extravagant Behavior: Yep, stabbed to death! 

Martin Atkins: Yeah.

Extravagant Behavior: The pool of blood was this big (it was like a 6-foot circle and I stretched out my arms to indicate the size to Martin.)

Martin Atkins: Which we didn’t know of at the time. 

Extravagant Behavior: We didn’t know till we walked through (actually around it later)

Martin Atkins:I think, did we do 2 nights there?

Extravagant Behavior: You did! ESG opened for the second night. I had to go back to San Diego. My friend, my best friend, he went to both shows. We love ESG that why…

Martin Atkins: We loved “Feeling Groovy.”

Both of us: Yeah, yeah! 

Extravagant Behavior: He said you put on a great show. But I wasn’t there. That first night. That was like the most insane I had ever seen. I actually watched… I assumed it was a person representing your interest had this discussion with Bob. Then Bob filled me in on the back story a couple years ago. And so, that was like… we got our money’s worth… I told my friend that’s when you had to fight for the music or the music is fighting you!

Martin Atkins: That was in the middle of a particularly strange period, where John and Keith, especially, didn’t want to tour. Didn’t want to be a Rock band on tour. Bob Tulipan, who was representing us at that time, has described this period to me as Keith, he sided with Keith, whatever Keith wanted. He thought, misguidedly, that the guitarist was the “Guy in the band” like Oasis, right, who wrote the songs and had the vision. I told Bob in New York, Jesus Christ, Bob there are 4 people in the band mate! So we were backward and forward. We were on the west coast before that to do San Francisco. Then back to New York. As I look now with my manager’s brain, having written a book about touring, “Oh, Jesus, God almighty, what were we doing?!” (The) way to spending all of the money, (while) making the money. 

Extravagant Behavior: You should go (touring) incrementally…

Martin Atkins: Yeah. Or not be a band.. or I don’t know… Yeah, yeah, so there’s lots of stuff I’m digging through and I’m trying to look at memorabilia on the one hand or evidence on the other hand. My book is called “Memories.” I’m not saying oh here is my story, here’s what I think, here’s my story. I don’t think there was any money. I think I was starving. I didn’t have train fare to get from 14th Street to 58th Street. I remember that, but here is a handwritten receipt for the Hotel Iroquois owing them fourteen hundred dollars. Which means at $40 a room we hadn’t paid for the room where I was living with Pete Jones, the bass player, for 6 weeks. That would go counter to anybody saying there was lots of money. If there, was the rhythm section wasn’t seeing it. It was some of these stresses and strains that led to the dissolution of that phase of the band. 

Extravagant Behavior: I can see that. You know, you’re in the back and this is taking place on the front. You don’t know and when you’re young you’re less aware. One you’re excited to be a part of something and then…

Martin Atkins: I was aware. My dad had a factory. He was in charge of 3,000 people. He used to play games with me as he was setting up classes and training sessions for his managers and he’d play those games with me. I was aware of ergonomics and just basic stuff. In this same period, we were in a loft in New York without the money to pay the rent. It was Blonde’s old rehearsal loft. 90th Street and 11th Avenue. I picked up the phone and called Bobby Startup at a club called Eastside Club in Philadelphia. I think Bobby is out on the west coast now. “I said Bobby, want to do a PIL show next week?” He said: “Well, we’re booked next week.” Martin: “Yeah, I’m sure you are. But if you want a PIL show it’s next Friday.” Bobby: “okay, how much?” Martin: “It’s $10,000.” Bobby, “but the “per-head”.” Martin: “I’m not interested in the per-head Bobby, if you want a PIL show nest Friday it’s ten grand.” He goes, “Aw, fuck, okay!” We needed money and I got us that money. We got into a car with drums and bass rigs in the trunk. Poor bum we probably put $8,000 in our pockets with that one show. That was juxtaposed against whatever with whatever crap we were doing with taking 10 people to LA and all the expense of doing that. So I was aware. We were all drinking. There were lots of drugs in that period. It was in New York. It was the eighties! But we were aware.

Extravagant Behavior: I’ve never got to speak to anybody about this. From a fan point of view, there were rarely those kind of experience.

Martin Atkins: It was no different than the Olympic Auditorium in 1980 on the first tour. You had no lights. No security. Well okay, look sometimes you do need security. Larry White who tour managed us on that tour. He (was) around actually. He remembers just trying to hold onto the monitors. People were just stealing the monitors. Look, you know, Rock and Roll is bad, alright, but can we at least can we hold onto the monitors. This is why I got fired the first time because by the time we get to San Francisco, you know, John and Keith were like, yeah fuck management, fuck the system. I said to the radio host, could you ask me during the interview why I have my own band Brian Brain, why I do that on the side even though I am in PIL? So he did? I answered him on the air “because I want to do something in my life that’s organized and vaguely fucking professional because this is a shitshow!” Keith was saying we saved so much money because we don’t have a manager, but we didn’t have shirts in LA. That’s ten thousand dollars. 10,000 people came to that show! A normal Rock and Roll show that’s six to eight thousand dollars in shirts we don’t have. Good job, we don’t have a manager!  

Extravagant Behavior: You know, that Public Image show you didn’t have any merchandise if I remember.

Martin Atkins: Yeah! Any manager would have said, hey a merchandise (table).

Extravagant Behavior:…and those people would have bought those shirts like crazy, I agree!

Martin Atkins: It was incorrect to call out Keith and John on the radio, but still true nonetheless! The way I’m handling my book, It’s my memories and my memorabilia but a guy just sent me a piece in French on the two Paris shows that became “Paris au Printemps,” that was my first gig. It’s everybody’s memories. Steven from Flipper is writing a piece for me. I think they had opened at The Olympic Auditorium. I think John is concerned with, he controlled the Public Images’ Rock documentaries. He’s very concerned with everybody’s opinions aligning. If everybody I speak to that contributed to my book “I’m a shit drummer” and whatever! Okay, fine but I don’t think I am and I don’t care! 

Extravagant Behavior: We loved the show. It was a great set! You guys were on. John got down on the ground (stage actually) and he did this thing. Everything we could ever hope for in the presentation. It was just the other stuff. 

Martin Atkins: Yeah, all the other shit!

Extravagant Behavior: The Sex Pistols and Public Image they were all very defining and Public Image redefined the whole concept of what had happened before. It set another thing in motion that was completely different than the Sex Pistols.

Martin Atkins: Very early! Punk went on for a while and became a caricature of itself. Punk was over so quickly.

Extravagant Behavior: In America, we used to joke when people would ask are you a Punk Rocker? And we would go “Punk is dead!”

“Martin Atkins: I don’t know when The Exploited album came out “Punk’s Not Dead” we were like, it fuckin is! 

Extravagant Behavior: It was so dead! By the way it was stinkin’!

Martin Atkins: Yeah!

Extravagant Behavior: You’re in a different stage in your life and you’re looking back on this. How do you quantify this looking back on this? You mentioned that this was cathartic in that Chicago Tribune  write up. How do you see… I used to admire John a lot and in the last couple of years, he’s diminished my admiration. (I’d like) To hear your opinion on how all of this is disseminating?  

Martin Atkins Extravagant Behavior Photo shoot and Interview Hampton Inn and Suites in Austin, Texas.

Martin Atkins: So, shitshow comes to mind. I actually, I really, I don’t know the word for it. So my presentation yesterday was “Punk Entrepreneurship”. I’m really proud of the things I was involved with that influenced me. I’m in a band! I’m in PIL and on the front cover of Melody Maker. We don’t rehearse, fuck the system! We do American Bandstand, what the fuck, right?! We did a lot in a very short period of time. I do Killing Joke. I start managing Killing Joke. I start my own record label. Because I have the record label I start to build my own recording studio. I teach myself to engineer and start producing. I start writing books. I’m booking tours. Creating things. At no point in my life have I questioned my ability to do something, which isn’t from an ego point of view. It’s not in my DNA to say, should I, could I be? I just wrote a book and I wanted to put lots of illustrations in it, which cost a fortune to layout. I messed up the printing process and made it difficult to have it as an “E-book” but I didn’t care. I didn’t question that I could start my own label or that I could publish my own books or that I could teach or any of these things. That, that was a direct influence of Punk! John, PIL, Denis, John, Keith, Wobble, all of those people! I’m still proud to be part of a cohort that includes Janet Lee, Wobble, Dave Allan all these fuckin people who were so inspired, matter of factly, went about their business because Punk told them could! It is very strange to be influenced by ’78, ’79, ’80, ’85 – John, I feel kind of sorry or sad for him today. I think I started feeling that when he was complaining a lot about 10 years ago. That he couldn’t get a record deal for PIL. You don’t fucking need one. I started my label in 1988. You are way more notorious than me! Start your own fucking label!  What the hell is it! You talk all about this stuff in the ‘70s. But you aren’t acting on any of the things you say. (His situation) started feeling a little bit sad for me. Here’s Wobble writing books, exploring and expanding himself as I feel I am. I feel Janet is. There’s John trapped in that box.

Extravagant Behavior: That’s interesting because he was such a forceful innovator and he’s not really looking outside the box anymore. He’s kind of trapped whatever… That’s a very intesting analysis.

Martin Atkins: He’s a powerful enough person to get away with a bunch of stuff.

Extravagant Behavior: It doesn’t seem like, well, not what you’re doing. He’s not the DIY guy.

Martin Atkins: He’s not the Punk guy! He’s a Rockstar with a minder. 

Extravagant Behavior: You know, Marky Ramone, did you see that snippet of Marky Ramone? You know when Marky Ramone said, “You don’t live it!” (referring to the SIR Q&A panelPunk a doc on Epix) When I saw it I thought that’s interesting that Marky is calling him out.

Martin Atkins: I wish I had the recording, for continuity reasons, because when I do my 2-hour Punk lecture and what it meant to me and Sandy Powell made a suit for me. One of the last times I saw John in California he was giving me directions to his house. I remember him saying to me “Come down Pacific Coast Highway, not the first left, that is Herb Alpert’s house, the second…” I was like “Wow, Herb Alpert had A&M and dropped (them)” and now John lives down the street from him.

Extravagant Behavior: Do you want to say anything more about the book?

Martin Atkins: I planned this out pretty carefully. I was in Tokyo, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, LA, London, Manchester workshopping my presentation in front of Janet Lee, which was really great because I haven’t spoken to her in 20/30 years. In front of Nick Launay, Ted Cohen. Workshopping it with, “hey, what do you remember?” We’re going to have a six week intensive period over the Christmas break to scan everything and work on the stuff. I’ve been writing pieces intermittently. Then Pledge Music got into a real mess. Pledge Music is a crowdfunding platform for music projects, books… It’s like Kickstarter but just specifically for music so it feels good. It’s not like Gofundme which is polluted by people with medical problems. But they got into a cash flow problem. Payments were coming in but payments weren’t going out. It turned into a little bit of a fraudulent situation. Potentially fraudulent. And certainly eroded most of the trust. I’ve spent from November till now trying to help them. When the knives come out in the music business the knives come out. There this schadenfreude of this like, “I don’t have this,  I can’t do it, but fuck you! …and I’m going to put you out of business,” I said, they fucked up, this is really bad, fucked me up. I had all this momentum going. Everybody is fantasizing about what the replacement for them will be. We’re not into 2 or 4 years into the fictitious company that doesn’t exist yet. I believe if Pledge Music is allowed to get through these troubles a better more artist-friendly, more reliable, trustworthy ally than we just delight in putting them out of business. We don’t know the problems of the next company that doesn’t exist yet. I’ve been sending them my, “Welcome to the music business you’re fucked” t-shirts and bags of my coffee. Hang in there and this is really fucking tuff! I hope you get through this. But nonetheless, my book should have been out by now. Because there’s been no money been sent to us and my guy has been doing some other things. We lost this concentrated effort.

Extravagant Behavior: Yeah, once you lose momentum you have to start all over and retool.

Martin Atkins Extravagant Behavior photo shoot and Interview Hampton Inn and Suites in Austin, Texas.

Martin Atkins: Yeah, I completely lost my focus. We’re back in January 22nd. A new semester starts. I’ve got new classes. I suspect now it’ll be a couple of months before I get to this. But it’s not bad. So you and Steven from Flipper can add to the Pasadena Civic conversation. So it’s not bad. So the book will come out this year. I was offered a book deal for “my book.” A couple of people say they want the whole thing: PIL, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Brian Brain my Punk band. I can’t write that. I could do a book about the PIL first American tour. I know enough about the “Train Spotters” the ultra-fans that they would buy that. I could write a book about “The Flowers of Romance (The recording Sessions)”. You know people want specifically focused things. I’m doing my PIL book. Then I’ll do my Killing Joke book. Then I’ll do Ministry, Pig Face, Invisible Records. Then somebody can mash it altogether if they want.

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