Beautiful like a Cadillac

Excerpt from a short article focused on Moore's then upcoming WildC.A.T.S run and his plans on the series. Published in Hero Illustrated n. 25, 1995. 

Alan Moore: [...] In issue #21 -  which is the first issue that I'll write - the entire issue is dedicated to the putting together of the replacement WildC.A.T.s team, and it's only after that, with issue #22, that we break into 16 pages of the original team in space and then eight pages of the new team back on Earth; but the two stories will run in parallel and will hopefully coincide in, oh, about seven or eight issues time. 
The lineup of the new team is Majestic and Savant, who have both been seen before. There'll be kind of a replacement Grifter in the form of his brother Max Cash who turned up in the Jim Lee/Savage Dragon crossover.
He's a nastier character than his brother. In my script notes, I've said that he shouldn't be quite as corrupt as Harvey Keitel in The Bad Lieutenant, but he's getting there. The code name that he works under is Condition Red, and he'll be getting a new look to go with it.
Then there are two new characters that I've created for the book. One is a genetically engineered character called Tao, which stands for Tactically Augmented Organism. The other character is called Ladytron, which is in fact named after one of my favorite tracks on the first Roxy Music album. 
It seems to be about a woman but you suspect that it's probably about a car, and this character sort of combines some of the best elements of both. It's a female cyborg. with a lot of serious personality problems. She's beautiful like a Cadillac.

Brian Eno, again!

Below, final Q&A from the interview SOME MOORE. Part 2 of THE INTERVIEW FROM HELL! by Steve Darnall, published in Hero Illustrated n.8, 1994.

Excerpts from Part 1 are available here.

Obligatory dumb question: which album would you take to that mythical desert island?
Alan Moore: [long, slow, thoughtful breath] It's very difficult. I could never really whittle it down to one album or even 10 albums. I mean, you'd have to leave something brilliant at home, wouldn't you?
I suppose if I had to look at big influences, it'd probably be Brian Eno. Perhaps one of the early ones, like Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy or Here Come The Warm Jets. 

Or maybe Another Green World. That‘d be nice music for a desert island, wouldn't it?

Vanilla Moore Music

Vanilla Comics Magazine

In recent times I found out that Vanilla magazine, produced and published by Kali Discorporation in 2017, included a fantastic interview with Alan Moore focused on his music memories and influences . 

The whole magazine is quite an interesting reading: I highly recommend it!!!

Vanilla is available as both an 80 page Physical Magazine and a Digital pdf.

The Magazine costs £6.99 with £5.50 postage (UK Post Office International Standard - received within 3 - 5 working days). The Digital pdf costs £5 (file size: 17.9MB).

The Alan Moore Interview consists of 13 pages, including illustrations, and focuses on Moore's experiences with both Magic and Music.

 

For purchase, contact directly Vanilla's editor, Andy Williams at: andyxwilliams95 AT gmail DOT com
For more information about the creators and content, visit Vanilla's website: HERE.

Above, an excerpt from Moore interview.

VANILLA: What would be your earliest musical memory?
ALAN MOORE: It would probably be that strange morass of novelty songs by which children's radio in the 1950s was largely possessed. So, my earliest memories would be things like Nellie the Elephant and also much, much stranger things which nobody I've spoken to can remember; which leads me to suspect that I may have dreamed them. Those odd little songs that you sometimes remember from back then and they seem so strange by today's standards and tastes that they almost seem from a different universe.

I remember one, I Wuv You I Wuv You Said the Little Blue Man [The Little Blue Man by Betty Johnson]. It was about a woman who was plagued by some kind of hallucinatory Smurf, who apparently loved her, and it ended up with her throwing him off a building.

[...] It wasn't until the beat explosion of the early '60s that I really started taking notice, when I was about seven or eight. That was when the Beatles and The Rolling Stones and all other fantastic artists of the period were starting to emerge.

I wouldn't say that I had the best of tastes. I would buy Fabulous every week. This later become Fabulous 208; I don't know what the 208 was for. This mainly produced big colour pictures of all the top artistes of the day. So, at the age of seven or eight, I had one wall of my bedroom covered in cut-out figures of superheroes from the covers of comics and the other wall was plastered with pictures of The Swinging Blue Jeans, Manfred Mann, and some other bands which are probably forgotten. I remember Herman's Hermits being there. Cilla Black, at one point, back when she still seemed credible. I know that's a long time ago! [...]

For more information about the creators and content, visit Vanilla's website: HERE.

On journalism and Hawkwind

Excerpt from "Ripping Yarns", an interview by Simon Lewis from Uncut n. 40, September 2000.

I did a little hit of rock journalism myself. I did a strip in Sounds called 'Roscoe Moscow', and occasionally I'd supplement my income by interviewing people like Hawkwind. Unfortunately if Nik Turner made me a cup of tea while I was interviewing them I couldn't write anything nasty about them. So I figured journalism wasn't for me. 

--- Alan Moore

Alan Moore writes an article about Hawkwind published on Sounds issue dated Nov 6, 1982 and titled Wind Power – Alan Moore joins the congregation at the church of Hawkwind.

A song for Promethea

Promethea: a song by The Loose Ties

Greek band The Loose Ties has just released a song dedicated to... Promethea!
You can hear the song on YouTube, HERE.

Lyrics start like this:
I come from the depths of imagination 
I drink from the fountain of inspiration 
every time as a new incarnation

It sounds interesting, doesn't it?

For more info about the band, visit their Facebook page HERE.

Alan Moore on BBC Radio 6 Music!

Alan Moore and The Retro Spankees. More HERE.

BBC Radio 6 Music, Friday 4 Oct 2019 19:00!

"The legendary comic book writer shares two hours of his favourite music and chats to producer and writer Richard Norris about the important part it's played in his life and work.

[...] Hear him talk about writing, alongside his wide-ranging passion for music, magic, art labs and plenty else in between.

Expect tracks from Captain Beefheart, Joni Mitchell, X-Ray Spex, The Residents, Patti Smith and Sleaford Mods. Plus some of the music he's made himself over the years."

More info HERE!

Moore Music in Blow up!

Blow UP. n. 254-255.

Issue 254-255 (July-August summer special) of Italian monthly magazine Blow UP. dedicated to "music and other side effects" included a 4page special about Moore's musical connections and works by well known music critic Vittore Baroni for his great "Cabinet of Curiosities" column. 

Well done, Vittore! Bravo!

The Sinister Ducks

The Sinister Ducks.

Track A: March Of The Sinister Ducks.

Track B: Old Gangsters Never Die.

Format: 7". Situation Two, UK. August 1983.

More details HERE.

The Indelicates: Immoral earnings in the UK

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

A song from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Century: 1969, pp. 72-74, performed by The Indelicates. Video below. Enjoy!

The Ghosts of Watling Street and... Alan Moore

Frame from The Ghosts of Watling Street video.

The Ghosts of Watling Street, a song by Oddfellow's Casino included in their upcoming new album Oh, Sealand, features the voice of... Alan Moore. Moore also briefly appears in the song's video.

Oh, Sealand will be released July 14th.

Frame from The Ghosts of Watling Street video.

The Voice of Mandrill

Mandrillifesto!

We’ll put politics in the pillory,
put the art back in artillery.
We can weaponise wonder
and our voice shall be as thunder. 

More info HERE.

The music of Alan Moore (in 2002)

Excerpt from a small interview published in Mojo magazine N.99, February 2002. 

[...] Mojo: What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? 

"The Humors of..." by Lewis Furey. He’s an American artist who did a couple of albums, "Lewis Furey", and "The Humors of Lewis Furey". He was obviously influenced by the David Bowie glam scene, disco and leftfield Brecht stuff. 

[...] Mojo: What do you sing in the shower? 

Alan Moore: Most of my house is a hovel, but my bathroom is like something Alexander the Great would soak in. l was doing The Smiths yesterday, "How Soon ls Now?" l also tend to find meself doing Elvis Costello, Warren Zevon - it was "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" a couple of days ago.

Alan Moore's NEW music project

A Thousand Strands is the debut long-player from The Dandelion Set, a new collaboration between Glyn 'Bigga' Bush (Lightning Head, Rockers Hi Fi) and PK Chown (James Beige, Mr Liquorice).

The album travels back to their formative years in the mid-70s, with sleevenotes, lyrics and vocals by cult writer ALAN MOORE (V For Vendetta, Watchmen, Promethea...) as well as passing a whole cavalcade of musical landmarks en route to their present day compositions.

More info HERE. Order and buy it!

Titus Andronicus' last album and... Miracleman

Miracleman sketch by Barry Windsor-Smith.

Excerpt from an interview with American band Titus Andronicus focused on their fourth studio album titled The Most Lamentable Tragedy. The complete interview is available here.

"My biggest literary influence on this album was the comic book Miracleman, by Alan Moore. Miracleman, and Watchmen to a lesser extent, was an introduction to me for a lot of Nietzschean concepts. He was my other biggest influence, but I came to understand most of his ideas and how they applied to my own life through Alan Moore. Alan Moore was my Nietzschean interpreter. That's really pretentious.

They've led me on a journey. . . to discover the concepts that I find that pique my interest, that are relevant to my personal concerns. That whole übermensch thing, and the fact that the Miracleman comic talks about it — it would create a lot of fucked-up situations if it were real. That, to me, became an allegory for myself when I am a maniac. That's when I did every good thing I've ever done: write all the songs that everybody likes; put on a wild, entertaining show; deliver a boisterous, outlandish interview — all this stuff. I can do that stuff when I'm way up, but it's not the whole story of my life. That's the part that everybody likes, and yet, in my personal life, it's the part that everybody hates. It makes for a very annoying situation at home, because I can't turn it off." [Titus Andronicus leader Patrick Stickles]

The Decline of English Murder

"And English murder. It’s all over the place."
 

A song written and sung by Alan Moore. Music by Joe Brown.

More info here.

Moore music remastered

Etiquette of Violence: Expanded Edition will be release in December 2013 and will contain remastered versions of Moore classic songs Old Gangsters Never Die and March Of Sinister Ducks.

US link - UK link