Last month I got The Radiators From Space CD and was amazed to how great it was..In my review i mentioned I would love to interview Philip Chevron... Within days I got an email from Mustard Finnegan from Shite n" Onions with a offer to interview Mr. Chevron.. I got my wits together and got my questions together.. Of course I had to ask him about my pal Shanne Bradley... She had been in The NIPS with Shane and he had penned a song "Shanne Bradley" for The Pogues.. It was a special moment to be able to have a chance to ask the beloved Mr. Chevron some questions... I hope you all enjoy my interview with the one and only Philip Chevron.

When The Radiators formed in 1975 in Dublin what was the band called then?

The origins go back to 1971 really when Steve Rapid formed Bent Fairy and the Punks, which evolved into Greta Garbage and the Trashcans. By 1975, when I joined up with Pete Holidai and Steve, they were still trying out names. When I joined, the band was called The Hell Razors and then was briefly Rough Trade before becoming The Radiators from Space. As you probably know, we're still faffing around with the name 35 years later! Steve had better luck with the band he took under his wing after he left The Radiators in 1977. He told this young band he found their name, The Hype, to be insulting to the process of making music. When they challenged him to come up with alternatives, he offered them three, one of which, U2, they settled on immediately.

I personally really liked the name Greta Garbage and The Trashcans. Why did you change the name of the band?

I didn't change it of course, but my guess is that Steve and Pete changed it because it felt a bit Glam Rock by 1975.

Was the name Great Garbage a play on words on the reclusive actress Greta Garbo?

If by that you mean was it a pun on Greta Garbo's name, the answer is yes, of course. I like to think it also had something to do with the fact that, like Garbo herself in later life, GG&TC never appeard in public!

Very clever ! Who were the original members in the band?

Although I wasn't in the earliest manifestations of the group (see above), my joining in 1975 turned out to be the catalyst that got us a full line up for the first time. I had been introduced to drummer Jimmy Crashe around that time and, for a short while after I left school (also 1975), I worked as a messenger boy in a Central Dublin firm of architects. The boss's son, Mark Megaray, was a bass player in search of a band.

Do you remember your thoughts the time when you signed with Chiswick Records?

We learned that Chiswick had liked our demo the same night we did our very first gig. Our friend Eamon Carr, who had produced the demo in October '76, took it to London and got a response from Chiswick immediately. He phoned us to tell us on the day of the show (on November 13) opening for Eddie and the Hot Rods in Dublin.

The significance of this was that, for years, Dublin bands would go around spouting bullshit to each other about how they were on the brink of signing an international deal. It was like a music scene version of the Dublin literary scene, where everybody is always writing a novel. It irked the hell out of the established music heads in Dublin that we got our deal without actually playing a single show. To me, that was as good a motif as anything that the rules had changed and we were doing our part to change them.

The album was released in 1977 right? How many records did you release with the label?

Our first single was "Television Screen", released in April 1977. A bunch of singles and two albums followed initially - TV Tube Heart (1977) and Ghostown (1979) and then a 10th Anniversary edition of Ghostown (1989 - our first CD) and a couple of compliations in the 1990s, Cockles and Mussels (1995) and Alive-Alive-O! (1996).

But in fact, in Britain at least, almost all our records have come out on Chiswick - though the label is long since defunct, the parent company (Ace Records) resurrects it especially for us when it licences our more recent work. Trouble Pilgrim (2007) and our new one, Sound City Beat (2012) are both on the Chiswick label in the UK.

Your release "Ghost Town" received all sorts of accolades from the press but it did not sell well. Looking back now. Do you feel it was because of lack of distribution? Or did it just went over the general buyer's radar?

Crucially, all the accolades Ghostown received in 1979 were in the Irish media. In Britain, where we were then living, the reviews were comparatively negative and it was clear that the album had not connected with media or record-buyers, possibly because we had developed and expanded our music so that it no longer fitted the lazy UK definition of "punk" anymore, but also, without a doubt, because the uniquely Irish flavor of the album missed people by a mile.

We did have some near misses with singles from the album - "Milion Dollar Hero" and "Kitty Ricketts", both of which received major radio attention. If they had made the Top 40, the album would almost certainly followed but, in the music climate of the times, if you weren't on the charts, you had to have notable press support.

By 1989 (10th anniversary) the process had begun in the UK where the rock media began their rewriting of history. Influenced, I'm sure, by the extravagant praise the album received in Ireland, where it was already routinely appearing on Best Albums of All Time lists, some of the UK reviews of the anniversary edition pretended that they had always considered Ghostown a masterpiece etc. This is a process which has only gained in strength on subsequent reissues, notably in 1995 and 2005, so that now it's almost take for granted that the album is a classic, though I should mention that to this day, there are people who much prefer the first album.

In what year did The Radiators From Space decide to disband?

We did quite a successful return tour of Ireland in October/November 1980 but found, when we returned to London, that we had run out of resources to keep the band going. Our morale was too beaten down to fight back, I guess. We split up in early 1981.

In what year did you officially join The Pogues?

1985

Had you been close with Shane in the early years when he was in The Nips?

Not really. Shane came to a few early London gigs by the Radiators and I met him a couple of times because we hung around in the same London-Irish set. I got to know him much better in the years after the Rads disbanded and he was getting his new band - Pogue Mahone - together. We were good drinking buddies, surprise!

Which leads to the question of your thoughts on my dear pal Shanne Bradley?

I always liked Shanne but again, I did not really know her well until she became the bass player with The Men They Couldn't Hang. I produced the first two MTCH singles and some of their 1st album. She was (is) a thoughtful musician and a very decent person. She appears backstage at Pogues gigs in London even now and it's always a pleasure to see her there.

I know that Shane wrote "Shanne Bradley" for The Pogues... On which LP did that appear on?

The instrumental "Shanne Bradley" was written by Shane in the traditional Irish music style known as a "planxty" which is a piece of music - usually harp-based written in honor of a great Patron or the Master of the House in which the harper/composer was a passing guest. Or sometimes just in honor of a well-regarded woman. Though there was a degree of forelock-tugging involved (18th century Irish musicians, usually blind or lame and incapable of ordinary work, depended on the bounty and generosity of the Irish aristocracy for their livelihood) many of these pieces of music, notably those composed by Turlough O'Carolan, are exquisite all the same. They are the equivalent of European classical music.

We did not do "Shanne Bradley" on an album, though it was recorded at the sessions for our 1988 album If I Should Fall From Grace With God. It first appeared on the 12" of the first single from that album ("Fairytale of New York") and a few years back appeared on the expanded/remastered CD of that album as a bonus track. A demo recording from 1987 appears on a 5-CD Pogues box set called Just Look Them Straight In The Eye And Say.......Pogue Maghone!!

How long did you play guitar with The Pogues for the first round?

I still do, though I did quit the band in 1994, returning in 2001.

You also decided to reform The Radiators From Space but shortened the name right?

When we reformed in 2004, we changed the name to The Radiators Plan 9 to distinguish the new, reformed band as a slightly different project. But in truth, what the name change really did was to facilitate our reclaiming of our original name, The Radiators from Space.

You also had the bass player Caitlin O' Riordan from The Pogues playing with you in Radiators From Space. I bet the crowds went wild with that.

Well, Cait was always hugely popular with fans of both The Pogues and The Radiators. She made a very important contribution to the Radiators and her playing helped us find our way back to where we came from musically. We were sorry she felt the need to leave but I perfectly understand that he she had stuff to sort out in her life outside the band.

Tell us about recording the highly touted " Trouble Pilgrim"?

It was a huge relief that we still had something to prove, something to offer. The issues around Ghostown had been a huge blow to our morale and confidence. It was the greatest feeling in the world that we had moved on from that and produced a belated third album.

Trouble Pilgrim received so much fan fare from the press... What label did you release it on?

Ireland: The 625 Label (our own label) 2006
UK: Chiswick 2007
USA: Shite 'n' Onions 2011
JAPAN: Uncleowen 2012

Can you tell us which body or work are you most proud of?

I genuinely love almost all the Radiators' work and, though I'm proud of Ghostown in particular, the one I always like most is the current work in hand. With the Pogues, If I Should Fall From Grace With God and, in my work as a producer, a straight tie betweenTheWisermiserdemelza by The Prisoners (1983) and Agnes Bernelle's Father's Lying Dead On The Ironing Board (1985).

Have the Radiators toured the USA?

No, but if you're askin', we're dancin'.

Good comeback Mr. Chevron!! Can you tell us about the health scare you had a few years ago..

I had advanced cancer of the throat which was nevertheless diagnosed quickly enough (in 2007) that it responded very well to Radiation and Chemotherapy. I currently have a clean bill of health and am feeling very well. I sing better now too.

And how about The Pogues reuniting?

We were made an offer we found it hard to refuse, in 2001, for a one-off tour but discovered, during the reunion that we enjoyed it so much we kept on. The 8-piece "classic" Pogues' line up is now together longer than it was in the 1980s/early 1990s.

I have also read in the press that you have become the official spokesperson for the band. Is that true?

No. I just talk a lot and quite willingly. I can't imagine either of the bands I'm in would care greatly for an "official" spokesman.

Do you have any thoughts on Amy Winehouse passing away?

Like everybody else, it was such a terrible waste of talent and, By all accounts, a lovely woman.

Do you have any Internet addresses or websites you would like to share with the readers?

http://www.theradiators.tv/
Pogues.com

Thanks for the interview Phil... Any last words for Punk Globe readers?

Please turn to the next page. Thank you.

Punk Globe would like to thank Philip for a great interview..Be sure to go to both The Radiators From Space and The Pogues websites to find out what both bands are doing..