|
| Chris Payne - Interview April 2007. |
 Chris Payne circa 1983. |
|
Hi Chris, Thank you very much for agreeing to look at and hopefully answer our questions. Our apologies for there being so many but this is the trimmed down version so imagine what it could have been like. Full Name: Christopher John Curnow Payne Date of Birth: So difficult to remember exactly. Memory you know? Lets see, it was approx 01/04/1983 or thereabouts!! Place of Birth: Penzance Cornwall Mother & Father's name: John Curnow/Maureen Any Brothers & Sisters: Debra Schooling: Boundstone Comprehensive school Lancing West Sussex. Chichester and Trinity Colleges of Music 1. Tell us a bit about Chris payne before Gary Numan? Very good stable family upbringing. Plenty of great memories of my early life in Cornwall. Fishing, diving, football, cricket, bikes and just generally being a kid. 2. Who/what are your influences? Wow!! Have you got four pages? Really too many to list here. I discover new influences each week! 3. Do you have any hobbies/interests? Collecting, Painting, Snorkelling, History, Travelling. You name it. I love it! Recently, because of the films we've been making with Celtic legend I've got a real taste for film making. I've formed a company with Director Jai Michael called Coverdrive Productions. 4.What musical training do you have? Mainly Classical in Viola, early instruments and composition. I started late at 15 so had a lot of work to do to catch up. 5. Were you in any other bands before joining the Numan band? Yes one was called 'Crucible' and this band at one time featured the German film composer Hans Zimmer. 6.What are your recollections of auditioning for Numan? Very clear. I was working as a temp for our local council and turned up in a Donkey jacket and work boots. When I saw this 'new wave' looking band I thought. Shit!!! I don't have a hope in hell of getting this gig! Luckily for me Gary Numan saw my potential, as apposed to my dress sense. 7. What was it like to be on Old Grey Whistle Test and Top Of The Pops? It was our first show together as a new group and we were obviously very apprehensive. It didn't help matters that the other guests, German band 'The Scorpions' played just before us and at the end of their set a crane camera moved back to get a wide shot and took down one side of our PA system. Imagine the Panic as it was live!! It did end well though. 8. What was it like in the recording studio for the sessions for The Pleasure Principle? It was odd. In fact it felt like we had permanent jet lag because the sessions were from 10 at night until the morning. It was a new studio called Marcus studios and I think we managed to get a good price because of the hours. 9. All the songs are credited to Numan but what was your involement in the devolopment on the album? Gary Numan had very fixed ideas about what he wanted and so most of the album had been written and arranged by him. There may have been a couple of tracks that we had more of a hand in the arrangement, but I only remember that with a song called Complex. 10. Numan has said that you made 'Complex' what it is today, what did you do? Talk of the Devil. I just simply added a string arrangement to the song which Mr Numan loved. 11. What was it like on the first night of the Touring Principle concert in Glasgow on 20th September 1979? Oh that was one big experience. I dont think any of us had played in front of a crowd of that size. Billy and Ced may have done with Ultravox and Druid respectively, but i'm sure they hadn't experienced that. It was a frenzy. I remember looking out to the first balcony and watching all these people leaping around. I could have sworn the balcony was moving up and down. What a night that was! and what a party afterwards! 12. What was it like to play for a sell out tour? Very satisfying. You really had a feeling that people had discovered something very new and exciting. 13. What were the highlights from the tour? Every single day offered something different and amazing. The entire tour was a highlight. 14. What were the low points? None what so ever. Except the day it ended. 15. The Touring Principle went on a worldwide tour, what was your favourite and worst gig? There were a lot of great shows on that tour. there was one or two shows in New Zealand that went a bit weird. We had a fire-eater as a support act who set fire to the stage curtains and a near riot in Wellington nearly left a few of us with some nasty injuries plus a potentially hostile crowd in Auckland at a nightclub nearly sent us back to the UK prematurely!. Lovely country, but a very badly organised tour. 16. Were you nervous playing on Saturday Night Live in America? Yes, when I found out it was going out live to up to 40 million viewers. But we got over it and enjoyed ourselves. It certainly helped to promote the tour! I remember afterwards having a meal with the actor Elliot Gold. He was an amazing character, very intelligent and down to earth. 17. What involvement did you have in recording Telekon? I have patchy memories of Telekon. I'm sure it was all recorded at Rock City in Shepperton, but I remember a lot of hanging around and waiting for things to happen. I must admit that i didn't enjoy the experience as much as Pleasure principle although it did end up a very good album. 18. What are your recollections being in the studio for recording Telekon? Hanging around/ down the pub/playing a lot of cards with Ced and Rruss. 19. What differences was there between playing Teletour and The Touring Principle? Very similar, although with this tour, we had more of a sense of security about what we were doing as we had toured Pleasure Principle around the world. It was really an extension of that but with a different set. 20. Were you shocked at Numan's retirement? No not really. He had made it quite clear to us his intentions a long time before. He had been banging on about flying around the world in a small plane. We admired his courage and determination, although we all thought he was nuts! 21. What are your memories of playing at Wembley? That was one amazing venue. Great atmosphere and three sold out nights. I think it held around nine thousand or so? It was a total, full on, shameless show with an interesting dance troupe as guests and support - sorry i've forgotten their names.(Shock) 22. What involvement did you have with Electronic Circus? It was just a fun thing created to amuse my mates. Nothing serious. 23. Lewis has some demos (somewhere) of Electronic Circus, would you like them? Oh my God destroy them. If they get out my reputations ruined!! 24. You're credited on "Fade To Grey" by Visage, what was your involement in it? I basically composed the bass riff and chords. I had been messing around with it during Numan soundchecks and Billy Currie picked up on it and suggested that we recorded it after the tour as a kind of joint Payne/Currie single. Midge Ure wrote the words at a later date, and the rest as they say is history. 25. What was it like working with midge Ure? I knew him but never worked with him directly. 26. Are you proud of having worked on two number 1 singles? Yes it's always very pleasant to have achieved ultimate chart success. 27. What was it like in the beginning of Dramatis? Very good. full of energy and positive creative stuff. It was a bit strange to start with as we had'nt really planned anything specific. Our goal was to get a record deal and take it from there. 28. What songs did you write on 'For Future Reference'? One called Turn and some other co-writes. 29. How did Gary come to be involved with 'Love Needs No Disguise'? He came down to see us recording at Ridge farm studios. it was great to see him as we hadn't seen him for some time and I think Rruss asked him if he would like to do some singing. He ended up doing the whole song on his own. 30. Did you do any vocals on the album? Yes on the track called Turn. Bloody disaster though. Took me two days to record. I was once told at music college that I had the worst voice any one could remember. 31. What are your recollections of Rocket Records Company? They were all very nice people but a totally useless disorganised bunch . Nothing ever seemed to be easy or make sense with that lot. I guess it didn't help that we had an extremly dodgy production company handling us. Our fault for signing with them I guess! 32. Did you get to meet Elton John? Twice, and once sober. He was actually a real laugh. I just feel really bad about being 'very ill' in his managers nice plush office during a Christmas party! 33. What was it like to tour with Dramatis? That was up and down. Some shows were really good. Other venues were a total disaster. It was also a lot of work to do for just the three of us as Denis had left the band before the tour and we didn't have the resources to replace him. 34. What was your favourite Dramatis Song? Ex Luna Scientia 35.Why didn't Paul Gardiner join Dramatis? I'm not 100% sure. I just really don't think it was his thing. 36. What are your recollections of Paul's Death? I was very upset, but it came as no surprise. Dear old Paul had a very serious problem and what a tragedy to have lost him. He was only 25 years old. 37. Did Dramatis split up? No...We just kinda faded away. Who knows. We might do a Police!!!! 38. What was it like coming back to tour with Numan in 1983? An absolute life saver as I was totally skint and fed up. 39. Both you and Rrussell stopped touring with Gary after 1989. Why? My reason for leaving was that I was simply getting too busy composing music for production music companies and could no longer spare the time. Rruss - I don't know. You'll have to ask Gary. 40. What did you do after leaving the backing band? I had been composing music for Chappel from 1985 and this was getting more and more prolific. I then bought a place in France in 1991 and have been between the two countries ever since. 41. Most recently you were part of Eden and now with Celtic Legend writing and recording 'Mediaeval Music' . What brought about this change of musical style? I've always loved the rawness of Celtic and early music instruments. These were the forerunners of the modern orchestral instruments as we know them today. I find Celtic Legend gives me a great chance to explore a different way of composing and we have been very fortunate with the exposure we've received on the Classic FM music channel. 42. What synths do you still own? None. They're all software synths. 43. Do you keep in contact with Rrussell, Cedric and Dennis? Unfortunately no! I'd like to but the Buggers don't reply to my emails. Since this interview, nureference.co.uk has reunited Chris and Rrussell. 44. What do you think of Numan's music today? To be honest I haven't had a chance hear it. I heard some stuff on a live TV thing he did and thought it was excellent and a real departure from what he had been doing. I must bring myself up to speed with his recent stuff. 45. Have you ever gone to a Numan concert since leaving the band? Yes, once at Guildford. Man was that weird! Having spent ten years looking at his back, to see him front on was strange. 46. Have you had any contact with Gary since 1989? Only then and more recently by email 47. Finally, could you summarise your experience of working with Gary? One amazing part of my life that will always be with me. I feel very priviledged to have toured around the world, recorded albums and done TV shows together. To have spent my young adult years like that was very fortunate indeed. I'll always carry these great memories and I wouldn't have swapped the experience for anything.  Chris Payne 2007. |
Back to Top