Interview with Gary Biddles: Cure Roadie and Fools Dance/Presence Frontman - Page 4

Who wrote lyrics for Fools dance? Was that something you and Simon shared?

I pretty much wrote everything I sung. He wrote the lyrics for the two songs he sang - one of them was "The Ring."

I think Simon didn't want the role of singer, and that's why he asked me to do it.

(photo right: First Fools Dance gig, left to right: Stuart Curran, Gary Biddles, Simon Gallup)

What was working with Lol, Michael, and Porl like? It must've been a unique experience to have Porl play drums on your record.

That was another Paul Thompson actually, we called him Tot. He joined after Simon left. Porl did play guitar on a couple Presence songs though. I can't remember if Lol or I talked to Porl about it. We didn't have a guitarist back when Porl played for those songs. Initially, Michael (Dempsey) played guitar, but then he left. So I played a portion of the guitars until we found someone else.

Can you describe the songwriting processes of Fools dance and Presence and how they differed?

Yes I can! Next question! Just joking. Simon was primarily the music writer, and I wrote the lyrics. Stuart (Curran, guitarist) wrote some as well. With Presence I took on a more musical part of the writing. At first it was me and Laurence (Tolhurst). On the last recording, "Inside" I wrote more music. Lyrically, I did almost all the writing for Fools Dance and Presence.

What were the feelings from the band members when Fools Dance and Inside (1993 Presence album) were released?

I think as with any band its nice to actually put something out. It's a lot easier now - you can just download anything from the internet or YouTube. In fact, the other day, I saw on YouTube there was a song of ours (Fools Dance) that I didn't even know had been released! Back then, the only way people could listen to your music was tapes and records.

Why were some songs not released for Fools Dance? Why just EPs?

I don't really know.. its probably because we didn't have enough time. It would've been nice to have more released, but thats just the nature of these things.

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San Francisco. I began concert photography and music journalism in 2008. Interested in fashion as well.I tend to focus on the UK or European side.

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