SP INTERVIEWS / ARTICLES

If you would like a copy of this interview on tape, email Nikki

Michael:: Welcome to the request fest lounge room....Michael Tunn here with you and of course, we're in the Smashing Pumpkins lounge room...(voice fades) Gimme that! and ah, actually we'll start off by letting you introduce yourselves cause it sounds dickie if I do it.

James: Hi I'm James
Billy: I'm Bill
Jimmy: I'm Jimmy
D'Arcy I know who I am but who are you all?

(At this point, they start getting questions from people)

Question: What are your favorite foods?

James: an intelligent...um..... ricardo cheese and spinach
Billy: I don't eat.
Michael:: D'arcy?
D'Arcy I believe Jimmy was next.
Michael:: Oh well, okay, Jimmy?
Jimmy: Um, the cheese sandwich with lots of butter.
D'Arcy There's this green drink that our wardrobe lady makes, we call it green stuff.

Michael:: now you guys are all pretty tired at the moment, what did you get up to last night? that was my question.
Billy: are you saying we look tired? (James in the background: hey hey)
James: hey..
Michael:: was it a big show in Brisbane
James: hey, we're tired of you already!
Michael:: what? you tired of me already? (everyone laughs) what actually happened last night
Billy & James: what do you mean what happen? you were there.
Michael:: I wasn't in Brisbane!
James: you know when we turned off the side of the road, you know what happened. (laughs) yeah, I mean there's UFOs and you know all that stuff and the blue stuff. you know
Michael:: I was watching an Ed Wood movie, I think, yes, any questions from our intimate lounge group here?

Question: I'd like to know do you feel that you had to experience pain to express passion?
Billy: No
James: what? (everyone laughs)
Billy: the question was that do you have to experience pain to express passion
James: Ah, Vincent Van Gogh! (big pause) *cough* (everyone laughs)
Billy: we can all tell who went to art school thank you

Question: Billy, now with this song Bullet with Butterfly wings, you mentioned Jesus was an only son, what's your feelings towards Jesus?
Billy: Um, he's done okay by me, um, if he ever needs any sugar, he can give me a call.

Question: Jimmy, you've been in an endless line of bands and stuff, I was wondering at what age you started playing?
Jimmy: I was 8 years old when I started playing and um, I don't know how old I am now, I'm close to 60 I think!
James: Heh heh heh (sarcastic laugh)....let's have another question

Question: Billy, what do you think the all time greatest effects pedal is?
James: The mutron bi-phase?
Billy: Um, it would have to be the electro harmonics micro-synth

Question: this is for everyone, Gish and Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie are all different sounding albums in their own right, what's next?
Billy: Um, silence. be about an hours worth of silence
Michael:: because we did hear um, there was this press report out in the US about a month or so ago that quoting you Billy, saying that the Smashing Pumpkins will cease to exist as they do now after this tour, what was all that about?
Billy: Well, that's often a misinterpreted thing that I've been telling people which is that we feel that we've reached the end of the road, is like the archetypal rock band and we wanna kind of go in different directions and we stop playing slave to providing people with the soundtrack to jump and down to so we're gonna, you know, cause when we started, I mean, you know, the grunge revolution had had to happen, and being a rock band at that time was considered passe but we considered it the future of music and we happen to be kind of correct and now that future has become opted, co opted, mimicked, and basically we're competing against bands that, you know, are under 18 um, who are basically imitating what bands we used to compete against with used to do, you know, so whatever. Um, it's just to a point that rock music is ceased to be what rock music is meant to be and the moment that it becomes boring, commercial and predictable, we don't want to be there anymore so you know we're just going to move on, to be the Smashing Pumpkins Mark 2.
James: we might collaborate with Jimmy Barnes on this next song (everyone groans)

Question: what do changes do you see occurring musically and culturally?
Billy: Um, certainly I see more multi culturalism, I mean even I think if you look at some of the influence that um, Australian Indigenous music has had on world music, um, I mean I've even seen, we were talking about today, we saw a Shimire
Choir(???) with a diggeridoo, or I don't even know how you say that.
James: Diggeridoo (laughs)
Billy: I just think that that technology and people kinda opening their minds to different forms of music and rhythms, I think that the music will become more multi cultural, I think you'll see less and less of real bands like us, and I think that you'll see more and more bands which are basically you know, the top 40 vision of what rock and roll was supposed to be and that what it really is and I think you'll see that less and less people can actually play and more and more people basically leaning to synthesizers not that that's necessarily bad but that's definitely where we're headed.

Question: Billy, you've lost all your hair, are you undergoing chemotherapy a lot? (few giggles)
Billy: hmm, hmm, do you understand the word "Fuck off"? (everyone laughs)

Question: Is it true that you're going to be in an episode of the Simpsons?
James: Yes, that is true (someone laughs obviously thinking that it's a joke) we did do a voice over and there's a couple of other bands that are doing it too like Sonic Youth.

Michael:: Do you sing in it too?
James: Um, I think they just play one song

Question: (someone Irish) do you fear that you're ordinary and was your time as dark a type of rock band as you call it an attempt to quell(?) that?

Billy: Um, can you repeat the last part?
Question: was your time as an archetype of rock band as you call it as an attempt to quell(??) that, beyond that, Siamese Dream bout (??) your recognition so that you'll be remembered, not everyone knows who ye are, you don't need to be remembered.
Billy: Yeah, um , I just think we wanted to rock really and I think that we wanted to rock in a way that was different, unique, powerful, emotional and um, all those band things.

Michael:: How was that long time in the studio making Mellon Collie? How was it? I mean, you spend a lot of time in the studio working on those 28 tracks right?
James: Um, that was actually probably our most relaxed in the studio yet. and um, with Junior producers, it was always more interesting, more varied.
Michael:: did it feel like going to work each day for such a long time?
James: Yes. but it was good work.

Question: I was wondering what inspirations did the band have? what are the inspirations like for other groups you admire, people you idol?
James: Billy Idol? (everyone laughs)
Michael:: what's wrong with Billy?
James: Na, I just heard, "Dancing with myself", I heard it outside a mall and I was just like, wow, this is rockin'

Question: Why did you chose Alan Moulder as your producer? Is it because you wanted him to be in that whole English "My Bloody Valentine" CDs associated with your albums, that sorta noise?
James: *groan*, he's a stupid log, that's why we chose him, no, he's a..well, we do like "My Bloody Valentine and we wanted a sorta, um I don't know, different approach to the sound just *mumble*..I don't know! He's a good guy!

Question: Kim Thayle once quoted "the greatest bands are those that are influenced by poetry and film" how much is that true for you guys?
James & Billy: well...err (everyone laughs)
Questioner: No comment?
James: about that much

Question: What is each of your favorite songs? each of you and why?
Michael:: do we want to...
D'Arcy depends on our mood I think, could be just about anything
James: The Lettuce song *big pause*
Billy: I don't like any of them so..
James: Um (accidentally strums his guitar)
Billy: That was landslide, we do like that one
James: Pardon me.

Question: what inspire you to cover "Dancing in the Moonlight"?
Billy: Um, you know I can't remember but...
Questioner: It sounded really cool

Question: Billy, what is the tattoo on your shoulder of? I've seen it but I've never actually seen it?
Billy: must be to Jimmy
Jimmy: Yeah, it's actually a sacred heart.
Michael:: How'd you get it? Was it like a drunken night?
Jimmy (or James): I knocked down these three milk bottles at a carnival

James: I think someone should ask Jonathan a question
D'Arcy Did anyone introduce Jonathan? He doesn't do anything, he just hangs out with us

Question: how many instruments do you play?
Billy (could be James): 1..2....3...Three
Michael:: what are they?
D'Arcy he actually played all the instruments on the album

Question: Who plays piano on MCIS?
Billy: That would be me

Question: What would be the most difficult song you've recorded and why?
James: "Soma" maybe, that was a pain in the butt
Billy: yeah, probably "soma"
Michael:: how long did it take?
Billy: it took about 10 days to record, and four days to mix
James: in about two weeks
Billy: when you listen to it, it actually lasts that long too (everyone laughs)

Question: do you all write the songs or like do you all put into the songs or just one of you write them?
Billy: hmm, that's an interesting rhetoric question you asked there....
Michael:: I think we'll do a few songs and then come back................

Michael: ...we've got James, Jimmy, Billy and D'Arcy here with us and we're gonna take some calls from around the nation, is that cool? who's our first one on the phone here? hello?
Caller: hi!
Michael: who's that?
Caller: it's Lisa Crystal
Michael: Lisa, what's your got a question for the pumpkins?
Caller: um, it's for the whole band and Billy in particular. Would you throw it all in to live a normal anonymous life?
Billy: Yes
James: No
Michael: what did you say? (to caller)
Caller: if you could throw it all in, like not be famous, just live a normal joe life? and things like that?
Billy: Um...let me re-phase that, only if I had enough money to just play music.
*LOAD OF CRAP TALK IN BETWEEN BY THE CALLER*
Billy: I mean we put ourselves in this position and it's not the worst position to be in.
James: I kinda look to Kenny Rogers for a lot of things. (everyone laughs)
Billy/Jimmy?: we call James the gambler!
James: and know when to fold them, that's right! (everyone laughs again)

Michael: we actually got a few faxed in questions, particularly from people who went to the second Melbourne concert and the Brisbane concert asking why you didn't play disarm?
James: Disarm?
Michael: hmmm. Is it because you don't like the song anymore?
Billy: No, the thing is like I mean, not to be the proverbial pissant but um, people always say "you know, I really like you guys because you are yourselves and you do what you want to do and you're your own band" and so along that line, sometimes we just don't play certain songs. I mean, we're not like the hit parade you know,so people get really weirded out if we don't play some song that they know but that kinda goes against the grain of why they like us in the first place so we always have trouble understanding that and, um, we're sorry we didn't play the song but, you know but we also didn't play...sixty..eight other songs we've recorded too.

Michael: yes, particularly in really big concerts, there's a lot of pressure to do that isn't there?
Billy: Absolutely, you feel this pressure to...to um, you feel this pressure to play to the fan who's a "casual" fan as opposed to the fan who's really a "full time" fan and we've tried to pay more attention to the person who's really a fan, not to say that the person who wanted to hear the song isn't really a fan, but the thinking is that, you know, if we were worried about the person just kinda likes the Smashing Pumpkins and just kinda likes Green Day and whomever else, then we would just play all the songs that you know and we would just say "hi", "thank you" and "goodbye", you know but that's why we are the Smashing Pumpkins.

Michael: you gotta play some Green Day songs as well! um, you actually got around this problem in um, I heard in the west coast of the USA where you actually play, gave a short notice for people to come to the concert so you announced it in short notice so only the fans came. How did that work?

Billy: well, we devised a system by which, um we announce concerts very early, not too long before the actual concert and the person had to write their name down or get some voucher then would actually have to go to the place and get the tickets and it basically prevented scalping and we also limited the typical number of record people who wanted to come. you know, because they're affiliated with the band on a business level so we just, we knew we were going to play in places that only held about a thousand people and we wanted nine hundred and ninety fans in the shows, we didn't want scalp tickets being sold. We've also had problems where people sell fake scalp tickets so people paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars and ended up with nothing so we devised a system that was kinda laborious but every body got into the show pretty much.

Michael: and the real fans got in
Billy: I think so, I think the response...I mean for us it's a great indication of people who are really into the band is not if they know the songs that you expect people you know but the songs that are like the, you know, the songs at the end of the albums and things like that. you know and that's...we've always presented ourselves as an album band and we want people to respect us for everything that we do and not just the songs that they know and we always hope that the songs that people know will get people to listen to the other songs on the album too, so

Michael: were they some of the best concerts that you've done? what'd you reckon?
Billy: they were certainly some of the most rewarding.... Jimmy yeah, I think, on a, on an aesthetic level, they were probably the best that we've done but I think um, I think ah, on a power level and a crowd level, I think the last few, not the last two, but the early Australian shows have probably been the best.

Michael: what, eh, Melbourne? (Yay!)
Jimmy Melbourne yeah, and Perth as well.
Michael: we got another caller on the line? Yeah, hellooo?
Caller: Hi!BR<> Michael: who's that?
Caller: Sharon
Michael: Sharon?
Billy: Hey!
Michael: what's your question?
Sharon: this is a question for D'arcy, do you ever cop flak because you're the only girl in the group.
Jimmy No (everyone laughs) No, because I have a really deep voice (everyone laughs again)

Michael: have we got another caller there? I think we'll leave that question there, hello?
Caller: Hi um
Michael: who's this?
Caller: this is paul from Melbourne, I just want to ask James how long he's been playing guitar for?
James: oh ahh, I don't know, it was back a while, um I don't know, about 10 years, something like that
Caller: oh really, and um, did you get my chocolates when you were down in Melbourne?
James: Oh you're the chocolate man, you know what...
D'Arcy you're the crazy chocolate man!
James: crazy chocolate man!
D'Arcy trace that call!!!
James: trace that call!!! (everyone laughs)
Caller: did you get them?
James: you know what? I never got them, I got the card though, someone else took em.
Billy: no, those are the chocolates that you took to the koala farm and fed them to the koalas...
James: oh, and that's when the koalas started dropping! right?
D'Arcy he freaked out!
James: he fell right outta the trees!
Caller: what about the Grand Prix? did you go to that while you were down here?
James: what?
Caller: the grand prix
*someone in the background goes "vrrrooommmmm!" car like noises, probably Billy*
James: thank you for the sound effects
Billy: Jimmy and I went to the grand prix
Caller: alright, and um, Billy and James, happy birthday for later this month
Billy: thank you
James: thank you for reminding me that you... (everyone laughs)

Michael: speaking about the Melbourne fans here, Simon in Melbourne faxed us and apparently he sang songs to you at the airport. did you remember this?
James: yes, we remembered their close knit harmonies!
Michael: what did they sing?
Billy: they re wrote the words to "Goodnight"
James: actually I didn't hear it
Billy:..as , somebody's got the lyrics but they rewrote the lyrics to Good night as like goodbye, see you when you come back to Australia again, something blah blah blah.
James: very nice
Billy: very nice

Michael: someone wanted to ask you, if you've heard any new bands while you've been here in Australia, anything you like locally?
James: err..
Billy: um..
D'Arcy no comment
James: I remember...er well, no

Michael: did you like Def FX? your support across Australia?
Billy: yeah, um, we wouldn't have them if we didn't like them
Michael: who else have got on the phone here, hello?
Caller: Hi this is ???? calling from Adelaide, my question was that when you write the songs, you've always got feelings going through your body and mind. I was wondering do those feelings come out when you're on stage? like really...do you ever take your aggression out on your instruments and all that?
Billy: er yeah, I understand what you're asking, a lot of people are always curious about how much of an actually song translates when you're actually playing live, um, it's kinda a weird thing because with the difference of emotions that we play in a normal concert, it'll be hard to feel all those emotions in one concert, so I would say that on a given night, there's probably two or three songs that really hit home to me or make me feel something really heavy or feel a lot to me.
Caller: which ones mainly?
Billy: well, that's what I'm saying, it's different every night

Caller: I actually saw your concert live in Adelaide and I'd just like to say that it was really really good except I got punched out by a security guard so I had to go into casualty
Billy: I've had a similar thing happen to me so, so I feel bad for you! Caller: thanks you and James you're a really good guitarist and you're my favorite
James: thank you.

Michael: We have a faxed in question from Leah from Melbourne who asks
James, who does your hair, what do they do and put in it because they've tried to get the same effect and have been extremely unsuccessful.
James: Well, let's..um, I..
Billy: you gonna tell them about the cow dung!? (everyone laughs)
James: No, c'mon I told you not to bring that up, um, oh I don't know, I don't want to talk about my hair.
Michael: do you do it yourself or a personal friend or..
James: No, um, I have to get may different surgeons from the Chicago area to all collaborate on my hair, that's all I'll say.
Billy: next question

Michael: um, who's on the phone here? hello?
Caller:Hello, it's Garth from ????, my question is for Billy, what do you think of Australian music and what are your favorite Australian bands. (everyone laughs)
Michael: we've already done this question, have you got anything else?
Caller: um, do you have any family? and what do they think of the music that you're making? (everyone really laughs!) * you can hear James's girlie laugh in the background *
Billy: Yes, I was born out of a test tube! it was the first one
D'Arcy I could see that one coming!
Caller: I've also gone skin (bald) so it feels really really great
James: What?
Michael: back to the no hair, people are really fascinated with hair.

Michael: we've got Jessica here from Brisbane, have you changed clothes,
Billy while you've been in Australia? rumor says that you haven't and she thinks it's really cool (everyone laughs)
Billy: boy, you've got some real winners (weiners?) there for questions

Michael: we got anyone else for questions? hello, who's that?
Caller: Susan from the Sunshine coast, Queensland. Is that Billy?
Billy: Hello?
Michael: they're all here
Caller: well, hi to Billy, d'arcy, Jimmy and James, I just want to ask you, I heard your last question and answer, I just want to ask you what sort of musical direction you, either individually or as a band would be pursuing maybe after this tour or when you next record?
*big pause*
Billy: hmm, a lot of people keep asking but we don't really know what we're gonna do, um, we just um, we'll figure it out when we get there.
James: we're too busy rocking
Billy: I mean right now, touring takes up so much of our time that we actually have very little time writing new songs.
James: *sarcastically* though I have a hell of a stamp collection going! (everyone laughs)
Caller: Have you?!!
James: ....I'm just...(everyone laughs at the backfired joke) I had no idea you were...such a stamp collector

Michael: someone was asking how you were handling, er, the tour and how long do you expect to be working this hard for, is this something you want to keep doing?
James:...Jonathan? Michael: I mean in a sense, I'm sorry I should have explained it a bit more, the angle they were going at was that, er, that you decided that you wanted to record more tracks, that you haven't recorded enough albums and that you were feeling..your promotion for Siamese Dream was getting you down, would you prefer just to tour and record and not all that other MTV in between kind of stuff? like this!

Billy: we're certainly at the point of considering not touring much anymore after this album because, um as I said, live shows have become more of a spectacle than actually about music and they also seem sometimes more about the audience than they do seem about the band, not that I want it to be all about the band but it should seem to be more about the audience and the band and um, sometimes like I said, we just feel like we're the soundtrack for somebody's you know, teenage wet dream mosh pit excitement, and we also feel kind of..that we're also hampered creatively by the popularity of the band that we feel bad that we don't go to all the places that people want us to go. We just came form Singapore, and Bangkok for the first time and then there's other places in South America, so there's just so many obligations that seem to be involved in promoting a record that you know, as it is right now, we're booked all the way till the end of this year. We have something roughly like 140 more shows to go, um , this year alone, and then you....*James groans*

Michael: didn't you know that James?
James: I knew

Billy:...try to write another record, so and we really really really really enjoy playing live but there's just a point where it just, it seems like generationally, we kinda lost our touch with what going to see a live band is all about and I don't know whether I always want to participate in that, I still think it's viable, very viable in Australia because I think people in Australia still really enjoy a good rock concert and what I'm saying, I'm speaking generally, cause we found this to be a problem in other parts of the world...
Michael: At home?
Billy: no, at home's still decent but it's getting worse by the hour
Michael: well, what did they want then?
Billy: they want MTV, they want spectacle, they want, you know, they want explosions, they want people lip-synching, you know, they want Michael Jackson looking like a Messiah with his arms outstretched, I don't know...I mean, we feel really forced to either be like a band that consistently plays rock song after rock song to provide people with a soundtrack to jump up and down to or we basically need to put on a show, you know, be entertaining, and I feel like sometimes we need dancers or something...(everyone laughs), I mean, James can only mambo so much
James: I try, I try my best.

Michael: have we got another caller there? hello? Caller: yes, Andrew from Sydney calling, my main question is that is there any chance that you'll release your new record on vinyl?
Billy: yeah, actually we're working on it right now
Caller: really?
Billy: there'll probably only be about 5000 copies
Caller: okay, well then how do I get an advance ordering then?
Billy: I don't know
Caller: well, that's good news
Billy: Yeah, except the problem is that in order to fit the whole thing, it has to be 3 albums, so..
Caller: yeah, so I heard. I heard that was the excuse that you weren't going to do it sorta thing with too many albums but er, you're doing it so that's good
Billy: yeah er, a lot of people seem to want vinyl to come out basically the whole thing is about the artwork because we're trying to make a nice package that's different from the CD
Caller: yeah great, your previous stuff on vinyl was excellent
Billy: thank you very much

Michael: does it actually make any difference, I mean, it's mastered off a digital recording anyway
Billy: absolutely, absolutely

Michael: let's have another caller there, hello?
Caller: Hi!
Billy: Hey!
Caller: this is Jess, um
Michael: where're you calling from?
Caller: Redcliffs, Victoria which is like this really jumpy country town
Billy: don't say that about your home town!Caller: oh it's true. um, well I saw you in Brisbane last year um, and at the reading festival and first of all, I was really surprised when, um, by the way Billy, you kept shouting to the crowd sort of cries of "God bless you" and you were sorta singing these new lyrics goin like "God is empty" and I was like, whoa, what is this? I wasn't sure whether you were like serious or pulling the piss

Billy: um, hmmm another God question.
Caller: sorry
Billy: that's okay, no, um, hmmm..a lot of people seem to be mystified by the, like religious stance of the band or my religious stance, which kinda seems curious to me but to answer your question, I just feel that um, the world basically revolves around love and not love, the opposite of love is not hate, it's "not love" and coming from a very kind of violent, you know, bitter kind of younger years, I seem to take that bitterness out into the world and for a while I felt like an agent of just more "bitterness" and now I want to be an agent of more "positivity" so you the "God bless yous" aren't meant to say you should believe in what I believe, it's from the heart just a, I'm not saying it's anything more other than just a well wish, so that's all I mean and that's all I believe in, that we're all in the same planet and just because we're on stage doesn't make us better than anybody else and I want everybody to have a happy life and I hope to having a good time, that's all, it's about that simple but every body wants to complicate it.

Caller: yeah, um the other thing about your time in Brisbane was sorta the press reaction,
Billy: can you repeat that?
Caller: the press reaction? like um, cause of the magazines relating to your short reading, I thought it was absolutely amazing
Billy: oh, you talking about the English press?
Caller: yeah
James: oh we all know about the English
Michael: kinda like one week, you're really cool and the next week you're just shit according to the English press most of the time
Billy: Yeah, I mean, for whatever the reason the Pumpkins in England are viewed as like, kinda like a joke by the English Press, not by the people because we, we still have a lot of fans in England and we still want to go to England but it's become...when someone tries to tell us that bands like Blur and Oasis are better bands than we are, I mean, we obviously don't agree, so, I mean that's nothing against them but you know, to try and make us feel like we're doing something wrong and somebody else is doing something right kinda undermines the basic message of music which is, it should be all inclusive. And England, they seem to play favorites and so that's it, so that's why no matter how good a show we would have played in Reading, even though if it was the greatest show and even if we had Jesus Christ on rhythm guitar, they still would have hated it

Caller: well, the crowd loved it
Billy: Thank you and I mean, I enjoyed it
James: Crap show but spectacular guitar playing by Jesus himself, the messiah was on that night! it was the revelation, in the truer sense of the word *laughing*

Michael: we've also got a fax here from wheel from Adelaide who wrote in to say that he saw your show and he was wondering why you were all looking so pissed off at the time?
James: Oh God, we're sorry! for everything
Michael: what I'm getting to you guys is that there's this image of you guys being pissed off, is that true?
Billy: no, see, this is what I'm kinda getting back to, is that we're there to play music and we're there to play music in a most powerful way that we can play it, smiley faces, happy happy joy joy good time has never really been what we're about, we're there to kick your ass musically. and that doesn't necessarily required like *in a falsetto voice* "Hello Adelaide!", you know, it's not that kind of show and if anybody who's seen a Smashing Pumpkins concert has enjoyed it, you understand, it's all about music, it's about emotion, it's not about what you think you're supposed to see and every time you think you know what we're gonna do, we always change that that too so we weren't pissed off at all, we thought the show in Adelaide went just great, we had a great time and we'd go back there in a second. So what he saw wasn't what we felt. so I don't know

Michael: have we got another call there, hello?
Caller: hello! um, this is Shadow from Brisbane and I would like to know was there any pumpkins harmed in the making of the album?
James: What??? Say it again???
Billy: You have asked the number one dumbest question, congratulations, you've won a free autographed nothing!

Michael: we've got another caller here, hello?
Caller: *in an English accent*Hello, my name's Karen, I would just like to ask Billy what the significance of the word "Zero" is?
Billy: *in a cockney accent* well, it's nuthin isn't it?
D'Arcy I'd say look it up in a dictionary
Billy: one less than one
Michael: you can't divide by it
Billy: I tried minus one, and it didn't work

Michael: how many Zero T-shirts do you actually have?
Billy: um, that's a secret
Michael: has it gone up since your last interview?
Billy: I don't know what you mean
Michael: oh that was the other radio interview that you did
Michael: you can't say? okay, fair enough

Michael: okay, we've got another caller there, hello? whose that?
Caller: this is Julian
Michael: hi Julian, where are you calling from?
Caller: Sydney
Michael: okay Julian, what's your question
Caller: my question is um, like um, *in an American accent all of a sudden* how long have the pumpkins been together for? (everyone laughs)
Billy: I believe it's eight and a half years? yes, 8 and a half years
Caller: uh, another question is um, yeah, um
James: wow, what do you got? what do you got over there?
D'Arcy what do you want??
Billy: we want whatever you're takin!
D'Arcy how long have you been living in California? (everyone laughs)
Caller: um..*mumble mumble mumbles*
Caller: *mumble*
Michael: catch you later, well, thanks a lot the Smashing Pumpkins, it's getting damn hot in here under these lights and in this intimate lounge environment, the two Sydney shows to come, what else is on the um...what are you doing next? basically?
Billy: three,
Michael: three shows? that's right, three Sydney shows
James and Billy: um, more ?????
Michael: you going back to the states?
Billy: no, we're going to New Zealand
Michael: we've got some New Zealanders in the house, raise your hands! ...just one?
Billy: boy, it's a shame that your cricket team lost the other night (Australia beat NZ)
Michael: you're into cricket?
Billy: yes, I am into cricket. I really like it, I have to admit, I really like it
Michael: do you get much chance to watch it in Chicago?
Billy: there is absolutely no cricket shown in America
James: you would never see that in America
Michael: okay, well, have a good time in New Zealand and thanks for coming by........

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