NARDWUAR: Who are you?
MANI: I'm the bass player for the Scream.

And who else is in Primal Scream?
Well, we've got Bobby Gillespie on vocals, um, a three man guitar lineup of Kevin Shields, Throb, and Andrew Innes, then we've got Darren Mooney on drums, then we have Martin Duffy on keyboards, and Jim Horn and Duncan MacKay on horns.

And that's like nine of you, isn't it?
Yeah, man, the family's growing by the year.

And you've all made it into Canada successfully?
Yes, we've all made it in because we're good boys, you know?

So Mani, how was the airplane trip over here for Primal Scream? Was there anything crazy 'cause we've heard those rumours, you know, of like Bobby having sex on an airplane with Kylie Minogue.
(laughs) Hahaha! Well, it all sort of went a bit pashay for me because I flew down from Manchester to London to meet up with everybody and my visa hadn't been processed so I had to wave the guys off and I had to travel the next day on me own. But apparently I think they were met by about six policemen at Washington Airport because a big something had gone on on the plane but the police were just wanting to give them a warm welcome into the US, do you know what I mean?

Perfect for the pressbook, then!
Absolutely! Hahaha!

Are you going to come to Vancouver, BC, Canada? How come there is no Vancouver gig? I am phoning you from Vancouver.
Yeah, you know, that's strange. I've been asking myself that same question.

I was just thinking, it would be a great place to play, because on the song "Kill All Hippies," from your new LP Exterminator, you guys sample Dennis Hoppers' movie "Out of the Blue"-
Yeah man!

-and that movie was filmed in Vancouver.
Superb. Yeah, well it's ah, right, we should come and do it for you, man, you know?

Do you remember the band in the movie, "Out of the Blue" at all, Mani? You've seen the movie, haven't you?
Yeah, but it's been a long time since - are they a local Vancouver band?

Yes, it was the Pointed Sticks, they played the song "Somebodies Mom" in the movie, and they were actually signed to Stiff Records in 1980, flew over to England, and even recorded with Nigel Gray, but their album never came out on Stiff, 'cause there was something about Nigel Gray not liking them too much.
Oh, right, weird one, man. That's strange.

How into punk were you, Mani? How punk were you back then in the day?
Well, I was an original 1977 punk, man, you know, I sort of still carry about a little bit of the punk spirit in me heart anyway, man, you know, you can never lose that part.

Did you ever see like Slaughter and the Dogs, the Drones-
Yeah, Slaughter and the Dogs were my favourite band, mate. I've seen them plenty of times. The Buzzcocks, uh, everybody man, GBH, Discharge, the Clash, everyone barring Pistols.

Were there many punks from your hometown, Failsworth, at all?
Shitloads, mate. Absolutely heaps of them. Yeah.

Any other bands? Like you mentioned Slaughter and the Dogs....
Yeah well, there were some other guys who have made it from Failsworth who have been famous, me mate Simon Ryan ended up playing drums for AC/DC. And then another friend of mine, Darren Warren ended up playing keyboards for Thin Lizzy, man. So, they pump the odd good musicians out. And there's a band out of there right now who are called Pure Essence who are doing quite well.

So, back then, Mani, were you wearing brothel creepers and drainpipes?
Nah, I was a tartan bondage pants man, and Dr. Martens black boots.

That's when you were hanging around Ian Brown a lot. Was he like a full-on Mod scooter gang guy?
We all kind of had Lambrettas you know from mooching around. He was more just of a scooter boy than a Mod, I'd say. He was always up on his northern soul music, his Motown, things like that, you know?

Was he into like The Squire, and the Jam, and the Prisoners and all those-
Yeah, I reckon everyone's done a bit there. The Prisoners were a good band in all, you know.

Is Ali-G, the punkest guy in England right now? Mani, of Primal Scream? Oh man, he's dope. I'm telling you it's so clever 'cause it's a Jewish kid pretending to be an Asian, pretending to be West Indian kinda thing. He 's a funny guy, man. He's completely unique, man.

Do you think Mani, that the Happy Mondays are as talented as they think they are?
No way, man. Ha ha ha. No, but good friends of mine, the Mondays boys. But uhhh, they leave a lot to be desired about musicianship and what have you, but they just live to party, you know?

Is it true that Mark Day from the Happy Mondays now sells encyclopedias door to door in Manchester?
Well, that's a story that I heard, man. (laughs) Yeah. I don't think he wanted to be in music anymore. I think he'd just been completely wore out by it.

Mani, Is Manchester still known as "Gunchester"?
Yeah, there's been a real upswing in the gun thing again recently but the thing is with Manchester it's a cool place and you just don't see it. I think you've got to be living in that world to experience it, you know. But there's people getting shot dead and all that again and it's disgusting you know, and I think it's just cowardice, you know.

Playing in Manchester with Primal Scream, have you had any celebrities come out to the gigs? Like has Curly from Coronation Street come out-
(laughs)

---to see Primal Scream?
Well listen, we've had a few Coronation Street people come out. When we just played recently, we had a whole bunch of the New Order guys were out, Mark E. Smith was out. Everyone who's ever been in bands in Manchester just came out.

How about any footballers? Like Curly, he's a Man City fan, isn't he?
Yeah, we, ur, I can remember in the past there were people like Ryan Giggs and Peter Schmeichel and what have you United players coming to the gigs. We get everybody, you know?

What's the most obscene chant you've ever heard about Posh Spice at a Man United game?
Uh, Posh Spice takes it up the ass.

Can you do any Barmy Army? Any Barmy Army? Can you do any Barmy Army chanting right now? You know, any little Barmy Army chants for us?
Uhhhhhhh...

Mani, of Primal Scream?
There's a, uh, Man United I'll send to Liverpool because there's a great rivalry there. It's uh... we all hate Scousers and we all hate their Kops. They're a bunch of thieving smackheads who will never have the chops. I will always fucking hate them and I will never ever stop. We are the Scouser haters.

Baboom!
Yeah, man.

Mani of Primal Scream in action! Have you ever shook Tony Blair's hand?
No, but I'd punch him right in the fucking nose if I ever met him.

Why do you feel that way about Tony Blair? Like, wasn't he at one time the saviour of Britain?
Yeah, well what it was was everyone had to do a bit of tactical voting and they had to use the votes to vote out the Tory government, you know, systematically fucking you know crush the country over a period of twelve, sixteen, years you know, so it was a tactical vote. The Scream boys, we're all left wing socialists yeah, but Tony Blair's moving away from the socialist ethic of the Labour Party and moving to some strange centre right kind of thing and it's kind of designer socialism. And it doesn't work really. The guy's a bit of a fraud, but I am prepared to give the guy a bit of a chance you know because it's going to take him more than one term in office to change things, you know?

Didn't he want to have his little lackey to become mayor of London?
Yeah, because the guy who eventually got the job, Ken Livingstone, he's a proper left wing socialist, yeah, and Blair wasn't down with that at all. And he tried manipulating the vote to put his candidate up before Livingstone but at the end of the day, the people voted, and the people voted for the guy that Blair hated.

So, Mani, what is happening with the Satpal Ram situation? Maybe you could explain a bit about this please, because not everybody knows a lot about it. I know recently Vice Magazine had a little thing about it, but what is the Satpal Ram situation, for people that don't know?
Well, Satpal Ram is an Asian guy right, and in the '80s he had gone out for a meal with a white girl, you know, at an Indian restaurant, when these six white racist blokes came and they just started kicking the shit out of him and they were glassing him in his face and what have you. And Satpal Ram worked in a warehouse and he had a craft knife for opening boxes and stuff and he stuck one of the guys with it. And they had been arrested. And the guy's gone to the hospital, and because it was a black nurse who took care to treat him, he refused treatment and he went home and he bled to death. And Satpal Ram really didn't get really enough legal advice in court and none of the waiters, like they had six witnesses, and none of them who could speak English. Instead of pleading self-defense, he was told to plead provocation and he ended up on a Murder One thing, you know. And he's been in prison, the authorities just keep moving him and moving him and moving him so the guy can't settle and they keep blowing out his appeal. And I don't know what they find so dangerous about him, but it's now called a situation where he's overserved his time, you know, because he's lost remission inside for being bad and being put on the punishment block and what have you. He's now serving 'overtime' kind of thing, but they should free him really. If six racists are giving you a shearing and you lash out in self-defense, it shouldn't be down as murder, you know.

And you guys have been raising money to try and get him a proper lawyer?
Yeah, we're just trying to help him fight his case, you know. The guys in the band Asian Dub Foundation turned us onto his case, and we said, well, we'll have a petition at the front door of the gigs and we can try and raise some money to help the guy you know. Because it's a pretty unjust thing at the minute.