Nottingham Culture Online - LeftLion.co.uk
Chris Needham Interview, Part 2: The birth of
Manslaughter, the Mini-Bar Incident, and fishing

So what was the state of play with Manslaughter before filming started?

Manslaughter didn’t even exist, as such. It was just an idea. Kev (Waine) was the first guy I’d seen up-close playing a guitar well. Y’know, properly. I’d had a guitar for two years, and I never had a lesson in my life – I used to sit in my bedroom for hours on end every night like a typical teenage Metal freak, playing along to records. And I was useless. I was rubbish. And then I met Kev down the park when I was 16, we shared a love of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer, and he took guitar lessons. So every Saturday, after he had his lesson, he’d come over and show me what his guitar teacher had taught him. So I was getting everything second-hand. When the chance to do the video diary came along, I told the BBC that I was putting a band together. Which was a complete lie – all I knew was Kev. And they said “Hm, that sounds interesting”. Boy, did that turn out to be the understatement of the year. And so began one of the finest, craziest, maddest, saddest, baddest periods of my life.

So without the video diary, there wouldn’t have been a Manslaughter?

Well, Martin Piggins – my bass player who became my drummer - asked me that the other day. And I said possibly not. And then he said “Would you have ended up in a band?” and I said yes. I would have done it regardless sooner or later when I was a teenager, with or without a video camera. 

So what level of editorial control did you really have?
 
Total control. But we didn’t know. The only thing I insisted on going in was a bit of that Obesity Challenge thing. That was it. As far as we were concerned, that was the best bit of the whole programme. The only bit I demanded they take out was when I was so upset at one point that I smashed the camera off the tripod and broke it. I’d had a really bad day with my girlfriend, and I was trying to use the camera as a sounding board, and it just wasn’t working, and I jumped off the chair and whacked it across the room.
 
How did you explain that to the BBC?
 
I said to Steve; “I’ve broke your camera”, and he said “What? Why?” and I explained to him, and said I was very sorry and if he wanted me to stop videoing, I’ll stop videoing now. And he went “That’s not a problem”. Steve ended up being my confidante, my psychoanalyst, my valet, my money-lender, and even played in our band at one point.
 
Why don’t we see your Mam and Dad?
 
Because I gave in to their wishes. They didn’t want to be on it. My Mum didn’t mind, but my Dad really didn’t want to be on it. I was actually talking to my Dad about it the other day, and he said “It looks like you’ve got no parents, and we don’t love you”, and I said “Look Dad, you didn’t want to be on it”. The only sequence of them I got was when we were walking home from Loughborough through the car park, and we spot me Dad’s Escort, and while I’m talking to camera he comes into view with my little brother on his shoulders, and he says; “Switch that fookin’ thing off right nah!”
 
What were your Mam and Dad doing at the time?

Me Mum was working as a cleaner, and Dad was a long-distance lorry driver.
 
Out of the 51 hours and ten minutes of film that didn’t make it, what bits do you wish were in the final programme?
 
More of the funny stuff, if you want the truth. I’ve only recently realised how clever and funny the editing was. I saw the scene the other day when I was genuinely pissed off, fed up with the band, I’d had a bad day at college, I’d had a row with my girlfriend, and I came in and said “It doesn’t seem to me like this band is coming together, which is going to make for one crap video diary. And you must be sitting there thinking, well, why doesn’t he get off his arse and do summat about it.” And it cuts straight to me going fishing! It’s like, I’ve got a problem with me band, so what do I do? Go fishing!
 
Like Roger Daltrey…
 
Or Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden! Big fisherman!
 
You get the feeling that the BBC staff really enjoyed putting it together…
 
They really invested the time into it. Me and Steve stayed friends for a long time afterwards. The last time I spoke to him was just before my 21st birthday, which was four years after. The really Rock n’ Roll bit of the diary was when Manslaughter were coming down for editing, and stopping in hotels. And we’re thinking; we’re on tour. We’re on The Road. (rubs hands together) What vice shall we choose tonight? And there’s me with me Megadeth t-shirt on and me jeans ripped to shit, walking into these plush fucking bars with businessmen and upmarket pros everywhere, sticking out a spare prick at a wedding. And then, we discovered the mini-bar. And emptied it. Me and Greg. £150, when £150 was a lot of money. And we were told by the BBC that next time, they’d put a limit on it. I was 17 and Greg was 16, remember. We didn’t know any better. We just thought, ah, they can afford it.
 
I can’t imagine today’s BBC being as lavish with their Reality talent.
 
Bob Long, who was the head Producer - some of us actually stayed on his houseboat on the Thames afterwards, because he knew we liked fishing. He paid for everything for us that weekend – he got the beer in, we fished off his boat trying for pike, and he paid for our train tickets. And he didn’t have to do that. The programme was done. And then, when they upgraded all their equipment, they actually gave us a video camera. Bob Long rang me up and said, do you want one? I was like, yeah! Two grand, state-of-the-art camera!

Part 3: 'It doesn't seem to me like this band is coming together, which is gonna make for one crap video diary'


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