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Good as GOLDie

Achance, intriguing, remark by pete tong (see p50) regarding spray cans and graffiti moved Selected to give me a call, saying, “Thanks for the Tong article – and can you

dig a little deeper and call on the thoughts of one Clifford Joseph Price?”He’s a superstar DJ and producer, a top-notch graffiti artist and

reality show regular… Ring any bells? An actor boasting roles as a bad-boy Bond villain and cameos in some of the coolest British flicks of the past ten years... No? Still reckon I’m keeping you in the dark?

Utter the name ‘Goldie’, however, and you know exactly who I’m talking about. In fact, if you’re anything like me, you might even feel a little shudder down your spine because, as he picks up the phone (a second time, as it happens, after some mild previous confusion), past experience suggests I could be in for a bit of a hammering.

Nevertheless, despite the formidable feistiness and trademark cheek this was noticeably different. This was a happy Goldie with hundreds of projects spilling from his pockets and paint stains on his fingers. A man enjoying some kind of artistic and personal renaissance, for whom painting Wonderland for the mighty Tong is a recent commission.

In fact, Goldie’s got a lot going on in general – and with a talk speed ranging anywhere from ‘pretty pacey’ to ‘insane drum ’n’ bass’ it seemed Mr CJ Price wasn’t going to let us miss a minute of it. ñ

King of jungle, lord of drum’ n’ bass, boss of Bristol, actor, and artist: Phil Dudman meets the legendary Goldie

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ñ Goldie: “…Phil, from Selected Magazine? You’ll have to remind me, mate, cos I ’av no idea what this is fucking about. And you sound a bit pissed off with me now. Sounds like you’ve had a bit of a long day ain’t ya, what’s the matter?”

Phil Dudman: “No, no, I’m not pissed off, mate, I’m just feeling ill from Gatecrasher Summer Sound System at the weekend…”

G: “Serves you fucking right! Serves… you… fucking… right. Don’t take the fucking thing out on me pal. D’ya know what I mean? Fucking moody bastard…”

PD: “I’m not, I’m not…”

G: “You fucking moody bastard. Cheer up, it’s not that fucking bad, there’s a lot of people been through a lot worse. It’s your own doing, it’s your own fucking fault!”

PD: “Hmmm… That’s true…”

G: “You went, it’s self-inflicted, get over it.”

PD: “You went – did you have a good time?”

G: “I had a good time, mate, yeah, a good time. Had a good laugh. Shame about that guy dying in the fucking tent. That was a bit of a nightmare, wasn’t it? So anyway, fire away. Question and answer thing, is it?”

PD: “OK, well last week I interviewed Pete Tong about his new Wonderland night in Ibiza, for which you did the artwork, so it would be good to talk about that, but to kick off, can you just tell us what the big news in the world of Goldie is right now?”

G: “What? Say that again?”

PD: “What’s the big news in the world of Goldie right now?”

G: “Oh…” [He becomes instantly animated…] “Fucking unbelievable at the minute. I spent the whole of fucking yesterday conducting an 80-piece fucking BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which was brilliant.”

PD: “No way?”

G: “Yeah, way. Fucking way. I’m doing this Maestro programme on BBC2. Can you believe it? Me, street kid, dirty beats, has actually learned to conduct. It’s fucking mad.

PD: “That must have been immense.”

G: “It was incredible. To tell you the truth mate, I think it’s part of the BBC’s incentive now that they realise classical music, for a better want of the word, has got the wrong image and they want to look at it in a different way. Funnily enough I just happened to fit the glove – and if the hat fits mate, wear it. But from my perspective, to be able to do that was just an unbelievable thing. To do a piece of music that you control the speed of, and you control the dynamics is completely different to what I have ever done in my life.

So I’m doing that, then the art’s really taken off, funnily enough. I mean, it’s swings and roundabouts how the art’s taken off at the moment thanks to Banksy and those kind of people that have got this new kind of art, you know? It’s been around for a few years before people have got wind of it but it’s been a really beautiful thing, because for me, it’s like, ‘Oh, paint canvasses with a few drips on it’… not a problem, you know what I mean? It’s painting by numbers, mate so it’s pretty straightforward. The Wonderland thing is a bit like the start; like the baking of the cake.

The thing with Pete is he’s such a creative guy – I mean, as an A&R man Pete was behind a desk at London Records – he signed me, he believed in it. Now he’s become a celebrity but he’s still the same geezer underneath it all. I mean, I remember Pete as an A&R man and in a way he still is. He came to this [art] show I did in September, along with Nic Fanciulli, they’ve both bought some pieces, then Pete’s gone, ‘Mate, this is unbelievable... Fuck all this photoshop stuff, do you want to paint the canvas?’

So I took him to my house, photographed him, broke it down, painted him, rendered three canvases, then put the scan back into the computer and messed around with it. Look at the double-spread Mixmag ad. I mean, it just looks ridiculous because it looks so different from everything else. I looked

at it and thought about a bit of a Hollywood theme and Pete went with it. I’m going to have prints of my other pieces up around the club too, so yeah, the whole thing’s been really good. Really good.”

PD: “Well, you sound really happy.”

G: “I’ve just got really, really active. I’m doing another show in Birmingham at the end of June. I’ve just got a lot of new pieces on the go at the moment. I’ve just literally been painting all day today. The thing is mate, I wake up with such a passion for it at the moment… I mean, I had a bit of a life-changing scenario: I nearly lost my leg last year (it was one game show too many), then I got divorced and I thought, ‘You know what, this is ground zero.’ I was in total meltdown, but it was probably the best thing that happened to me. I mean, when I got married, I was going through a big divorce in my head with art, which I should never have done because it has been the only love affair that has stayed with me. Tumultuous as art has been, it’s probably been the best relationship I’ve ever had and at that time I really did not pay her any attention. So I got really divorced and put my art back on the walls, man, and here I am. My house is full of paintings, I’m buzzing away, constantly painting when I can between DJ-ing at the weekend, I just feel like I’m fucking 19 – I really do. I’ve got so much energy at the minute and I’m really happy, I’m buzzin’. And that’s without gear!”

PD: “I was going to say…”

G: “Ha ha, it’s unbelievable, but since I’ve stopped gear I’ve just got better. My whole lifestyle’s changing.”

P: “It certainly doesn’t sound like you need it, with all this other stuff going on…”

G: “Well I think all the drinking and

“I’m buzzing away, constantly painting when I can between DJ-ing at the weekend, I just feel like I’m fucking 19 – I really do. I’ve got so much energy at the minute and I’m really happy, I’m buzzin’. And that’s without gear!”

interview

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bingeing and doing all the stuff we did – it just provoked a lot of great ideas in your head. I wouldn’t take one of them away because it really got me into a way of thinking. But after a while that thinking can consume you unless you physically get out there and fucking do it. With art and music, you can’t cop out of it. You’ve got to do it. When I stop doing music, I paint. When I stop painting, I do sculpture. When I stop doing sculpture I’m making jewellery, when I stop that I’m back in the studio again – so I’m really glad that I’ve got all these things that I can fall back into, you know. It’s been a fantastic fucking year.”

PD: “OK, so if you were me, what would you ask Goldie that he hasn’t told anyone before?

G: “Well I went to do some work and lectures down at Thames Valley University with the kids doing music down there. In fact, I am a patron there and have an honorary degree. ‘Professor Goldie’, ha ha! Apart from that I’d probably tell you about the postcard that stays on my bedroom window and I never take it down. It says, ‘I’ve learnt so much from my mistakes, I’m thinking about making a few more’.”

PD: “Hear, hear.”

G: “Nice one, fella. See you later.” n

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THE GOLDIE TOUCH: (Clockwise from top left) Pete Tong DJing; Self-Portrait Two; No Peaceful Solution (three of four);

Cooperative Three Peace Suite (three of four)

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Lord of the ISLE

Should you not, by some miracle, have heard of Pete Tong by now, you’ve either been living on Mars for the

past 40 years or you dropped your sunglasses as the Men In Black flashed past. Pete is, of course, best known as the face of dance music on Radio One and a legendary house music pioneer. But this schoolboy drummer, DJ and promoter turned one-man music industry certainly isn’t reaching for his pipe and slippers just yet. In fact, as Ibiza gears up for another Balearic belter, he’s parted company with Pacha and, unable to hide his excitement about ‘Wonderland’ – his brand-new club venture that he is unveiling this party season – Pete reveals how he’s canvassed support from Goldie, why London still kicks clubland ass and hints why, in this game, you should never get too comfortable…

Phil Dudman: “So Pete, it’s all change on the White Isle. Can you us a little bit about your new night, Wonderland?”

Pete Tong: “Well, it’s something different for me: a new challenge, new place, new space, new reason, new season. It’s exciting, and I think there’s a gap in the market. Ibiza’s an amazing place with an amazing history but not a lot has changed in the status quo over the years in terms of what’s on offer so the chance to do something completely new that has never been tried before seemed perversely appealing: to kind of jump out the box, take a risk and do something different.”

PD: “Is it true you got Goldie involved to do the artwork?”

PT: “Yep. Historically my relationship with Goldie goes back to the mid-1990s when I signed him as an artist for FFFR [the dance label founded and run by Pete]. When I met him he already had a very good reputation on the graffiti circuit but he put down his paint brush and his spray can and he got into music. He didn’t really do much with art again until 2007 when he was bed-ridden with a pretty horrific injury, couldn’t DJ and picked up his paints. Urban art is all the rage at the moment and he’s very talented at it. As soon as I saw it at an exhibition in Hoxton last autumn, I said, ‘Goldie, whatever I do in Ibiza next, I want you to do the art.’ The way his unique poster campaign unfolds, my image starts dripping as the season goes on and the Wonderland image starts melting. You kind of need to see it – it’s very clever.”

PD: “And you’ve moved to Eden with it, is that right?”

PT: “Yeah. It’s a great space, one that probably follows the traditions more closely of the main rooms at, say, Space or Amnesia. Put it this way, it’s a proper dancing club – more geared up to a proper old-school rave.”

PD: “As opposed to some of the others?”

PT: “Well Pacha’s not so much like that. Pacha’s a beautiful room, but it’s more about a

kind of VIP, of being the centre of attention, you know? I think one of the reasons the Wonderland move has attracted so much attention is because normally people don’t do that. They either retire, leave the island, or they get sacked. What they don’t normally do is leave when things are going really well. So I might be the biggest fool or I might be the cleverest person but I think I’m more conscious of it because I’ve been around a bit longer. Nobody wanted to change anything in the 1990s and that’s probably why the bubble burst. Everybody got too comfortable. Maybe we would have managed a bit better then if we’d changed things around a bit earlier.”

PD: “Perhaps. But it’s still going strong, especially in London. What’s the difference in club culture between Ibiza and London?”

PT: “Well, between the White Isle and the rest of the world I would say it was very clear because in Ibiza you get like-minded people from all over the world going to the same place for the same reason. They all feel they’re on holiday, they know it’s special and they know they can’t get it anywhere else. However, London has actually become a little bit like New York used to be in the late 1980s, early 1990s – probably the most international city you could play in now. It’s not as international as playing in Ibiza but London is the one place, I would say, that comes anywhere near.” nTo see more of Phil Dudman’s work, visit myspace.com/uglymowgli

Despite Vanessa Feltz’s revelation that he was her first snog. Pete Tong’s career is still going strong. Here, the

DJ superstar and music industry mogul talks leaving Pacha, the future for Ibiza and employing Goldie

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