Go West on Justin, Beyonce and that song

It's 1990, I am 12 years old, watching the opening credits of Pretty Woman, the tune King of Wishful Thinking playing in the background.

2003: I am interviewing the King of Wishful Thinking crooners, Go West. My wishful thinking has just been granted.

Although their string of hits, also including Faithful and their version of the old Motown hit The Tracks of My Tears, may be among your all-time favorites, you probably assumed the group, formed in 1982, is no more.

Some teenagers may even ask, "Go who?" Those brats.

But they are still going. Go West's Peter Cox (vocalist) and Richard Drummie (guitarist) talked with The Jakarta Post during their appearance at the recent Live and Loud Music Festival in Singapore.

Our 20 minutes went so fast as they discussed how the face of music has changed, their reasons for saying no to Bond and how they enjoyed Justin Timberlake more than anything. And oh, living next door to Clint Eastwood.

Besides this concert, you also have the Here and Now concert tour with Belinda Carlisle, Paul Young, etc. Is there less pressure when you're doing a concert with other bands? Which do you like better?

Peter: I really enjoy live performing anyway. The pressure is not really on us. We get on the stage and play the songs that we hope the audience will remember. The pressure I would say is on the bands that play after us. Just the nature of the way things are.

But I don't know if we really feel that much pressure when we play live anyway, only the regular stage nerves. If you weren't nervous, I think it would be something wrong. You want to go out on stage and do the best job you can. I really enjoy it.

I don't feel any particular pressure. Because I'm really comfortable with the band, with the songs we're playing, we're still here after 20 years, people want to hear us playing. I think we sound as good, if not better, than we ever did.

Richard: They're different things, I like both of them. In our own show, you can change the pace and just go with the flow. When you're in an environment like this concert or the Here and Now tour, you're in competition to a degree. You just go out there do the best you can because you only have 20 minutes.

Peter: We also have the luxury of having relatively high- energy material. Not all bands have as many uptempo songs as we do. So when we only have 20 minutes, we can go make a sprint.

The song King of Wishful Thinking is not like other sappy love songs. Can you tell me the story behind the song -- is it based on your experience?

Peter: When we're writing the lyrics together it's a little bit more difficult to write from personal experience. Although I'm sure both of us have been in that experience, as everybody has, (and) that makes the song an identifiable song for everyone.

Richard: The thing of King of Wishful Thinking was the idea that everyone has been there. OK, it's a love song. She left us or we left her, what is it this time? It's just an interesting angle to write instead of "She's out of my life". It's like, "She's gone, who cares? I'm fine, I don't need you anymore." I think it's the only song we've written with that perspective. "She's gone, who cares? So what? I'm all right."

Do you think Pretty Woman made a big push for King of Wishful Thinking (to be a hit) or was is it the other way around?

Richard: I think it's the other way around because I'm arrogant (laughs). I think they helped us and we helped them. I don't know what would've happened if we didn't put it on the soundtrack. The rest of our album had been ready at that time. That's the first song we wrote that would come out at that time. Maybe it wouldn't be such a big hit like it was, so I think it's good for both of us.

So you didn't specially make the song for the movie?

Peter: That very rarely happens. We were approached to write, as many artists were, A View to a Kill for the James Bond movie, but the song had to be called A View to a Kill. Duran Duran did it.

Richard: I think it was Living Daylights.

Peter: Either way, both those titles don't suggest to me any songs at all. Both are horrible titles (laughs). Living daylights? What are you going to write? We did talk about it. Obviously it's a good opportunity. But if something doesn't speak to you -- I mean living daylights -- I couldn't think of a single idea.

Richard: Our management like always said, "Guys, you could do the Bond thing" And we're like "No, we don't like the titles. If they called it something else, and yes we might do it (laughs)."

What songs do you listen to right now?

Peter: I understand that John Mayer is having some success. I was introduced to his music two years ago. I like the sound of John's voice. I like the intelligence of his songs. It's just the music I could relate to much more easily.

I also like Louis Taylor. He's an Irish singer on the independent label, not commercial for the teenage market. But it's the music I could relate to. I like Coldplay.

Again, generally speaking, I like singers that move me. I like songs that are lyrically intelligent. So I'm less interested personally in dance music, even though Richard has finally got me realizing that Justin Timberlake's album is a strong record.

Richard: Yes, it's a great record. I didn't like Justin Timberlake. I was in a store recently and they're playing the record. It's great. I didn't know so I asked, "What are you playing?" One of the guys said " It's Justin Timberlake." I said, "This isn't Justin Timberlake." He said, "This is Justin Timberlake." I took his word and I bought it.

Having said that, in a way I think it's gonna be such a huge record like Michael Jackson's Thriller. It's like they tried to make a Michael Jackson album without Michael Jackson.

Do you have any guilty pleasure about the music you listen to?

Richard: Justin is a perfect example. I don't know why, I suppose because he's such a teen idol. But I think he's gonna stand the test of time. The guy can sing. He has cool people working with him in the music industry ... The girls love him. Well, yeah that's my guilty pleasure.

Peter: The one I'm gonna confess to is that I just bought AC/DC live DVD recently. I like AC/DC, I don't care what you say (laughs). In the right place and time. High energy, fun music.

If you could choose one person to join the band, who would that be?

Peter: Someone young and good-looking. Cameron Diaz. Justin Timberlake (laughs).

Richard: And here they are ... Justin Timberlake. And we can't just come on the stage. We'll be down the back. Laughing.

You've been in the music industry since the '80s. Has the face of music changed so much since then?

Richard: It changed so much in England ... They used to release a record and it goes its way to the charts. Now they don't do that. They release it on the radio, play it for six weeks so the record company almost can tell whether they have a hit or not before they put the record out.

So what happens there is that anything that doesn't sell gets pulled. A lot of new bands get pulled. I see a lot of people make albums; it doesn't do well on the radio and the whole project was pulled.

So they put the record in discount stores. What happens then is all the kids go out and buy the single that they had been waiting for six weeks in the first week for half price. And the record goes straight up to number one.

Back then, the record-buying customer didn't go to the record store in the first week. They didn't wander in for a record in six weeks before. The chart didn't work that way in the '80s. Also there is a lot less money in music right now. More competition. The record companies have less money; they have to be careful with their money.

What question are your fans most likely to ask you?

Peter: Lately, why aren't you recording? When's your new album coming out? It's difficult because the kind of people that are most likely to buy a Go West record are the ones who are familiar with our old songs, who have grown up and wanna hear more of the flavor they know. But those people are less likely to buy CDs than teenagers are. We can't have the funding from the record label, and radio play that supports the need to be successful.

In your career, what was the most ridiculous news you found about yourself?

Richard: It's about how we didn't play the game on the stage. I was home once, and my dad was a huge Clint Eastwood fan. He said, "What's he like?" I said, "Who?" He said, "Clint Eastwood. I read in the newspaper you live next to him." I said, "I don't live next to him."

It's a record company thing to makes our lives more interesting. It's just the rubbish that they made up. In the end, they stopped making up the rubbish because we didn't play the game. We're just like you. We're just normal people. We don't do interesting things.

If you could turn the tables, which celebrity would you like to interview and what particular question would you like to ask?

Peter: We could always interview Beyonce and ask, "Will you go out with me?" (laughs)

Richard: That would do. (laughs).

-- Kenny Santana