M station -> Deborah Stickland of Flying Lizards fame

There's a secret project brewing ... so we can't talk about it yet.
One of the people in the secret project is
Deborah Stickland
who is memorable to a lot of people as the voice in the Flying Lizards version of Money which was a big hit back in 1979. But it doesn't rest there.
More recently the tune has been included in various movie sound tracks and has accompanied quite a few TV programs as well as getting a nice mention from the Munich based Chicks on Speed.
Recently Mstation went out to West London for a chat. Some of the questions were pre-asked by Bill.
The secret project? More later!

"
Bill:
Deborah, how long is it since your big hit with Money and what has happened since?

Deborah:
Money was number 4 in the UK and number 3 in the USA as well as getting to number 1 in Australia in 1979. Strangely, Money has not been out of the public eye since, being regularly used in TV programmes about the Thatcher years and even a stint on the BBC's Money programme ... also their interesting documentary on the Monet exhibition. It has been used in a number of commercials, regularly played on the radio and used in three recent films, Empire Records, The Wedding Singer, and most recently Charlie's Angels. So in the USA I seem to be something of a cult figure as are many of the Punk, Post-Punk and New Romantics of that time.
'Money'

UK number 4

USA

number 3

Bill:
How do you feel about the new celebrity and how does it relate to your current life?

Well, I've no problem with celebrity! But I'd welcome the money to go with it. As with many musicians from the 80's the fame does not necessarly mean you get paid for it!! I've had a difficult time getting lawyers to help me recover money from my back catalogue. I am currently trying to get separate accounting from Virgin Records in order to keep tabs on what royalties are due to me.
(Ed's note: Virgin Records have since agreed to a separate accounting.)
Since being the lead singer for the Flying Lizards I have been married and divorced and have an eleven year old son called Emille and have embarked on a professional carreer as a psychotherapist. I have worked in this field for a number of years.

Bill:
I see that you appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks on BBC2 (UK television quiz show featuring pop music people). How did you find it?

Well, it was great fun. I'd like to do more. I was described as the slightly scarey lead singer from the Flying Lizards. It was fun meeting Mark Lamor and the segment I was on was funny to watch. They guessed who I was!
slightly

scarey

Mstation:
What have you got on the boil now Deborah?

Deborah:
We've got the blues album, which I've given you a copy off

Mstation:
yes (it has some nice Blues standards done with Deborah's distinctive talking voice)

The secret project? We'll just allude to it shall we? It is a music project?

Deborah:
It is a music project. We can't say anything more about it right now!

OK ... Opera Shop? What is that?

Opera shop was a series of music composition workshops for people with learning disabilities. We were going to put together this new project (with a pyschologist from around the corner) full of wonderfull little workshops and including a really wide range of interesting musicians. One of things we were going to do was record non-verbal sound, sounds people make who don't have language. We thought this was an amazing idea of recontextualising something which is thought not to have value.

Anyway, I've been trying to get fund raisers interested and have spoken to the Duke of Westminister's charity and others and Sophie had organised the possibility of using the Royal Albert Hall. The original conception though, has had to be modified and we are now working on it as a 'youth project'. This was the result of trying to navigate the various rules and regulations that pertain. It'll have to be like that to organise the money to do it and there will have to be an age range.

How many kids will take part?

We don't know but we're thinking twenty and have a staffing ratio of one to three or four.

And where can people contact you if they want to support this?

I should think, they could ... I don't know! They could send a message here (limesnave@hotmail.com) which would get to me.

What are your musical roots?

I'm not sure I have any musical roots. I'm not sure I have any musical roots

Ah, how did you get involved with 'Money' in the first place?

In Art College.

the Blues?

I do like them very much. I have these long conversations with Bill about how sexist the lyrics are ...It's a vehicle for oppression. He says that you have to understand that it's only entertainment and I say, yes it's only entertainment but ... It's a better, somehow sweeter way of expression than rap but it's still got the kind of elements of oppression in it. I love Billie Holiday and to me she sounds incredibly plaintive. Maybe that's the masochist in me saying that's incredibly beautiful.

I am familiar with rap and have tried to do it with Jamaican children. I found I could only do it for a very short time. Their voices are very percussive ... and my voice isn't like that at all. But the bit that I did I quite enjoyed. They were making jungle music I think. It is strange ... I liked them doing it altho I couldn't do it very well myself. All of the dancing and gesturing that goes with it, again ... speaks to me of something that is terribly oppresive. It's good fun and terribly friendly when they're doing it ... this is what we're doing together and we're proud of it.

Music is the art I know least about.I know far more about painting and sculpture and literature.
Blues sweeter than rap

Do you find there's any transference between visual arts and literature and the stuff you hear? or the stuff you'd like to make?

Are you talking about transference and counter-transference or transferable skills?

No, I'm talking about ideas ... like you might have visual ideas that might go into something musically ... or for example, your tastes might be uniformly baroque or uniformly zen...

No they're not uniformly, something like zen or baroque. But I think, yes, I can translate one idea from one module to another... or it does occur to me to do that. Which means the ideas one has, if one is indeed lucky enough to have ideas (laughter) .. these sort of ideas do suggest that they could be manifest in several ways and mediums.

In visual arts do you have a period you like?

Who do I really like?

yes

I really, really like Matisse ... and contemporary painting.

More abstract or more allusional stuff?

non-specific - I like looking at paintings and I like looking at sculptures.

(having been prompted) Deborah, the meaning of life?

Deborah:
It has come to my attention that this is usually asked of people least equipped to answer it. There's also the psychoanalytic maxim that unless you've the answer, you can't formulate the question which probably leads me to conclude that the person asking the question already knows the answer ... but having said that, I dunno ... I think in terms of what I dislike and like. I dislike heirarchies. I like social intelligence ... I think if we can get along together and if we can be creative together and resolve our internal destructiveness then we will find some meaning. I dislike heirarchies. I like social intelligence...

Mstation:
Thank you Deborah!

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"
Bill: Deborah, how long is it since your big hit with Money and what has happened since?
Deborah: Money was number 4 in the UK and number 3 in the USA as well as getting to number 1 in Australia in 1979. Strangely, Money has not been out of the public eye since, being regularly used in TV programmes about the Thatcher years and even a stint on the BBC's Money programme ... also their interesting documentary on the Monet exhibition. It has been used in a number of commercials, regularly played on the radio and used in three recent films, Empire Records, The Wedding Singer, and most recently Charlie's Angels. So in the USA I seem to be something of a cult figure as are many of the Punk, Post-Punk and New Romantics of that time.	'Money' UK number 4 USA number 3
Bill: How do you feel about the new celebrity and how does it relate to your current life?
Well, I've no problem with celebrity! But I'd welcome the money to go with it. As with many musicians from the 80's the fame does not necessarly mean you get paid for it!! I've had a difficult time getting lawyers to help me recover money from my back catalogue. I am currently trying to get separate accounting from Virgin Records in order to keep tabs on what royalties are due to me. (Ed's note: Virgin Records have since agreed to a separate accounting.) Since being the lead singer for the Flying Lizards I have been married and divorced and have an eleven year old son called Emille and have embarked on a professional carreer as a psychotherapist. I have worked in this field for a number of years.
Bill: I see that you appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks on BBC2 (UK television quiz show featuring pop music people). How did you find it?
Well, it was great fun. I'd like to do more. I was described as the slightly scarey lead singer from the Flying Lizards. It was fun meeting Mark Lamor and the segment I was on was funny to watch. They guessed who I was!	slightly scarey

Mstation: What have you got on the boil now Deborah?
Deborah: We've got the blues album, which I've given you a copy off
Mstation: yes (it has some nice Blues standards done with Deborah's distinctive talking voice)
The secret project? We'll just allude to it shall we? It is a music project?
Deborah: It is a music project. We can't say anything more about it right now!
OK ... Opera Shop? What is that?
Opera shop was a series of music composition workshops for people with learning disabilities. We were going to put together this new project (with a pyschologist from around the corner) full of wonderfull little workshops and including a really wide range of interesting musicians. One of things we were going to do was record non-verbal sound, sounds people make who don't have language. We thought this was an amazing idea of recontextualising something which is thought not to have value. Anyway, I've been trying to get fund raisers interested and have spoken to the Duke of Westminister's charity and others and Sophie had organised the possibility of using the Royal Albert Hall. The original conception though, has had to be modified and we are now working on it as a 'youth project'. This was the result of trying to navigate the various rules and regulations that pertain. It'll have to be like that to organise the money to do it and there will have to be an age range.
How many kids will take part?
We don't know but we're thinking twenty and have a staffing ratio of one to three or four.
And where can people contact you if they want to support this?
I should think, they could ... I don't know! They could send a message here (limesnave@hotmail.com) which would get to me.
What are your musical roots?
I'm not sure I have any musical roots.	I'm not sure I have any musical roots
Ah, how did you get involved with 'Money' in the first place?
In Art College.
the Blues?
I do like them very much. I have these long conversations with Bill about how sexist the lyrics are ...It's a vehicle for oppression. He says that you have to understand that it's only entertainment and I say, yes it's only entertainment but ... It's a better, somehow sweeter way of expression than rap but it's still got the kind of elements of oppression in it. I love Billie Holiday and to me she sounds incredibly plaintive. Maybe that's the masochist in me saying that's incredibly beautiful. I am familiar with rap and have tried to do it with Jamaican children. I found I could only do it for a very short time. Their voices are very percussive ... and my voice isn't like that at all. But the bit that I did I quite enjoyed. They were making jungle music I think. It is strange ... I liked them doing it altho I couldn't do it very well myself. All of the dancing and gesturing that goes with it, again ... speaks to me of something that is terribly oppresive. It's good fun and terribly friendly when they're doing it ... this is what we're doing together and we're proud of it. Music is the art I know least about.I know far more about painting and sculpture and literature.	Blues sweeter than rap
Do you find there's any transference between visual arts and literature and the stuff you hear? or the stuff you'd like to make?
Are you talking about transference and counter-transference or transferable skills?
No, I'm talking about ideas ... like you might have visual ideas that might go into something musically ... or for example, your tastes might be uniformly baroque or uniformly zen...
No they're not uniformly, something like zen or baroque. But I think, yes, I can translate one idea from one module to another... or it does occur to me to do that. Which means the ideas one has, if one is indeed lucky enough to have ideas (laughter) .. these sort of ideas do suggest that they could be manifest in several ways and mediums.
In visual arts do you have a period you like?
Who do I really like?
yes
I really, really like Matisse ... and contemporary painting.
More abstract or more allusional stuff?
non-specific - I like looking at paintings and I like looking at sculptures.
(having been prompted) Deborah, the meaning of life?
Deborah: It has come to my attention that this is usually asked of people least equipped to answer it. There's also the psychoanalytic maxim that unless you've the answer, you can't formulate the question which probably leads me to conclude that the person asking the question already knows the answer ... but having said that, I dunno ... I think in terms of what I dislike and like. I dislike heirarchies. I like social intelligence ... I think if we can get along together and if we can be creative together and resolve our internal destructiveness then we will find some meaning.	I dislike heirarchies. I like social intelligence...
Mstation: Thank you Deborah!