Colin: "It means selling a lot of records, I 'spose

Ed: "...sounding like Mariah Carey

Colin: "big orchestras in your videos...

Ed: "...lots of rain, drum risers kind of 70 foot high, a la Guns'n Roses..

Colin: "...helicopter video shots...basically everything we haven't had done or seen

Toby: "but you've still sold lots of records...but you don't sound like Mariah Carey

Ed: "no but then there are loads of bands which have sold loads of records: Nirvana, Pearl Jam. They're not mainstream.

Toby: "do you think success and integrity can't go together...?

Ed: "yeah they can go together. It's just you mustn't fall for the cliches; the babes in the videos [...]. If you sell a lot of records you should be given more freedom, that's what the Beatles did and they went on to make better and better records, so, by that regard, bands who have been successful should make more interesting records.

Toby: "how much do you think the pressures of success contributed to Kurt Cobain's suicide?

Colin: "I wouldn't like to say what contributed to his death [...] Obviously there were, like, pressures of success, but one of the marks of a great band is the ability to change and adapt deal with the pressure as it happens and that's really what happened to us, with us with Creep and we're dealing with it with our new record [ie. FPT]

Toby: "What are the pressures of success, though?

Ed: "Probably just the demands of, the difference between this album and Pablo Honey is, when we released Pablo Honey we did no promo, with this album we're doing two months promotion around the world... If it encroaches on being able to play live then and being able to rehearse new songs etcetera, etcetera.

Toby: " but when you get caught up in a machine like that, does it corrupt your ideals in any sense?

Colin: "well you try to tell yourself as much as possible that what you're going to be using the tools...for your own end. Obviously sometimes you have to make compromises, you have to do things, meet people that you would rather not. But you have to careful, sometimes you think you don't want to sell out but at the same time, if you don't do something you're not giving people the chance to see what you're doing, and you're patronising people as well.

Toby: "but when does compromise stop and sell out to stardom?

Ed: "the bottom line is the music, I think...The basic thing with us is that we have to be devoted to the songs and passionate about them. If it encroaches on that, or it encroaches on the creative side - the making music and playing live - then it stops...Once it encroaches on the music, you know, no way.

Toby: "what's the big difference between success in Ameirca and Europe, you've had both

Ed: "the thing is you see we haven't, this is the thing.

Colin: "we've had a certain amount of success in America

Ed: "modicum

Colin: "modicum

Toby: "ah, c'mon, you've sold bucketloads!!

Ed: "no listen right! It was on the strength of one song...people ask us, 'now you're a successful band'... We don't see ourselves as a successful band. Success is something over three or four albums, it's a build-up... We've had some success in America, but not in Europe.

Colin: "One of the things about playing in Europe is the different states whilst America it's quite homogenous. It's always really nice playing in Europe, you always have this variety to break up the routine.

Toby: "would it be fair to say though that in Europe success is more of a problem, than it is in America; people respect you for being successful.

Ed: "I think rather than European, it's more British, once you get big or successful, they wanna start knocking you. In america it's kind of that 'good on ya', you've toured

Colin: "...you've made the grade.

Ed: "yeah that's right...

Toby: "is that maybe the essence of alternative music...? You can't be too successful because people immediately assume you've sold out.

Ed: "in America...I mean Sting is alternative you know? U2 won a grammy for best alternative album with Zooropa. In America the alternative thing is so huge and all encompassing, while in Europe it's a lot smaller and the mainstream is a lot larger. It's kind of a trade off going on there...

Toby: "how do you cope though?

Ed: "the more successful you are, the more people buy your records the more people telling you you're a great band, it fuels the egos... And also some bands maybe met through an advert, and they haven't got .... I mean we've kind of got this history behind us. We were all at school together