The Generalist

Recorded in a hotel coffee lounge, a few doors away from the BBC’s Broadcasting House, this interview was an assignment for the NME, conducted shortly after the publication in paperback of ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’, the third book in the Hitchhiker’s sequence.

It began: ‘Douglas Adams is a carbon-based bipedal life form, well over six foot and burly with it, with what are politely called generous features. He's 30 and looks 40.’

When the waiter came, Douglas ordered a large champagne cocktail. It was around 11am. He asked me what I was having and I decided it was wise to drink the same. I think we had three each during the interview; it may have been four. Douglas seemed in full control, except he began talking more intensely. I had problems focusing.

This interview captures many delightful sides of Douglas, whose legacy through ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide’ continues to entrance, amuse and delight. He and it seem to have come from a simpler time. His integrity and inventiveness shines out of all his creations. He was very human.

''I suppose I'm a terrible worrier,' he told me, 'and by suggesting that underlying everyday events there are appalling explanations, that is my own way of attempting to justify that fact.'

Enjoy!

Read the original NME article
http://hqinfo.blogspot.com/2005/08/douglas-adams-carbon-based-bipedal_23.html

Files
Interview, MP3 size: 27.3mb, Length: 39:11

CDN Link - Direct Link

We are sitting in Chris Salewicz’s basement, somewhere in South London, surrounded by precarious stacks of cds, sustained by tea and a toasted sardine sandwich, talking ‘bout Joe Strummer.

Chris was waiting for his 650pp uberbiography of Joe to come out when we talked – the result of some 3 1/2 years research and some 300 interviews. Chris had been a longtime buddy of Joe’s anyway, having met, interviewed and befriended him over many years. So the book, which the first flush of reviews suggest is a five-star job, is pierced by Chris’s love and respect for John Mellor, the real man behind the giant public persona of Joe Strummer.

What is great about Chris is his energy and humour which comes across so vividly in this interview and which makes him such a brilliant music journalist. Since his days at the punk and post-punk NME in the 1970s, he has written ‘copiously’ for mainstream papers and mags, published 14 books, including a major work on Bob Marley, and crafted the screenplay for ‘Third World Cop’, still one of the most successful films in the Caribbean ever.

He tells me: ‘”I’ve never known a band that cried as much as the Clash.” For this and a hundred other insights and revelations, sit back and enjoy the Strummer saga straight from the mouth of the man who knows.

Files
Interview Part 1, MP3 Size: 36.8MB, Length: 80:20

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Interview Part 2, MP3 Size: 13.4MB, Length: 29:23

CDN Link - Direct Link