A few weeks ago I had a real “Hollywood” week where, in the space of a few days, I met Billy Idol and John Carpenter.

Idol was unexpected--a late addition to the panel for the Toby Mott exhibition of punk rock memorabilia and artwork that I was on.

A pleasant surprise anyway (always had a soft spot for “Rebel Yell”, “White Wedding” and “Eyes Without A Face”) and I was impressed that despite having lived in LA for X number of years and being your Archetypal Rockstar Rebel he did not appear to have a single tat. (Ink is verily a scourge in LA). Nice guy and cool also to effect a "Cyberpunk, meet Cyberpunk" introduction afterwards between Bruce and Bill (Sterling co-invented it, Bill did an album titled it)

Here is a bit of the panel where Will.he.is riffs on the Meaning of Punk from the p.o.v. of One Who Was There and then I riff on the Meaning of Punk from the p.o.v of One Who Wasn’t.




Carpenter was an interview for a video for the upcoming Sound and Vision festival (more on this below). It was filmed in the office at his production company HQ. In the conference room, I noticed a sign on the boss’s desk facing out to his employees and bearing the legend “No Whining”. There was a hint of that old-school director steeliness in his manner (I imagine interviewing Howard Hawks, or Russ Meyer, might have been similar). But overall a very pleasant, courteous fellow, Mr Carpenter.

The interview is going to be previewed in two parts on the web and then shown in full as part of the Sound of Fear: the Musical Universe of Horror event at the Southbank Centre in London on 3rd September 2011, which is part of the Sound and Vision festival of music for visuals from films to games to advertising. More information here and here.

For now, a taster. Do bear in mind that the questions and reaction shots of yours truly were filmed after Carpenter had left the premises. Standard practice in TV, but a ruddy peculiar thing to have to do, let me tell you, re-enacting what you just did, but this time into the void of silence. It gave me a new respect for the slickness of your professional TV interviewers.