Interviewed summer 1995 in the backyard of Phonogram in Hilversum

It seemed as if they had vanished into thin air. Together with so many from the same generation, the so-called shoegazers. But suddenly there was this album in the shops, Happy Days by Catherine Wheel. A varied record, clear, loud but still subtle. Rob: “I think is our most ambitious record. Almost everything we like is on it. We go from loud to melancholic and then again very poppy. We didn’t set up any rules for ourselves, we weren’t going to make a structured record. We put anything on it that sounded right.” Rob Dickinson is satisfied. And he can be, although the record isn’t structured, it is complete. Finally Catherine Wheel sound like they sound live, an achievement not many bands are able to make. Rob: “It’s because we tour so much. We know ourselves inside out. Recording at the end of a tour is just the right moment to work on a record. Musically as well as lyricwise we got a lot more confidence. That’s why this record is so direct. No more guitar overdubs or difficult metaphors. We’ve kept it pure and simple.”

Their confidence is mostly based on the success they’ve had in the United States. Rob: “We’ve been there a very long time. After the release of ‘Chrome’ we got all these messages that ‘Black Metallic’ on our debut ‘Ferment’ was being played on the radio frequently. So we went out touring for a while and before we knew it we were there almost permanent. That did do us a lot of good. That success made us reappraise ourselves. America can give you that effect that you rise above your potential. I think if we stayed in England too long we would have been suffocated by the narrow-mindedness of some of the stuff that goes on.” Rob has nothing good to say about the bands who limit themselves to England: “If you want to be successful in England, you have to change yourself in a very conscious way. First you have to make a shoegazing record and then a pop record. How can you believe a band like that? That band hasn’t got a heart. Pop music to me is getting something from what the person is singing about. To be completely engulfed by the music. We’ve decided that’s where our band exists.”

Happy Days is not only musically admirable, the artwork is also excellent. The booklet shows a gigantic crib in a lovely green landscape. Rob: “Our friend Storm Thorgerson is responsible. He recognised a certain theme in the songs, childhood and the traumatic experience growing up has been for most of us. We thought of the title Happy Days and that juxtaposition of this man screaming in this bed, just seems wonderful. The idea is that the crib is a safehaven, but with a sense of imprisonment, because of the bars. It is something you never really escape from your childhood. You drag your childhood into your later life.”

Storm is one of the many people who work together with Catherine Wheel. Rob: “We try and surround ourselves with people we trust creatively and who we get along with. Like Mark Pallington who does our videos, Gil Norton who engineers and Tim Friese Green the ex-Talk Talk member playing the keyboards. The more people we can surround ourselves with the better.” Although Catherine Wheel is very content with Gil’s work, they’re thinking of working with Tim again. Rob: “In about six months. Maybe we’ll make a very extreme record, either very quiet or very loud. I don’t know yet. Expect a very special record, comparable with Talk Talk’s ‘Laughing Stock’”.