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The Go Betweens.
"It's good at the moment," replies a chipper sounding Grant McLennan when I ask how things are. "Every day brings a good surprise, the band are starting to rehearse for the tour; it all feels really good."
And well it should. After all, few bands have enjoyed a second act like The Go Betweens; since splitting after 1988's '16 Lover's Lane' McLennan and fellow singer/songwriter/guitarist Robert Forster reformed for 2000's excellent 'The Friends Of Rachel Worth', followed by 2002's 'Bright Yellow Bright Orange'. Now they've done the impossible: after 25 years and eight albums, 'Oceans Apart' is their best yet. McLennan puts much of it down to the chemistry within the band: "Adele [Pickvance, bass] has played on the last three albums now and Glenn [Thomson, former drummer with Custard] was on the last two, so we've been playing as a unit for five years now and I think we're getting really good."
There's no hint of bravado in McLennan's voice, just the quiet pride of a man who knows he's done good work. "Well, I think you always know; a writer or a painter knows when they've got a sentence right, or got the composition right. You just know that if you've painted a few pictures, or written a few songs. I've been blown away by the response, but personally I just think this record is about as good as it gets."
He's absolutely right too. While 'Oceans Apart' is very recognisably
Go Betweens it strikes out in some unexpected directions; in
fact, the upbeat The Statue put me in mind of Jack Frost,
McLennan's 1990 collaboration with The Church's Steve Kilbey.
"Really? Hmmm. I don't know how to react to that comparison," he replies. "It reminds me a bit more of Francoise Hardy or Serge Gainsbourg, like French pop. When we were working on that Robert and I talked about wanting it to be a bit European, a clubby kind of feel to it, and when we started playing it as a band it really fell into place."
And I have to ask: do he and Forster feel at all guilty for contributing to the spate of horrible, pointless reformations by proving that it can actually be done with grace?
"Well, I guess you'd need a case-by-case analysis," he splutters, laughing. "I certainly hope that it isn't the reason why some of the more tragic ones have happened. It wasn't something that ever came up in the intermission; it just seemed right in that hotel room in St Kilda in 1999; I don't know why it popped into my head, but it just felt right for the first time since early 1990."
Actually, Lloyd Cole (who got Forster and McLennan to support him for some 1999 shows) reckons he was responsible.
"Oh, he can have it! Lloyd can have it!"
Andrew P Street
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'Oceans Apart' is out now through Lo-Max/EMI.
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