M.I : First of all, how are you ?! W.W: We're fine ! Had a good time !
M.I : Feeling better, since last night's show (are we?) W.W: Ehm, Yes ! Think so !
M.I : How's the tour been so far ? W.W: It's been Great, we've played in Norway, then we went to Iceland, now we're here, and then we 're going back to Norway, then Germany, Sweden, Japan, Firefest in the UK and a few more dates here and there.. It will be great really, we should be doing more date in Germany in the fall too. Check our webpage for details.
M.I : Firefest ? W.W: Yeah - with a lot of bands, like us, Gotthard, Cinderella (it will be Winger after all), Bonfire and more ! in late October !
M.I : Oh, I ve gott-en-hard ! I m getting wet. in naughty'n'ham eh ?! W.W: (laughing) yeah ! It should be good - we 're looking forward ! (Sporty is returning from the bar !) Hey sportys back !
M.I : Sporty spice ! W.W: (Sporty) : You think so ?
M.I : No ! Not really ! You 're better, more masculine/muscular W.W: (Sporty) oh good ! Rest of the band laughs !
M.I : Hey - Wigwamania is out - and it kicks ass - but it's impossible, to get over here ! Only a store imports it - but he's sort of selling it for 25 bucks so it's kinda steep - and not a lot of people may actually bother - ordering it from him - which is a bit of a letdown ! W.W: (Glam): Well, we want it to be everywhere, but we were advised - that most companies over here, care mostly about greek folk music - booze-ouki, so it's kind of hard. But we're open to anyone - who wants to distribute this, just drop us an email and we can try to work out something with you !
M.I : Hey, what's up with your debut and it's 25 different editions ?! W.W: (Whole band laughing) (Glam) : Well it's kind of strange. We initially recorded the album and released it as 667 : The neighbor of the beast, on a very small label in Norway - and it didn't do much - the company was too small. We were lucky enough to get in touch with VOW, voices of wonder, because they wanted us to do a kiss cover, and since they were amazed with us and we had the rights to the album - we all wanted to give it another chance, so we put it out - as it's hard to be a rock n roller, with a new cover (not the white one !) then we did - partook in Eurovison - and re did it as Hard to be a rock n roller . in Kiev, including "In my dreams" which was actually meant to go on the second album, but only for that time, for the build up to the Eurovison, with the white cover, and then we released it - with the white cover, Yet again - when the original just sold out. We 'll rerelease it, yet again though, as "Hard to be a rock n roller .. in Moscow", Hard to be a rock n roller ..in Athens - with a little booze-ouki and so on and so forth ! Different regionalized versions !
M.I : (Hm cunning plan there Glam) People, criticized you about being a Eurovision band, a band without substance etc .. Which I found as absolute bullshit. W.W: (glam) : It's partly bullshit and partly true. Obviously Eurovision, gave us a huge push - as a lot of people got to know us through it, but we had an album previous to that - and we'd been going on for 3-4 years -a hard working band, we had our little own following etc. so Eurovision did not create us - Eurovision - helped us - take a few more steps forward - exposed us to more people in a little time, and we seem to have won most of them over. (Teeny) In Norway we 're also a family act !
M.I : What do you mean ? Company functions, weddings and funerals ? W.W: (Teeny) No! (laughs) We do 2 versions of our show, one for the kids, where - they come and we rock together, with them and their parents and an adult one - later at night!
M.I : Where you do the dirty stuff eh? W.W: (Teeny and Glam) Yeah, we only drink milk during the kids show ! (laughs) (Glam) L We also have a death box in the adult version, which we could not have brought over here unfortunately!
M.I : A death box ? Do you mean a box - like the ones that illusionists have- with blades - going through it ? W.W: (glam) No ! It's not that !
M.I : Is it a box - that plays death metal then ? W.W: (Glam Laughs) No it's one with gas ! I go in it - and somebody traps me in - and fills it with gas, and then I die and a skeleton is shown, but I come alive again on stage.
M.I : So it's a bit like Alice Cooper then ? W.W: (glam) Yeah, like AC.
M.I : I wonder if someone - though about replacing the smoke gas with laughing gas (band laughs their arses off) -(-- oops - I shouldn't be giving people ideas here )! W.W: (Flash) Great Idea !!! (Glam) No ! (Teeny) Hm.
M.I : Did you destroy the drum set - to avoid a second encore.. ? W.W: Nah, it did cost us - half a grand - cause we damaged it - but we were having too much fun ! If it was sporty's set - he would have killed us ! hahaha!
M.I : Glam, Have your stage antics ever gotten you in trouble, with a crazy boyfriend leaping on stage to try and punch your lights out ?! W.W: Hm, narrowly, twice, but it's all in good fun, so most people chill out, after a drink , we don't seriously try to hit on their girlfriends - it's all part of the show. Which is all about having fun !
M.I: I guess - hence you got both your eyes - black - just I case eh ?! (making slight fun of glam's totally made up face - complete with (drum roll) - black areas around the eyes) W.W. : (Glam chuckles) Yeah !
M.I : Do you use the costumed to disassociate yourselves from your stage characters, do they help you to step in an out of the personas - that you portray on stage ? W.W: (Glam) Yeah - in a way it helps. I put on the boots and the make up - and I m Glam - I take them off and I am Age, again ! It helps to keep the private person private and the rockstar, the rockstar ! Some people - artists, see themselves as gods ! But we don't. It's just that when you look different - you act different - it's easier to do it for us ! You put on your uniform - you 're ready to kill! (Teeny) We 're soldiers of rock !
M.I : Make love - not work ! W.W: (Whole band laughs !)
M.I : As kids -growing up - were you shy or as loud and crazy as you seem to be now ? W.W: (Teeny) Not too shy (Flash) : I dunno - a little bit of both, but I got into music from a real young age, Zeppelin, Purple and more. (Glam) oh, I was a big fan of Elvis, then Beatles, Kiss and Sweet and Nazareth.
M.I : Well that's where WW, stems from Wig Wam Bam, the Sweet song, isn't it !? W.W: Yeah !
M.I : I heard you played with them, the reunited version of them ! W.W: We were the support band - but Andy is not much fun being around these days - he's a bit of a moaner (...tour stories follow..) - we had fun on tour - but he was very pissed off - when we had to reverse - the headline slot, in Norway - he didn't want to be our support band - but the organizer - said - because we were so big in Norway - there's no way we'd support AS Sweet. (M.I: No way in Norway ) W.W.: (glam) Haha ! (Teeny) He wasn't too happy about that - and having to do Ballroom Blitz with all the kids - screaming Wig Wam, Wig Wam didn't lift his spirits too much either ! Anyhow.
M.I : Hm, since you mentioned about groupies yesterday - about a 100 of them - are there any left upstairs ? W.W: (Glam) (Laugin') you 're welcome to have the leftovers !
M.I : Hey - I 'm content as long as it's not skeletons . haha ! W.W: hahahahha !
M.I : Any plans for a follow up just yet - apart from Hard to be a rock n roller in Greece ?! W.W: (laughs) (Glam) We 're working on a second DVD - a full live show - no release date yet - we want to put a documentary on that - doing stupid stuff, the video clips .and a lot of other stuff. interesting stuff - and not so interesting staff ! And 2 Jap Versions .. From wigwamania .. We always right music - all the time !!! But we first want to promote this one !
M.I : Do you feel justified - succeeding in the face of such adversity . ? W.W: Well - nobody, believed in us - in the beginning - every record company we went to, in Norway told us that rock is dead ! (M.I: No it's alive ! Heavy pettin ! Glam : Damn right you 're !) So we decided to do it on our own - no dickhead A&R telling us what to do and what not to do, then the Darkness come out - and sell by the trackload - and hey - presto - we're sitting on a bona fide - hard rock album, which we own - that people are crazy over ! We were not hoping in our wildest dreams that we 'd be here talking to you - that we'd have die hard fans all over the place - with this little promotion - and to be honest - I (Glam) was getting a little worried, about getting a little too old to make it.
M.I : Never too old to rock n roll - but too young to die too ! OMG - Sporty is about to die - ( the drummer seems to have keeled over - and he's sitting next to me - so I try to set him straight .. At which he responds with a bizarre gesture - to which I respond with a further more bizarre gesture - at which point the band are again laughing their heads off. W.W: Damn he's about to keel over !
M.I : Do you want - to do a bigger - crazier show ?! W.W: (Glam) what you saw on the DVD is a gig from the debut tour - the new DVD will have a new one - a bigger production. (Teeny) we had 100 people last time -
M.I : so next time - do a performance with 200 people - and next time 300 W.W: hahahaha
M.I : Have you ever - had any accidents on stage as you move frantically around .? W.W: Sure, Glam's lost a heel on stage, Flash has hit someone with the bass - and Teeny has done the banana trick..landing flat on his back.
M.I : What's your take on The Darkeness and mr Hawkin's falsetto. you came around the same time .. W.W: (Glam) Well I like em, and they led the way - about glam's revival. so we have to hand it to them, but after a while the only humor left is the falsetto - and you can't do it forever, but we like most of their songs - and especially their videos .. Oh man - they're masters of videos !!! Very funny stuff. I like one way ticket to hell and back a lot, nice song too.
M.I : You do a lot of cover's and not the obvious ones. like panama - instead of jump and so on ... W.W: (Teeny) Well we do more original material - normally - but we didn't know how many had the new album - so we did the covers to get the party started and going.
M.I : And what a party it was - I lost my voice, hair, wallet, head, virginity .. Ehm --- just voice really ! haha. I don't think I had ever had so much fun before with my clothes on . hahha as old cov 'd put it ! W.W: ahhahahaha
M.I : What do you think - about the future, what will it bring to WW ? W.W: We'll take things one step at a time - see what happens - make new music and try to promote it the best we can. (some dodgy - wordplays, and little in-jokes happen)
M.I : Are you aware of a band called Metal Skool ? They were on MCghee's management - and they're a little like you - only much more humorous, so you 'd possibly be a good match ! W.W: Not really - but we'll check them out man (writing the name down) might be fun for a tour ! There's a lot of interesting stuff going on in rock n roll right now ! Finally !
M.I : It's great to be a rock n roller .. Right now !!! W.W: Glam (over the top) Yeah !!!!
M.I : Anything else ? W.W: (Flash) takes 10 seconds - raises his brow - Nooo ! (band laughs) (Teeny) - We 'd like to come back again (Glam) And play more clubs (Teeny) and go around and see the sights more (Glam) and take a swim (Teeny) and get a tan . hahahaha.
M.I: Ok salute the reader's! W.W: (Glam on behalf of the band) Well, we're truly thankful and stunned by your response yesterday - Athens and Salonica Rocked ! We hope to come back - and have a few more days in our disposal- to chill out and rock out with you ! Visit us on www.wigwam.no - to check out our news, and to get our album - if you're having a hard time finding it otherwise !
M.I: I was about to say - say something dirty - a Nashville Pussy thing - but we've all said - tons of nasty things along the way - so I m content. so thank you . W.W: Thank you man .
( the end was a bit surreal with handshakes - and Sporty taking pictures of everyone on his mobile) hahaha. And that's the conclusion to possibly the funniest - and one of the most pleasant conversations/interviews that I ever had.

Interviewed By Dimitrios Fatouros - Metal Invader