"You're a bit like Metallica meets Perry Como": watch Faith No More's excruciating first British TV interview in this rare footage from 1988
On January 22, 1988 Faith No More played their first ever show outside America when they headlined London's Dingwalls as the first date of 14-date UK tour which would culminate, on February 5 and 6, with two shows at the capital's iconic Marquee club.
Before they embarked upon this trek in support of their Introduce Yourself album, the band - or more accurately vocalist Chuck Mosley, guitarist Jim Martin, bassist Bill Gould and keyboardist Roddy Bottum, with drummer Mike Bordin's whereabouts unknown - were interviewed in London for Sky television's Monsters of Rock show by broadcaster/journalist Mick Wall. It was, perhaps unsurprisingly given Faith No More's reluctance to play standard music industry games, an awkward verging on excruciating encounter.
Following individual introductions by the band members, Wall kicks off the interview by asking a simple icebreaker: "Where are you from, and when did you first get together?"
"I was born in Hollywood, in the winter of 1959," Chuck Mosley begins, at which point the host interrupts to say, "But you didn't form the band then though, did you?"
"Within about 20 years after that," Bill Gould helpfully chips in.
"I said earlier on in the show that you're a bit like Metallica meets Perry Como," Wall then states: "Would you agree with that?"
"That about sums it up," agrees a clearly bemused Roddy Bottum, as the band proceed to ignore a follow-up question about their main influences. "I don't know... Perry Como, where did you get that from?"
"What I mean is, it's like different opposites," suggests Wall.
At this point Chuck Mosley bursts into what he presumably thinks is a Perry Como song, only for Bill Gould to shut him down, saying, :"That's Paul Anka."
"What started you off though, musically?" Wall tries, already aware that he's fighting a losing battle here. "What made you want to be in a band."
"Batman," says Mosley.
"Why Batman?"
"I don't know, I just liked the tune when I heard it."
A screening of the band's video for We Care A Lot then breaks up the awkwardness. The interview doesn't get any more coherent after this, though the band's collective first impressions of London audiences - "a little bit tame... a little bit reserved... a little bit trendy" - is an impressive piece of trolling, which prompts Wall to promise that the London crowds will show up to "kick some ass."
Watch the interview unfold like a slow motion car crash below:
The band's debut UK show was, according to reviews in Sounds and Kerrang! at least, a memorable occasion, and included covers of Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead Or Alive, Black Sabbath's War Pigs, and a snatch of Stairway To Heaven.
"Glorious oblivion" Sounds concluded.
