. . Continued

POP:  What do you do with your money? Is it true that you go to Milan just to see San Siro?

PDH:  It’s true. I happen to be a big football fan. Sometimes I go down to see Inter’s games. It’s my favourite international team. My national favourites are Sheffield United. I use most my money on travelling.   Recently I invited five friends to the north of Spain and we travelled around for a while.

It cost me an obscene amount of money, but it was worth it. I don’t have a lot of other expenses. Travelling was one ofthe main reasons that I started playing in a band. I wanted to see America. I wanted to see Japan. I wanted to see the world.

In that regard, this has been the perfect job.  On the first international tour The Housemartins made, they played at Fryshuset in Stockholm. It is still one of the best concerts I’ve been to. The first album "London 0, Hull 4" had just been released and there was a certain electricity in the air that I’ve experienced on concerts with The Clash, Kraftwerk, and The Fugees, but not on many other occasions.

The Housemartins split up after two years and two albums. The band felt that they had accomplished what they wanted to accomplish. Stan Cullimore has since written an ironic book about the art of being a pop star and also a few children’s books.

"Stan is okay. I spoke with him last week," says Paul. Norman Cook has become a central person on the British dane scene under different pseudonyms. The drummer Hugh Whittaker did not do very well.

As I interview Paul, Hugh has just been released after five years in prison.

PDH:  Hugh was sentenced for hitting a guy straight in the head with an axe.  I started with Hugh lending the guy a large amount of money, around 10,000 pounds, and didn’t get it back. First he was obsessed with getting his money back. Then he was obsessed with getting back at the guy who stole his money. One year after the loan, Hugh planted a firebomb in the guy’s house. On the second anniversary, he did the same thing, and got away with it. The third year he rang the guy’s doorbell and pretended to be a postman or something. When the guy opened, Hugh stabbed him with the axe in his forehead.

When I think back, I can see that it was during that concert in the warehouse in Stockholm that we realised that Hugh was going over the edge. He was manically obsessed with different things. For example he travelled around with a special set of toothbrushes. He had about twelve different toothbrushes, and he used all of them, following a complicated program.

The day after that great concert, we were all in a very good mood. We were going by bus to Copenhagen. It was a hell of a drive and we had got quite far when Hugh had a breakdown. He had left behind his set of toothbrushes and was totally crazy. We said ‘What the hell, Hugh, we can’t go back’. But he insisted and we had no choice. When we got back we found the caretaker who unlocked the door. Then we searched the whole place. Backstage, dressing room, everywhere.

POP:  Did he ever find his toothbrushes?

PDH:  No. And he was never really himself after that incident. It’s actually quite natural to be obsessed with something. You can be obsessed with a football team. You can be obsessed with a woman. But not Hugh. He was obsessed with things you shouldn’t be able to be obsessed with.

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