Blackie tells Dave Ling about Great Balls Of Fire

Despite only having been in existence for around three years, Los Angeles band, W.A.S.P. have carved out more than their fair share of outrage.

In that time, they've pelted their audience with raw meat, strapped naked females to racks , worn chainsaw codpieces, composed songs about their virility and generally blown up a storm of controversy.

However, the W.A.S.P. that performed at a preformed at a recent television special in London was a very different insect indeed. Gone was the fake blood and the theatrical approach, to be replaced by a massive light show and... not a lot else.

The band's mainman Blackie Lawless held court a couple of days later and explained the reasoning behind the changes. Now, Blackie himself is an interesting character. You don't so much interview him as let him talk. Encounters with Blackie tend to be very much one sided affairs, hardly an exchange of opinions and ideas. He's extremely good at manipulating people for his own benefit and, at times, it's possible to feel as though you're having a conversation with a press release. The idea of W.A.S.P. is still exactly the same as if was when we were here two years ago he states. It should be pretty self-explanatory by now; the energy level and the aggression.

It's just more polished now but that's inevitable because as a band matures, it evolves and in that evolution, your sound's gonna change slightly. It should become better and more polished and visually you do as well. We were once very aggressive looking and now it's more like Las Vagas meets W.A.S.P. It's all hi-tech now but that's cool because you gotta change. If you don't change, you become boring not only to yourself but to the audience as well.

I like it and I'm comfortable with it as it is right now, nest year God only knows what it'll be. Maybe we'll wear blue jeans, I don't know.

It appears that the legendary chainsaw which Blackie used to sport is a thing of the past then, along with the rack and raw meat. However, he does have one new trick up his sleeve, or rather between his legs.

I have this new codpiece, he grins. This one shoots flames. It's jewel-encrusted at the front and it looks relatively harmless until you hit this button and it shoots flames sever feet into the air.

But would you concede that the show has been toned down a little, Blackie?

Well, if that's toning it down I don't know, what to say. When you think of somebody who's got flames coming out of their balls, that's like the ultimate Rock 'N' Roll phallic symbol. What do they want? We've already given them blood but it's important to change. It's just as outrageous as it ever was, just different that's all.

So you wouldn't say that the emphasis is now placed more the music than the image?

He ponders for a second.

No, it's about the same. The only thing that's different is that I do all the production now (the first W.A.S.P. album was co-produced by Mike Varney and Blackie). It's better and I don't just say that because I produced this new record, the band's more experienced. You do a couple of world tours and you get a pretty good idea of what your audience is looking for.

This new record is a very honest sounding one for this type of music. In the past - not by my choosing - the records prior to this one were just drums and vocals. This is a guitar-laden album, it sounds like a guitar player mixed this record and that's exactly what it is. There's no synthesizers at all.

The point he's labouring to make here is that Inside The Electric Circus is very much a back to basics album after the experimentation that went on on W.A.S.P.'s previous offering, The Last Command. There is a school of thought that the band lost a lot of ground with that record.

Well, we sold as many records on the second album as we did with the first, he counters. I think that the audience shifted a bit so what we lost, we gained in other areas and that's not what to do. You want to gain but keep what you already have. But I don't want to put all the blame on Spencer (Proffer, the man responsible for the production of Quiet Riot's Metal Health album and the aforementioned W.A.S.P. album). I did have some monumental arguments with him over the guitars. I came to the conclusion that if you're going to mix a heavy rock album, you've got a space that's just so big (spread bands apart) and when you're putting guitars in there, it's hard so fit all this stuff in there, without adding keyboards. You add thing like that and it seems to shrink the available space. You can't get five pound of potatoes into a two pound sack, it's as simple as that. Every band is going to have to learn, it's gonna take everybody one record to find out that is doesn't work. The new Priest album is a good example, and Queensryche have just done it too.

Besides changes in the band's sound, there have been quite drastic amendments in attitude too. Gone are the violent poses which the used to revel in. Indeed, Blackie refused to give any aggressive poses during Metal Hammer's photo session.

It was a conscious decision, he says, but not made on the behalf of those organisations who persecute us. We did that stuff for two years and I don't wanna do the same thing all the time.

But I did think about it. I don't think anybody was hurt by it and it was good theatre - and theatre was all it was - but it got where it wasn't fun anymore and rock 'n' roll is supposed to be fun. Maybe the new codpiece won't be fun in a year's time, I'll worry about that when the time comes.

There was a distinct lack of fun while Blackie suffered for his art and posed for the sleeve of the new album. He appears completely naked. Is the picture tasteful?

I think it might even set a precedent, he say modestly, I'm nude on it but my body's painted like a tiger. It's probably the single most tedious thing I've ever done, it took from 9.30 am 'til seven in the evening just to do the make-up. It's an outrageous shot and for twenty-two thousand dollars, it ought to be. It's really something else, and with a strategically placed elbow so that we can get it in the stores we managed to get away with it.

In addition to this photo, W.A.S.P. fans are treated to two cover versions, both originally B-sides. They are Uriah Heep's Easy Living and the Humble Pie classic I Don't Need No Doctor. We have a knack of making cover versions different or better, say Blackie. I was intimidated by doing I Don't Need No Doctor but I think it's my best vocal performance yet. There's twelve songs on this album and it's real value for money. Most bands refuse on put more than ten songs on each album as that's all they get paid for.

So finally, do W.A.S.P. Still go all out to shock?

We never did, say Blackie. We just do what comes naturally. I don't see much difference between me onstage and off. I'm probably a little more quiet, but you can't say that a volcano isn't volatile just because it's not erupting at the moment.