9. Holger CzukayRome Remains Rome
Ah Holger, you can’t go wrong with Holger. I hated Can for years, when I should have understood Can. It was Holger’s solo albums that got me into them and did it back to front. I love all his solo albums. I met Michael Karoli the Can guitarist at a friend’s house, he said ‘oh I am in a band’, I said ‘oh interesting’ – not being interested at all because I’m stupid – he said ‘we all live in a castle in Germany, you must come and visit’. I thought ‘pull the other one’, ridiculous! Holger was a sweety and Derek was a big fan of his music and wanted to meet him – Holger wanted Derek to do videos for his music, but nothing happened. He made music that was totally fresh and unlike anyone else – I think that’s what connects all these people, they don’t sound like everybody sounds, they’re all unique and in their own field of sonics. One day Holger said, ‘Simon, you have to make your records funny. You’re a bit serious, Mr Turner’. His partner Yushi came and sang on one of my records for Mute – that was the great thing about a label with a studio with the office, people would just come in. Bruce from Wire came on one of my records and said ‘do you mind if we don’t hang around?’ Not at all! See you later! I don’t like telling people what to do, the idea is do what they want to do.
