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Delays 'Long Time Coming'

added 16 January 2004 at 12.38

Delays 'Long Time Coming' [Dial-Up] [Broadband]

"We get picked up outside our rehearsal rooms by a superflash van, this souped-up hotrod. We start driving and singing the song in the back but we seem to be getting more and more out of our way and encountering very odd, strange people. Eventually we arrive at this little village, there's a little pub and we play a show for the people, all the weirdos we've seen along the way... 'weirdos' That's a terrible word isn't it? Different people.

"So we all end up in the pub but when we try to leave at the very end it turns out we can't. We can't leave, we're stuck in this place forever.

"The director, Laurence Easen, just asked us what kinds of films and programmes we were fans of. So we listed things like 'Prisoner', 'Twin Peaks', 'League of Gentlemen' and 'Box of Delights', which is a kids programmes from the '80s - 'the wolves are running!' - kind of sinister but with a very English, small town feel. Then he went away to put together a synopsis and we went back and forth for a while until we arrived at something we liked and went location hunting round Liverpool and Wales.

"It was wicked - Rowly [Drums] got a really bad injury; he slashed his leg open. They hired the van in from some enthusiast who does a lot of shows so the inside of the van's all been chromed up, real boy racer chrome, and at one point we had to stop the van real quick and all slide forward, Rowly caught his leg on the chrome and tore his shin open. There're pictures of it somewhere. He's alright - it was just an interesting occurence y'know?

"But we really enjoyed doing it - when I was a kid everything I remember buying record wise were film soundtracks, I can't really remember buying band albums. I like it when there's something going on in the video - we're just doing the video now for 'Nearer Than Heaven' and we all really enjoy it cos we're massive film fans. We spend as much time watching movies as we do listening to music.

"We put all 'The Prisoner' and 'League of Gentlemen' stuff in there 'cos your music springs from your environment and if we're trying to be as honest as we can with our influences and our likes it was just a matter of telling everyone that we love watching 'The Prisoner' and all these things. And hopefully in some way it's seeping into the music - I do think the music is quite epic and widescreen, so TV and film has always played an influence in what we do. There's always an image, certainly in my head, whenever we're making the music.

"I don't know how related the video and the song are - 'Long Time Coming' is a very personal song about observing someone you care about going off the rails and wishing you could do something, whereas the video is more about an interpretation of the phrase long time coming and the journey.

"I suppose if you wanted to get really, really analytical it could be symbolic of the mind and getting lost and stuck. But if you don't, then don't worry about it."

Delays 'Long Time Coming' [Dial-Up] [Broadband]

www.thedelays.co.uk

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