Devo members Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh recalled how their first-ever pageant look disintegrated into violent scenes and have become a “show of de-evolution” as they watched from the stage.
The incident came about at Knebworth within the U.Ok. in 1978 and fueled the band’s driving conviction that humanity is de-evolving fairly than evolving.
In a Q&A broadcast by the Guardian, a fan wrote: “After I noticed Devo … supporting Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jefferson Starship and Genesis, docile, stoned hippie varieties abruptly turned enraged and hurled missiles on the stage. Have you ever come throughout animosity on that scale since?”
“The distinction between U.Ok. and U.S. electrical energy cycles meant our results models made these hideous warbling sounds,” Casale responded. “Folks began throwing issues, however as a result of the stage was so excessive they had been lacking us and hitting different individuals on the entrance. The gang began preventing one another. We acquired to observe a show of de-evolution the place it seemed like Planet of the Apes.”
“We’d solely performed small golf equipment earlier than, so we didn’t actually have a crew,” Mothersbaugh recalled. “We arrange our gear carrying blue work gear, ran to alter into our yellow stage fits to carry out, then become the blue overalls once more to take the gear down. The band earlier than us ended their set waving an enormous Accomplice flag, which the gang beloved. Then we got here on.” Devo have “confronted that scale of animosity since,” Casale famous, explaining that, after they do, they “attempt to bend it to our benefit.”
In the identical interview, one other fan requested if the recordings they made with David Bowie will ever be launched. “Bowie was supposed to supply Q: Are We Not Males? A: We Are Devo!, however he had an advanced schedule, so locked it on to Brian Eno,” Casale remembered. “However then Bowie confirmed up within the studio.” Mothersbaugh added that “whereas we had been setting the gear up, individuals had been hanging round. … All of us ended up jamming with Bowie and Eno, which was recorded on a two-track tape. All the things will get illuminated sooner or later, so it’ll in all probability come out.”
High 40 New Wave Albums
From the B-52’s to XTC, Blondie to Speaking Heads, a have a look at the style’s finest LPs.
