Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

It's simply the detail from the center of the same feather photograph, because initially I wanted the same feather photograph on the front of that as well. But people say, "Oh, it's a radio telescope photograph of aura coming from the planet Venus." ~ Andy Partridge

AP: It's Wasp Star because TVT begged us not to call it Apple Venus Volume 2. They said, "It's going to confuse American retailers." And they gave us all of this kind of hearsay evidence of how it would confuse them. And it was, "Oh God, what are we going to do? We're all ready to put this thing out and they don't want to call it Apple Venus Volume 2." And we were just going to use, well, that psychedelic version of the peacock feather I showed you.

WL: Yeah.

AP: You know the one.

WL: Yeah, sure. The stuff that you sent me.

AP: Yeah - yeah. Well that was potentially going to be the sleeve for Apple Venus Volume 2. But they said, "No, please don't call it that because it's going to confuse American retailers. Call it something different." So, while we're mixing the album I went into the town of Ross-on-Wye with Colin, for a couple of hours. We went into a secondhand bookshop and I bought a book about Aztec books, scrolls and stuff. And I was reading it through that after-noon, waiting to go down to hear how Nick [Davis] had handled our last half a dozen suggestions on what to do with the mix. It'd be, like "Okay, well I'll be back in half an hour then and see what they sound like. See whether we should

go with that."And I thought, "Well, I might as well read my Aztec book then." So I was reading it and I stumbled on the fact that the Aztec word for Venus was known as the Wasp Star. And I thought, "That's fantastic." And that also is the Venus connection. You know, you're still calling it Venus but you're calling it Venus in another language. And the Aztec phrase for Venus was the Wasp Star. I thought, "That is great." And for the actual sleeve I wanted as much of the same image on the front, but almost like a negative. So, instead of it being based on white, it'll be based on black. As the companion piece. And really, I have to be honest, it is nothing more than a solarized interior shape of the feather. It's just sort of a computerized process of bringing out a fake sosolarization. You know, when solirization is done with photographs?

WL: Sure.

AP: But the thing is, people have all of these theories where it's artificial insemination. It's the needle bursting into the ovum. It's not. It's simply the detail from the center of the same feather photograph, because initially I wanted the same feather photograph on the front of that as well. But people say, "Oh, it's a radio telescope photograph of aura coming from the planet Venus. [laughter] It's the farthest galaxy that can be seen by man. It's the needle, you can see the needle entering the ovum."

WL: In the psychedelic version you sent me you can tell exactly what it is. You can see that it's part of the feather.

AP: Yeah, but people have all these wild theories about what it is.

In December of 2002, Andy told me the history of the Wasp Star singles, and provided more images.

AP: So, where were we before those naughty beans of Monsieur LeCoco so flourescently stained my groin area? [Andy had just spilled cold coffee on his crotch]

WL: Well, I think we'd just about finished up Coat of Many Cupboards and I thought maybe we could talk about some of the singles.

AP: Sure. Let's single out.

WL: Let's start with some of the most recent stuff. Off Wasp Star, "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" and "Stupidly Happy." You sent me a lot of test pressings for those.

AP: Oh, right. Yeah, because I wanted that little television test-card face. I think all the singles, if there were going to be singles from Wasp Star. As luck would have it there really weren't that many, [laughing] unfortunately. I wanted them all to be based on the little test-card face. So "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" was a dead test-card, with a hole in his head and the straight bar for a mouth was turned down, and he had a red bar coming out of the edge, so that was the blood dripping out. He was a shot TV test-card.

"Stupidly Happy" was a very smiley happy test-card face. That's about all I can tell you about that one. I just liked the graphical idea of a test card. And it seemed to go with the electrical, kind of communications feel of Wasp Star.

WL: Well it was neat because I got a good feel for the process, sort of dueling Andy's, you and Andrew Swainson. [Cactus Design]

AP: [laughing] You can just imagine that. We didn't use our real arms. It was a really good artist that put his arms in our coat, and he was doing all the drawing. We just sat there dribbling like a couple of mongo furies.

WL: Playing the banjo on the front porch.

AP: Playing the banjo. Or trying to.

WL: You ever play a banjo?

AP: No, I find the things pretty detestable actually.

WL: I tried to recently. I thought, "Well hell, I'm a decent finger picker so I'll

grab a banjo and tear it up." I picked one up and thought, "What the hell is this?"

AP: No, it's a kind of detestable sounding instrument.

WL: [laughing] It's a very strange instrument.

AP: The sound of the banjo is just like... Each note that's picked, it just reminds me of somebody plucking hairs out of a chimp. BING! PLING! BOING! [much laughter]