Short and Tweet: Neil Arthur

@hotpress: You returned with Blanc Burn in 2011, after 25 years away. Were you surprised by the extremely enthusiastic response you received?
@neilarthur: When we came back on stage that very first night it was like stepping out into a void. But the reception from the audience was phenomenal.
@hotpress: Why did yourself and Stephen Luscombe call it a day in ‘86?
@neilarthur: We were being eaten by the machine of the industry. Not fun. It was more important to preserve our friendship than the working relationship.
@hotpress: Despite plenty of chart success, you never seemed like a duo who ever got used to being ‘pop stars’?
@neilarthur: It was weird, I gotta say. It wasn’t really what we set out to do. If we’d had a formula, we’d have done a few more ‘Living On The Ceiling’s!
@hotpress: You supported Grace Jones at Royal Drury Lane in London. Must have been memorable!
@neilarthur: I’d just left art college. My girlfriend came down in her mum’s Mini Clubman, she had to be our roadie because I’d to stay late at work!
@hotpress: That’s a very, very good girlfriend.
@neilarthur: She was all dolled up beautifully – all the guys with Grace Jones wouldn’t bring the gear in so she had to do it on her own.
@hotpress: And how was Grace herself ? She seems a bit... terrifying.
@neilarthur: After the gig she came to see us in our dressing-room. We had turns sitting on her knee. I sat on Grace Jones’ knee! We all did! Fantastic.

Blancmange play The Button Factory, Dublin (February 21) and The Pavilion, Cork (22).