THE SPHERE FACTOR

June 1991:
What were the skies like when you were young? They went on for ever . . . we lived in Arizona, and it had the most beautiful skies . . . and when it would rain the clouds would alter . . . they were beautiful, the most beautiful skies as a matter of fact . . . they were shades of red and yellow and purple at night . . .
Little Fluffy Clouds , Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
May 1992:
Hello? Is that reception, London Weekend Television? Yes, I d like to speak to a Mr. Haile Selassie, please.
Just a minute . . . (puts down phone) Is there a Haile Selassie here? (picks up phone) No.
Well, when he gets in, could you tell him that Marcus Garvey called and was looking for him, please?
Sure will do. Bye.
Towers Of Dub , U F Orb
February 1997:
Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
Delta Mk. II , Orblivion

The above, in case you were wondering, are choice excerpts from The Orb s sprawling library of samples that have found their way onto their four full studio albums. The first is a quote from US folk-singer Rickie Lee Jones describing her idyllic childhood in the Midwest. The second is an exchange between TV prankster Victor Lewis-Smith and a hapless receptionist at LWT. The third is the disembodied voice of Senator Joe McCarthy addressing the US Senate s anti-commie witchhunt Congressional hearings in 1952.
Ah, yes. It s been a long time coming, but Britain s favourite sci-fi buffs, alien fetishists and all-round venerable headfuckers are back in town. I love the smell of full-blown lunacy in the morning.
I think the public will be ready for us again, muses Orb mainman Dr Alex Paterson, because bands like Underworld and The Prodigy and Leftfield have opened it all up again. We can be a lot weirder and people have forgotten that we actually are a weird band. We re not just a normal sort of 4/4 dance band. And the punters expect something a bit better than that and they will get it. I hope.
We ve been slated for the last couple of years, he continues, for not bringing out what people consider dance music the last album in particular. I think they re gonna like the new stuff, though. It s a move towards, I suppose, an industrial Orb as opposed to an ambient Orb, which is intentional. I mean, we started off with the idea of making industrial dub pop music on this album, and work began on the album in earnest in 95. So . . . we ll see how it goes.
The new stuff to which he refers is Orblivion, The Orb s fourth full studio album. Like all Orb product, it is extremely long (75-odd minutes). Like most Orb product, it is extremely good (10 on the dice if I were doing the review). From the melodically ingenious techno loops of Ubiquity to the clattering, jerky skank of recent hit single Toxygene to the vast, avalanche-like breakbeat assault of Delta Mk. II , it s the record they emphatically had to make in order to maintain their hard-earned position in the vanguard of dance music.
Why? Because, if truth be told, ever since 1992 s chart-topping monumentalist epic U F Orb (the album that simultaneously defined and killed the musical genre of ambient), The Orb had been pretty much reduced to background status in their field. With the exception of the 23-minute single Assassin for my money, one of the greatest pieces of sequenceradelica ever written everything The Orb produced after U F Orb was perceived as a let-down after the majesty of their first two albums. 1994 s Pommes Fritz, ostensibly a mini-LP, was roundly panned in the music press, while the next full album, Orbvs Terrarvm, got a better critical reception (particularly in the States), but didn t sell quite as well as its predecessors.
When I put it to Alex that Orbvs Terrarvm wasn t quite all it might have been, he is staunchly adamant in his defence of the record.
It s my favourite Orb album, he says. It s the best album we ever did, in terms of our own musical input. The critics are probably right when they say it went on for too long, but we weren t aiming for the average Joe Punter we were aiming for diehard Orb fans who were well into the music anyway. Orbvs Terrarvm got received as the album of the month in Rolling Stone, they took to it like ducks to water over there. This is the same record that people in the UK were saying was prog-rock and tedious and all the rest of it.
But couldn t that assertion contain at least a grain of truth? I remember reading a live review of The Orb a couple of years ago, in which the journalist asserted that it was time the band stopped doing so many 15-minute musical marathons, and concentrated more on comparatively brief, pop-based tracks like Little Fluffy Clouds . Is that fair comment?
No. (pause) Fuck off mate, I m not shooting myself in the foot! (laughs) Well, we have done some shorter, poppier things on Orblivion, anyway. We took that guy s advice. I mean, Pommes Fritz, which is similar to Orbvs Terrarvm content-wise, is also one of my favourite albums. I wouldn t put em out if I didn t like em.
Fair enough . . . so, five or six years on, how does Alex now view his band s two most critically acclaimed records (Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld and U F Orb)?
Well, Underworld . . . not Underworld. Wheeee! Sorry, Freudian slip, he chuckles. Eh, where was I . . . yeah, Ultraworld is just a phenomenon in its ever-growing state of influence. People still refer to that one as a milestone, which is the biggest compliment anyone could ever give us. And U F Orb did the job, put us on the map. Not that I m unhappy with it. It did the job, not a job. Commercially, musically, every kind of level really, yeah. Commerciality on its own is not what I m looking for.
But then, the UK s musical climate has changed so drastically and quickly in the last four years, that yesterday s wantonly uncommercial meanderings are today s sure-fire unit shifters. Take, for example, the staggering success since 1994 of acts such as Orbital, Leftfield, The Prodigy, Underworld, and to a lesser extent Goldie, Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers. None of that would have happened three years ago, and The Orb must take a considerable amount of the credit for making it possible. After all, they were the first modern dance band of the 90s to achieve a no. 1 long-player, with U F Orb and that was long before Leftfield were garnering Mercury Prize nominations, Keith Flint and Liam Howlett were poster-boys par excellence, and the Hartnoll brothers were achieving top five placings in the UK album charts.
Yeah, and that achievement has sort of been overlooked because we went back left-field again, concurs Alex. Well, we didn t go Leftfield (laughs), but we went back left of the mark with Pommes Fritz deliberately, because we were fed up with being put up on a pedestal for the whole world to look at us. And we weren t in it for that reason, we were in it purely for the music. I mean, those bands you just mentioned each have their own little egos and it all rubbed off on the national press.
I have nothing against those acts, though, I actually quite like some of them musically, and I think we re all in this together, as opposed to fighting each other. I like Leftfield, and a little bit of Underworld. But Orbital and The Prodigy not really, no. I mean, Orbital I can listen to in fits and spurts, but The Prodigy . . . I d rather listen to Detroit stuff, really.
Anyway, the attention they re getting, the people in those bands will now understand why we sort of retreated in 1993 and 1994. If their personalities can take it, fine.
So why, in 1992-1993, did you come out with all the entertaining but ultimately irrelevant stuff that you talked in interviews, about things like UFOs, aliens and space travel?
Because it helps to detract from the fact that there s a face behind the band, he explains, and people tend to get the mythical side, which is nice. And it leaves us free to wander the streets as normal human beings, which I enjoy, thank you very much. So I will continue to have this same idea. If it has to be for the next nine years, so be it. I m just not after that other kind of fame.
Incidentally, while we re on the subject, does your habit of yapping on about all things spacey and extra-terrestrial make you the Crispian Mills of the dance world?
I don t know who Crispian Mills is, really. I ve never read any of the guy s interviews.
I give Alex a brief explanation of Crispian s, eh, quirky eccentricities the full transcript of which I shall spare you.
Sieg heil, sieg heil, sieg heil, responds the good Doctor.
Sorry?!?
Well, I know the type of buggers you re going on about. You get them all over the place, so that s what you have to do to em, just start going sieg heil, sieg heil and they shut up normally (laughs). Sorry!!! Been round, seen that, done that, y know? (laughs) Maybe a spot of National Service might be in order for, what s his name, Crispian.
I just hate hippies. People call me an old hippy, but that s probably the worst comment that anyone could actually throw at me. I m a firm believer in the old saying never trust a hippy . This is based on very considerable personal experience. I had a very bad experience with one of em, in which I lost a lot of money. I can t say anything more than that, because I don t wanna get done for libel. So let s just say that no, I would never trust a hippy, because I got my hands burned by one at very close quarters. More than one, in fact.
To get back to the subject of fame, what does Alex think would have happened if The Orb had gone all the way commercially a few years ago, instead of peaking and then wilfully retreating into the anonymity they craved for a while at least?
Dead, he states flatly. Out the window. Finished. We d have been milked dry. I mean, look at the bands who go that route, and then two years down the line they ain t got nothing to give. In terms of creativity, and mentally, and just trying to keep control over the whole thing. And by having control of it for the last nine years, people respect me at this record label so I can get a point across without actually having to go through a hundred people I can just talk to the MD.
They understand the philosophy behind what I m doing, which is very important, rather than just be marketed like the fucking Spice Girls or fucking East 17 or something which just goes on and on, and then the bubble bursts. Bros would be a classic example. Y know what I mean? You have a certain amount of Top Ten singles and if you re lucky one Top Ten album. But The Orb s albums have done exceedingly well around the world, all over the place. And they re happy with that. Because even though we may not be selling millions of records, to sell 70,000-80,000 albums in America and the same amount over here in the UK is no mean feat.
Like, everybody thinks our best-selling album was U F Orb because it reached number one in the UK album charts when it came out in 92, but Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld has actually sold more copies. It s been out for longer, of course, but its sales have been more like a steady drip-feed for the six years it s been out. It s the most popular bootleg, let s put it that way. That s the way we operate. We re not a flash-in-the-pan sort of band, never have been.
So would you say that you re perfectly happy to be a cult band, as opposed to the riskier option of attaining megastar status and subsequently going the way of all flesh?
Oh, yeah, says Alex emphatically. Everybody needs money to live on, but again, I m happy selling x amount of records, and not millions of records and then dying a death at the end of the day. I d rather be experiencing a steady trickle, than experiencing a humungous flow and then that s it, you re gone two years later drowned. Drowned in your own self-pity, like I ve got my head shoved so far up my own arse that I don t know where I am any more .
And I have seen that, because I ve worked in the record industry for nearly 20 years and I ve seen it through working with bands and going on the road with them. Having to work with bands who ve got these attitudes and who think they ve got a God-given right to jump on Concorde and fly around the world, just because they made a good record.
This brings us neatly to the subject of Alex s days as a roadie. Of course, his long stint in the Killing Joke entourage has been well-documented, but what is lesser known is the fact that he also worked as a humper for one-off gigs in London during the 80s. Happily for Alex, this entailed coming face to face with some of his musical heroes.
When the Def Jam boys came over on their first UK tour in the mid- 80s, he recounts, I was like (ecstatic voice) Ohhh yesss!!! , y know, I was really happy. I loved their stuff. And all the other roadies were like, Alex, I think you d better get some lead hosing, cos it s dangerous out there.
I ended up doing the followspot (spotlight) on the balcony of the Hammersmith Palais on the night that LL Cool J was playing. It s funny we should be talking about him now, because he s just gone in at number one this week with that Chaka Khan cover, but this was back in 87 or 88. LL Cool J was doing his big hit at the time, which was I Need Love , and he had this couch-cum-sofa on the middle of the stage. And I was holding the light which had to follow him fucking this couch. He was actually shagging the couch. Dry-humping it as he sang the fucking song.
It was hilarious. I couldn t keep the fucking followspot still; I was laughing my bollocks off, watching him trying to bonk the couch. He was going through the sexual motions of making love to a woman on a couch, but there was no woman there. And all this was to the tune of I Need Love . Bless im (laughs). So anyway, the whole place went quiet, and then people began laughing. The next night the song was ditched from his set.
Dr. Paterson s roadieing CV also features work with the likes of Public Enemy, Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys, James Brown and Motvrhead.
Public Enemy were all right, he reminisces. A bit mean and moody, but underneath it all they were okay. The Beastie Boys were a bit more lairy in that sense, they reminded me of when I was a teenager. When James Brown played, I got on really well with his saxophonist, who was aged 65 and had a brilliant philosophy on life. I was just sitting there talking to him on both nights. It was good with those geezers because I was just working on these one-off gigs, as opposed to going on tour with Killing Joke for ever and ever. I had to help build a Lancaster bomber light-system for Motvrhead, too.
Really? I once read an interview with Lemmy, and he was saying that it took ages and ages to get the thing hung up there . . .
Oh, tell me about it! I was one of those roadies! howls Alex.
. . . and that if the bomber ever came down, there would be no more fucking band!
Exactly, and they wanted the thing suspended so that it would sway from side to side as they were doing the song Bomber , to look as if it was flying.
Our time is nearly at an end, so I wrap things up by asking the headgear-wearing one whether he thinks the wheel of musical hipness has turned full circle at last, in the process propelling The Orb back to public prominence (a good sign is the performance of their latest single Toxygene , which went straight in at no. 4 last week in the UK charts).
The musical climate is healthier for us now, he muses, but I don t think it s healthier in a lot of respects, because it s just moved on from five boys in a band to five girls in a band.
You really don t like the Spice Girls at all, do you?
Oh, but how can I like the fucking Spice Girls? Yes, I m sure they re all animals and I m sure they re all good in bed, but there you go. The other day I was talking to somebody from Top Of The Pops about them, and I couldn t believe I was having a conversation about this subject!
And no, there s no point asking me which one s my favourite, he laughs, cutting me off as I prepare to do just that. I mean, they re all right, they are harmless. They re as harmless as Take That, but, y know . . . still, it s all relative, innit? I mean, I d prefer to watch the Spice Girls dancing on a stage than East 17 or bloody Boyzone or whoever.
But yeah, I have to admit I was surprised to see Toxygene doing so well. People overlook a lot of the things that we ve done, and try and classify us solely as an ambient band, as a weird band, but there s a lot of straight stuff, weird stuff and avant garde stuff there. It s Orb in that sense, and that s why people are interested in what we re doing, because . . . they never expect to be expected! (laughs) Or something like that! It s almost Irish, that, innit?
Speaking of Irishness, he concludes, we re playing the Olympia on St Patrick s Day, and I ll be doing a bit of DJing afterwards for an hour somewhere. So watch out . . . pal. Don t have too many Guinnlesses (intentional sic) or Murphy s or whatever you re doing, alright?! (laughs) n
The Orb play the Olympia Theatre on March 17th. Orblivion is out now on Island.