Legendary band The B-52s will at last return to Australia this November for a number of theatre shows as well as six performances at ‘A Day On The Green’ outdoor winery events.
The group ruled the ‘70s with a raft of hits, their 80s tracks Love Shack and Roam were international smashes and last year they released their eighth album Funplex. Flame-haired B-52 Kate Pierson sat down with Same Same to chat about longevity, friendship and having a damn good time.
What can audiences expect when B-52s play in Australia?
We’ll be doing some of the new songs from our new CD Funplex, which is a year and a half old now. So we’ve been doing about six songs from that, but we do mostly our classic satisfying hits that everyone must hear. But I wonder if there are some songs that were really big hits in Australia that we should add to our playlist? I know that Cosmic Thing was a very big hit in Australia. We went to Brazil and we didn’t do Legal Tender and that was a really big hit there…
Were people yelling it at you?
Yeah. They were chanting it and we didn’t have it in our set and we hadn’t practiced it or anything!
Well it must be tough to choose. I mean, I’m 30 and speaking for myself I look through your back catalogue and it feels like different B-52s songs pop up as soundtracks for defining moments in my life.
I know. Basically, we do the songs that we think are the classics that everyone will want to hear, like Planet Claire, Private Idaho, Love Shack, Roam and Give Me Back My Man. We should research it.
What about Good Stuff?
No…
That was always one of my favourites.
Hmm… Well, we can’t do them all!
The longevity you guys have had is amazing. How do you explain the success of the B-52s?
I think it’s hard for a band that has a sense of humour to be taken seriously. We have messages and serious songs, and even songs that have a sense of humour still have a message, still have something to say. I always thought that was so important that people understand that. For a while there I thought that all the wigs and the colour was overshadowing the meaning of the music, but now I realise that the most wonderful thing that we have done is give people a good time, you know? People really bust loose and really have a good time.
And we also have a good time when we play. We started out as friends and miraculously all these years later we still are. We still make each other laugh and still hang out after the shows together. I think that the success and longevity has a lot to do with the fact that we share everything and we write everything collectively. So it’s truly a collective. There’s no leader, and it’s really hard to write collectively and have no leader! But it works! It means that everyone feels satisfied with things, everyone has a voice, there’s no dictator or someone calling the shots. We each give a very unique thing to the band that makes it a whole thing.
A lot of the shows that you are playing are in wine country in Australia. Have you ever been to Australian wine country before?
Yes we have. I think it was 2004. We played a winery in New Zealand and then we played a venue in Sydney, and we drove through wine country. But we haven’t played gigs there before – but the winery gig we played in New Zealand was absolutely beautiful. This will be my third trip to Australia, and the last time we were there we went to the Daintree Rainforest. Ah, I just loved it! It was fantastic. I just have to go back.
How has the reception been to Funplex?
It’s been great actually. We do about six or seven songs from the album in our set, and we’re planning on dropping a couple and introducing a few new ones when we go to Australia. Before we even released the CD people were singing along to the songs, so we had a great reception to Love In The Year 3000 and Hot Corner when we did them live… We get great reactions to those songs, as well as Pump and Ultraviolet… We integrate them into the set in such a way that there isn’t a lull between the new stuff and the hits. People are really into it, and it keeps it all going at a furious pace. We don’t have any slow downs.
So both Fred Schneider and Keith Strickland are openly gay, and you’ve been in a relationship with a woman named Monica for a number of years now – so that leaves Cindy as the only straight B-52 left…
Yes, when I started seeing Monica it was my first relationship with a woman. I have to say, I was surprised at how smooth the transition was. It didn’t really cause a stir at all, it certainly didn’t within the band, and the outside world sees us as such a ‘gay band’ anyway. Let’s just say there were no raised eyebrows! There was some interest from the gay media and the gay fans, but it really hasn’t been a big deal.
So you and Monica both run Kate’s Lazy Meadow, a holiday retreat in the Catskills in New York State, and the décor looks very much like something out of B-52s video. How hands on are you both in running the motel?
Well it was Monica that got it up and running – I was in charge of all the decorating, while Monica essentially runs the business. It’s such a working great relationship. I feel very lucky to be working with my partner at the motel and with my friends in the B-52s. We have a small number of staff and Monica is very hands-on in running the place – if there’s a problem she is someone who would rather do it herself, if there’s plumbing that needs fixing she’ll be the first to jump in. Neither of us had any idea of what we were doing when we started, but we just took charge and worked it out as we went.
So you’ve had a really impressive career, even just a glance at the bio shows iconic moments like your work with REM on Shiny Happy People and Iggy Pop on Candy. What would you say have been your biggest career highlights?
Well, I would have to say that those two things were really amazing. I love REM and they’re good friends, so that was really fun. And Iggy Pop is an icon, so that was an amazing thing. Cindy, Fred and I just sang with Junior Senior. I love doing collaborations, I love singing on other people’s records. I just think that the highlight is that we have a new record!
The B-52s land at the following shows this summer.
November
Sat 21 – A Day On The Green, Bimbadgen Estate, Hunter Valley NSW
Sun 22 – A Day On The Green, Sirromet Wines, Mt Cotton QLD
Wed 25 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Sat 28 – A Day On The Green, Rochford Wines, Yarra Valley VIC
Sun 29 – A Day On The Green, Centennial Vineyards, Bowral NSW
December
Wed 2 – Costa Hall, Geelong VIC
Thurs 3 – The Forum, Melbourne
Sat 5 – A Day On The Green, Peter Lehmann Wines, Barossa Valley, SA
Sun 6 – A Day On The Green, Sandalford Wines, Swan Valley WA
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