F irst Things First is KUDOS’ unique interview

page, where we talk to someone you know – or

maybe someone you don’t – about those

early moments that made them who they

are. Under the spotlight this month

is Joe Goddard, one of the

founders of London’s favourite

chart-topping electro-popsters

Hot Chip. With third album

Made in the Dark having

broken the top 5, Joe

excitedly relates personal

tales of his earliest band,

childhood books about

Grumpets, and something

called Lizard Patrol...

75INTERVIEW

i rst th ings f irst

76 INTERVIEW

…memory is of being about five years old and being given a toy laser gun that had a little belt that made different noises. I’ve got a photo of me with that belt on, going down to the park with one of my best friends definitely eyeing it up.

…holiday was with my family to the east coast of Spain, near Barcelona, to a little village called Puerta de la Selva where we stayed in a little cottage. Down the street a few hundred metres, there was the most bizarre thing: it was a swimming pool with no fence and no guards around it, just a pool by the side of the road with nothing round it. I think they’d been constructing a leisure complex and run out of money. In the evenings, my dad would take us on what he called ‘Lizard Patrol’, which meant going out at dusk, looking along the walls of the villa for little lizards!!

…book I read was a children’s book called Trouble for Trumpets which is about a war between these creatures called Trumpets and these other creatures called Grumpets. It’s a wicked story book with incredible illustrations...I’ve still got it somewhere in my house so I can read it to my kids if I ever have any. I remember being obsessed with this book when I was a tiny kid: the air-force ride around on blue tits and they’re small creatures that look a bit like bears that ride around

on birds...it’s really inventive and imaginative: totally nuts!

…trip to the cinema was probably E.T. But I can really remember my dad taking me to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: after about 20 minutes there’s a human sacrifice scene, and I tapped my dad on the back and was like “I have to leave”! It just terrified me too much...at that age it really got to me.

…gig... the very first was a tiny gig at the Borderline in London, just off Tottenham Court Road, which was a friend of a friend’s band. But the second gig I ever went to was the Blur thing at Alexandra Palace [in 1994] with Pulp, Supergrass and Courdroy supporting them. Supergrass were first on, and it was just when Caught by the Fuzz had come out, which I loved. I loved the whole show, but it was very scary...there were about 5,000 people there, and I remember the crowd being crushed together and picked up off my feet...it felt totally out of control.

…job was one summer when I was at school: I was about 16, 17. We bought a house and it was being done up, and the builders were friends of my family so I got a

summer job working for them, with one of my best friends Charlie. We had a system where we would stay round the house on some nights, and we were obsessed with that game Championship Manager, so we’d play that all lunch break and all evening, and then get up and work. We’d get paid £150 a week, and every week on Friday we would go over Putney Bridge to the record shop Beggar’s Banquet and spend the entire £150 on records...it was absolutely amazing!

…appearance on stage would have been at my school. In our GCSE’s there was part of our course where we had to put on an evening’s entertainment. I was in a band called Aerial, who were kind of a grunge band. We did covers of a couple of Pavement songs; we really liked Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, all the obvious things. I was the singer for that band and the most embarrassing thing about that was doing this night in our drama theatre. We were all 16 and very self-conscious, and the next day our French teacher hadn’t worked out anything to do in the lesson, so she put on the video of the concert...so all the rudeboys and rudegirls had to sit through this shit grunge act and they were cussing it the whole time. It was a mortifying experience!

L ike their delightfully eccentric electro-pop records, Hot Chip on

stage are an intriguing proposition. Co-founder and one of two

chief song-writers, Joe Goddard explains that fans of hit singles

like Over and Over and Ready for the Floor may well be surprised by

the audio assault of their live shows. “It’s much rougher and louder;

more aggressive, faster, with much more of a techno element”. Whilst

admitting this hasn’t always been the case (“we used to be rubbish live...

kind of a mess from all angles!”), Goddard is excited about the prospect

of returning to British audiences this year, and cheerfully shares with

KUDOS some of his first – and finest – moments...

Joe GoddardMusician. Vocalist and synthesizer player

with Hot Chip. Born 1979 in Hammersmith.

My first...

Hot Chip play the Brighton Dome on 5 November. Their third album, Made in the Dark, is out now.

77INTERVIEW

“My first job was doing up a house one

summer with my best friend Charlie...

we’d get paid £150 a week, and every

week on Friday we would go over

Putney Bridge to Beggar’s Banquet and

spend the entire amount on records: it

was absolutely amazing!”

Image: Sarah Buckley