Mercury Rising
“”Mercury Rising” is about antagonism towards someone. It was mainly written by Baz, who felt that there was a bit of antagonism towards him in the initial stages of when he joined the band. But that quickly disappeared. I think his contribution was respected. But there’s always a conservative element in something that has been going for quite a while. People don’t like change. But it’s about that, generally.”JJ Burnel (450)
5 Minutes
“Well, “5 Minutes,” I was sharing a flat with a bloke called Wilko Johnson, who was a guitarist for the band Dr. Feelgood – a UK rhythm and blues band. They had really peaked, they had got to #1 the year before. I was sharing a flat with him and a girl who worked for the Sex Pistols. That flat was an amazing thing. It was 1977, so all kinds of people would walk through. Lemmy from Motörhead was a good friend of Wilko’s and various people, members of the Clash and Sex Pistols. And while I was away gigging one night, the girl, she got raped. Which more or less constituted the end of our stay there, because the apartment was tainted. But it was funny, because it was in a… well, it wasn’t funny at all, it was in a relatively rough area, but it was five minutes from the richest street in the whole of the UK, Bishops Avenue, with gated houses and everything. I just thought that there was a juxtaposition there between the comfort of all these gated protected communities with cameras and electronic entrances and our situation on the fifth floor of an old apartment building, where people could just come in and rape someone.”JJ Burnel (450)