Thanks once again to Eric Valette for salvaging the following New Musical Express article - dated 14 May 1988.

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Frankly Howard

As the former Magazine addict returns with a new LUXURIA single - 'Public Highway' - DAVID SWIFT catches up with baldylocks and gets hopelessly DEVOTOED. Picture: EMILY ANDERSEN

Ring - ring.

Howard Devoto himself answers the door. We shake hands and he is quick to smile. On top of his frail - almost petite frame - his hairline seems to have retreated not an inch since the 'Motorcade' video. The frames of his glasses are solid black - with lenses as thick as tom-toms.

I have interrupted. He was curled up in his manager's office with a copy of The Sexuality Of Christ In Renaissance Art And In Model Oblivion. I push my copy of The Official Batbook a little deeper into my bag as I pull out the tape. I fear that I shall be an anti-climax - how do you follow Christ's genitals?

In 1980 - 'The Correct Use Of Soap' LP by Devoto's Magazine was bigger than God's dick. And after it's nearly-perfect successor - 'Magic - Murder And The Weather' - Devoto abandoned group life. And everyone said "follow that - Howard". And he got lost - with a flawed solo record.

In 1988 - he and Noko are Luxuria - and already they have conquered the jukebox on Eastenders with as damn-near as fine a record as we could have hoped for from Howard Devoto in any year after Magazine. He is once again where he belongs - demanding your money with menaces.

More impassioned observers may note that Devoto was once so far ahead of the field - and the rest of Rock has now slipped so far back - that even standing still he cuts quite a fear-filled dash. 'The Unanswerable Lust' and 'Public Highway' - the new single taken from it - sound anything but stagnant.

Are you pleased to be back - Howard?

"Yes - it feels - uh - great."

This Luxuria seems very assured - has the rest done you good?

"That's just the difference between being solo and having at least one other person to work with. I didn't want to be in a group again - and I didn't want to be solo - I found that very unsatisfactory really. It's really taken two years to get to this point - since I met Noko - with writing songs and getting a record deal. But it's a much longer period for everyone else than it is for me."

He resumed songwriting - he says - smirking - when he began feeling STUPIDLY UNHAPPY AGAIN. He says it in capitals - enjoying any conclusions we might draw from that. But later-

"I think people perceive me as being more arrogant than I am - or have done in the past."

How would you describe yourself - now - in terms of health - wealth - happiness?

"Health - I don't deserve the good health I have. Wealth - I get by by my fingernails. Happiness - you must be joking!"

Suits us - Devoto at his wits end has always been a good bet: "Give Me Everything" - "I Wanted Your Heart" - "A Song From Under The Floorboards" - "This Poison"-

"I don't really want to talk about this-"

"-so maybe I shouldn't mention it - but in the last handful of years I've gone through some things I never thought I'd go through."

That's teasing me - isn't it?

"Well - I know."

Are you talking about your lifestyle?

"You can knock the word 'style' off that."

Does this bear further probing? "No - I'll just clam up really."

He plucks another cig from the box and the spool turns a silent cassette. He knows when to kill a question. Umm - who's Noko - then?

"He's from Liverpool. 'Noko' is a Liverpudlisiation of Norman - but I don't know whether that's just the circle he's in. We met through Peter Shelley - who he was doing a bit of work for. We talked about Marcel Proust and decided that the only way we were going to read that ridiculously long book of his was to have a competition. He beat me to it."

Noko pulls and pummels together these shimmering - crunchy beats - and Devoto swings and lasciviously throws himself into them - turning his syllables upside down as he re-establishes his emphatic touch with some imperfection.

He said - before the Luxuria shows - that he would "relish - just a little bit" his return to the stage.

And relish it he did - thrusting his smallish yet perfectly formed bod before audiences throughout the isle - some of whom wore 'Magazine' T-shirts that had appeared to have been kept pressed in feathers for the best part of the decade. He still inspires a mild devotion - and faith was rewarded.

He refurbished his stepping-razor spotlight technique and saw no shame in resurrecting 'A Song From Under The Floorboards' - 'The Light Pours Out Of Me' and 'The Book'. Charging ahead of his band - his honour remained intact.

During Morrissey's duet-part at the end of the London show - on 'The Light-' - when both came to the chorus it was hard to tell who was enjoying the words the most.

Who knows? - he could go almost all the way again. He certainly sees no reason to settle for anything less.

"Don't ask me to compare - please. I just know that what we are doing is really good. The LP is quite varied; tone - pace - mood.'Real Life' had a great deal of breadth to it too. That's what I must have."

Do you set yourself high standards?

"Oh - they're far too high."

Have you ever met them - is it constantly falling short - what's kept you going?

"Ha - ha - ha. You don't finish your work - you abandon it. I never abandon anything. Even scribbling something on a piece of paper - I cannot throw it away."

At age 30 or thereabouts - with a couple of minor singles hits in the far distant past - the commercial axis holds few fears for him. TOTP again would make him feel better - "in one category of life". (But Big Bucks would never make this one chairman of the Glee Club.) The writing is the main thing and - in form - he is very hard to resist. A door-to-door salesman - one foot on the customer's throat - sneering - squealing - f--ked up - pissed off - working himself over.

He calls it The Imperial Self: avoiding the Royal We for serious I-balling.

"There's a twist right through - I switch the You - the I - the We and the They around."

From "I will drug you/and f--k you/on the permafrost" to "I'll break my body on her" is not a giant step - least of all for Howard Devoto.

Your favourite - please.

"Well - I was particularly pleased to find myself saying "unless you let things take forever/they never get done" on 'Pound'."

But isn't he getting on a bit to take this seriously - I ask - not sure of his exact birthdate?

"I think you've got to be concious of the style in which you do things. Y'know - I really liked Iggy's last LP - and on tour Noko and I saw him and he was just great."

We discuss how Mr Pop seemingly still gets respect from those who support each era of his career. I asked - would you like that?

"I've GOT that - " says Howard - smiling - eyes twinkling.

Has he ever been described to his fullest satisfaction?

"Something Nick Kent wrote once - about making - uh - triumphs - some word like that - out of unhappiness. Yes."

And how would you describe yourself now?

"Oh - banging a garbage can with a big silver stick."

Hear it?

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