May, 10th 2007 04:20 AM
Man, Minotaur or Prince of Darkness's brother
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| Blood sings |
Scene: At the bar, mid afternoon gone morning in the evening, a sloe past Sunday.
cf: Mark Wildblood, or Blood, if I can be so bold? That's an interesting name - is it Transylvanian?
Blood: Na, it's English. But I'm a Kiwi.
cf: Hmmm...good, good, - (he mutters whilst stoking his designer ginger/auburn ¾ length chin whiskers in a failing bid at trying to look intelligent. He continues) - is it true that you are the Prince of Darkness' brother? (Came the stark continuation)
Blood: It's not true I tell you. Neither is the half man-half bull story, - Minotaur has just been one of my names in the past- (‘damn, said too much' - says Blood muttering into the echoing silence of his thoughts) - But it is true that everyone is my brother, be them British, Kiwi or even ‘Ozzy'.
(Brief pause, as cf digests the bull comment and wonders if it reference to a small tour he did once... abandons his own confused quizzical notion and continues)
cf: Ok...I want you to put yourself at ease and go back to your childhood. Could you describe yourself in 3 words for then and now?
(Blood pauses, but only briefly or he might forget the question)
Blood: A dreamer, non-conformist and non-academic and now I would say I'm idealistic, misunderstood and a creative thinker - nothing changed.
(cf counts the words on his fingers and strikes Blood with a hesitant yet crooked finger... and the mandatory puzzled gaze. He gives an apprehensive cough, diminishes the thought again, and continues)
cf: You came to Vietnam, what was it 13 years ago, what made you come here?
Blood: November 1990 I was posted here from Zambia whilst working in an International transport company. I was transported here! (- He quips with a wry smile - cf joins him in the half eyebrow jerker and immediately motions to a pre-rolled joint he's just produced from his cigarette box. Blood agrees)
cf: That's a long way from the music business, so why are you still here - why?
Blood: The initial 6 years were within that company and a lot of it was realizing, me realizing, that perhaps if we consider the world standards, the overall situation of Vietnam is a misunderstood, dreamy, non-conformist, whole lot of bundle of fun, and a whole lotta love...du, dun, dun, dun, dun dun, a whole lot of love, du, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun... and I mean that with the deepest most up-most respect folks.
cf: Does that mean you're a stonehead?
Blood: No, it means I'm a dreaming, non-conformist, idealistic, misunderstood, creative thinker.
(Both are now looking out the window as a near naked, be it dressed to the nines, classical, in the sense of chic, lady walks by - both minds are swarmingly infested with, ‘phoarrr. cf continues..)
cf: What are your loves and hates of Vietnam?
Blood: What I love is the fact it is very much a country that is developing from very small beginnings and is moving on at a rapid pace and is definitely becoming one of the highlights of the world. What I hate is overpaid expats who come here and live in their own little worlds and their jobs, instead of looking at the country for what it really is, for not respecting all cultures, activities, the laws, regulations and lifestyles.
(Off tape; Blood: ‘Too heavy?' cf: No, that's good. Fuck ‘em...idiots.)
cf: What first got you into music in Vietnam?
Blood: I was ironically sharing a room with a journalist...or is it; Ironically, I was sharing a room with a journalist. Anyway, her friend was looking for someone to join a band and because my room was adjacent to hers she could hear me singing in the shower.
cf: So you were talent spotted?
Blood: Fundamentally - yes, and in the nude - that's the bare arse fact.
(Just then one of Saigon's finest locals has set up a mobile karaoke machine, a battery powered amp strapped to his bicycle outside the pub. He's wearing a street dirtied and far too small 1970's white bell-bottomed suit with an equally dirtied or is it tanned, it's hard to tell, face - wild mopped hair, huge ear-lobes and sparkling whiter than white pearlies. He eerily takes on the appearance of a skinny James ‘Viet' Brown. He is belting out some obscure Vietnamese number, which has a Hendrix/hindu overtone throwback vibe to it, a bit Hindux maybe, or should it be Buddha-ish here - perhaps Hunddhax. cf & Blood take a break, and quaff a few more ales and order a steak sandwich.)
(20 minutes and a couple of Sunday afternoon top-ups later...)
cf: You've been doing the circuit now for the past ten years or so, and have helped develop Vietnam's rock ‘n' roll scene like no other - what do you put that down to - are you a rock ‘n roll junkie, a non-conformistical Vietnamese-ish answer to Bob Geldof or are you really just, and I don't say that lightly, just Satan's little brother? Speak now or by God I'll drive this Porterhouse straight through your heart you bloody Blood bastard!
Blood: (with actual blood now dripping from his face, doesn't bat an eyelid, swallows his mouthful and wipes the juice with the back of his hand...) My pursuit of music has become more than a hobby, ‘put that cross down', and when I first came here rock ‘n' roll was really only available in the hotels and that was the types of Boney M and Abba then along came the kind of exposure such as MTV and with that came a call for live music in the pub scene and essentially I was in the right place at the right time. The opening was there and I had a kind of wannabe rock star attitude that drove me to play. (‘Freddy is a devil, Freddy is a devil - have you ever lived backwards? - He keeps repeating; ‘have you ever lived backwards? Have you ever lived backwards?...')
(cf turns to the karaoke kid for some kind of assurance - things suddenly take a speeded and haphazard approach as the Hunddhax puppet master is grinning inanely back, and blaring from his machine is Pinky and Perky singing Tom Jones' ‘It's not unusual' ...cf pinches his nose briefly, scratches his eye, gives a faint twitch then swings around to Blood again...)
cf: Ok, let's keep to the star theme - it's been noted that you have the appearance of say a cross between Ed Harris and Iggy Pop, who would you consider the likeness to most?
Blood: Iggy Harris. I've also been noted to look like Sting but spelt with K and not a G.
cf: Does that mean you don't carry any money around with you?
Blood: Very much so, but not by choice.
cf: Who were your influences and what are your goals?
Blood: It all comes from a genre rather than individual groups; you know bands of nostalgia like the Beatles and Rolling Stones then onto Glam, Led Zeppelin and up to today, such as The Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
cf: Have you got time for hip-hop and the rave scene - is that your cup of tea?
Blood: It's not mine, but I'll have another beer. (cf motions to the barmaid, and both he and Blood keep this sporadic increase of pace with the interview...) I like all kinds of music but unfortunately I don't have that kind of voice or the band to pull it off. In the future I'd like to do some live stuff with Vietnamese instruments and maybe some theatrical kind of shows and concerts.
cf: Have you ever worn make-up?
Blood: yes.
cf: Is that a personal preference?
Blood: She wanted it!
(Both now, without reason pause, without bemusement, indifference, nonchalance or detachment and continue without any recollection of what had really just been said in the past 2 minutes or so...)
cf: Ok moving on; to me and many others you are a rock institution here in Saigon, so given this scenario, and please take no time to think about it; but, if you had an octopus, two female groupies, a bag of Chinese crackers and half a mind of rock ‘n' roll nonsense wrapped up in a pillow of dreams, what would you do with them?
Blood: Being a Kiwi I'd eat, sleep, root and leave with all my tentacles. (And believe me that Q&A was totally off the cuff).
(cf's just heard from the Karaoke Kid's music box, a tune quite uncannily reminiscent of ‘Monster Mash', but again in Hunddhax, and is dragged back to an earlier topic - as by the fateful serendepityicall strings of coincidence. He composes himself...)
cf: How many years do you plan to live in a coffin?
Blood: Till I'm transported back to my roots in Transylvania - ooh what a give-away.
(That sort of scares cf a little and he quickly changes the subject back to Rock ‘n' Roll...)
cf: Have you ever driven your moped along the 5th floor corridor of the Caravelle Hotel, shouting and hollering threats to cut off some hippy's hair, somewhat Bruce Dickinson-ishly Iron Maiden-esque on Peter Frampton style?
Blood: That's just a vicious rumour.
(cf thinking about 3 things at once now and none relevant. Or is it Peter Frampton who is really the devil, mixing Hunddhax tunes in downtown Saigon? He continues...)
cf: If ‘ifs and ands' were pots and pans, would you have been a drummer?
Blood: Do you know how many drummer jokes there are and it's a myth that they get all the girls.
cf: I don't know any drummer jokes, do you? (cf asks sincerely. Blood immediately shakes his head with no facial expression at all, except one to denote he doesn't know any drummer jokes either...'and don't call me sincerely' - he quips!) - Speaking of which (girls), have you ever slept with someone who is lighter than you? (cf asks referring to his weight)
Blood: Skin colour doesn't matter to me.
cf: What's your favourite film and who's your favourite chick right now?
Blood: Reservoir Dogs and definitely not Paris Hilton - She won't stop sending me e-mails.
cf: Have you ever inadvertently exposed yourself in public?
Blood: Not inadvertently, but then since my lucky spate of fortunate breaks in the late seventies no one has taken any notice!
cf: Do you go for gimmicks/ visuals on stage; I mean would you ever scoff a live animal?
Blood: Na, I leave that to me brother - Ozzy.
cf: If you could perceive people by the experience of the moist comforting sweat of a Saturday nights memory after a steamy gig in Successville - can you predict your eve's doings? By that I mean would you class yourself as an immediate observational adjective of sluttiness to know where the evening is going to progress after a gig or do you just let fate wisp you into its enveloping arms?
Blood: I think one should always be ready to branch out into moist and dark places and usually by the end of the evening its what ever is available, even if it is the octopus - providing it's female. Now, I must get back before sun-up.
cf: Mr. Blood sir, it's been an honour.
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