{"id":12121,"date":"2021-11-05T15:04:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T14:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12121"},"modified":"2021-11-09T15:52:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T14:52:36","slug":"nina-simones-gum-by-warren-ellis-interviewed-by-sarah-walters-and-reviewed-by-alienore-bombarded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12121","title":{"rendered":"Nina Simone’s Gum<\/em><\/strong> by Warren Ellis: Interviewed by Sarah Walters and reviewed by Alienor Bombarde"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nina Simone\u2019s Gum, by Warren Ellis
\n<\/strong>Interview by Sarah Walters
\n<\/strong>Organised by David Coates, at Manchester\u2019s Blackwells.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the publication of his memoir <\/em>Nina Simone\u2019s Chewing Gumthe Australian musician and member of the rock groups\u00a0<\/em>Dirty Three\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Warren Ellis, visited Manchester\u2019s Blackwells. There, he discussed his inspiration, and memories with Sarah Walters of Gorilla TV and Manchester International Festival.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The crowd murmurs as it waits for the rock music legend. Warren Ellis appears on time and at home as he descends the Blackwells\u2019 Bookshop staircase. Masked, wearing a red shirt that a member of the audience will later ask where to buy\u2014from Hawes & Curtis\u2014he seems relaxed, intelligent and poised.<\/p>\n

He has the energy of that someone we’ve all met at least once in our lives, who takes the time to look you deep in the eyes, and tell you unabashedly, with empathy but without self-consciousness, their experience of spirituality and\/or their keen interest in some niche subject.<\/p>\n

So it shouldn\u2019t come as much of a surprise that Warren Ellis is here tonight, not for his acoustics, but for hoarding Nina Simone\u2019s chewing gum inside a towel she once wiped her forehead on, and then writing a book about it.<\/p>\n

In this event organised by Blackwells\u2019 David Coates, researcher and television presenter Sarah Walters sits down with Warren Ellis to discuss the launch of \u2018Nina Simone\u2019s Gum\u2019, which Ellis spent most of lockdown writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this a love story?\u201d she asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I was trying to work out what love is. I realised when I read it back recently that even though I was trying to write about the gum, it ended up being a search for spirituality.<\/p>\n

While I was writing it, I\u2019d tell everyone I was writing a book about a piece of gum, and they all thought I was joking. Eventually I said to this woman:<\/p>\n

\u2018Surely you have something like this, an object you care about, that means something to you even if it doesn’t mean anything to anyone else.\u2019<\/p>\n

This woman, she looked at me, and tears came into her eyes. She got out this is old, bashed-up packet of cigarettes. And she said, this is my husband Darren’s last packet of cigarettes. He died 10 years ago. And she said, I get it now.<\/p>\n

You see we all keep these jolts into the past. Objects that mean something within our orbits because of their story. When people die, it’s the stories that keep them alive. Things have that quality, too. The things that belonged to people we cared about.<\/p>\n

At home we have this cigarette lighter which was my wife’s dad when he was in the Resistance. He passed it on to her and she passed it on to her kids. And that cigarette lighter comes with a story. It\u2019s so much more than just a thing. Thrift stores are full of things that were lovingly taken care of for years.<\/p>\n

I really believe in the power of things. I\u2019m superstitious. When I was a kid I would collect tire weights, thinking they were good luck. I used to wear the same shirt on tours. I think I get obsessed with things. I’m very interested in the superstitious and the supernatural.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know you kept the gum for years, but was it private?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it definitely isn’t now.\u201d Warren chuckles with the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was private. Nick knew about it. I kept the gum in the towel Nina had wiped her forehead with. We stored it in the studio.<\/p>\n

The studio was the first place I had somewhere to work in. And eventually when people got to know about the gum, everyone thought it was a funny story.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Seeing the gum all the time was like a sign that the smallest thing could become epic. Things get out of control in your head and you just kind of build them up into something beautiful. When Hannah was carrying the gum for me, she knew how much it meant to me, even though I was some guy she\u2019d never met. But she would send me pictures and give me updates.<\/p>\n

I found that so touching. Other people continued to look after it, kept me informed, Rachel, Molly, Susan, Christina, so many people kindly looked after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that’s why I asked whether it was a love story, because in reading your book, we get a real sense of your anxiety when you lost it and your desire to preserve something forever. What was writing about that like? Did you always know you would write a book?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, absolutely not. Dan from Faber, Dan Papps, called me up and said, \u2018you seem like a funny guy, have you ever thought of writing a book?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018You mean like a memoir?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Well, yeah.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said: \u2018I can’t think of anything more tedious than the story of my life.\u2019<\/p>\n

Later, though, I was talking to Alexa about the gum, and her eyes welled up with tears. So it was seeing other people’s reactions that made me think the chewing gum belonged in the world.<\/p>\n

I had no idea how to write a book. I thought 20,000 words was around 10 pages. So I was just trying to figure out how to fill up 10 pages. Nick said he\u2019d write the intro, and I was like \u2018Great that’s three pages gone.\u2019 It took me a while to eventually figure out 20,000 words is more than 10 pages.<\/p>\n

It was like handing an actor an acoustic guitar. I had no actual knowledge of what I was supposed to be doing. I\u2019d work on the initial drafts with Dan Papps and Alexa. They gave me good criticism and they’d say the right things that didn’t make me want to stop writing and give up.<\/p>\n

But it’s a very vulnerable process. I\u2019ve felt vulnerable in the studio before, but when you’re writing there’s just you and the blank page.<\/p>\n

I think if I\u2019d known how hard it was going to be, I would have said \u2018no way, forget about it.\u2019<\/p>\n

One of the things for the initial draft was that I had made all of these lists. I asked Dan what he thought of the lists, thinking he was going to say yeah they’re incredible, well done Warren, amazing, but he looks\u00a0 at me and goes: \u2018I think we can lose them.\u2019<\/p>\n

Writing made me look at everywhere I had carried the towel. Like a relic, for two years, in a Samsonite briefcase. Actually, I\u2019d invariably get Sniffer dogs pursuing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah smiles. \u201cYou say you didn’t want to write a memoir, but this book gives such an insight into your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I didn’t want to write about my life. It felt like I was being unfaithful to the gum. But Dan said to me, in order to care about the chewing gum, people need to understand why I care.<\/p>\n

So this book is about why I care and why do we care.<\/p>\n

That’s why I dedicated it to teachers. Teachers are those who so often open a door that won’t close again.<\/p>\n

Everyone remembers someone who gave you the confidence, who enabled you to take flight. Everybody needs people who help you realise your better self.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Walters briefly refers to his musical history, though doesn\u2019t go into the details. It\u2019s worth mentioning here, however, that Warren Ellis is a man of many talents. He trained as a classical musician before pioneering the violin as a rock music instrument. He is a member of rock groups Dirty Three<\/em> and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds<\/em>. He plays the violin, the piano, the accordion, bouzouki, the guitar, flute, mandolin, tenor guitar and viola. And now he\u2019s written a book.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas it always been in your nature to find new ways of looking at things?\u201d Sarah asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I just couldn’t stand the violin when I listened to it. For some reason, I could play the violin, could get my head around it, but I had no connection to classical music.<\/p>\n

Then my brother gave me an amplifier, and I tried it at a gig. I was like, let\u2019s see what happens. And it worked.<\/p>\n

Suddenly it was to my advantage that I wasn’t a guitar player.<\/p>\n

Music has always been to me something spiritual. When I play music nothing else matters. I didn’t realise this until I got depressed in 1988. I had a broken heart and didn’t know it, but really it was song that pulled me out. Music was always a safety net. To me, playing on stage is the greatest thing on Earth.\u201d He pauses. There is an honesty, and a vulnerability about him that has kept everyone on the edge of their seats. \u201cAnd I give thanks for that,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think throughout your career, there’s a sense that you’ve been searching for something that no one really expects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warren shakes his head. \u201cI get bored with myself. I love collaborating with other people. I want to be working with people, finding things in the studio that surprise me, that I\u2019ll fight for.<\/p>\n

End of the 1990s, I was sick of the violin and discovered electro music. I also play the flute, and it was then, I guess, that I realised that armed with what I had, I could make something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there any instrument you don’t play?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrumpets. I can\u2019t. I just don’t go near them. Brass doesn’t like me.<\/p>\n

I think it takes a long time with music, to find something you\u2019re really good at. Even for me now, I’m still looking. I am deferent to the process. I never assume something is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou also made the most beautiful album during lockdown. And so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Nick and I went into the studio, we went just to see what would happen. We came up with it in two days. I think it was finished in eight days. Being in the studio, after not having been for so long, it seemed to pressure cook the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s an unexpected sense of spirituality to the album, at times Nick almost sounds as if he’s giving a sermon. Did that spirituality come from you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I just sit there and beaver away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what’s going to happen to the gum now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be terrified of what was going happen to it, when I wasn\u2019t around any more. But the South Bank actually contacted me and offered to archive it and take care of it. Which shows tremendous goodwill. I find it very moving. Actually I want to thank you all, tonight.\u201d Warren turns with sincerity to the small audience, gathered in the bookshop.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing this. It’s such a new experience for me. It’s not like doing a record and going on tour, and being asked the same old questions. It’s opened me up to things I wasn’t open to before.<\/p>\n

So thank you, very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

During questions and answers, he dwells on the idea that giving out something positive is a way to pass on good in the world. Giving out something negative will also be passed on.<\/p>\n

Warren Ellis met Mick Guy, a man who would change his life, after a Prince concert. Warren, drunk, was about to walk in front of a car when Mick pulled him out and saved his life.<\/p>\n

Mick was also the one to introduce Warren Ellis to Nick Cave, at a dinner together. Following the dinner, Warren and Nick got together and composed their first ever collaboration, \u2018Murder Bells\u2019.<\/p>\n

There is a glow in the room, a sense of that shared humanity. It is difficult not to hear him speak and understand, on a deeply human level what it means to care for something, the way Warren Ellis cares for Nina Simone\u2019s gum.<\/p>\n

by Alienor Bombarde<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nina Simone\u2019s Gum, by Warren Ellis Interview by Sarah Walters Organised by David Coates, at Manchester\u2019s Blackwells. Following the publication of his memoir Nina Simone\u2019s Chewing Gumthe Australian musician and member of the rock groups\u00a0Dirty Three\u00a0and\u00a0Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Warren Ellis, visited Manchester\u2019s Blackwells. There, he discussed his inspiration, and memories with Sarah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nNina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis: Interviewed by Sarah Walters and reviewed by Alienor Bombarde - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=12121\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis: Interviewed by Sarah Walters and reviewed by Alienor Bombarde - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nina Simone\u2019s Gum, by Warren Ellis Interview by Sarah Walters Organised by David Coates, at Manchester\u2019s Blackwells. 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