Smash Hits Magazine
"A1 on one"
Dodgy food, Japanese toilets and Westlife. It’s all in a day’s work for Ben A1.
You left Australia a couple of months ago, where
did you go after that?
We just got back to England from Japan! We visited over 50 cities. It’s
a tour that no-one has done before, not even Japanese artists. We’re very
proud – Ready or not went to number one. It was brilliant, but it was
loads of hard work and I really missed everything, especially my mum and
my family. Still, a fan gave me a giant Winnie The Pooh to keep me company.
What were you doing over there?
Well, we were there for threes weeks and it was mainly doing radio interviews.
(Laughing) It takes forever. The DJ asks a question then the translator
asks us, then we answer and that has to be translated back into Japanese.
It’s fun though; we got to see every part of the country.
How did you go down?
Brilliantly. At the last show in Tokyo, we were expecting 200 people and
over a thousand turned up. They’re really generous over there. I got given
a new pentax camera and my brother and sister ended up with loads of Pokemon
goodies. We each had a whole room full of presents, it was lovely.
What was the food like?
I prefer McDonalds to the traditional stuff. One night we got something
called Toshimi. It was an up-turned fish but its jaw was still moving.
I told the waiter and he was like, “No, it’s not alive, it’s just muscle
spasms.” Nice! That night, I just ate rice and went to bed.
Were there any other surprises?
Ah, the toilets. There was a button which I thought was the flush, so
I pressed it and got soaked with water from all angles, if you know what
I mean. I walked out looking like I’d wet myself. I must admit I was a
bit fed up with that.
You’ve been to Australia once, when are you coming
back?
Soon. We loved it there. There was so much to see and we had no time.
We saw things like the Harbour Bridge but only from a car, I’d love to
come and climb it next time. I also want to see the Opera house properly
too. We’re working on our second album at the moment so we won’t be back
for a while. We’re stuck in a studio at the moment and then we’ll be working
on our tour. We’ve moved on a bit from Be the first to believe but it’s
not like we’ve gone all Marilyn Manson. (Giggling) We tried it but it
wasn’t really us.
What about the girls over in Oz, what did you
think of them?
I liked them a lot. We weren’t expecting fans to have a real knowledge
of who we were so when they did it was great. There was some good looking
ones too.
Are you amazed by the success of A1?
Yes and no. I mean, I always knew we were good, I just never knew how
good. We’ve been really successful in the UK and now that success is creeping
around the world. You can’t beat that feeling of watching people sing
along with your songs, or doing the dance routines with you. I have to
say you Aussies were very good at doing the Be the first to believe routine.
Did you know that?
Thanks to Crimson who took the time to type this interview and forward
the scans.