Cradle of Filth - Storm Before and After the Calm Part II
By: Mike Sloan
This is the second part of Mike Sloan's interview with the always-chatty Dani Filth. To read the first part, click here.
Blistering.com: Have you personally ever been in a situation where a crazy fan or fans put you in danger because they tried to hurt you physically?
Dani Filth: Yeah, there have been a few situations like that. I’ve had to employ a security guard for ages because you can get caught unaware or suddenly being rushed unexpectedly. It can be a bit disconcerting. I’ve had a guy once jump on the stage with a knife way back in the day. We were on tour supporting Anathema in ’94 when that happened. There was more recently when we were headlining a British show called Bloodstock not last year but the year before. Someone was throwing these huge candy balls. They were the size of pool balls and one narrowly missed our keyboardist and another narrowly missed this disabled kid who was watching from the side of the stage. It was awful because he was allowed there because of this competition that he won and he almost got hit. And then one hit our guitarist right in the square of his back and he had to be rushed to the hospital for a scan. That was pretty dangerous. These things were being bought on site and they could have killed someone if it hit them in the right place.
Blistering.com: Looking at these circumstances that you’ve been involved with and looking back at Dimebag’s murder, has Cradle and its security staff altered the way things are going to be handled from here forward?
Filth: We are much more aware of these things now, but most of our fans are good. You’d expect them to be a little more psycho but that’s not the case. Every now and then you will get someone like that and you have to be wary. But I respect the people who come to see us because they pay good money. I never understood the people who pay money and then just come to heckle us. It just seems a bit ridiculous. I’m pretty good at giving it back to them because I can embarrass someone in the crowd really good. I can embarrass them a lot easier than they can embarrass me because I have the microphone and the big mouth. But to answer your question, yes; we always have the security and they take care of us. However, I don’t like thuggish behavior and if the house security is kicking off and getting rough, we are the first to point it out because I can’t stand that shit as well. There are some bully tactics with some security firms and they just don’t know the rules. They just think it’s a good laugh to kick people around.
Blistering.com: You always see the group of meatheads in the pit without their shirts and flexing their muscles/starting fights. It’s all the time. Is there a particular pocket in the world where it’s worse than others? I can only speak about the US crowds I’ve attended in various cities, but what about the rest of the world?
Filth: France! [laughs loudly] Yes, France. We’ve had a lot of problems with security on several occasions.
Blistering.com: What about Caroline [Campbell, keyboards] or any of the other females you’ve had in Cradle of Filth? Does she get extra security while on tour because, well, she is a female and idiot guys, I assume, would be an even bigger problem?
Filth: Yeah, yeah. That’s for sure. We always make sure she’s looked after first, really. It’s one of those things, really, where you are always a bit more protective of a woman anyway.
Blistering.com: Cradle of Filth is a very productive, prolific band in terms of always creating new material and touring constantly. For you personally, is there ever a time where you just want to take a few years off and do nothing just to regroup and relax? Or is that just not a part of your genetic makeup?
Filth: Yes, sometimes I do but I’m too much of a workaholic to do that. You’d think that when your album is finished you’d get a bit of a rest but you don’t because that’s when all the press starts. And from there it’s sort of this build-up to when you go out on the road again. I’m quite liking where we are at the moment. We’ve got quite a lot of projects going right now, what with the orchestral album and all. We are about four songs into the writing of the new Cradle of Filth album proper. I’ve also got my side project band, Temple of the Black Moon, and we’ve pretty much finished up all the tracks. There’s me, Rob (Caggiano) from Anthrax and John (Tempesta) from The Cult and King, who used to be in Gorgoroth and that’s pretty much finished. But despite all of these different things that we’re doing or undertaking at the moment, when I’m at home I feel quite relaxed. The pressure hasn’t gotten too bad and I’m liking it at the moment. It allows the creativity to flow.
Blistering.com: I have interviewed hundreds of professional boxers and UFC fighters over the years, some of them the biggest names in history. What’s interesting, though, is that virtually each one has told me that they always become insanely nervous before their fights. What about you and the rest of the band? You’ve been doing this for almost twenty years now but do you still get nervous before you go onstage? How are you in the moments before you take the stage?
Filth: Only with what’s stacked against us. And what I mean by that is if there’s problems with the sound. Like when you get up there and something’s not working like it was before and the stagehands are running around trying to sort it all out. So you don’t know when you’re going to get out there and if everything’s going to be just as you imagined it and that can be a real struggle. That’s really the only time I get nervous. When things are going as it should be, which is most of the time, when out on tour and things are running smoothly, there’s no worries at all. It’s a good thrill, it’s fun.
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