How has Pennies leaving the band affected morale, and the way the band sound?
Pennie leaving was a good thing for band morale. He’d wanted to leave for a long time and that created a lot of tension within the band and crew; it’s hard to be a happy band when three members want to be a part of it and one doesn’t. He didn’t want to do what he did within the band and make the music that we made. When Pennie decided to leave, and we all agreed that he’d tour with us until we’d fulfilled all our live commitments, there was a sense of relief – the worst thing is the sense of limbo you get from not knowing how things are going to pan out. We’re happier now and so is Pennie, he’s working on his own projects now. I think Pennie leaving had less of an impact than Paul joining. Obviously, his screaming went with him, but Pennie was not too involved in composing whereas Paul is much more active in that. TMO: Whether it’s the Stone Roses, Oasis or more recently the Arctic Monkeys, it seems that when a band is huge in the UK it rarely translates on the same scale abroad – part
