Jay: (Macedonian money) wasn't worth owt in Macedonia was it!... But what was well weird was the festival was policed by the police with all their guns and they were dead stern faced at the start of the gig, but it was just such an amazing atmosphere - all the police were dancin' in the end.
John: The chief of police shook my hand after the gig which was pretty strange, like : "I very much like your punk-rock band"... We had to get a coach accross the border 'cos Greece doesn't recognise them as a country. It was pretty tense. This Greek customs guy came down the bus and he had hold of my ear, 'cos I had an earring - they were so pathetic the Greeks were. And he goes to this guy at the back - one of the guys in Renegade Soundwave, who was asleep - and he pokes him. And the guy in Renegade Soundwave goes "Don't fuckin' push me around". So they got him off the bus and they marched him into this little hut to search him and they got really, really heavy and he was like shittin' himself.
Eventually they let him back on the bus and when the Macedonian Radio interviewed him he was going: "I was on the bus and the Greek customs guys got on and I told them where to get off and what to do".... I don't think anybody realised how heavy that border was - people have been shot on that border.
Jay: It's funny though, that Renegade Soundwave bloke didn't look that tough when he was getting strip searched did he?
John: He looked terrified didn't he?
Jay: Well, it was terrifying, they marched everyone off the bus and we were there for an hour and a half or summat ridiculous.
John: Yeah, we had to stand around, it was a bit of a laugh 'cos the Greek customs made fools of themselves, y'know.
Jay: The actual concert was such a triumph 'cos it was such an uphill struggle for them to get any bands from outside of Macedonia at all.
John: It must have been hard 'cos they haven't had a gig on since, they just put film festivals on now. Just send some films and they show them, it's pretty easy, you don't have to get a bus or owt... When we were at the airport we all had to wait seperately and they got us some greek food and it were quite nice. And like Renegade Soundwave were going "We don't want this shit, get us some British food - Get us some chips."
Jay: An' the Macedonian guys were going so out of their way to be kind and gracious and hospitable to these people who've come from another country, y'know.
John: They were dead nervous 'cos they know the Greek's don't like 'em. The Greek's don't recognise Macedonia as a country - they have to call their country FIROM which means Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. The Greeks won't fly their flag, they've designed a different flag for them to fly on the Greek side. These are the sort of people you should have curfew's on!
Jay: Tell you what was embarrasin' as well - one of the guys from Renegade Soundwave was going "Don't you tell me about the fuckin' war, I know all about the war. I know all about Serbia - I know where Kosovo is."
John: He tried to explain to the people in Macedonia what the political situation in Yugoslavia is. Which is like....
Jay: So embarrasin'!
Rob: He got it out of the Sun.

J: So he knew the score, whereas these people that lived there, they didn't know fuck, right?

John: Nobody in the whole world knows what's going on there, so I don't know how some fuckin' bloke in some band that's read the Sun knows about it. (Laughs).
Jay: But it was a fantastic time.


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