Simply Living (Australia; #18, 1982)

After the success of "Lucky Number and "New Toy" plus their riveting film clips, we thought it time to track down this lady of such mystery and talent. Stiff Records were happy to put us in touch wth her but a late-night call to her London home was met with lonely, unanswered rings. Calls to the Stiff offices began an intense womanhunt to find this evasive creature, who is rumoured to be a psychic and 'traveller without a passport'. Just before midnight I received a call saying that Lene was now awaiting my call.

"Hi, sorry for not being in before," a light, 'normal' sounding voice said at the other end. Dark images of cryptic conversations with a thick, foreign accent fell away.

It seems that Lene spent her pre-pubescent years in Detroit and migrated to England at the impressionable age of 13 with her English-born mother to escape the violent outbursts of her Yugoslav father. [Note: Lene's father was not Yugoslav. It was her grandfather who emigrated from Hercegovina (later a part of Yugoslavia) to America. Lene's paternal grandmother was Anglo-American.] Times were tough and Lene decided to leave school and help support her family, organising a job at a boys' public school as an assistant to the matron. "I went to the headmaster and told him about this," she explained. "He was very kind and told me that I shouldn't leave because he thought I had some potential. So I went to live with the headmaster," she said, pausing . . . "and his family. I stayed on and managed to get some "O" levels and one "A" level. That was in religious knowledge! But I only took that class to get out of games because I didn't care for group sports."

[About journeying to Spain in 1970 to see Salvador Dalí] "I went to see him because I had always felt some kind of affinity with what he was doing. By chance, I met him as he was walking outside his house. I didn't really spend much time with him because he was quite ill and we couldn't say very much. He spoke French to me and I don't speak French," she chuckled. "But it was good communication without many words."

Lene's bio tossed up some peculiar history. At one stage, she - ". . . did some 'screaming' for a French horror film. I just stood in for somebody when they wanted someone who could scream well. I enjoyed it very much . . ." - and other jobs she is credited with doing include bingo caller, hot-dog seller and oriental dancer.

[About recording "I Think We're Alone Now"] "It was all Charlie's idea. He said that he'd never heard a girl's version and he felt that it would be quite suitable. In fact, I had never heard the original."

Her first album, "Stateless", is a record of locomotive drumming, interwoven rhythms and definitely out-of-the-ordinary lyrics. "Stateless" also allowed Lene to exhibit her prowess on the sax. "I think I could be much better if I would apply myself and practise, which I don't do enough. I just enjoy playing when it makes sense to play. I've never felt the need to be a soloist, in fact I've always been interested in rhythmic playing like King Curtis and Junior Walker. I can admire the technique of Charlie Parker, I just don't feel the need to do it myself," she explained.

The next album was recorded in Holland for some very good reasons. "One was that it was cheaper to do it that way. The other reason, and probably the main one, is that I didn't want to be too safe about what I was doing. I didn't want to go back into the same studio and rehash what I'd already done. I wanted a different atmosphere and Holland's only a few hours away." [Note: Another main reason to record the second album in Holland was to stay out of reach from Stiff boss Dave Robinson.]

In early 1981, "New Toy" slipped onto the radio playlists and buoyed the Lovich enthusiasm. The initial Australian release took the form of a six-track EP and included an extended version of "New Toy" and four previously released songs (this time recorded live at the Lyceum in London) [Note: Taken from 1980's "What Will I Do Without You" double 7"] plus a song called "Cat's Away". "New Toy" was written by Tom Dolby, a guy Lene met in America. "I met Tom when I did a tour with Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club. Later he just wrote me out of the blue and said that he'd had a dream about me." Dolby is now in her band and is also lurking around in the film clip.

[Note: The above-mentioned Australian six-track 12" EP and the Japanese six-track EP "New Toy" (both released in spring 1981, thus long before the actual "New Toy" EP (or mini-LP; see below) was even thought of) were just variations of the "New Toy" single release and have been decided for release by the Australian and Japanese local record labels. These releases, as well as the French five-track 12" EP "New Toy" (released in late 1982 or 1983), had no input from Lene or Stiff Records and are completely unrelated to the actual "New Toy" EP, which was an official new release of Lene's on her American label Epic Records (US, July 1981). The actual "New Toy" EP was also released in Canada and Australia (unrelated to the above-mentioned previously released Australian 12" EP).]

A "New Toy" mini-LP was released in the US and includes the title track, "Cat's Away" and four new songs. Lene is intently thinking about a new album. "My mind is so full of different directions at the moment. I suppose that's one problem of being commercially successful. The music we do is not in any particular vein and I'm not always the same person writing the same songs."

Did the 1981 Stiff Tour include some talented and sincere people? "On the last tour they had some great bands like Tenpole Tudor and Any Trouble, but," she added with a mischievous laugh, "I don't think there were enough girls on that tour!"

As the phone call drew to a close, Lene was at a loss to name some bands or artists that she was currently impressed with, saying only that she ". . . can appreciate almost anyone as long as they put a little depth in it and are sincere."