Will Gould, aka William Von Ghould, aka the singer with goth-punk bloodsuckers Creeper, is getting lost in alcohol and the mythology of rock’n’roll. It’s 3pm on a Wednesday afternoon, and we’re sitting in a bar called Disorder in his adopted home city of Manchester. He picked the bar because it’s named after the opening song on Joy Division‘s Unknown Pleasures album, although you can throw a dart in Manchester and hit a bar that’s named after a Joy Division song. We’re three pints deep – or is it four? – into a drinking session that will continue for a few more hours and several more pints, and he’s in full swing.
“Where has all the character in music gone?” he’s saying, with a passion that’s only partly fuelled by alcohol. “Jesus Christ, there’s only so many times you can see someone wandering on stage in the clothes they were wearing to Tesco that morning. People talk about how brilliant it was that grunge wiped out hair metal. Listen, hair metal was way more fun.”
