"It's a strange place because there's been a lot of success. I came to Manchester six years ago. Particularly in the last eighteen months, there's been a sudden emergence of bands that are doing well industry-wise. There are about six or seven, all of whom who have claimed some kind of broader extra Manchester success, which hasn't been the case for a few years. There were a couple of failures specifically Nylon Pylon. Theirs is a sad story because they didn't like what they were recording but Bruce, the lead singer, has a new band called The Whip and they are fucking ace. I think Manchester is the hardest place to play in Britain and it's echoed by a lot of bands that I speak to. It's a city that looks after its own legacy very carefully. As if there's some kind of collective, crowd mentally that seems to govern what they like and what they allow. The Longcut, Nine Black Alps, Fear of Music, it's been a long time since you could trip off names of not just tad guitar bands. Each band actually has an exciting element to them. The diversity of bands there is brilliant. The attention may be elsewhere but it's an interesting time to be in a band in Manchester."

As the band doesn't have a drummer, Joe claims that they sometimes get classed as nerds or geeks or archily superficial. The narrow mindness of people about the concept of bands doesn't help. Perhaps, Performance doesn't fit into the mould that some would consider indie music.

"It worries me that indie music is becoming all corduroy flares. It's self-defeating and self-limiting. Sometimes it doesn't manage the aesthetics solidly enough. It doesn't keep control of how it projects itself and effects people. At worse there's three boys on stage doing boring music about an ex girlfriend. At best, marshalling your image, controlling artwork, press releases and videos to what you wear, if you control all that it's not being superficial. It's a war; the whole culture is a war. Unless bands are willing to take control and make the most of every facet of being a band, then we'll lose the war to some pre-packaged crap with a cleavage infested video."

Interview by Andrew Mclean 2005, Photography © Performance 2005