Julianne and Tim from All About Eve stand accussed of grievous bodily niceness.

As the band shake off their nouveau hippy tag and prepare for a major chart breakthrough, Lisa Tilston hears about Uncle Wayne, Gene Loves Jezebel and some rather embarrassing musical skeletons in the All About Eve closet.

How would you like to have the whole weight of the 1987 hippy revival on your shoulders? All About Eve have coped admirably with the damning nouveau hippy tag, laughing at it, playing along with it and finally laying it to rest with some hauntingly beautiful tunes which could melt the stoniest of hearts. In a perfect world they would embellish the top of the charts, and the new single, 'Wildhearted Woman', could be the one that takes them there. Rockier than their previous melodic releases, it wipes out all remaining suspicions of whimsical wanderings without detracting from the radiant pop perfection innate within Julianne's voice. She loves it because "it shows the tinkly, nice side of us, but it's got balls too". Balls? Hardly the sort of language you'd expect from an enchanting young lady rumoured to spend her days skipping round toadstools and talking to pixies. "Have I blown my cover?" she asks.

"Julianne shocks me to the fourth dimension sometimes." says guitarist Tim, wickedly. "I go through moods slowly. I'll get crabbier and crabbier until I'm Mr Nasty. but she can turn it on and off. It keeps us on our toes. Never a dull moment!''

"I think it's called acute schizophrenia," decides Julianne. Ms Regan's new and not entirely serious name for the Eve sound is 'folk metal'. It sums up both sides of the band and is likely to wind people up even more than the hippy tag.

''I find the idea of all these punks walking around smelling of patchouli oil and eating vegan cheese a bit disturbing," says Tim. "Before this hippy thing we got called goths, but we probably deserved that more. When we first started, the band went through some horrible names; we were called Electric Funeral, and then we were Red Red Wound for about a week. We're lucky to have got this far with ideas like that!"
"We get a real cross-section of fans now," Julianne stresses. "I think they've got a lot more intelligence than they're credited with, and they're not narrow-minded. I'm sure they don't just listen to one kind of music."

The original gothic connection has been emphasised by All About Eve's much-publicised friendship with those godfathers of goth, the Mission. Guess who provides the backing vocals on forthcoming album track 'Shelter From the Rain'?
''Uncle Wayne! No, he doesn't like being called that he thinks we're being facetious!" says Julianne. Perhaps less widely known is that when Julianne first came to London she was bassist with the fledgling Gene Loves Jezebel. She even played on one of their early singles, which she remembers with embarrassment. "There are some very dodgy backing vocals on it which I'd forgotten until someone kindly reminded me. I sound like Minnie Mouse! I don't regret it because it was an apprenticeship for me, hanging around in the background quietly learning "

So, now the musical skeletons have started rattling in their closets, Julianne and Tim gleefully take advantage of the absence of the other Eves, bassist Andy and newly-acquired drummer Mark, to really dish the dirt.
"At one time Andy formed this synth-pop nightmare band," says Tim, attempting to suppress his giggles. "They were called Pink And Black and they had a song called 'Sometimes I Wish', so look out for it in the second-hand record shops. Andy doesn't actually play on it, which is his saving grace, but he is on the cover looking extremely gothic and serious. He pretends not to mind, but really he's horribly embarrassed!"
"Mark was the Hovis boy when he was about 12," continues Julianne. "He was in the advert where he rides down the hill on his bike, and he's wearing little knee-length trousers. But worse than that, he was in Nick Kershaw's band! We've seen some of the videos where he had the padded shoulders and Kershaw's haircut, it's like watching someone else. He's an absolute Eve now, but he doesn't regret that period. After all. they were a great pop band and he's a brilliant drummer because of it. Oh dear, I really am being so creepy and nice I'm making myself sick!".

'Nice' is a word that's been used about the Eves so often that they're beginning to get paranoid. "People keep saying we're nice, as if it's an insult," says Julianne. "I feel guilty about not being a right bastard sometimes. Of course we have our nasty moments, but we don't do it for effect. We're all quite good humoured and carefree."
"We're all very English as well,'' adds Tim. "That horrible politeness to the extreme."
"Oh yes, we'd give anyone our last Rolo," says Julianne. "I blame my parents." The other classic All About Eve put-down, of course, is 'romantic' as if being dreamy, passionate and naive is something to be ashamed of. "The importance of romance, fantasy and escapism has been totally ignored, but it's a great thing," says Julianne.
"We do wear out hearts on our sleeves as far as the lyrics go. You don't have to be slushy to be romantic, anyway. I love that Led Zeppelin song 'Since I've Been Loving You', where he says 'I've been working from seven to eleven and I can't wait to get back home and see you baby, 'cause since I've been loving you I feel great'. That's massively romantic. I can't really see the point of songs about dancing or cars.
"But we do try to avoid the trite phrases. I say 'baby' in 'Wildhearted Woman', because it's almost a blues parody, but if I ever sing 'l love you, baby' then RM readers are welcome to decapitate me and boil me in oil.

As always, the fans know best, and they love All About Eve for the very things the critics dislike - their colourful imagery and embracing of powerful, if unfashionable, emotion. "Lots of the fans say our music makes them feel creative," says Julianne. "They don't have to be embarrassed to show their feelings, because we do too.
"It's horrible, frustrating and painful being a teenager," says Tim.
"It's awful, but it is exciting as well," counters Julianne. "I was very introspective and maudlin, glorifying melancholy and enjoying it. I still do, but I'm more down-to-earth these days. People can't seem to accept that you can be a mystical dreamer but also be quite straightforward and get drunk from time to time. You don't have to be one or the other. Everyone expects us to talk about moon goddesses all the time, but you can't live like that, you have to . . ."
". . . Hang loose!" interjects Tim triumphantly.

What was that about a hippy revival?