"My first crush was on Robin the Wonder Boy," admits Julianne with a smile, "so I guess I'm looking for an effete man in tights !" With that thought, Julianne, as the host, is somehow obliged to get the beers in. It's that sort of cheery and courteous gesture one imagines coming from the singer of the one time fluffy goth-rock outfit, All About Eve. However, in the three years since the demise of All About Eve, Julianne Regan has moved on from songs about 'Never promise anyone forever' to a more hard-lined 'Give me the gun coz honey you're no fun' with a new band, Mice.

 This is the first interview she's done since forming Mice and so, with no background to work with, their debut single 'Mat's Prozac' seemed as good a point as any to start with. I'd done my research on Prozac, but the only interesting side effect that I could find was that it cab stop you reaching orgasm - a blunt question maybe, but is that true ?

"Oh I don't know about that but someone discovered a case recently of a woman on Prozac who had an orgasm every time she sneezed ... I imagine when she had a cold, she'd certainly be staying in a lot ... But seriously, it's not a glamourous drug, quite the opposite. It's not a drug for recreation, it's for people who are sick and really need it."

'Can you take a wallflower and turn her into a nuclear power plant ? Because they can't ...' - the song's opening words underline this fact. It's a bit like Pulp with Sorted for Es and Wizz, but Mice are determined to separate themselves from the Britpop idea. The advisory sticker on the single cover declares : 'Keep out of reach of Camden'. The Elastica overtones however, are more down to the fact that there are original members of 70's punk band The Cardiacs in the line up : "It's not so much a rip off as the genuine article", she explains.

Vocally, there's also a feel to the new material reminiscent of the Eve's first Bat-Cave single, D for Desire.

"That's very valid ... We were much harder and more abrasive back then, and the songs weren't produced as such. Our new stuff isn't produced either - we did it all ourselves. Tim [McTighe] has some great production ideas, and no-one knows more about what you want from a song than yourself."

So, no more Beverley Sisters impressions then ?

"No, there's none of those Walt Disney type harmonies I used to do in All About Eve. That got a bit silly ... I would always be saying, 'Hold on. I've got one more harmony line I could do.'"

Despite All About Eve splitting up due to 'differences', the old band members still remain close friends - and guest appear on the new album. Mark Price plays all the drums - "well, if your brother-in-law is one of the best drummers around, there's no pint in looking elsewhere ..." And another ex-member, Andy Cousins, springs up playing bass on a couple of tracks. But after all the trials and tribulations of All About Eve, why is she back ?

"Well I've been wanting to do something different for a long time now ... but I really needed a break. I think that if I'd done this straight after All About Eve, it may have been half baked."

 In fact, the project had been going for some time - at one stage Julianne was working on material with Bernard Butler. But starting afresh with a new band does mean starting at the bottom all over again, trying to prove it's worth on the live scene. "Playing live again ? I feel on the one hand really nervous about it... its been so long, but I haven't felt this sort of excitement since the height of All About Eve's popularity back in the late eighties. I think it will be interesting to see who actually comes along to see us ... if anybody!"

So, over all the years, what keeps Julianne going through all the rock and roll traumas ?

"It's certainly not the money, however, I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for early Ultravox, early Simple Minds, The Beatles, Queen, David Sylvian, and if I had to honest, the Banshees and The Cure. If I could record my last song with someone, I'd love to do a duet with David Sylvian. His is the only autograph I ever got. I was seventeen and I just thought 'Wow'. I harmonise to his songs at home and I think we'd sound really good together."

The burning question there is - does David Sylvian wear tights ?

Ashleigh Rosborough and Stephen Messam
BIGWIG December 1995