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From Invisible Jukebox in The Wire, April 2007, responding to being played Burning Spear from Walls Have Ears:
When I first saw them in 1986, I'd never heard a note and I only saw them because they were supporting JAMC. JAMC were already past their prime but SY were just incredible. I'd read about both them and Swans in NME, and I'd bought a Swans record and hadn't liked it very much. But I hadn't investigated SY, because their records were almost impossible to get in New Zealand. So after I'd seen them I basically rushed out and bought everything I could. When I went back to NZ in 1986, I bored everyone shitless going on about SY at great length....
... You see, if I were them, I would have just kept doing this for 20 years. But they're much more restless souls than we are. I think it's impossible to overestimate the effect that they have had on rock music in general, as an example to bands of all stripes of what could be done. And also if you do acheive a modicum of success, how you can actually turn that to your advantage and also to general public advantage. I can't think of any other bands who've achieved their moderate level of success and done so much good wth it.
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