Melody Maker Magazine – 17th May, 1997

Richard E Grant, hero of the evergreen movie favourite “Withnail and I”, has recorded a single – and he finds it every bit as hilarious as his famous film role.

“I told them I couldn’t sing!” he laughed. “It just shows that anything goes, anything can happen if somebody thinks it’s daft enough to buy. I don’t expect anybody to take it any more seriously than I did.”

The single, “To Be Or Not To Be”, is released on May 26 by the UK branch of a Japanese label Avex. It finds Richard reciting the well-known soliloquy from “Hamlet” over a house track from Orpheus. Grant also sings on the choruses.

The idea was put to him six months ago when he was working on a voice-over. “Withnail and I” had just been re-released,” he said. “And my book (“With Nails”) had just come out. I don’t know whether there was any connection to that or if I just happened to be an actor who was around.”

Grant duly turned up for a stint in the studio. “They said, ‘Do it straight and then we can do stuff, muck about with it.’ Then they asked me to sing this chorus and I did it full-pelt, but they didn’t want that. They wanted it to be as melancholic as possible. And they made a dance track out of it.

“I had no idea that anything would ever come out of it. Here I am six months later and they confidently tell us it’s going to be in the Top Five. Unbelievable.” He laughed uproariously, as he did throughout the interview, which took place in the sitting room of a discreet hotel in Bayswater, west London. It was May 2, the morning of Labour’s election victory, which was to a great degree responsible for Grant’s high spirits.

Repeatedly, he pointed to the summer sunshine outdoors, which together with the Labour triumph made him feel euphoric, he said – like being back in a little bit of the Sixties.

“This all happened by accident,” he insisted, returning to the single. “It was not my intention at all to set myself up as a serious pop star. I’m 40 on Monday. I’m not trying to give Oasis sleepless nights about this.”

First the movies, then a book, now the record….What’s left? “The video diary!”

Asked about his reaction when he heard the finished version of the single, he said: “My eight-year-old daughter thought it was danceable…. I just laughed. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ll never get a job as a serious Shakespearean actor at the RSC having done this!”

As a film, stage and TV veteran, Richard E has still had no professional experience of “Hamlet” other than “What a piece of work is a man!”, the speech which forms the finale of “Withnail and I”.

Asked what Shakespeare might think of the single, he ventured, “He wrote lots of songs for his plays, and he wrote for a theatre that had to have a turnover and was a huge successes in his day, so who knows?”

“The fact that he has survived and continues to survive so relentlessly and with such protean variation shows that there’s no end to the possibilities of Shakespeare.”

Grant himself has mixed feelings about the bard: “I like the quote from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ – ‘Two hours’ traffic upon the stage.’ To see ‘Hamlet’ doe in two hours would suit me fine.

To see ‘Hamlet’ done in four and a half hours is arse-crunching. “As a philosopher and a man of ideas and understanding of human nature and psychology, he is unsurpassed, which is obviously why he has survived as long as he has.”

Is there any element of “bringing culture to the kids” about this single? “No, no, no,” roared Grant, horrified. “Oh God, no. That would have an air of sanctimony, of ‘Open University’ about it.”

So much for Shakespeare. What would have been Withnail’s reaction to being asked to record this single? “If he could stop laughing and stay sober, I think he’d think it was a jammy job. I don’t think he ever got a part in anything. He’d think it was fantastic.” He turned, gloriously, into Withnail: “Bring me the finest wines available to humanity – bring me them now!”

Grant is still good friends with “Withnail and I” co-stars Paul McGann and Ralph Brown. Presumably, he’s sent them copies of the single? “I hadn’t thought about that,” he admitted. “Do you think I should? Oh, all right. Helena Bonham Carter said, ‘Please can I have a copy?’ I said, ‘You don’t have to be polite and patronizing.’ She said, ‘No, I really like it.’ ‘We were listening to it and dancing around the make-up bus,’ during the filming of “Keep the Aspidistra Flying”.”

At the time of our meeting, Richard E was looking forward to filming the video – “a tongue-in-cheek, full gothic number” – and also, perhaps, to his first “Top of the Pops” appearance. “I’m sure they are waiting to see if it sells more than five copies,” he grinned. “But yes, it would be a thrill to appear on ‘Top of the Pops’. It would be fantastic. Yes! Especially at my age. I’m acutely aware of my age at the moment. I’m in terrible denial.”

“I’m having a fantastic party at my house in Twickenham on Sunday, a blow-out, I’ve invited people that are going to rave and make me laugh.” The soon-to-be-40 Richard E Grant, whose musical tastes run from Sixties soul to Fugees and who last year hired a helicopter with Ewan McGregor to see an “absolutely amazing” Oasis gig in Cork, was already preparing for his next trip to Ireland. He should be there by now, filming “St Ives” with Miranda Richardson, Anna Friel and Jean-Marc Barr, and awaiting the release of the single.

Asked if any more might be on the horizon, he said: “Let’s see how this one goes. If it goes all right, who know? But if it doesn’t, this thing will be ruthlessly ended as fast as it began.”

The single is the first recording for an album project of Shakespeare readings, featuring a number of actors and actresses. They are still unconfirmed, although Kenneth Branagh, Ralph Fiennes and Alan Rickman are said to be keen. Richard E Grant, meanwhile, is gearing up for another pop-related project: he appears in Spice Girls’ upcoming movie, as their manager. Full details of the film, provisionally titled “Spice Girls: The Movie”, were due to be announced on Sunday (May 11) at the Cannes Film Festival.

To listen to the track just click here.

To see some promo pics, click here.