On the upside, they have recruited the talent of Melissa Auf de Maur and judging by forward reports on their warm up shows, The Pumpkins are back and stronger than ever.

There was an ad on bFM a few of years ago. A couple of people were playing the "What were you doing when" game. It was advertising the new Smashing Pumpkins album.

Gish? "Just finished High School, hanging out at the beach". Siamese Dream? "Second year at University, saw them at the Big Day Out". Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness? "Working at my first job. Blah, Blah, Blah" and so forth. The ad was advertising Adore. A somewhat critically acclaimed record that garnered them a Grammy nomination. The only problem was, nobody liked it and subsequently hardly anybody brought it. Cue imploding Rock stars, never to be seen again. Except No! not in the case of the Smashing Pumpkins. This year expect to see more and moe of these old friends because in-between recording movie sountracks and co writing and producing some other people's rock records, Billy Corgan and his Pumpkin Posse have beeen doing some smashing of their own. The finished product is called Machina/The Machines of God, and it's a record that's going to put the Smshing Pumpkins back at the top of the Alternative rock pile.

While they were in London shooting a promo video in an empty office building for the album track 'The Everlasting Gaze' I was fortunate enough to get the chance to talk to James Iha and doubly fortunate to get a phone interview with Billy two weeks later.

The title of the new album is Machina/Machines of the Gods. Does it have any specific meaning?
James: I don't know, I didn't make it up. You can ask Billy when you get your 15 minutes with him.
I won't actually be talking to Billy tonight unfortunately.
Oh Crap, well let me just say that it means, that um, I think New Zealand's a wonderful place. That's the meaning of the record.
Okey Dokey. Was Jimmy reinstated in time to play on the new record?
Yes. He played drums on the record.
How did it feel to have him back in the band?
Jimmy plays great, all the drummers we've worked with have been great in the interim that Jimmy left the band, but Jimmy's the right fit for us. He understands the songs. He's got the right dynamic, the right feel and the right chops, the right everything for the band. He played really fresh, we got along great.
From Gish, to Siamese Dream, to Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness to Adore. You've taken us somewhere new with each album. Where are you taking us with Machina?
Well I think it's a really good rock record, the only thing it has in common with our old records is the four of us worked with a producer that we're really comfortable with. There's heavy stuff and light stuff and everything in between. As far as the sound goes I think we've sort of moved away from our other records, and tried to find different tectyures, different things to carry songs. There's barely any guitar solo's but there's lots of guitar. There's a lot of guitar that sound like keyboards.
I noticed that 'Everlasting Gaze' has a very atmospheric chorus, can we expect an atmospheric album?
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff like that. Before we would rely on many different things. This time the songs are based on a singer/songwriter type of chorus, kind of like the way Adore was, so I guess there are old and new elements on the record but after spending years together, it sounds very fresh to us.
Why was the decision made to work with Flood again?
Well we obviously had a successful union on Melancholy. He understands the band very well and he understands the dynamic of how we work, he becomes like a fifth band member. He's definitely really supportive of us but he can also be really honest and say 'I don't thing this is working'. We couldn't have done the record without him. It wouldn't be the same record, he's great.
How is Melissa adjusting to life in the Smashing Pumpkins?
She's adjusting pretty well, she went through the same learning curve in Holde. She joined, toured, made a record and now she's touring again. It's like being an office worker, except you wear gothic make up.
You're reportedly touring for about 18 months?
No it won't be for 18 months. It will be a long tour but no that long, we haven't decided how long it's going to be.
You're starting it with a tour of European theatres.
Before the record comes out we wanted to get back to our roots and be able to see the audience...we wanted to get down to bare bones rock and roll.
Are you going to get out to Australia or New Zealand this year?
Yeah definitely, we'll be touring all around. We won't be going to Chechnya though.
Do you think that the new album is going to please your older fans as well as build on your existing fan base?
I don't really know. I listen to everything now with my musical tastes. I definitely used to go through fazes of waht I liked to listen to. I don't know, it's a tough question, maybe it's one for the fans. I mean, I liked to think so but I don't know.
Are you going to persevere with your solo work in the future?
Yeah, I'll probably get another record together but I think I'll take my time, work more on the song and see what comes out. I hopefull won't be in a super-pressurised position, like the way I was on the first record because I didn't have very long to do it. It was a good experience though.

And with that James went back to shoot his part in the video. All I can tell you about it is that he wears a suit in the video that would make a good case for the disco revival.

True to their word, I did get [to] speak to a rather ill Billy Corgan, fresh from the sauna, Salt Lake City, Utah.

How did the European leg of of your Theatre tour go?
Billy: Amazing, I think it went really well. It was a shame that we had to cancel a couple of shows. I had flu and it was still lingering. We had to cancel a Manchester show and in Brussels we could only play a couple of songs before we had to walk off the stage, which we've never had to do before. We're gonna get back there in September though.
Why did you decide to start the tour by playing theatres rather than conventional venues?
If you play big shows vefore a record comes out you're forced to play older stuff and that's not why we're touring efore the record comes out. We're touring to play the new songs and get people excited. If you get a lot of people in a room, they expect to see a big show and a theatre show allows you to bend the rules in regards to what you can get away with.
How are the new songs being received in the live arena?

[to be cont'd typing soon!]