Promoción de X-men: Entrevista a Gary, Howard y Jason

A familiar venue for star-studded film junkets, The Dorchester hotel has still never seen anything like the launch of X-Men: First Class. In a lavish suite on the first floor, Robbie Williams is patiently explaining to a journalist why his superhero alter-ego would be an invisible flying onanist with the name "Wankneto". Next door, Mark Owen is discussing how the country's biggest man-band came to soundtrack Matthew Vaughn's Sixties-set superhero prequel. Thankfully, GQ.com had an audience with the members who seemed most excited about the whole surreal enterprise: Gary Barlow, Jason Orange and Howard Donald. Here they discuss celluloid inspiration, Mad Men and what we can expect from the biggest pop tour of the year...

So which of you was most excited about appearing on an X-Men soundtrack?
Gary: That's me. I used to live next door to someone who had all the Marvel comics. We used to go into his bedroom and read them all. I've got a ten-year-old son who has never been interested in comics, but I thought it was a brilliant part of growing up - imagining the explosions in your head. I've always loved the X-Men movies and I'm quite into sci-fi actually. When the chance came up to do it, I more or less dragged everyone to the screening. They all loved it though.

Which film soundtracks do you admire?
Howard: I loved the original Tron. I've not seen the new one but I like Daft Punk.
Jason: The Chemical Brothers have just done the score for Hanna- I bet that's good.
Gary: Tedious link here, but we were most interested hearing the score for First Class. Matthew had originally said, "Think John Barry, think the Sixties," but we'd made this piece of music that was nothing like the Sixties - or John Barry! But then we went to see Henry Jackman, the guy who was doing the score, at Hans Zimmer's studios. We were dreading hearing all this Sixties stuff - but there was none of it. We knew it was going to be fine then. It's more synth-led then orchestral. We felt pretty safe handing it in knowing that the goal was it sounding futuristic.

Which character in the film did you think was the most stylish?
Gary: I thought January Jones [as Emma Frost] wore some lovely garments of clothing. Only about two? Well, they're the right two.
Jason: I thought Jason Flemyng [as Azrael] looked the dog's bollocks. He looked frightening! Intimidating!

GQ Style's Luke Day [the band's stylist] told me that you wore custom-made Mugler breastplates for the National Movie Awards. What do you think of Nicola Formchetti's work for the label?
Howard: I didn't even know I was wearing Mugler! I didn't want to wear [the breastplate] but for the video it looked absolutely brilliant. It worked a treat for First Class.
Gary: I've got to be honest, fashion is a bit wasted on me. Even when I wear it. Mark's more into the fashion - he'll cut things out of magazines and bring them in.

The First Class sequels are going to be set in the Seventies and Eighties respectively. Fancy soundtracking them as well?
Gary: Is that what they're doing? Sixties/Seventies/Eighties? Wow.
Jason: Clever that! But "Love Love" isn't Sixties - it's perfect for the Progressed album as well.

Were you at all disappointed that you didn't get the song into the strip club scene?
Gary: We wrote it for the end. Matthew said that to us that they were running our song after the line about Magneto.
Howard: We played the trailer for First Class on YouTube, turned down the music and pumped up "Love Love" and we thought it was great with everything that was going on: all the bombs, the missiles and the helmets. That Gnarls Barkley song works really well in the strip club.
Gary: It's the only way of working with pictures - they won't let anything out of the studio.
Jason: I know what you mean though - it's cheeky to have in your music in a classic film in a classic scene. That's a memorable scene in the sex club. I love the fact we've had "Back For Good" in The Office and "Never Forget" in Shameless - which are my favourite programmes.

What films did you used to watch on the bus when you first started touring?
Gary: Three In A Bed. Erm…
Jason: You talking porn? [laughs] That tells you how much Gaz watches porn - it tends to be a bit more explicit than a ménage à trois. That's a bit too polite.
Howard: Snow Sluts 3.

Not a patch on Snow Sluts 2. That's a classic.
Gary: There's no comparison. And no, I don't know who did the score... [laughs] What did we used to watch?
Jason: Robbie and Mark dominated the TV back in those days playing their silly little boy computer games.
Howard: I'm a big fan of Star Wars, me. With First Class it works better for me than when they made the Star Wars prequel with Jar Jar Binks.

Matthew Vaughn said he wanted Magneto to be " James Bond with superpowers". Fancy doing a Bond theme?
Jason: If we were asked we'd be flipping all over it!
Gary: Our fans did a petition for us to do Quantum Of Solace, the one Jack White did with Alicia Keys. His was great - one of the best. I know the guy who does the Bond music, David Arnold, and he said to me, "Will you tell all your fans to f*** off?" He had a thousand petition notes in his inbox and he was really annoyed. A Bond theme is a great one to do, isn't it? It's the ultimate.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse told me that when he went to Matthew Vaughn's house, he was seated next to Robert De Niro. Did any of you have a similarly awkward encounter?
Gary: To be honest, we've been to his house a couple of times because we did Stardust with him, but he's based in LA at the moment. I think he's still editing the movie tonight. We saw him out there and he was -
Howard: Stressed! And full of flu.
Jason: I can't see past Matthew's wife [Claudia Schiffer], never mind any other guest in the room. I'd be like, "Robert De Niro who?" [laughs]

Given the setting of First Class and the fact that it stars January Jones, are you big Mad Men fans?
Howard: Nope.
Gary: You've never seen it? You got to watch that. It's set in a similar era.
Howard: Is that the one with superpowers?
Gary: No, it's set in an advertising company in America. I'm a big Mad Men fan - so that's why getting involved with this is a double whammy.
Jason: Is it the birth of advertising? Is that the premise?

It's basically lots of people wandering around smoking cigarettes in great suits...
Gary: And drinking all day in the office. It's just amazing.
Jason: Mad in it? Clever.

The Pet Shop Boys are supporting you on tour. Has Neil Tennant given his verdict on the new song yet?
Jason: I went to watch a show that they did - a ballet - and I met them when they'd just signed up to do our tour. I was trying to say thanks and to show my gratitude but I was surprised how chuffed and excited they are. I know it's a coup for us. We're as grateful as anything.

Given that you've ridden an elephant into a stadium, would you say you're comfortable working with the surreal and the spectacular?
Howard: Yeah, we like a bit of that!
Gary: For a tour though, you do step into another world, becoming people's entertainment for the evening. It's got to be spectacular and fairytale-like. We seem to do it quite naturally now. This is a massive week for us. This will undoubtedly be our biggest tour ever. It has come all the way round to the beginning again - all five of us are going to be up there. It's just beautiful, really beautiful. I know we're going to remember it for the rest of our lives.
Fuente: GQ