DJ Ron Slomowicz: Alex, I'm a big fan of your work and am really excited about the new releases, but you've been out of loop for a while, what happened?
Alex Gold: I was paragliding in Thailand whilst on vacation and basically, to cut a long story short, it wasn't a regulated outfit and they dropped me over the beach far too quickly. I fell the height of about a coconut tree when the wind changed and I suffered a smashed L1 and L2 bone which was the most excruciating pain I think I've ever experienced. I was actually lying on the beach and it was a bit like Baywatch when they drag someone out of the water. The tide was coming in, I had all this water, sand and stuff going in my ears, in the most horrific agony ever, and then this like 1970s ambulance came to get me and took me off to hospital. The whole thing was just a totally mad experience. Just to give you an idea of how mad it was, when I got to hospital and after they'd given me a CAT scan and all of that stuff, for my first night in hospital, and I turned on the television and the movie was Apocalypse Now. I was drugged-up to the eyeballs with whatever medication, they're a little more lax in the Far East, so the whole thing was just like a tripped-out experience beyond belief. I'm recovered now and it's been a real struggle to get back, but you have to be pretty strong-minded to get over that one.
RS: This was back in 2002, so there's been no new music and you haven't been DJing since 2002?
Alex: No, I have done some shows but honestly, that whole thing just knocked a whole great big void in my life because I was in the hospital for a long time, and when I finally got moving I could hardly walk. I actually managed to make it to the States in late spring 2003 and I was walking around with this metal contraption around my middle and sort of across my chest to kind of keep my back straight. It's a very serious injury, but if you are determined to get back quickly you can actually do it, because a lot of back injury is really just about the muscle. I hired a personal trainer around about March and he was the guy that put Maxi Jazz from Faithless back on the road when he had his car accident that smashed his hip.
RS: I remember.
Alex: This guy, Michael, he's an Olympic black belt in Tae Kwon Do and he's a specialist in the core area with injuries of the lower back. He coached and helped me get back to normal. I've got this gymnasium on my apartment block and he would come three days a week to and stretch me in every direction, We started doing a few light weights to build the muscle structure in the back again but I've got a permanently squashed L1 and L2 bone. It's like a honeycomb, if you imagine. I was extremely lucky, because I was told by the doctor that treated me that with the accident that I had, it was almost certain that I would have been disabled. I was lying there for a few days and I couldn't feel my legs to begin which was really nerve-wracking because my whole life was flashing in front of me. But out of every cloud comes a silver lining, and when I was sitting in hospital I wrote some songs about my times and it's all due to be released on my forthcoming debut artist album. Having produced a lot of the other artists on the label and made success for a lot of other people, I've now sort of got around to doing my own record.
RS: Yes, because the only single I've ever seen with just your name on was that Phil Oakey single.
Alex: Right. Well the strange thing was that this was all all set up for promo at the end of 2002 ready to go in the New Year, and of course I wasn't around to promote it or anything. So I believe we just released a few twelve inches and a few CDs on export and we didn't actually go for it. We will be re-releasing it with the album when that comes back round again.