"No way did those people want to hear the kind of music we play, they didn't have a clue. Most people were there for the cocaine and the free champagne. It was a weird experience but how many of those can you have?" The new album Slain By Urusei Yatsura is a mixture of aggression, glitter-pop and joyous metal, a melodic struggle over whether to rock out or to be even more kitsch than the Spice Girls.Plus, they were mad as hell. "We were tired of being seen as some lame indie swindie band. Three years ago, no-one would have predicted the present top 40 singles and sell-out gig status status of both Cornershop and Urusei Yatsura. Something to celebrate now, one would think, but Urusei Yatsura vocalist/guitarist Graham Kemp is distinctly underwhelmed by their singeing of the top 40 with the teentastic guitar pop of "Hello Tiger". "I don't think anyone noticed, it's like, big deal," he dismisses casually "It was number 39, so we thought, oh well, never mind.

We actually either want total failure or total success - nothing in between for us. If the single had been a total disaster or number one we would have been happy, because that's something to kick against or celebrate. We have a death or glory attitude." A couple of years back, the Scottish band's singles - mangled melodies punctuated by the sound of toy guns, obsessions of Japanese culture - could be found on a number of poor but devoutly independent record labels. February proved a month of surprises, with two underdog outfits previous aligned with the "lo-fi" scene (for lo-fi, read: no money, threadbare equipment, awkward tunes, but full-on attitude) joining the mainstream pop constabulary. "They have to think of using materials that can be used again, long after their creations are just rubble."Salvo can be contacted at 18 Ford Village, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, TD15 2QG (01890 820333), and on its website: http:// www.salvo.co.uk. So, for example, he details how timber from one old building is being used to build reproduction Victorian pine dressers in Cornwall.

A big market has grown up, thanks partly to Salvo, in "saggas", the old pots into which china was placed when it was fired. And he is currently offering, as part of his business, a "recycling audit" to demolition companies, demonstrating what can be saved from particular buildings.The big breakthrough, he says, will be when modern architects think about recycling as they design new buildings. He is furious that the Millennium Dome is not being built with materials that can be reclaimed. "Architects have to accept that their buildings may last only for 20 or 30 years," he says. I know a situation where a war memorial was sold to the Japanese for a night-club.

They turned it around so the names were on the back."And what about those Welsh chapels? "I know someone who has got an intact church," he says. "So what is to happen to it? Would you rather see it, intact, crated up and sold to the Japanese and re-erected in a theme park for Christian weddings or would you like it broken down and used locally in kitchens and gardens?"Kay is pessimistic about the future. "It seems that we will be spending more and more resources storing more and more possessions. I am not acquisitive and it may well be a positive advantage in the future to have parents who die leaving nothing behind to deal with." However, he sees Britain returning to pre-war traditions, when material from old buildings was re-used. "The period from 1950 to the 1980s was the exception, not the rule," he argues And he is excited about innovative ideas for re-using goods. It's one thing to keep memorials for their craftsmanship, quite another to cling on to all these things at any cost We should let the memory subside.