Neil The reason we did it was because, when we were doing 'Left to my own devices' and it says 'Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat', we had the idea that we would actually try to do Debussy to a disco beat. Trevor Horn had always been fascinated by the idea of putting Debussy to a disco beat, hence the last Art Of Noise album. So we jammed for as long as the song lasts, and I played Debussy-sequel chords with lots of fifths in them - Richard Niles had shown me the kind of chords. Trevor played the aced-house keyboard, the Roland baseline. Steve Lipson thought it was pathetic that we liked acid house music and he had been showing us how easy it was.

Chris I'm playing that irritating high line.

Neil It was a voice sample of an opera singer.

Chris Steve Lipson played the desk.

Neil It was fun doing it. We were whooping with glee. It only took about forty minutes. The vocals were just spoken on afterwards. The phrase 'the sound of the atom splitting' came from Derek Jarman's film The Last Of England which is all shot in Super8 and has a commentary, and a man says, 'What's that sound? It's the sound of the atom splitting'. I thought, 'That's a good line'. I thought the sound of the atom splitting was the sound of a nuclear explosion; the sound of the end of the world. I started making up the words to the song while I was still watching the film. I also put a quote of Bobby 'O"s in it. Bobby '0' walked Chris and I through Times Square once and said, 'Look at these guys -they're pinheads', these guys who wore stockings over their heads.

Chris Of course New York's a lot safer these days.

Neil The lyric is a dialogue between a fascist and a wet liberal. The right wing person is rather amused by the liberal because he's obviously so feeble he's never going to do anything. The wet liberal says 'whose side are you on anyway?', trying to be sneaky, and the right wing person says 'well, is that some kind of threat? Well, I suppose it'll have to do, as long as you don't make too much mess'. He's patronising him, like, 'you can have a party as long as you don't make too much mess'. There's a mistake in the vocals, which I never corrected and which has always irritated me, where I trip up. I go 'whenever I.. . See

I start to say something else beginning with ‘f’ then changes it to 'see'.

Chris We played it in the interval of the 1989 tour with a light show.