{"id":584165,"date":"2026-08-05T17:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/584165\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T17:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:40:14","slug":"venom-interview-into-oblivion-and-cronoss-double-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/584165\/","title":{"rendered":"Venom interview: Into Oblivion and Cronos’s double life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conrad \u2018Cronos\u2019 Lant might be the last stranger Kate Bush<\/a> kissed on the lips in public. It was September 1980, and the queen of witchy art-pop was doing a signing session at Virgin Records in Newcastle during a stop-off in the city as part of her now-fabled Tour Of Life audio-visual extravaganza.<\/p>\n

Cronos\u2019s love of Bush and her music might seem at odds with the filth-hound racket he was making with his own band, demonic NWOBHM<\/a> brat-princes Venom<\/a>, but it\u2019s just one of many unexpected and interesting things about him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s not to love about Kate Bush?\u201d he says now, 46 years later, Geordie accent as wide as the Tyne estuary. \u201cShe\u2019s got an incredible way of writing. I even dyed me hair red with henna because of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

So when Cronos heard about that signing session, he told his bosses at the recording studio where he worked that he was bunking off for a couple of hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI raced in and pushed me way to the front of the queue, got as near as I could,\u201d he recalls. \u201cShe had these posters she was signing. I said: \u2018Can you write \u201cTo Cronos\u2026\u201d? Then I said: \u2018Can I have a kiss?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Some might have recoiled at the sight of a short, scrawny Geordie in a leather jacket asking for a smacker. But Kate Bush was made of sterner stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe leaned over and kissed me on me lips,\u201d he says. \u201cMy knees went. As I was walking away in a daze, the guy behind us says: \u2018Can I have a kiss?\u2019 And I heard this voice: \u2018No more kisses.\u2019 I was the last one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He beams like a moonstruck teenager at the memory. \u201cI\u2019ve still got the poster: \u2018To Cronos, lots of love, Kate Bush.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Lightning\n<\/p>\n

There are two versions of Cronos. One is the gargling, bass-wrecking Beelzebubian madman who has fronted Venom on and (occasionally) off since the end of the 70s. The other is the garrulous Geordie who used to teach aerobics, is into birdwatching and growing chillis, and loves Joni Mitchell<\/a>, Jethro Tull<\/a> and, yes, Kate Bush.<\/p>\n

Both versions are here on this warm Saturday morning in May in London, nursing Coke-and-ice in a booth in a Wetherspoons on Camden Lock. Later today, he and current Venom guitarist Stuart \u2018Rage\u2019 Dixon and drummer Danny \u2018Dante\u2019 Needham will descend on nearby metal shop Raven Records for their own in-store ahead of the release of the band\u2019s sixteenth album, Into Oblivion, a wild-eyed rush of noise and sacrilege. \u2018Satan ejaculates!\u2019 Cronos snarls on one song, Man And Beast. \u201cI just like using profanity for the fuck of it,\u201d he says with a grin.<\/p>\n

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But it\u2019s not just provocation. Nevermore references Cronos\u2019s beloved Edgar Allan Poe. \u201cThe Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, I love that stuff,\u201d he says. He was even thinking of recording his own audiobook version of Poe\u2019s poetry, putting his own spin on it. He begins reciting phrases from The Raven: \u201c\u2018Bleak December\u2026 saintly days of yore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When talking, Cronos might make Jimmy Nail sound like a minor royal, but he was born in London. South Chelsea, specifically. \u201cThe Who<\/a> used to park their van around the corner and me mam used to get her cigarettes from the shop where Mick Jagger<\/a> and them lot bought theirs too,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember seeing him on the telly and saying: \u2018That\u2019s the guy from the corner shop.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving to Newcastle at seven or eight was tough. He got into a fight on his first day of school because of his accent. \u201c\u2018Cockney wanker!\u2019\u201d he says, then mimes a punch: \u201cBam!\u201d He doesn\u2019t say who was on the receiving end of it.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Venom\n<\/p>\n

Venom 2026 (l-r): Cronos, Stuart Dixon, Danny Needham (Image credit: Necroshorns)<\/p>\n

He grins when he describes what he was like as a teenager. \u201cA wanker. A proper twat. Me and me mate would terrorise the school.\u201d One day, he broke into his mum\u2019s stash of Mogadons and washed them down with a bottle of vodka. \u201cI can\u2019t even remember that day at school, but apparently I was wanting to fight all the teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wanted to join the army as a kid, which he thinks might have straightened him out, but getting shot in the eye with a pellet when he and his friends were messing about with air rifles put the kibosh on that. \u201cI\u2019m blind in this eye,\u201d he says, pointing to his right peeper. \u201cThe pellet\u2019s still in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He loved music as a kid: early Queen<\/a>, Jethro Tull. His elder brother, Graham, was an in-demand drummer who ended up joining local heroes Prefab Sprout. \u201cOh, they were shite. I hated those fuckers,\u201d he says of the latter. \u201cThey turned up in the studio one day and the engineer said: \u2018This is Prefab Sprout.\u2019 \u2018Prefab what?\u2019 We were rolling round the floor laughing our cocks off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cronos got a job in a local recording studio, Impulse. In his telling, he persuaded the owners to set up Neat Records<\/a> to release singles and albums by local bands such as Fist, Tygers Of Pan Tang and, eventually, Venom themselves. \u201cI said: \u2018All this heavy music is going on. Yous needed to get on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019d joined Venom when he was 16, fuelled by the mad rush of punk. He wasn\u2019t their singer at first. That was Clive Archer, who wore protocorpse paint make-up and had the stage name Jesus Christ. \u201cJeff and Bray said: \u2018We think you\u2019re better than him.\u2019 So we kicked him out and became a three-piece. I\u2019ve never seen him since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff is Jeff Dunn, aka original Venom guitarist Mantas, and Bray is drummer Tony Bray, aka Abaddon. This unholy trinity were on a mission to drag rock\u2019n\u2019roll to Hades, and they damn near succeeded. Venom\u2019s first two albums, 1982\u2019s Welcome To Hell and the following year\u2019s Black Metal are the twin fonts from which all extreme metal springs. Rough-arsed hymns of blasphemy that made Mot\u00f6rhead<\/a> sound like The Nolans. As Cronos puts it: \u201cOzzy was singing about the Devil. I wanted to be the Devil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Venom\n<\/p>\n

Venom in 1985: (l-r) Jeffrey ‘Mantas’ Dunn, Cronos and drummer Anthony ‘Abaddon’ Bray (Image credit: Fin Costello\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

To some, he came close. The title track of 1985\u2019s heroically abrasive Possessed album landed them on the PMRC\u2019s \u2018Filthy Fifteen\u2019 list of songs likely to corrupt America\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was fucking great,\u201d he says. \u201cFucking hell, you\u2019ve got Frank Zappa<\/a> and John Denver stepping up against these bored housewives. I\u2019m a massive John Denver fan as well.\u201d He starts singing: \u2018You fill up my senses, like a night in the forest\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

The air of malevolence surrounding Venom electrified a generation of young American metal fans. Metallica<\/a> and Slayer<\/a> opened for Venom in the US. \u201cMe and Cliff Burton used to hang out,\u201d Cronos says of the late Metallica bassist. \u201cHe\u2019d bring weed, I\u2019d have hash. He was a proper stoner, Cliff. Good lad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things were different back home in Britain. Gnarly metal fans loved Venom, but everyone else thought they were a joke, not least the press. \u201cIt seemed like England wanted fuck-all to do with Venom,\u201d he says. \u201cWe must\u2019ve stepped on the wrong toes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only people who disliked Venom more than the press were Venom themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have made up this myth about that line-up,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was no camaraderie. We weren\u2019t friends. When this band split, it was on bad terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technically, Venom didn\u2019t split. Cronos quit in 1987, but the other two carried on without him. The original line-up reunited for one album in the mid-90s but the old problems resurfaced. One by one, Abaddon and Mantas fell away, leaving Cronos to lead the band ever since. The current three-piece line-up has been together for 17 years, almost three times as long as the original. Today there\u2019s no love lost between Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want anything to do with them two. Too much piss-fartin\u2019 around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venom – Kicked Outta Hell (Official Video) – YouTube
\n\"Venom<\/p>\n

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This is where the public perception of Cronos splits from the reality. Post-Venom, he considered quitting music. \u201cI was gonna pack it all in. I was gonna be a slaughterman or work in the forestry commission. I love being outdoors.\u201d Instead he formed a new band, Cronos, who leaned into more melodic heavy metal<\/a>, verging on hard rock. They released two albums that are interesting rather than great.<\/p>\n

But the early 90s saw him diversify in an unexpected fashion. He\u2019d done his share of hard living in the 80s, but he was into weightlifting and fitness too. He\u2019d seen how the aerobics craze had taken off on the back of Hollywood star Jane Fonda\u2019s workout videos and he wanted in on the action. \u201cI knew fuck-all about cardiovascular exercise, so I decided to go and learn how to do it properly,\u201d he says. \u201cI went to college, got top marks for everything in all me exams.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the early 90s he was working as a fitness instructor. \u201cI did loads of classes. I played rave. We\u2019d start off with mid-paced stuff, just to warm up, then it was bang! bang! bang!\u201d He worked with guys from the military. \u201cThey used to come to the classes. We\u2019d do it in sports halls or fields. They\u2019d have their boots and backpacks on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cronos was with his military buddies when he had the accident that nearly finished his music career for good. They\u2019d take him climbing in Wales and Scotland. \u201cHave you ever done it?\u201d he asks. \u201cThe feeling you get being on top of a mountain is almost spiritual.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was on a climb in Wales in the early 2000s when he was hit by a falling rock. \u201cThe guy above us, the rock under his foot gave way,\u201d he says. \u201cI ducked out of the way, but it hit us square in the back of me neck \u2013 boom. I was braced up for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t life-threatening, but it was serious. \u201cI couldn\u2019t play bass,\u201d he says. \u201cI certainly couldn\u2019t stand up and play bass. I felt like I was done playing music. That\u2019s when I took up the computer.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is yet another avenue that Cronos\u2019s strange life has led him down<\/p>\n

\u201cA mate of mine had a computer company in Newcastle,\u201d he says. \u201cI was laughing at the graphics on the company logo, and he said: \u2018Can you do better?\u2019 I went: \u2018Yeah.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Venom \u2013 Lay Down Your Soul (Official Video) – YouTube
\n\"Venom<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

He dived into Photoshop and began working as a multimedia engineer for his mate\u2019s company. He saw it as an extension of what he\u2019d done all his life. \u201cEverything\u2019s an art medium,\u201d he says. \u201cI could pick up some mud and create a picture on a canvas. This is the way I see creativity \u2013 nothing\u2019s off the table. So AI comes along, and I\u2019m like: \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ll try that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s talking about the visual arts, not music.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll always write me own music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life today is only slightly less full-on than it has been. He grows chillis for a hobby, making sauces that he gives to friends. \u201cIf you\u2019re talking Carolina Reapers and Nagas and all them boys, you\u2019ve got to get your compost right,\u201d is his tip. He was a member of the RSPB as a kid, and he still keeps an eye out for birds around his house in Northumberland. \u201cGoldfinches, robins, wrens. We even had a heron in our back garden. I\u2019ve always been into birds. Not just the flying ones,\u201d he adds with a cackle.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of ripped-from-the-old-days gag you want from Cronos, a man who has spent almost 50 years giving less than zero fucks about what other people think of him \u2013 an approach that has brought him the good and the bad with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a journey and a story, and you\u2019ve got to take everything in your stride,\u201d he says, momentarily philosophical. \u201cIf you go back and change something, you change who you are today.\u201d<\/p>\n

It should sound surprising coming from a man who wrote a song called In League With Satan. But this is Cronos, and with him everything and nothing is a surprise.<\/p>\n

Into Oblivion is out now via Noise\/BMG.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Venom: Into Oblivion – Today’s Best Prices<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conrad \u2018Cronos\u2019 Lant might be the last stranger Kate Bush kissed on the lips in public. It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-584165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}