Originally Published March 1, 2025

The Observer (TO): When did you first see The Flaming Lips?

AMY: My first show was at the Forum in Kentish Town, London in January 2003. (The Yoshimi anniversary box set included a recording of that show!) I had heard the Lips on the radio and my partner, Alex, had recently bought a couple of their albums, but I fell totally in love with the band when I saw them live. Since then I’ve travelled all over to see them – all around the UK and the US, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Japan… They have become a huge part of my life now.

All pictures provided by Amy.

The Observer (TO): When did you first see The Flaming Lips?

AMY: Those first two albums we bought were Yoshimi and Clouds – both so completely different to anything else I’d listened to before and also really different to each other. I tend to be initially drawn to a band by their general sound – it has to be something with a bit of “otherness” to attract me – then the lyrics come later, so the absurd lyrics about robots and spaceships and animals and all that just kept on increasing the intrigue about who this band were. And of course, seeing them live for the first time was a whole new experience that never gets old!!

TO: How long have you been wearing the Unicorn costume to Lips shows, and what is the story behind that choice?

AMY: I started dressing as a unicorn when the “Oczy Mlody” album came out. That tour in 2017 was called the “There Should Be Unicorns” tour… I guess I thought, “well, yes there should”. I had already been to around 25 Lips shows by that point, either with Alex or on my own and had worn a silly hat now and then over the years, but never had the nerve to wear a costume, especially if I was going to be there on my own. When they came over to the UK in 2017, suddenly everything changed! I’d known Alan (aka “the real Santa”) online from the old Lips “Bored” message board, and he and a group of other Lovepit folk came over for that tour – mostly from the US, but also around the UK and of course, Reika came over from Japan. I met up with them all before the London show (first night of that tour) and was inspired by all their wonderful costumes to go for it. My rainbow hat just wasn’t enough any more! A couple of months later, I travelled over to the US for my first full tour, meeting up with Alan in San Diego – Santa and the unicorn travelling together up the west coast to Vancouver BC. I met so many fantastic people on that tour who have become solid friends, and I discovered that being a unicorn is awesome! Everybody is friendly and says hello when you’re a unicorn. I have recently been dressing as Yoshimi for the Yoshimi anniversary shows, but I really miss being a unicorn, so I’m definitely going to be getting my unicorn on again for the UK tour this year!

TO: If you had one memory with the band that stands out, which memory is it and why?

AMY: Oof! So many!!! Twice I’ve spent my birthday at a Lips show and had the band and crowd sing happy birthday to me – that’s definitely a special experience!!!  Back in the day, I danced on stage with them a number of times. I managed to get a ticket for the 30th anniversary show at BBC Maida Vale in London in 2013, when they did the most amazing set ever, starting from Bag Full Of Thoughts and including Unconsciously Screaming and You Have To Be Joking and others I’ve never seen them play before or since. A few times they have dedicated a song to me, which felt pretty surreal and is just one example of how wonderfully they treat their fans. But if I had to pick one moment, it would be Portland 2017: I had been invited to watch the show from the side of the stage. On that run, when they played Superman, the rest of the band left the stage and it was just Wayne and Steven.  With the audience blocked from view by the PA and the rest of the band out of view, Steven and Wayne were the only humans in my field of vision and they were singing my favourite song and it felt for a few minutes like the three of us were the only people that existed in the universe and they were playing it just for me. That was absolutely magical and unforgettable! I have a photo I took – I’ll dig that out and share it.

Looking around the internet, there are several boards and online groups from Reddit to Facebook dedicated to The Flaming Lips, but the private Flaming Lips Facebook group seems to be the most active group with over 8 thousand members and new posts each and every day.

TO: How did you become the super admin for the page?

AMY: Haha! Super admin – I like the “super” part!! I had been on there for a few years already and at one point, there suddenly started being a lot of really nasty porn getting posted on there and a few trolls causing trouble. The chap who started the group was not really on Facebook any more and certainly not monitoring the group. So I dropped him a message in the hope that he’d see it, saying someone really needed to be looking after it and I’d be happy to do it if he wasn’t able to. So he made me admin. 

TO: And what are some of the challenges you encounter when overseeing such a group?

AMY: Not long after that, FB decided to randomly make all private groups public and new people were joining all the time and lots of spam and phishing and trolling messages started appearing, so I switched it back to private and eventually had to introduce membership questions to make sure new joiners are genuine. For several months I was spending a fair bit of time every week going through the new joiners and lots of spam alerts and trying to figure out if people were spammers, bots or real fans.  

There have been a few spats where I’ve needed to intervene – I see several members who are quite vulnerable – in terms of mental health or otherwise – and I feel very protective of them. If someone posts something that is clearly inappropriate – phishing or trying to sell stuff, I just delete it. But in the case of impassioned arguments, I tend to contact the parties by DM and ask them to reconsider what they wrote – that way they usually delete their post/comment without me having to.

TO: The Flaming Lips travel the world with their music. What do you think makes their music so celebrated in other countries and cultures?

AMY: I’m not sure that it is? I mean, there’s certain countries where indie/rock type music is popular anyway – Europe, Japan, NZ, Australia and South America in particular – but there are a whole lot of other countries and cultures where it’s not so big. I guess those places have a market for it and an infrastructure to support touring bands. I have no doubt there must be people dotted around all over the world who love the Flaming Lips and will never get a chance to see them live because that market doesn’t exist where they live. In terms of the appeal… I assume that most people who are really into the Lips feel like freaks, weirdos and misfits in some way or other and that the music speaks to them or for them in some way.

TO: When you meet someone new and explain to them who the Flaming Lips are, what do you say to them?

AMY: That very much depends on what vibe I’m getting from them!! I guess we can all recognise a kindred spirit and you can just tell when someone you meet is going to have heard them already or not have a clue! What I tell them tends to be more about the amazing family, the community of friends and people I’ve met through my travels with the Lips and how spending time with them has become as important as seeing the shows themselves. I tell them about the complete joy I experience when I go to a Lips show. I’ve often compared a Lips show to a rollercoaster ride: You know how, as a kid, you go on a ride and as soon as you get off, you want to get back on again and have another go. That’s what I say when people ask “but doesn’t it get boring after a while?”.  I’m coming up on 80 shows and no, it never gets boring!

TO: What’s the one album, track or video of the band that you can play to get yourself out of a bad day?

AMY: Race For The Prize is guaranteed to improve my mood without fail!!!

*** SUNDAY: AUGUST 31, 2025 UPDATE: We asked Amy last week if she had any updates since the spring issue; here’s what she sent us. 

AMY: Since the original interview, I followed the whole UK/Ireland tour (8 shows) in the spring, as well as a couple of shows on the European leg of the tour.

I almost didn’t make these shows. My partner, Alex, has been really really ill for 2 or 3 years with Long Covid – mainly chronic fatigue and awful anxiety, among a whole bunch of other symptoms. It’s a really debilitating illness, not to mention socially isolating. So I was worried about leaving Alex alone at home for such a long period.

Part of the Dublin gang.

I’ve been going through menopause and had some horrible symptoms myself. In all, it’s been a very tough few years for both of us. The fact that Steven wasn’t going to be on the tour also gave me pause. I couldn’t imagine the Lips without Steven. So I thought long and hard about cancelling all or part of my trip. In the end, I followed the “put your own oxygen mask on before helping others” advice from the people around me, and decided that the music and magic and love of a Lips tour was what I needed to rebuild my resilience and keep going.

The very first show of the tour, in Birmingham, I knew I had made the right decision. I was amazed at how good the band sounded without Steven… although he was very much present in a way, with various parts on a backing track.

But Derek in particular took on a lot of the parts Steven would normally play – and of course, took it all in his stride. Even those freaky screams on Pompeii! I think we can all agree, Derek is awesome, right?

With millions of votes tallied, it is confirmed; Derek is awesome.

AJ, filling in for some pretty mighty shoes, has performed beautifully.

His giant sound shows through with each show.

And Wayne dedicated a song to me that night. The addition of AJ really made this whole tour something different and special. His haunting pedal steel solo in “True Love Will Find You In The End” became my highlight for each show. Yes, I teared up a bit initially, seeing someone else playing Steven’s guitars, but AJ has proven himself worthy! I really hope that Steven will come back soon and AJ will stick around too. Spending time with the Lovepit family was healing for my soul, even though – or especially because – a few of us were struggling with various problems and sadness, and a couple didn’t make it at all. That connection and love is what it’s all about. I came home with a full heart and ready to face the real world again. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

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