Apart from that, the band had to face a legal battle against one former bandmember. They decided to quit, rather than to get sued an awful lot of money. Mark Manning had started to get into poetry, by writing columns in papers and books accompanied by Bill Drummond of KLF.
They did a column in the Idler magazine and wrote the book "Bad Wisdom". Later on there were even more books of Manning published with titles like: "Get Your Cock Out", "Crucify Me", Fucked By Rock" and his latest one "Collateral Damage". Some of them are simply tour diaries, stories which lets you forget the believe in the good side of Rock'n'Roll. Only that longterm friendship to his buddy Cobalt let Zodiac Mindwarp come back again and do another album after eight years. As he says so...

                  
And now almost exactly these eight  years later I'm sitting here again in front of Z, only with the big difference, that I'm not shaking in fear and waiting for my very last minute alive like 15 years ago. No, I'm  rather curious what had changed after that long period of time. Visual he hasn't changed a lot. The thick eyeglasses don't let me have a closer look at his eyes, which usualls reflects a persons soul. The long hair has exchanged with a neat short cut. Not because it's more fashionable now. It's just more conviniant as Z says. Beeing in the middle of his  fourties, he surprisingly  kept in good shape, which might be due to the fact of a maybe  now healthier lifestyle. "No", he utters, " I don't think, I've changed a lot. I'm still irresponsible, foolish and mad. But I rather leave it up to others to judge me. To describe myself wouldn't be very logical. Apart from that, nothing has killed me yet. I have never regret anything in life. Why should I? What  happened in the past  has happend. You can't change anything afterwards. I have no time, to sit in a corner and cry. That's pure waste." Mark Manning is not a person who swims in self pity. His pride and slight arrogance wouldn't let him do this anyway. But what had got him to remember his musical ambitions again. Should this be a new start, a new chapter or just the continuing of old stories dressed up in new clothes? " I had been sitting in a room alone for a very long time writing books. I just felt, it was time to go out there again and do some music. Also Cobalt who is one of my oldest friend,  persuaded me to go on the road again. He owns a recording studio in London, where we hang up very often. We are producing bits and pieces, throw 'em away or put them together to a song. In the end we had about 90 songs finished, and Cobalt said: 'come on. let's do it again'. We chose these 11 best tracks, made this album, and sometime later we were offered this tour. So why should we have refused.

 The music hasn't changed over the years, neither has the individual look, what's up to Zodiac. But the image has done in a way. It used to be an image which had been timeless. But the effort to keep it ahead and alive was tiring. They still do wear leather jackets. But those are not black  and covered with stuts. The nowadays- jackets are brownish in a rather commercial normal-every-daytime-style. Cobalt Stargazer is still the funny nice guy, only his formerly slim shape has improved  towards a slight brighter silhouette, which reminds me more of a modern Hip Hop meets rapstyle cowboy. However, the style of music hasn't changed in that direction fortunately, neither has the attitude. The  image you can still find  in the music, where the sex-macho-impulse  is still given, - with a little eye twinkle of course. But that's the most important thing, ain't it?!"We don't do all these things for other people", says Z, "we do it mainly for ourselves. If you like it, - fine, if not, - I don't care." Z has become older in his mind, I have found  out. The wild egocentric of the Eighties has moved to make space  for an excentric ignorance, which has got nothing to do anymore with the overwhelming Rock'n'Roll-Sex-Monster-Type. No, I don't feel insecure anymore, interviewing this guy. I'm not scared to death anymore to get killed or whatsoever. And I'm not shy to stand the stinging look. No honestly, I even start developing a little bit of what you'd call symphathy for this querulant. (By the way, this here now, is already  my fourth hinterview I have done with this guy over all those years!) 
                                                "I Am Rock“ is already an old hat for the band . It came out in 2002  in the US. and they did a club tour in America.  In Europe it was released 4 months later.  Why is it exactly the title track,which is Z's favorite song on this CD? „I guess, because people can sing along with it." Anyway that's rather not an egoistic statement, is it?!.... Compared to that song, Z  finds the last track on the record "Christmas Eve On The Reeperbahn" unnecessary. "I don't like this song at all, but Cobalt insisted on this piece to be put on the album. And he's responsible for the music as well, so I gotta be kinda diplomatic, don't I ?" - Ain't that nice??? 

In the meantime the chapter „I Am Rock“ is done. The tours have been completed, whereby Z ensures me, that he rather prefers to play anywhere else than in England. The band has finished the next album. "Yes we've got pretty much everything ready. 
 Okay, we are really curious, what's coming up next. One thing is for sure. We don't have to wait another 10 years for a new album, and a Mindwarp-life-philosophy . By the way, the 47 year old doesn't give a lot for musical influences. " I don't buy music. I just listen to the radio, but I don't have a big opinion on music." He once again looks at me through his spectacles, not remembering this very first interview of mine back in 1988 - (thanx god for that!) and gives one last comment to the question about his future ambitions: "Rock 'till I Drop".