3AM: You were obviously heavily influenced by other musical forms such as dub, and had no interest in standing still musically and in your attitudes to sound: how did The Slits link up with Adrian Sherwood's ONU Sounds and Don Cherry?

3AM: Can you tell us more about the atmosphere, playing with ONU Sounds and Don Cherry?

TP: The concerts were fantastic, and that tour brought together so many different musical strands: punk, dub, avant garde jazz. Don't forget, so many music forms were brought together out of that punk period. Reggae music just exploded in the late 70s. Big Youth, The Spear, it was incredible, all came forward at the time of punk. The concerts themselves were phenomenal on that Creation Rebel tour, and the audience could really feel something special was going on here, something fresh.

Adrian ONU Sherwood remembers that tour with fondness and humour, as is clear from his account in Beat Records: "Creation Rebel and Prince Hammer were invited to join The Slits on tour . . . also on the bill was jazz legend Don Cherry and his fifteen year old daughter Neneh. . . . During the tour, friendships were made (but) . . . the tour was crazy: Style Scott (Creation Rebel/Roots Radics/Dub Syndicate drummer) was rushed to hospital for acute appendicitis and missed the London show where Crucial Tony (Creation Rebel, now Ruff Cutt guitarist) tried to play drums in front of a sell out crowd at The Rainbow. It was truly anarchic. . . . (It was around this time) I played Ari Up "Fade Away" by Junior Byles and "Love Forever" by Bim Sherman, and she said, "Let's record some tracks and call them New Age Steppers". . . . When we started work in the studio, we had reggae, UK funk, free jazz musicians and an all round original cast in the studio".

3AM: Tell us more about Don Cherry. He is such a legendary figure in avant-garde jazz circles due to his work with Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, but it isn't common to read personal reminiscences about him and his character. It would be good to hear more about him from those that knew him and worked with him as you did.

TP: Playing with Don Cherry was an experience I won't forget. It's so sad he is dead now. I remember, the last time I saw him: we went to stay with him and Neneh in Spain. We all had so much regard for him because he came from that whole powerful jazz tradition. We went to see a flamenco performance. It was near a lake. It was just a small village. Neneh looked after him until his death. Don Cherry is the sort of person who would just say something so briefly and simply, but it would be so profound with insight and depth that it was something extraordinary. You would think about it for the rest of the week! Don Cherry had something of the eternal about him: it was like he would never grow old. He told us so much, so many stories. He told us stories about his closeness to Billie Holiday. Some not so good, or not so romantic: he used to score heroin for Billie.

Ari-Up, Neneh Cherry, Bruce Smith, Vivian Goldman, Tessa Pollitt & Viv Albertine at Neneh's wedding. Photo courtesy of Christine Robertson.

Don Cherry touched many people throughout his life I think, and it shouldn't be forgotten. Neneh was the link for us to connect to that whole tradition. Bruce Smith, her first husband played with us as a drummer, then Rip Rig and Panic, then he went on to work with John Lydon in PIL. The father of my daughter, Sean Oliver, also played with Rip Rig and Panic as well as working with Adrian Sherwood on some of the early ONU Sound recordings. He died of sickle cell anaemia about 12 years ago.

At this point of the interview Tessa becomes withdrawn, palpably introspective and sad: Private memories, and it is clear it is time to change the topic.

3AM: Tell us about The Slits' work with Dennis Bovell, UK dub innovator.

TP: Working with Dennis Bovell was really a lot of fun! I think he had the same sense of humour as us. I think he just thought it was really fun to be playing with three crazy girls, and one guy, Budgie, who was playing drums with us at the time.

3AM: The Dennis Bovell tunes have a thundering bass resonance and percussive spaciousness and brightness which wasn't present in The Slits' sound before then. Which tracks stand out for you? The bass drop as it kicks in from the emptiness in the intro of "Grapevine" is phenomenal.

3AM: Tell us about working with Adrian Sherwood and linking up with ONU Sound.

TP: "Man Next Door" with Adrian ONU Sound Sherwood was another good groove: Adrian brought one of the ONU Sound family to the recording session for the drum tracks, a guy called Cecil. I can't remember which band he played with: Creation Rebel perhaps? I must stress one thing though: I've heard a rumour that some people think Creation Rebel played the rhythms on that track in its entirety: wrong! I can assure you, that track was played by me, Ari, Viv and Cecil, ok? No more rumours and inaccuracies! That song was played by The Slits, except for the drums! I have a lot of regard for Adrian Sherwood; the early stuff he did with The Slits as well as the Sean Oliver tracks. He gelled with us really well.

3AM: Tell us which bass styles attract you, and what vibrations feel natural for you as a bassist. Also, how did you decide which songs you were going to cover?

TP: I naturally have a dub groove to what I play -- I seem to sit into the reggae off beat. I only like music that comes from the soul as opposed to manufactured business product that dares to call itself music. Popular pap: where is the message in that? Elastoplast's for your soul. Constipated emotions spat out on the pavement. With "Man Next Door", it was a tune I had loved for a long time, and we wanted to honour our influences. I don't remember who chose it to cover or why, but it is a timeless classic tune that has been covered abundantly. There are so many versions of that song, from Dennis Brown to John Holt. The most recent one I recall is by Massive Attack with Horace Andy. (Huge respect to Massive Attack and Horace Andy!) We followed the Jamaican ethic of playing version, or even going back to an earlier jazz tradition where some melody from another person's composition would come into your own song.