POP WILL EAT ITSELF (APRIL 1995)

‘Byrne Donnybrook Byrne!’ screamed the Hot Press headline after Pop Will Eat Itself, a curious booking if ever there was, made an unholy show of themselves on the Late Late.

Gaybo’s 1.8 million viewers were treated to the Poppies dry-humping their way through ‘Ich Bin Ein Auslander’ with several rolls of Sellotape enhancing their boyish good looks, and the studio floorstaff diving for cover as they destroyed their drum-kit and backline.

“It started off with Clint chucking his mike-stand at the amps and then the keyboards went for a burton,” a record company spokesman told us. “They were a little, er, pent-up when they went on and because it was a mimed show decided to relieve the tension by being more exuberant than usual. Gay Byrne’s people were none-too-pleased that the lads decided to end their set in traditional rock ‘n’ roll fashion, but the way we look at it is that it didn’t do The Who’s career any harm.”

The comedy of the moment was added to by a dumbfounded Byrne turning to a panel consisting of drag queen Lily Savage, developer Harry Crosbie and astrologer Fergus Gibson. Pausing only to shout a handful of colourful Anglo-Saxon greetings at their host, PWEI departed what was left of the stage and were then forcibly ejected from the building by a posse of security guards.