Going down under

Arguably the oddest act to come out of Australia since Rolf Harris and his didgeridoo, Machine Gun Fellatio have become an unlikely hit down under. Now they’re energetically going about the business of taking on the world – and they might just do it, taking on the mantle of a latter-day Tubes, if the ’70s revival that’s evident elsewhere stretches into the realms of vaudeville rock.

The zany seven-piece which started out as a dance act have since grown into a full-blown theatrical experience which, on paper at least, falls somewhere between the Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Virgin Prunes.

“That’s about right,” offers Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab, the improbably named vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with the wacky combo. “Though we would probably be a bit more Las Vegas than the Virgin Prunes were. They were a bit darker as I recall. What we do is cabaret, it’s rock, it’s pop, it’s whatever you want it to be. It might sound like a naff thing to say but the main thing is that people have a good time.”

The genesis of the band is almost as confused as their image. Von Loopin Stab explains. “There was three of us initially and we got advertised as DJs one night, so we went ‘fuck it’ and we got a whole load of our friends up on stage and started to play. Suddenly we’re on tour with all these people and it took off from there. We’re like a circus act now - like those Parliament/Funkadelic shows of the 1970’s. We’d pick people up in different towns along the way.”

The catchy, if risqué single, ‘Mutha Fukka On A Motorcycle’ (which recalls the Bananarama/Fun Boy Three hit ‘It Ain’t What You Do’) has also been a surprise hit in Australia. Given the band’s moniker and the song’s title, how did they manage to get airplay without upsetting the moral majority?

“The commercial stations didn’t get it at first,” explains Von Loopin Stab. “But Triple J, which is the national broadcaster, picked up on it straight away – which was a surprise. I think they got so used to saying ‘fellatio’ that people got er, de-sensitised to it, if you’ll excuse the expression. We wanted to call our album Machine Gun Cunnilingus – just in case the ladies felt left out.”

Now managed by the legendary Dave Robinson of Stiff Records fame, the band’s debut album Paging Mr Strike is soon to receive a UK/Irish release – at which point, with a bit of luck, all hell will break loose. If the word on the grapevine is to be believed, the record is a potential monster.

“We knew Dave as the Irishman who signed Ian Dury and that was good enough for us,” says Von Loopin Stab. “The first time he saw us live he said we sounded like shit and we didn’t hear any more from him. Three months later I’m walking around my kitchen and the phone rings. It’s Dave and he says the album is the greatest thing he’s heard in years. Now we can’t wait to get over to Europe.”

Lock up your daughters – Machine Gun Fellatio are on the way.