The insanity clause

“We had quite a bit of fun at that gig,” recalls vocalist Ben Gautrey of Cooper Temple Clause’s explosive Irish debut at this year’s Witnness festival. “And a few injuries too. I think I may have broken my right foot and I threw a guitar stand at Fisher’s head.”

“And I got a death threat,” interrupts Didz Hammond, the shaggy haired, dark shaded, relatively tipsy bassist. “There was this bloke in the audience with a yellow bandana sliding his finger across his throat miming, ‘You’re dead’ at me. And I was going, ‘Why? Why?’ (with arms outstretched in Jesus pose) but then I realised that me going like that, and him not being able to hear my voice, it was like, ‘Yeah, fucking come on mate!’”

Do you reckon you could’ve taken him?

“I dunno. He could’ve been a criminal or something.”

Draped across an appropriately located double bed in a tent backstage at said festival, Didz and Ben are on top form. Fresh from their storming Sunday arvo Upstage gig, the duo comprise 1/3 of the Reading sextet whose debut album See This Through And Leave spawned such killer hits as ‘Film Maker’ and ‘Let’s Kill Music’, both of which cracked the British top 40. (On a more personal note, it’s also a strong contender for my record of the year.)

Their trademark heady distortion and kick drum wrestling with waves of flanged electronica is no more evident than in their live show, a blistering sonic assault which, despite momentary lulls in tempo, acts as a ginseng supplement for tired out rock and roll.

However, as we all know, good rock music needs good rock stars, and despite initial modesty, CTC appear to have lived up to their role on more than one occasion…

“There’s a lot of stories about our band and nudity and drunkenness,” reveals a sneakily eyed Didz.

“I peed through someone’s letter box once with the police right next to me,” recalls Ben. “It was very silly. I didn’t know whose letter box it was and I feel very bad now. They would’ve woken up and their letters were drenched in …well, you know what.”

What about getting stuff chucked up at you on stage? Any of that malarkey??

“We got a few cuddly toys” reveals a decidedly nonchalant Ben.

What about knickers?

“Yeah, we got a few of them too!” he laughs.

“Sorry, I’m a bit drunk,” confesses Didz as he attempts to shoot a grape into my mouth for the third time, apologising for his lack of aim.

“I don’t know quite what we were expecting from the album,” quips Ben. “We only had five songs when we went in to record so we didn’t have any idea where it’d go or what it’d sound like. We just wanted it to be different and completely out there. We weren’t concerned with how fashionable we were at the time and what everyone else was doing. We just wanted to make an album of songs that we felt were very us and were also songs that we wanted to hear. We were absolutely dead chuffed with the result.”

The rock scene is well and truly thriving these days, with first generation Britpop setting the standard for young guitar bands everywhere.

“It’s an exciting time,” says Ben. “There are so many British bands around who all sound completely different. There’s quite an eclectic scene at the moment and it’s good that people are able to hear bands that aren’t nu-metal, but are still of our generation, with something to say. It’s great to see as a music fan – there’s a lot of albums I still have to go out and buy.”