Of the many odd pop movements born in the 1980s, few were quite so peculiar as psychobilly. A mutant blend of punk, rockabilly and Vincent Price's wardrobe, the movement's deranged spirit was best captured by the notorious King Kurt. The band's hairstyles looked like glued-on tyre fragments, and their gigs were riots of flying bags of flour, vegetables and bodily excretions. Full-page adverts for their outrageously titled Stiff Records debut - which read, ahem, "King Kurt's Big Cock is out on Stiff" - caused a national outcry.
Now psychobilly is making an unlikely comeback courtesy of the magnificently monikered 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster. Although they describe themselves as "retro punk rock'n'roll", they are psychobilly - perhaps tailored very slightly towards those who have discovered trash post-Strokes. The band have disgusting hairstyles; their Celebrate Your Mother single advocates sex with your best friend's mum ("a dirty job, but someone's got to do it well"); and they arrive at gigs in a chauffeur-driven 1948 Humber Pullman decorated with skulls. Their music mashes up the Cramps and the Stooges so much that the plastic skeleton draped over the drum kit rocks its bones to the beat.
Singer Guy McKnight is fabulously theatrical. A fan of Freddie Mercury and singers who "give it all on stage", he resembles a sodden Joey Ramone with eyeliner, and has a trick of appearing as if he will break down in tears at any moment. He is thus the first pop performer to model his stagecraft on both Iggy Pop and Stan Laurel.
McKnight is compelling on stage; he needs to be, for his Hammer-horror baritone is often lost. Even Celebrate Your Mother is barely recognisable as the tune that lights up the band's wonderfully raucous debut album, Horse of the Dog. Perhaps they spent so long giving themselves names such as Tom Diamantepaulo (drums) and Sym Ghariel (bass) that they never got around to grasping the rudiments of playing live.
As they start to sound like Adam and the Ants grappling with a forklift truck, even McKnight's spirited leap on to the bar can't save them. They are definitely a band to keep tabs on, however - as the security services and flour manufacturers are presumably aware.
