Imagine Screaming Jay Hawkins, the Kingsmen, Liberace and Sun Ra involved in a fantastic musical extravaganza. A non stop barrage of great tunes. Eventually this whirling mass of energy descends from the stage and begins to filter through the crowd. The musicians are feverishly banging drums, blowing whistles, honking saxes and chanting in tongues, while winding their way to the venues main exit. Mesmerised, everyone follows them outside, across a busy road, seemingly oblivious to the heavy traffic. Safely across the road, the band crowd onto a vacant bench and without pausing jump, stamp and sing the arse off DO THE MOUSE by Soopy Sales. Meanwhile, passers by are try to work out exactly what's going on.

Intrigued, confused or just plain interested parties should seek out the Fleshtones new LP on Big Beat for further enlightenment. Hell, these guys know how to collar a good tune and turn it into a killer. But enough of this flowery rhetoric. I'm talking to Bill Milhizer and Keith Streng... Now read on.

Powerstance is the first Fleshtones studio album in four years, how are the sales going?

Keith Streng: "How are the sales going? Well sales are just fine! We don't know really for sure at this moment. Let's put it this way, anybody who knows about the Fleshtones has one! WEA were supposed to put POWERSTANCE out in England and Europe and they decided not even to listen to the record because they probably had a bigger idea about another project. And we're on ACE records and Ted Carroll, I think, is a good man."

A friend told me that you covered OUTCAST, which is an old Animals song, during the sessions, but it got shelved?

Bill Milhizer: "It wasn't that it got shelved, it's just that we did it real quick just to get it down on tape. We figure that as long as you are in the studio with all this good equipment, you might as well play a couple and at least have some of the recording there, to maybe in future do something with. Because if you do it quick in two minutes, then you save a lot of money in the long run, if you want to add something on top of it."

Big Beat have just released ARMED & DANGEROUS with LET IT RIP on the flip!

Keith: "I don't know what's going to happen with the future of singles, because of the CD thing, so maybe it'll do well. Let's see what happens."

There's a bonus track on the 12", ELECTRIC MOUSE. Apparently there's a story behind that?

Keith: "Yes, we were mixing a song called LET'S ALL TURN THE PAGE in Australia with Dave Faulkner and it really didn't come out the way we thought it should have. That's the way recording goes and we figured, well why don't we get a bonus track and it'll be an instrumental remix. Then just on the spur of the moment 'What we gonna call this track? ELECTRIC MOUSE, great!' Then we decided we'll overdub like little motorcycles. No squeaking noises. Somebody who's idea of their motorcycle was a little, what do they call those things... Vespa! Somebody who might call their Vespa an Electric Mouse."

Is there a recorded version of Do The Mouse somewhere?

Keith: "Well not ours. We never recorded DO THE MOUSE, actually I wanted to do that. It's by Soopy Sales. Soopy Sales was a children's show comedian back when we were little kids actually. And he did a little album with 'The Mouse' and would sing the mouse on his TV show. He's still around, but it's not a kids show anymore."

Andy Shernoff appears to have left before the completion of the LP?

Bill Milhizer: "No, Andy was just playing with us for a while, because we really needed a bass player and he was able to do it for a time. It was great and we knew it would only be for a year. He went back to do his main thing, which is Wild Kingdom with Dick Manitoba. Fortunately Kenny was coming into the band when we were recording the album, so we really wanted Kenny to play bass on one of the songs. That was LIVING LEGENDS, he had some great ideas for that too."

How did Kenny get involved with the band?

Keith "He approached me, no I knew Ken already. Ken and the Scorchers were ending and he was saying 'Andy is only going to be in the band so much more' and I said 'We need a new bass player, we'll see what happens'. I had a feeling it would be right because we talked a lot."

He really appears to have slotted in well?

Keith: "Well there's no doubt, because all the bass players apart from Marek had no idea how to play slap bass, like real R&B kind of feel. I just said '...there's going to be a point where we're gonna need a new bass player and if it happens, are you available?' And it happened. Actually when he came down to record LIVING LEGENDS, I had it in my mind to present him. It was a pressure situation and he did great."

There's a hardcore of people who love the Fleshtones over here?

Bill "We actually get the feeling now and it would be just nice to come back again. I'd never thought I'd hear myself saying that. Last time we played in 1986 the review that did come out really talked more about the way we were dressed than it did about our music. So it was with some trepidation, no that's the wrong word, hostility, that we came here. And much to our delight and surprise it's really been wonderful these last couple of days. The shows that we did at the Town & Country last night and tonight, although a small audience, was really pleasant."

The band have been together, in one form or another, for fifteen years now. Now I'm not going to give away your ages here!

Keith "I don't care about my age anymore. The way I look at rock & roll, is rock & roll is rock & roll. If you're sixty years old and grey or twenty years old and grey. Great! That's all there is to it. Is Keith Richards bad? When rock & roll was first established, everybody thought OK, this is teenage music. It's for teenagers, made by teenagers. Well now we're talking about thirty five years later and it's not made by teenagers anymore, it's made by people who are good at it. And that's the way I look at it."

The 'Tones are regarded by many as no more than a party band. But some of the songs touch on deeper issues without becoming too precious.

Bill: "Actually a lot of the songs are pretty 'heavy' to tell you the truth. But talking today about bands who do play looking down at their shoes. What a boring thing for an audience who have paid to get in. For a band to ignore the audience, first of all shows that they don't have any balls, they may say they were influenced by the Velvet Underground. But even the Velvet Underground didn't act like that all the time. They were a party band too. I don't think you should ignore the people who come to see you play. We're considered a party band because we have fun with the audience. But I think it takes a lot of balls to do that...whether it be Peter Zaremba or Gary Glitter."

I recently read that Keith rang up Peter Buck and asked him to produce the next Full Time Men LP. Is there any truth in the rumour?

Keith: "Yes I did, where did you get that? I did want that, but it was impossible, everything changes pretty quickly. Actually, my new idea is for him to produce the new Fleshtones record. I think he would be good with us, and this time I really mean it."

I don't know if you're John Waters fans or you saw his film HAIRSPRAY? When I say the film I thought Peter Zaremba would make a perfect Corny Collins. I thought your song I KNOW A GIRL FROM BALTIMORE could have been used?

Bill: "Keith, do you remember one time of ours in Los Angeles when we were on IRS records? Miles Copeland handed us a script from John Waters new, upcoming movie which eventually became HAIRSPRAY, but it wasn't at the time."

Keith: "We were sitting round the pool, at the mansion he'd just bought. I remember the whole thing. 'I got the new John Waters script. I don't know what to make of it' and he was talking about it with us."