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Australia’s ‘beer for breakfast’ attitude HAS BEEN responsible for producing some of the most legendary bands ever. Groups like AC/DC, The Saints, Radio Birdman, Beasts Of Bourbon and The Lime Spiders set new benchmarks for those about to rock everywhere. A band that typified the philosophy better than anyone was the Cosmic Psychos. At the beginning of the 90s, when everyone was trying to get all ‘peace and love’, the Psychos were singing songs about real Aussie experiences like labouring, getting pissed and smoking cones. They were like a bogan Motorhead and funny as fuck—without really trying to be.

VICE: What’s your greatest rock n’ roll story?

Ross: Ohhh fuck, that’s pretty hard when I’m not sitting down with a beer in me hand. I can whittle it down to about three million, but c’mon, it’s fuckin’ midday mate.

You guys played New York quite a bit, and Sydney only twice. Why was that?

Yeah, well we did Sydney like twice a year, but I had a girlfriend over in New York at the time, so I was looking for any excuse to get over there. She was a stylist art director or whatever. When I first got over there she made me work on a Public Enemy film clip.

Did you play one of the cops?

No, I just helped out on set. They wanted me to play a cop, but in the film clip they smash the fuck out of the cop car. Jesus, it was scary enough just meeting those blokes. Mate, they were fuckin’ full on.

How do you start a conversation with Public Enemy?

Well I said “G’day! How’s it going?” They didn’t understand a word I said and that was the end of that.

What’s your opinion of rock today?

There’s a lot of shit around, but I think that rock in Australia is streets ahead of the UK and USA. I don’t like any of those fuckin’ rah rah bands either mate.

Rah rah?

The real hardcore stuff that doesn’t seem to have a point. If I was in a band like that and was preaching death and destruction and ‘I’m going to kick everyone’s head in’, then I’d at least try and do that, instead of drinking fuckin’ mineral water, having spoonfuls of sherbet and being nice to the kids after the show. Shit! I’d like to see another generation of Cosmic Psycho bands. I think the world needs it.

MARTIN DOYLE
The Psychos are working on a new album which will be out sometime in the future.

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