Flesh D-Vice: Flaming Soul

Gerald was living in a flat in Aro Street and we were rehearsing in the basement. He came in with the lyrics, which we instantly really liked, they’re amazingly well written. Like a lot of our stuff, the tune just happened. I had that basic guitar riff, which is like a Bo Diddley type thing. Dwayne came up with that really solid bass line and Brent just went for it. It took about 10 minutes to write and we instantly loved it.

We went into Broadcasting House to record it. We felt like a simple rock ‘n’ roll band going into this massive studio, but Tony Burns who produced it was excellent. He Was really interested in getting a good recording and capturing the live energy of the band. He didn’t tell us to turn down the guitars, and he recognised that Gerald had a good voice, so he just wanted to make sure he was getting the right take. While I was doing the guitar overdubs, I was in the orchestral studio with only a couple of amplifiers, but I managed to be broadcast out on 2YA ‘cause the guitar amps were too loud.

Then we went out to Avalon [TV studios], and the video they made was one of my favourite parts of our band being together. We got there and we couldn’t believe they’d built this amazing desert for us, it was like we’d sent the set design out ourselves. It was so totally cheesy and ridiculous we just loved it. I said “can I plug into this cactus” and they said “yeah, do what you want”.

I don’t mind it being the Flesh D-Vice songs, ‘cause I think it was one of those times when we hit the nail on the head, with what we were trying to do, which was keep it solid and simple, but with a lot of power.

Eugene Pope

Released	1985, October
Label	Hardedge Records/ Jayrem Records
Formats	7″
Recorded	1985, Broadcasting House
Producer	Tony Burns
Engineer	Neil Maddever