DUM DUMS EXPLAIN ALL

The Fly - 26/06/00

Over tea and a strudel Trying to find firm ground in between the lush commercial fields of pop, and the less green pavements of rock credibility is no easy task. Unless, it seems, you're Dum Dums

Trying to find firm ground in between the lush commercial fields of pop, and the less green pavements of rock credibility is no easy task. Unless, it seems, you're Dum Dums.

Maybe the fact that their first single, Everything, managed to storm the charts and Saturday morning television, whilst still being playlisted by the likes of Xfm, is down to the fact that they just don't give a shit. Not about the way things are, not about the way things are meant to be, and, most certainly, not about trying to be anything that they are not. Or maybe it's just because Everything, and their follow up single, I Can't Get You Out Of My Thoughts (which looks set to be even bigger than its forerunner), are darn good tunes. Maybe it's that plain, that simple.

Whatever the explanation, the three lads that make up the band, Josh Doyle (vocals/guitar), Steve Clarke (bass) and Stuart Wilkinson (drums), have certainly got good reason to smile, and it's no surprise to find them in jovial spirits. Even if we are in The Trocadero, the epitome of technological hell, the scourge of our society, the sticky, humid centre of this dirty city. Even if they've only had four and a half hours sleep.

Sitting in The Trocadero's restaurant, Stuart is snacking on a spinach strudel, the sight of which is making some stomachs turn. "My brain had a momentary lapse and told me I might like it," offers Wilkinson, by way of explanation, as he eyes his meal suspiciously. "That's messed up, man," declares Steve, and it's difficult not to agree, whilst, at the same time, wonder what possessed anyone to create such a dish. Josh suggests that Stuart is much like, "A spinach strudel; green on the inside and crispy and pastry-like on the outside." The singer's description of himself, that he is, "quiet sometimes, noisy sometimes", whilst easier to fathom, is equally inconclusive, making it difficult to tell you in the band's own words how these three individuals perceive themselves. Steve is a little more helpful, suggesting that he is, "a very outgoing person", and although Josh tries to elaborate on his own character by mentioning that he likes music, it's kind of hard not to have suspected that already. But still, the fact that Steve quit working in MacDonald's because some of the boys used to "pee in the orange juice tank" suggests an admirable morality at the heart of at least a third of Dum Dums.

Dum Dums don't take drugs, although Steve admits to drinking a lot of coffee, and one can't help but conclude that this is probably wise. Particularly when the conversation turns to what would really be the most horrible thing that could ever, ever happen. Without so much as even a toke on a reefer, the boys are debating the awfulness of being trapped in an elevator. Not such an unusual fear you might think, except Dum Dums' elevator is stranded in space. "You would go insane if you were stuck in an elevator in space forever," notes Doyle, logically, "there would be crap all over the walls and stuff, then you'd die...eventually. Actually, you'd just explode when you got into space, unless it was an elevator with oxygen..." "And a built in kitchen, wardrobe and bed," adds Steve, encouraging a thoughtful Josh to point out that, should your elevator happen to have a bed and oxygen, "You'd just be jerking off all the time." Furrowing his eyebrows, he adds, "I didn't say jerking off, I said cherking off."

Although there probably hasn't been much 'cherking off' allowed when performing for the kids on CD:UK and suchlike, it's easy to see why the band has such an appeal across the board, and why they will even endear themselves to people who think all musicians should be mad, bad and dangerous to know. They really are just about the happiest, most genuine guitar strumming, pop stars about, but maybe that's because somewhere along the line they've destroyed the negative bits in their brains. Certainly, one could make a case for Stuart. "I used to walk around and smack my head off things all the time," he says, rather worryingly. "If I went back to being younger again, I'd focus on being able to keep my head straight and not smacking it off tables and stuff." You can understand the reasoning there, and when Wilkinson mentions that, "It was accidental though, it wasn't like 'bad Stu, bad Stu!'", the band's chosen moniker suddenly makes perfect sense.

Johnny K