Back with a hiss and a roar

MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard

SCARY STUFF: The Bing Turkby ensemble are allegedly, from left, Tyrone T Blowhard, Slapskins McBoom, Bing Turkby and MacDeth.

They've been regaling Palmerston North with their version of ridiculous for 14 years, and now The Bing Turkby Ensemble is revitalised and back in the recording studio. MICHELLE DUFF asks them what on earth they're still singing about.

If there's one thing The Bing Turkby Ensemble aren't, it's serious.

Interviewing this band is like trying to catch a snowflake on your tongue. Every time you think you've got something, it dissolves.

Previous reports suggest the band was begun in the mid-90s by a man named Craig Johnston, who gave himself the misnomer of Bing Turkby.

Members came and went, but during the next decade The Bing Turkby Ensemble managed to record 11 albums – something no Palmerston North band has done before or since.

In 2006, they were the first local band to get a music video played on C4. They've played numerous gigs in the Manawatu, and did a short South Island tour.

The most recent incarnation of the group boasts three members alongside Johnston, and they are loathe to reveal their real names.

On stage, the saxophone player is Tyrone T Blowhard, while it's Slapskins McBoom on drums and MacDeth playing bass guitar.

Then there's Johnston, aka Bing, on lead vocals and his own personally modified electric guitar.

"The mission statement of The Bing Turkby Ensemble, and I haven't told anyone else this yet, is that music is fun," says Johnston, clad in an oriental-styled dressing gown at The Stomach recording studio.

They're recording a new album. "We'd like to come back with a hiss and a roar with the album, really, so we can be like `check that out'. The fans will be looking forward to that, one or two at least. It may scare some people ..."

He describes their genre as "aluminium metal" – lighter than heavy metal, and more malleable.

The ensemble are certainly well-known for their silliness – gags at their gigs include thumb dancing competitions, thrashing the drums with French baguettes, and lolly scrambles. Among their song titles are Against a Sponge, Noxious Vapours, and The Great Wheel.

They aim to be world famous in Palmerston North, and potentially make a buck or two while doing it.

"If we could make enough to buy a pizza one day, that would be quite nice," Turkby says.

Watch out for the new album, out later this year.

- © Fairfax NZ News