Ratcat have been together as an animal outfit for quite sometime. Before they changed their name to Ratcat, over five years ago, they were going under the moniker of that miniature animated crusader, Dangermouse. “We had a song called ‘Ratcat’ when we were Dangermouse but decided to call ourselves Ratcat because we thought Dangermouse was a bit boring,” says Simon Day, vocalist of the group. As Diane Godley found out, cats and rats are somewhat an intrinsic part of Ratcat.

Simon and the drummer of Ratcat, Andrew Polin “hit” it off from the very first time they met.

Simon : Well actually, I ran Andrew over in my car. “What are you doing down there mate?” I said. And he said “I was looking for the drumsticks I dropped on the road”.

Simon said “Are you a drummer?” and I said yep and he asked “Would you like to play in a band called Ratcat?”

Simon : I said to Andrew, “I’ve got a guitar in the car, let’s go and jam”. And he said “Cool, marmalade”. That was about six years ago. Amr (the bass guitarist) joined the band two years ago. (The circumstances surrounding Amr’s joining are not quite as spectacular as Andrew’s) I ran right over him, Andrew went right under the car. I scraped him along the ground for about 200 metres.

Andrew : I was alright though.

Simon : He sort of had a suit of armour on, so when he went under it just created sparks and it didn’t hurt his body.

Andrew : Just a bit of mild concussion. Then we went and wrote a song about it.

Simon : It’s called, “Sorry For The Car Crash I Hope You Don’t Mind.”

Getting back to animals, Simon, you seem to have a bit of a cat obsession

Simon : I do indeed. They’re great animals, very independent, strong willed, they know what they like they don’t pander to anyone. I respect their personality, their character traits. Do I own a cat? I’ve had a few but I don’t have one at the moment. I’m getting a new one pretty soon though.

Are you, Simon, going to continue designing the artwork for the record covers and posters now you can afford to have someone else do it for you?

Simon : If I have the time, I’ll definitely do the covers. The tour posters and press ads I’ll still design but I might have to get someone else to lay them out. Did I design “Tingles”? Yep! I designed everything.

There’s no cat on “Tingles”.

Simon : Nope, there’s not, but there’s a cat on “Don’t Go Now” and there’s a cat on “Baby Baby”.

Were you surprised “Tingles” cracked the Top Ten

Simon : Yeah, we didn’t expect it to happen so big. We were hoping just to double our ground base from three to six thousand. But we’ve gone from about three to 35 000 in the space of a couple of months.

Andrew : We still haven’t received major radio airplay rotation. I think the success of “Tingles” is due to live playing, word of mouth and the fact that the CD was put on the market for $5 rather than $25.

Simon : But by the same token, if it was bad music I don’t think people would buy it no matter what price it’s at. I don’t think the price discounts the music. I think the music sells itself.

Are there any cat songs on your album, “Blind Love”?

Simon : “Baby Baby” is about a cat…or a girl…or a boy if you’re a girl or anything you want it to be. There’s no specific gender and there’s no specific thing.

Are you pretty scared about playing the INXS support on their national tour?

Simon : It’s fantastic. We’re really happy about it, but by the same token, we’re a little bit nervous. It’s a big stage and we’ve got a lot of work to do. The adrenalin will be flying.

Andrew : 12 000 people a night.

Simon : We played to seven and a half thousand before, at the Fisherman’s Wharf in Queensland.

Have you ever had anything thrown at you on stage?

Simon : When we played in Perth, they threw cans at me when I made a mistake. It was really weird. I made a mistake - and it wasn’t a very obvious mistake - and this can came flying at me and I thought, yeah fair enough, I did make a mistake. Another mistake and another can came flying out of the audience. I thought, I just can’t mess up now, these guys have got a point! The rest of the gig was flawless.

Andrew : Amr was hit by a schooner glass in Adelaide once, so he picked up a jug and threw it back at the guy who threw the glass.

Simon : I had a pair of pantyhose thrown at me once ha! There were some squealing girls at the front of the stage but I didn’t see which one threw them. It was kind of a bit of a shock actually.

Have you ever had your bottom pinched by a fan?

Simon : Yeah, but I never turn around to see who did it. One time we were playing at Selinas (in the beachside suburb of Coogee in Sydney) I got a heap of people in the audience up on stage with us. I got my bottom pinched a lot that night.

Andrew : I was wondering what all those high lead breaks were haha!

What do you think of the idea of Ratcat being bedroom pinups?

Simon : Ooh, I didn’t know people were pinning us up in their bedrooms! Gee, I don’t know, it’s pretty weird actually, but I suppose it just comes with the job. You’ve got to get used to it I suppose, you’ve got to accept it - but not get too influenced by it. It’s really important to keep your head.