With Ratcat’s Tingles EP high in the charts - and “ye-eh-eh-eh I love you” bursting forth from speakers all over town! - Hit Songwords decided to round up the lads and photograph them with their favourite things. Amr brought everything he owns (almost), while Andrew could only find two things he liked (the grouch!), and Simon was somewhere in between. The boys also filled us in on what Ratcat’s success means to them, and the best thing about it!

Andrew Polin

Full name : Just Andrew. (He’s fibbing, his last name really is Polin!)(”Damage Don!” interrupts Simon)

Favourite record : The Trousers In Action EP. (It’s a dodgy ‘indie’ record from the early ‘80’s by some even dodgier punk bands!) My favourite song is the Suicide Squad one. It’s my favourite song ever! It’s a great pop song and it’s really meaningful. I bought this when it came out with the fanzine Trousers In Action

Favourite sunglasses : These are my favourite sunglasses.

Favourite lollies : Clinkers! I don’t know why I like them, they’re just really good. You don’t know which flavour you’re going to get, it’s always a surprise. I love chocolate and I just love Clinkers! You can either bite into them, chew straight through them or you can suck all the chocolate off, and it takes you ages to suck through it.

How do you feel about Ratcat’s new-found fame?

I’d feel a lot better if we made a lot more money! But it’s good.

Best thing about being in Ratcat :

Having to see Amr Palmer (Amr Palmer is a golf joke. Don’t worry if you don’t get it - Ed all the time! That’s all I want to say - picking up hints on how to play golf from Amr! (”I’ve never played golf and I would never play golf!” Amr yells.) He’s lying!

Simon Day

Full name : Simon Day

Favourite clothing : My blue jeans - I seem to wear them the most, so they have to be my favourite! - and my boots. I’ve got spiderweb stitched cowboy boots. I got them years ago from Wheels And Doll Baby (trendy shop in Sydney), I did some work for them - I used to do graphics for them - and they gave me some cheap clothes!…This bandanna could be my favourite, I’ve had it eight years or something. I wore it as a tie to the ARIA awards the other night; great tie, it’s like an anti-tie tie! You can wear it round your wrist, round your head…in your pocket…blow your nose on it! Ha! It comes in handy at times…You can wrap your lollies in it!

Favourite Book : It’s by Clive Barker and it’s guaranteed to give you nightmares! I like having nightmares! I’ve had a few beauties reading his books! Falling asleep with the book open and waking up going (makes funny scared noise and jumps out of seat!). It’s a bit of adrenalin, just to keep life interesting! I’ve read it a couple of times, I’ve read all of Clive Barker’s stuff. They’re about sex, death, life…here’s one called The Midnight Meat Train (ugh!) It’s gore horror stuff. The Skins Of The Fathers…Human Remains, ha ha ha! I’m currently reading The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer - she’s a pretty weird girl!

Favourite Record : Julee Cruise’s Floating Into The Night. It’s soft and easy to listen to, and you can go to sleep to it.

Favourite jewellery :This is my favourite jewellery - I wear these rings together, always. One was a gift and one came from Paddington markets.

Favourite lollies : Bananas. These are the soft ones, I kinda like the hard ones (Sorry Simon! - Ed) Oh, it’s alright, you weren’t to know! I like the taste. I always used to get bananas when I was a kid. Pineapples are good too. I think it’s just because they’re sweet. I love chocolate more than lollies, my favourite chocolate is Lindt chocolate.

How do you feel about Ratcat’s new-found success? It’s good. It means we can work and pay the rent, which is pretty excellent. It’s become a full-time job and it’s more work than kinda expected - talking to people and smiling a lot. But it’s good, I think it’s fantastic.

Best thing about being in Ratcat : Getting free bananas at a Hit Songwords shoot! The opportunity it opens for getting messages across.

Amr Zaid

Full name : Amr Zaid Abdullah (pronounced “armer”). I use Amr Zaid in the band because Abdullah’s too long to fit on the little record labels!

Favourite clothing : These are my favourite pair of jeans, which I don’t wear that much any more - for obvious reasons! I’ve had them for about six years and they’re probably the most expensive jeans I’ve ever bought…I fell asleep at Melbourne airport and our tour manager thought it would be really funny to set fire to all the threads hanging off the knees! I was dreaming about one of those bizarre rituals where you have to walk on fire or something! It was quite painful, and I woke up and I was quite pissed off!

Favourite book :This is probably my all-time favourite. It’s called The Monster At The End Of The Book and it stars loveable furry old Grover! I lost my original copy so I got this one about four years ago - I saw it when I was shopping in Coles and I couldn’t resist it! I got the original copy when I was about three. I couldn’t read but I used to be able to turn all the pages at the right time and say all the words even though I wasn’t actually reading it! It’s wonderful because it says ‘Don’t turn the pages’, but you have to! So there!

Favourite record : It’s an original pressing of The Stems’ first ever single on Citadel. All the other ones had different coloured covers but this is one of the first 500, and I’ve had that for ages and it’s really groovy. The Stems were one of my favourite bands and a fun time band to go and see. I was a real ‘60s head. I’ve still got a couple of paisley shirts in my wardrobe! And I really like The Stems and it had nice colours on the cover for the first 500, so I’m glad I’ve got that.

Favourite piece of jewellery : I’ve got this tiny little ring because I only have a small little finger. I took it off because it has a crack in it and it’s just about to snap, so I have to take it to a jeweller. My girlfriend gave it to me - she’s got the same only bigger because she has bigger fingers!

Favourite lollies : Smarties. I’ve always loved them! They’re really colourful but you have to be careful because I believe that the blue ones are actually poisonous! I don’t eat the blue ones, I give them away! I always find plenty of takers for them (Simon eats them)…But I don’t know…they don’t go down very easily. I’ll eat most kinds of chocolate though.

How do you feel about Ratcat’s new found fame?

It’s great. I get to meet lots of new people, we get to travel around and have lots of fun. I’m really enjoying it.

Best thing about being in Ratcat :

Being able to play this wonderful, noisy sort of music. I enjoy getting up on stage, I look forward to it - it’s not like a job yet!