JOEL MCDONALD, guitarist of Sydney hard rockers TORCH LE MONDE, talks to fellow Alice Cooper fan EDGAR A. MOORE.

EDGAR MOORE: What was it like seeing Alice Cooper live in concert when you were a tyke?

JOEL MCDONALD: Unbelievable! I was eight and Jordan [Mcdonald, drummer] was six! I couldn’t believe our parents agreed to take us. The whole time our mum was trying to cover our eyes when Alice was doing the whole guillotine thing, and throwing blood all over the crowd.

EM: You had to switch producers halfway through recording your album. What happened?

JM: After about three days of recording, we were listening back to what we had done and realised we’d made a mistake. The producer we were using just wasn’t the right fit for us. For us, recording has always been a hard-working, yet fun and creative process and unfortunately (due to the environment we were in) there was just none of that, so we had to pull the plug!

EM: What’s the worst gig you’ve ever played been?

JM: Hansil’s Bar and Grill in the middle of nowhere during our first US tour. We rocked up to this place and there were huge posters everywhere saying ‘Torch Le Mumde’ sponsored by Coors Lite. When we went inside, the owner was a little Indian guy who couldn’t really speak English. The only thing we eventually understood was that he had no PA! So we played two hours of improvised blues rock stuff with no vocals to the owner’s wife and a couple of drunk rednecks. We couldn’t wait to get out of there!

EM: And the best?

JM: I could talk about the gigs with the biggest crowds etc., but the most memorable for me was a place in Philadelphia (also during our first US tour). We thought it was going to be shocking, because it was this quaint little restaurant-like place and the person on before us was reading poetry! It was probably the closest we’d come to bailing on a gig. We did our thing and the place just went crazy, all these strange, arty people just started dancing on the tables and really getting loose! It was an extremely surreal moment and it turned out to be the funnest night of the tour.

TORCH LE MONDE play The Globe on Friday Mar 19 and the Miami Shark Bar on Saturday Mar 20 to launch new single, YOU. We’re reliably informed both venues have a PA. For more information, see www.myspace.com/torchlemonde.

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