Reviews
Back with a hiss and a roar
Michelle Duff, Manawatu
Standard, 30 April 2010.
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.