VALENTINE: We’ve been going for 10 or 11 years, and I’ve found that the key to longevity is, like anything, mixing it up. It’s a purgatory, but it’s a wonderful purgatory.īROWN: Is that why you decided to record a solo album, Destroy the Children ? We play a lot of the same venues over and over again. Nickelback would be like Prêt à Manger or your Nandos and we would be more along the lines of one of those smaller coffee shops with the tuna sandwiches with sweet corn.īROWN: Yes, I would name one, but they all keep growing.
There’s so many tiers and levels you could be at, and not just in music, but in any industry. It feels great.īROWN: Would you say that you’re more popular in England than in America?
We’re a couple steps down, but it’s a great, great place to be. We met with Valentine over tea to discuss making the fraternity playlist, Taco Bell, and favorite song lyrics.ĮMMA BROWN: Electric Six is very popular in England.ĭICK VALENTINE: Well, I wouldn’t go that far. Dick Valentine, however, is the only remaining member of the original six. Since Fire, the band has released an impressive eight albums, with another one on the way, and gained a bit of a cult following. With their videos for songs like “Gay Bar,” and “Danger! High Voltage,” the band seemed to be reveling in their preposterousness.
Valentine’s real name is Tyler Spencer and, dressed in jeans and free of facial hair and leather, Spencer seems a very normal Brooklynite.Įlectric Six first came onto the scene in 2003, with their album Fire, a high-energy rock record that is at once supremely silly and captivating. Retrieved Septem– via Official BBC channel on YouTube.If the words “Electric Six” conjure up images of the band’s lead singer, Dick Valentine, dressed as Abraham Lincoln, but with leather hot pants, and singing, “I want to take you to the gay bar, gay bar,” you might be in for a shock.
A studio version was released on their album Stallion Battalion.īritish comedy duo Armstrong & Miller parodied the "Gay Bar" in their series promotional video for BBC One in the United Kingdom. The Bosshoss played a cover of the song during their 2010 "Low Voltage" tour.
The band performed the song in their live concert movie Absolute Treasure.The band performed the song on their first live album Absolute Pleasure.The song was less of a direct sequel, opting instead to satirise their annoyance caused by people demanding a follow-up song as well as troubles with their previous record label demanding that they record "another Gay Bar". The band recorded "Gay Bar Part Two", a sequel to this song, for their album Flashy.
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. UK, Australian, and New Zealand CD single It also won Video of the Year award (2003) from both Kerrang and Q magazine. The song was nominated for the Kerrang! Award for Best Single. The video depicts a series of Abraham Lincoln look-alikes in the White House, portrayed primarily by the band's lead singer Dick Valentine, but stand-ins were used for some scenes. The music video, directed by Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire, was recorded in April 2003 at a movie studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A radio version in Japan exists in which the same lyrics are replaced with "let's do an edit, do a radio edit". In the censored version of the song, the words "nuclear" and "war" (in the line "let's start a war, start a nuclear war") are cut out and a whip lash sound is used instead. (The actual lyric is "She's just the girl, she's just the girl, the girl you want".) According to Spencer/Valentine, the idea for the song came up from incorrectly hearing the lyrics of DEVO's " Girl U Want" as "it's just a girl, it's just a girl at a gay bar" while the song was playing in a very loud nightclub.