The novelty act spectre is unlikely to be entirely exorcised by their debut album, Fire. Logic suggests that any band that can lose over half of its members at the height of its success and replace them without missing a beat may not actually be a proper band at all.
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Or perhaps not: in recent weeks, three of the original quintet have been summarily dismissed and replaced by other men with wacky pseudonyms. Perhaps they were in it for the long haul. Rather than suffering the traditional ignominy of the comic follow-up, the Electric Six's second single, a rollicking garage rock track called Gay Bar, also went into the top 10. Even when the joke had worn off, it was hard not to admit that Danger! High Voltage! was a fantastic record: it had a taut, thrilling guitar hook, an explosive chorus and even a sax solo that carried a hint of 2 Tone. They were neither masquerading comedians nor manufactured by a record company, but a band that had been recording for almost a decade as the Wildbunch. On another level, however, the Electric Six appeared to have more depth than their comic novelty forebears. These people, you felt, knew that the moment their single dropped from the charts, a life of obscurity would beckon, punctuated only by appearances at freshers' bops, alongside the Mike Flowers Pops and Doctor and the Medics. They seemed like a band making the most of their 15 minutes of fame.
![are electric six gay bar are electric six gay bar](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EjSpQa6YML4/hqdefault.jpg)
It was made by men with extravagant pseudonyms (including Surge Joebot and the Rock and Roll Indian), camp stage costumes and a tendency to spin ridiculous yarns in interviews. It came with a celebrity connection: the White Stripes' Jack White provided a histrionic backing vocal.
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It cocked an eyebrow at current musical trends, including garage and punk funk. On one level, their debut British hit Danger! High Voltage! was the archetypal comic novelty single. So the continuing interest in the Electric Six seems a fairly odd phenomenon.