On Mark Ronson's Round The Twist Spins

When asked whether he was aware his composition, the theme song for Round The Twist, was Mark Ronson's intro tape of choice during his last Australian tour, Andrew Duffield replies, "No, haha, isn't that amazing? Wow!" 2DayFM's Breakfast hosts Dan & Maz tipped Ronson off about the popular kids TV theme and Ronson ran with it. "It's really kind of interesting, you know, 'cause I teach sound design at RMIT - and I teach at the VCA - and the kids, well, they're not kids, obviously, but they grew up with that program and so it has this sort of real meaning for them," he laughs. "I really like [the theme song], I'm very proud of that, but they really admire it and cite it as an influence - a kind of musical influence - which is great!" On whether he thinks these recent Round The Twist spins might translate into dollars on his royalty cheque, Duffield reveals, "In fact, my wife said to me the other day, she said, 'Your APRA cheque's pretty good this year'."

"We got 75 pounds a week each as a per diem, we had a kind of Ford Transit van - I mean it was just palatial."

When told old Models videos were viewed as part of this scribe's research, Duffield enquires, "So what did you glean from watching an old bunch of Models videos?" Particularly entertaining was a short film released in June 1981 to promote the Models EP Cut Lunch (it's on YouTube), which includes footage of bassist Mark Ferrie roaming Melbourne's CBD in search of the 'Man Of Action' and quizzing randoms about their cut lunches. Duffield laughs, "Well that's kind of the band, you know; it's with Mark Ferrie and stuff." He's referring to the Models line-up, rounded out by Sean Kelly and drummer Ash Davies, about to head out on a national tour.

So while we're back there, how does listening to early Models material make Duffield feel? "Well, it's incredibly naive and I can't help but cringe a little bit," he admits. When the band signed to Mushroom Records ("Gudinski, of course, was the first kind of 360 guy and he had Frontier Touring"), this led to a support slot on The Police tour. "Miles Copeland, the manager of The Police, liked the band and we signed to A&M [Records] in Europe," Duffield recalls. Models then flew to London to record the aforementioned EP's follow-up, Local &/Or General. "We were accommodated in Sloane Square just off the Kings Road in this incredible accommodation," Duffield remembers. "We got 75 pounds a week each as a per diem, we had a kind of Ford Transit van - I mean it was just palatial by comparison to the other people that were in England at the same time [laughs]. You know, like The Moodists and Ollie Olsen and Nick [Cave] and The Boys Next Door - soon to be The Birthday Party. And they were just doing it really hard; I mean, putting handbills under car windscreen wipers for, like, three pounds a day and a packet of smokes was kinda one quid." Obviously all their fellow expat musicians wanted to move into casa Models, then. "They did, yeah," Duffield confirms. "So we were hit upon a little bit by the English contingent."