Music: Flash Bastard (they upset the Crue and attacked Klaus Meine with a pitchfork)

"It's hard work being a Bastard"

“Rock’n'roll must be destroyed!” exclaim the superbly named Flash Bastard. And you know what? They’re doing a damn good job…

Track: Flash Bastard – Rock’N'Roll Must Be Destroyed

File under: a lipstick thriller with hints of the Pistols, the Dolls and Sweet, along with the occasional pinch of Rocky Horror fun

The tale of Flash Bastard is so sleazy, sordid and over the top, even Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx couldn’t handle them.

Flash Bastard began when three high-school delinquents crossed paths. As angst-ridden teens they played punk clubs, booze cans and high-school dances. After years of achieving notoriety in the local (Vancouver) scene, the band appeared in the punk film Hard Core Logo, which eventually caught the eye of the aforementioned Nikki Sixx.

Flash Bastard swiftly inked a record deal with Sixx’s Americoma/BMG label and went from the studio to the stadium within a month. Needing little encouragement, they upped the ante on their already excessive rock’n'roll lifestyle to the max.

Arrests, overdoses, drunk tanks and kidnapping – yes, kidnapping – ensued, as well as sold-out arena tours supporting the Crue and the Scorpions. (There was a particularly memorable incident involving attacking Scorps frontman Klaus Meine with a pitchfork.) Even legendary bad boy Sixx struggled to keep Flash Bastard under control.

During this period Flash Bastard recorded their debut album, Rock’N'Roll Must Be Destroyed… but the band were dropped from Sixx’s label and the album shelved.

FB frontman Donal Finn says: “You can only make so good of a record when your blood toxicity levels are on a part with Michael Jackson’s autopsy report. We wanted to give fans every inch of the ragin’ slab o’ rock we thought they deserved, and that has meant starting again from scratch. It’s hard work being a Bastard! Don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

So here we are in 2012, with a re-recorded album set for release via Cargo Records on October 29. Check out the title track below. And remember: don’t let the Bastard grind you down…