D4 and after

By REBECCA BARRY

The chemistry between the four women on camera is heating up, thanks to the red fishnet-wearing, stiletto-teetering director: "Exaggerate your movements, Beaver. Make it sexy."

"I'm trying to have an orgasm back here."

"I want you baby," the one in a billowing scarf mouths into the artificial wind.

"Cut!"

This isn't your ordinary Kiwi film set. Nor is it a porn flick.

For one, the stars are rock'n'roll band the D4, and like director Greg Page, they're dressed in drag. For another, the band are only in the country long enough to shoot the music video for Ladies Man, (specifically for release in the UK), meaning they'll spend less than 48 hours in the country before heading to Australia, then on to New York.

It's the kind of whirlwind travel the D4 is getting used to. Since releasing their debut album 6Twenty in 2001, Dion Palmer (vocals, guitar), Jimmy Christmas (guitar, vocals), Beaver Pooley (drums) and Vaughn Williams (bass) have made a name for themselves both here and abroad.

Today they're looking a little wan, because they've spent the past few months touring Europe and Australia, gracing the pages of the British music press, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Liam Gallagher and packing out gigs as far afield as Japan and Spain, and as prestigious as Britain's Glastonbury festival.

Even legendary BBC radio host John Peel has reportedly become a D4 fan. And they are often mentioned in the same breath as the Datsuns.

"The most exciting part is what's about to happen," says Palmer, who had always imagined himself as the frontman of a rock'n'roll band.

He's talking about their pending US tour, thanks to the band's most recent triumph: getting signed by Hollywood Records, an impressive addition to a growing roster of labels, including Flying Nun in New Zealand and Australia, Infectious Records in the UK, Play It Again Sam throughout Europe and Sony Music in Japan. Hollywood will release 6Twenty in the States in March and tour the band on the East and West coasts.

"[Hollywood] want to make us a priority and they've got deep pockets, so I'm looking forward to them treating us in the manner to which we'd like to become accustomed," quips Christmas, taking time out to embrace the fiancee he hasn't seen for two months.

Mark Ashbridge, managing director of Festival Mushroom Records (of which Flying Nun is a subsidiary), says the Hollywood contract is one of the biggest achieved by any New Zealand artist, also making it a big deal for a rock'n'roll band that has barely risen above underground status at home.

"It's a shame New Zealanders are a bunch of sheep," says Palmer.

"We've got things in our own backyard that are really good and yet we always tend to look overseas. We tend to ignore them."

Christmas: "Until somebody else validates them for us. People come and see us now who probably wouldn't have previously. But it's really great in another respect, because now we've got a wider profile."

The resurgence of garage rock has certainly helped. "It's a really amazing time to be in a rock'n'roll band," enthuses Christmas.

"We're fortunate in that when an opportunity presented itself, we had our shit together enough to go out and exploit it."

It wasn't always so easy. When the D4 formed three years ago they financed their own trips to Australia, Japan and the States. The fans came not only to hear the raw energy of the D4's party anthems, but to see them physically rocking out.

Take their recent gig at Southampton, for instance, during which Palmer jumped off the sound-mixing desk and landed on a pint glass.

"There was just blood everywhere," says Christmas. "It was quite cool. At the end of the show he left to go to the emergency room. It looked like someone had slaughtered a goat."

Palmer says incidents like that aren't deliberate - they happen because he gets caught up in the moment.

"We've done well because we're a good band and because we've worked very hard and we've been very simple-minded about what we've wanted to achieve," says Christmas.

"We've never allowed anybody to tell us what to do and to tell us that we can't do anything."

Even if it includes wearing makeup.

* The D4 play the blue stage (main stadium) at 3.30pm.

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