Credit: Found On Internet

The Go! Team began life as a one-man home recording project but are now the most ridiculously effervescent six-piece band you could ever hope to see. It's a bit like The Wizard Of Oz; the pallid black and white of debut album 'Thunder, Lightning, Strike' has given way to the vivid Technicolour of their live show just as with Dorothy's adventures in Munchkinland (only with fewer witches), band members running amok as frontlady Ninja politely informs the crowd that "Everybody should be dancing" and shakes her batty as an example.

Music Towers caught up with the band's founding member, multi-instrumentalist Ian Parton, and its newest recruit, Kaori Tsuchida (guitar, keys, other stuff), just hours before they shook the Royal Albert Hall as support for The Flaming Lips.

Kaori, you joined The Go! Team late last year. How did that come about?

Kaori: "I got a phone call, then went to an audition, then I joined! Haha. Simple. That took two days."

Ian: "That was just before a three-week American tour, which was like her trial period. It was more fun having Kaori than our previous guitarist Silke, both on and off the stage. Kaori looks like she's enjoying herself! There's a lot more action, a lot more jumping around. Kaori and Ninja get on and they can do vocals together, so that's better."

K: "It's good to play lots of instruments too, because I'd been playing guitar for years in my own band Yumi Yumi. I like it but I really wanted to play something else so this is perfect for me. It was like, Keyboards, yes! Tambourine, yes! And the recorder is the best; I used to play it at school. I was really good at it when I was six, and more than 20 years later I was playing it on stage in front of 2,000 people!"

Is it tough to join an established band?

K: "Yeah, I was nervous at the beginning cos I've never been in a professional band before."

I: "Professional? We didn't seem professional, did we? In the first practice, we did a little jam round my house and our bassist Jamie (Bell) had a really dodgy spare pink sparkly guitar that he's had since he was 17. Kaori was terrified."