AUSTRALIAN IDOL: MORE FUN THAN THE X FACTOR

Quite a shameful while before Christmas, we got an email from Claire at CFBGoesPop detailing the collapse of the Australian Idol series into one bubble of controversey after another - not least the splendid and probably unsustainable rumours that the winner, Kate Dearaugo, won with the help of her Dad ringing her voteline thousands and thousands of times. And this chap, Lee Harding. Yes, yes, we know the only punks who dress like that nowadays are the ones who stand on Westminster Bridge charging tourists for photos, but it seems nobody has told Keith that. Lee, it seems, takes it all seriously.

But not so seriously as he didn't pause for a moment before releasing his debut single, Wasabi, which features the opening couplet "She's like a tsunami, could wipe out an army." Did he think that might, you know, be a little insensitive?

"When I first read the lyrics, I was like, hmm.

"It has settled down enough for people not to sort of jump on that I think and ... it (the word tsunami) is not made out in an offensive line."

C'mon, guys... that third of a million people drowned, like, months ago, and he did think "hmmm" - time to move on now, surely?

Lee is aware that a solo comedy punk might not last long, so he's putting together a band. He hasn't got a name for it yet:

"I am tossing up ideas," he said.

"I am looking at band names with two words in it, something punchy that jumps out at you, something that rolls off the tongue nicely."

Hmm... how about Safe Rebellion? Mummy's Shocker? Discount Mascara?

Claire reports that when he was asked "as you're wearing a Motley Crue tshirt, what are your five favourite Motley crue songs", he was only able to come up with two. One of them? Anarchy In The UK.

music lee harding punk australian idol