The Parkinsons launched themselves upon a raft of bad taste to float the pea green gutters of London town, awash with journalistic slurry, to find themselves labelled the new princes of punk.

The only thing missing from accounts of onstage orgies, battles with venue managers and arcs of urine stretching above audience heads and down, down, descending to bless the mosh pit in a baptism of bad boy spatter, is any reference the music itself.

Cheap, fast and red-raw in delivery, (asphalt, meet knee – knee, meet iodine), The Parkinsons out-PMT The Donna’s for screaming incite to riot, while treading at the heels of L7 in the race to freak out via forbidden flesh buffet.

Fast running out of stages to perform upon, these Portuguese tearaways (plus one English drummer), arrive at The Masque Venue to sit quietly upon stools and sing Enya ballads, knitting vests for hairless voles during the interval. Only joking!

Instead they’ll be performing new material from their new EP, ‘The Streets of London’. BBC Online spoke to lead singer Alfonse about hype, life in a foreign land and customised briefs. Hey, this beer tastes funny…

What other music are you listening to at the moment, when not performing your own?

"Basically I’ve been listening to a lot of Rockabilly compilations, and a lot of 60s soul groups. People like The Chiffons, the Shangri Las and all that."

That’s a bit different to your own sound, isn’t it?!

"Yeah, but we're not really stuck in a punk rock band, although that’s our main influence and our songs fit into that category. I like to listen to a lot of 60s groove and soul, anything with a good melody to free my mind a little bit and relax."

Do you think you might incorporate this influence into your act? Bouffant hairdos and matching ballgowns?

"Mmm, some mohair jumpers maybe!"

Most of the press reviews I’ve read refer to your on and off-stage antics, but does it bother you that the music is referred to second, if at all?

"It does. Some of them really piss me off. For example, our last review in the NME was just focused on someone’s attitude, which wasn’t even our own attitude, and the music didn’t get mentioned at all. And that’s the sort of thing that really annoys me."

"True, we did create a reputation that was based on our stage antics, which are not prepared or planned at all - quite the contrary, and that hype I just have to live with. But people do have to come and see us live to be proved wrong. There’s more to us than the press are willing to describe."

Why did you relocate from sunny Portugal to our miserable climes?

"It came about as a coincidence, especially for me. I’d already been in London for one and a half years. I came to England with no goal. I left Portugal because I couldn’t find a proper job, and I wasn’t happy with my home situation at the time. So I came to England to find a job, a place to stay and to re-assess my life."

"It was when I went home for a short break that I met the others, and their bands were breaking up at the time. It was suggested that maybe we should get together and form our own, but I thought no more about it until one month later they arrived in London! Once we’d decided to create The Parkinsons, the plan was to sew the seeds in England and then move on to America where we’ve always had a lot of contacts who might help us out. But then things started to happen and really take off for us here, and we're not complaining!"

What’s been your shortest gig so far?

"Shortest gig? We’ve had a few sets stopped before our time was up! But the shortest would definitely be at The Cargo, in the East End of London. We got attacked by the security staff on stage and dragged off after four or five songs. It got in the papers because the fans turned on the staff, and pretty soon everyone was rolling about the floor… "

Have you sustained any injuries?

"I did open my head a couple of times, which wasn’t intentional . It’s happened twice now, and amazingly at the same place, a venue called The Open Anchor. Are we still welcome back? Maybe not!"

I notice from pictures of your concerts, when your clothes disappear snap by snap, that you seem to prefer briefs over boxes…

"That’s right! Although in my everyday life I do prefer boxers, it’s just that on stage well, it’s a different matter! There’s a lot more movement! Plus I find them funny. I have a red pair that I wear a lot, and now I have some customised black ones that have ‘The Parkinsons’ written across them. I should start encouraging people to send them in, I wish they would but none have yet."

Finally, what do your parents think of the sort of youth-seducing filth you’ve chosen to pursue as a career?

"Is it a career? (Laughs). I havent thought of it like that, not yet anyway. Well, my mum loves it. Everytime I go to Portugal my mum come to see all the shows."

Really? Do you still take your clothes off?

"Yeah, she loves it, she enjoys it all She loves me is what it is. Anything I do she would love it. To her, I can’t do any wrong…"

Words: Bren O’Callaghan

The Parkinsons are performing at the Masque Venue on Wednesday 18th September in the Loft, tickets £6.00. Tel: 0151 708 8708 for information and credit card bookings.