TOTP: How superstitious are you? Do you have any pre-performance rituals that you'd like to share with us?
Natalie: Pre-performance rituals? It depends how much time we have really, I do have a set of show rituals that I like to do - I like to eat about two hours before, no earlier no later, because it takes that long to digest properly. If I eat too early then I'm starving halfway through a set, and if I eat too late then I'm kind of...bringing it up during a set, which is not good. [Giggles.] Then I like to have a shower, steam, proper vocal warm-up, stretch, jump up and down, and get out there!
James: I do my Clive Dunn [from Dad's Army - Old Ed.] impersonation. [Collapses into helpless laughter for quite some time.] That's not really what I do, but I just thought it was a really funny thing to say! [Has hysterics again.] No, I actually don't have any rituals or anything like that.
TOTP: That's OK, we'll quote you on the first one...
James: OK! That's fine, I'll answer the rest seriously.

TOTP: Where do you stand on the potential bad luck of saying "Macbeth" in a theatre?
James: I don't think there's anything in that. I'm actually not superstitious at all, to be honest. Although my mum has a thing about magpies, when she sees one, she has to say "good morning, Mr Magpie", otherwise the magpie will give her bad luck all day.
Natalie: Are you serious?
James: She does! No, seriously.
Natalie: I thought that was another one of your gags...
James: No, that's not a gag. In fact, the last one wasn't even a gag, really. [Cringes.] No superstitions at all, I think you can't afford to be superstitious. One of the great triumphs of science is destroying superstition, and I'm all for it.
Natalie: I don't really have any either. I do do that kind of touch-wood thing, which I think I got from my mum once when I was younger. I said, "God, I wish I had two heads!" or something, and my mum said, "Quick! Touch wood! Touch wood!" I was like, "MUM! I'm not gonna get two heads!" But she was SO adamant that I did it, so I went [knocks on the table] "OK, touch wood!", so I do do that, but not really.
TOTP: But you touched wood and you still haven't got two heads, so maybe there is something in it...
Natalie: I know! Maybe it works.
James: It's a self-proving theory, it must be true.

TOTP: Do you think there's any kind of musical equivalent to the Macbeth thing - something you shouldn't say before a gig, or a person's name you shouldn't mention because they bring bad luck?
James: You probably shouldn't ever mention Sigue Sigue Sputnik before a gig, for obvious reasons. Say no more. Also, I think that any band that poor Russell Crowe's been in...
Natalie: Awww! Don't be mean!
James: No, I'm not being mean! I'm terrified he might beat me up now. I think you just can't afford to be superstitious in a band, because if you are you'll never get anything done. [Natalie bursts out laughing.] Mind you, though, it's a bit like being in a cult, because it's very inclusive and you have to wear lots of make-up. [Everyone sniggers.]

TOTP: So you don't have any charms, like a lucky rabbit's foot or a lucky pair of pants?
James: No. I always change my undies before going on stage.
Natalie: Which is lucky for the rest of us! I did get the boys these crystal bracelets - remember them?
James: Oh, I'm SO sorry about that.
Natalie: And one of them still wears it, but the other one's lost it.
James: Who's that?
Natalie: My boyfriend! [Giggles.] Yeah, and they were kind of good luck, but that really went out of the window because success hasn't really been working for us!
James: I know, I know! If only we had those bracelets...
Natalie: [laughing] If we had the bracelets on, we'd be so much bigger!
James: Seriously, I'm very sorry that we lost those, because it was a lovely thing for our first shows for Nat to have done.
Natalie: But you know, I have done auditions with different crystals and stuff, and... [giggles] One time, I did this audition and I had a crystal, and a little fairy, and all these things that my friends had given to me, and I put them in my bra. I went and did the audition and [keeps giggling throughout] little did I know that they were taking photos on the day, and when they printed it in this magazine, I've got, like, denty boobs! It's actually all of my lucky charms in my bra! I didn't think you could see it, but in the photo you can see all of these lucky charms. Yeah, it looks really bad.
TOTP: The best thing about that story is that the next question was going to be "have you ever kept your lucky rabbit's foot in your lucky pants?"
Natalie: Yeah, well, there you go!

TOTP: Do you read your horoscopes, and do you believe them?
James: Well, I've got a bit of a problem there, because I don't believe in horoscopes, but I'm assured that that's a typical Gemini trait. [Natalie bursts out laughing.] Which I find intensely annoying. "Oh, you're such a Gemini!" "IT'S BULLS***!" "Oh, that's what ALL Geminis say..." But my wife reads them to me all the time.
Natalie: I have phases where I read them and phases where I don't. There is one guy in Melbourne that's pretty on it - Jonathan Cainer is pretty good. One time I went and bought this book and it was so ridiculously correct about my life that I went, "there's something in that", and -
James: Was it your autobiography?
Natalie: [feigning innocence] Yeah, it was my diary!
James: "Wow, this is me!"
Natalie: "S***, I wrote that yesterday!"

TOTP: Do you have any obsessive-compulsive habits, like checking light switches or washing your hands?
James: I DO wash my hands.
Natalie: [sniggers] Thank God!
James: I'm paranoid about locks. I'm always double- and triple-checking locks, and I always press the "bip-bip!" button on the car, and I almost always go back and double-check it. Sometimes three times, which is terribly frustrating for everyone around me. And that means I'm mad.
Natalie: No!
James: But I think that's good to be mad, if you're in a band. You know that old sign, You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helps? I think that was inside a Pink Floyd album originally. [Brief silence, then giggles.]
Natalie: I have an obsessive-compulsive need to have order. If I'm at home, I like to write lists, and before I go to bed everything has to be - you know, if it's not I get frustrated, and everyone will be like, "it's OK that it's not done!", and I'll be [slightly whiny] "No, but it HAS to be done!" And I'll stay up really late until everything's done! I'm getting better. I like writing lists and ticking things off that I've done, I like to ACHIEVE! Feel like the day was worth it! [Laughs.] The day was successful! I did all of these things! It's pretty bad, actually.

Part two coming soon...