No white coots and bolding boffins here. The Scientists' instruments are loud guitars, and their formula quite simple: maximum noise.

It's a dark club. And this band come on. They're called the Scientists.

And there's this geezer with a Thinline Telecaster and his hair in his eyes and a manic expression on the small part of his face that isn't obscured by his long Sixties-style hair and he's got the best line in over-the-top guitar sounds I've heard since... well, since the last time I saw the Scientists.

Two days later he's perched on a chair three feet away, drinking tea and behaving very well for someone who looks like they would cut your throat if you looked at him crooked.

His name is Tony Thewis and he's really a jolly nice chap.

"Psychotic? No, we're just regular guys. Though some people in Spain keep sending us stuff with drawings of us with our arms around the Cramps holding bottles and knives and guns and stuff."

He speaks with a mild Australian accent. Which makes sense really as the band are Australian. Though they've lived in London long enough to be counted in musical circles as a British band. Tony starts to attempt an explanation.

"The Scientists started in Perth in 1978 with Kim and Boris and then went through several line up changes until they broke up and Boris went to Sydney."

After this things start to get complicated so, to abbreviate slightly, after lots of gigging around Sydney the Scientists reformed with Tony as part of the new line up along with Kim Salmon (vocals, guitar) Boris Sujdovic (bass) and Brett (drums).

But the line up's just changed again with Brett stomping off just before the band's support tour with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Boris having to go back to Australia when his visa ran out.

"We went through a few drummers until we got Leanne" — who was their roadie — "and we've got Joe standing in on bass. He's just a friend, he's got his own band called Silver Chapter."

The band have just recorded some new tracks for an LP soon to be released, called 'Weird Love'.

"We recorded it in West 3 studios where Johnny Thunders recorded his last album, Que Sera. It was produced by Richard Mazda, he's done The Fall and The Fleshtones and he did Wall of Voodoo.

"Most of it was done 'live' but there are some new bits. Like on the beginning of 'Swampland' he got Boris to play some bass then played it backwards and put an echo on it.

"And on 'Hell Beach' there's a sound effects record with seagulls and the sea at the start, and Richard played maraccas and tambourine. It's amazing the amount of difference that tambourine makes.

"In all, it took us about two days to record and one day to mix."

No, I didn't make a mistake, it did take three days to record and mix a ten-track studio LP. Which must make their record company, Karbon Records, very very happy.

"We could play some stuff in our sleep. I mean we've been playing 'Swampland' for about five years. The other thing that came from it was that we discovered that Leanne can play piano and now there are bits of that on the LP like at the beginning of 'Hell Beach'. We all dabble on things, like playing 'Holocaust' on the piano when we get the chance, but Leanne is really good."

Being Scientists you'd think that specialist equipment would be needed. But apparently not.

"When we left Australia we sold all our amps and stuff and just ran out and bought the first stuff we saw over here. Now we've got Fender twin amps (with high output speakers) and I've got a Fender Telecaster Thinline.

"Kim's guitar used to be a Fender Coronado which is a hollow-body and it was really hard to play, so we threw away the body and had a new one made by a guy in Perth. It's a sort of Jazzmaster shape and we painted flames and stuff on it.

"I have this sort of fear of effects because most of the time they're used so badly. The Sisters of Mercy or any of those groups have got this chorus echo sound and when I hear that I just turn off. I never bother listening to it, which may sound pretty bad, but ninety-nine point nine per cent of it is so terrible it's worth missing the point one."

After living in England for the last two years The Scientists don't seem to be showing any sign of flagging under the strain of fighting the Goth audiences on their support tours around the country with such bands as The Gun Club, The Sisters of Mercy, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Soon they will be out trying to impress the 'hipper than thou' club audiences and possibly spending some time in the States.

"Well, we thought that touring with The Gun Club and the Sisters Of Mercy would help a lot and it did help a bit, but I don't think that we'll be doing much more of it. We want to go to America but I don't know if that'll come off yet."

The format will be the same, hard swampy rock 'n' roll from the place where the sun never shines, garageland.

Meanwhile in that very same place, the guitarist stands still for a minute and stares at the singer who returns the stare and shrugs.

"Does anyone know what the time is? Do we have time to do a couple more songs?"

They do. Hair flies and music drives.

But who makes that strange swooping noise when everyone on stage is occupied with playing? Go and see them and see what I mean.