Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab

Glenn Easton Dormand,[1] better known as Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab, is an Australian songwriter, musician, record producer, remixer, TV presenter, radio announcer, podcaster and video director. He is best known as one of the founding members of the band Machine Gun Fellatio, and for his presenting work on MAX. In 1998, he won an ARIA Music Award for Song of the Year for "No Aphrodisiac" (co-written with Tim Freedman and Matt Ford). Chit Chat has also won an Inside Film Award and has been nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award.

Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab
Birth nameGlenn Easton Dormand
BornAustralia
GenresPop, alternative
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter, television presenter, radio presenter
InstrumentsKeyboard
Years active1988-present
Associated actsMachine Gun Fellatio, The Whitlams

Beginnings

Chit Chat began his musical career with the band Vrag. He was the lead singer and lyricist during the group's existence from 1988 until 1994. Then known as Chuck E Slimerod with band members Hot Cappuccino, guitar, (Ross Johnston)Rip Rectum, rhythm guitar (Robert Hindley)Gash Clititch, bass (Rana Kereopa) King Stick, Drums (Paul Prior) The Love Shark, keyboards/sax (Warrick Leggo) and special guest singer, Widow Jones (Maree Bonner) Chuck S, Hot C, Love S and two part-time vocalists would later form Machine Gun Fellatio (MGF). The only band member in MGF not to have played with VRAG at least once was Pinky Beecroft. In 2006, Vrag reformed and performed a show at Sydney's Annandale Hotel[2]

Machine Gun Fellatio

Chit Chat and 3k Short started the band in 1996 and undertook songwriting, producing and management duties until the group split in 2005.

Their first release, Unsound Sounds, was a collection of songs by themselves and two other bands, The Libertines and Limebunnies. All three bands were formed by Chit Chat.

MGF performed live at Big Day Out in 2002 and 2003. They have also played at Homebake on four separate occasions (2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004). In addition to these festivals, MGF have played at Livid (2001 and 2002), the Woodford Folk Festival, Rock-It, St Kilda Festival and Gone South.

The group made televised appearances on Rove, Late Night in Sibera, The Monday Dump, The Joint and What U Want.

The band played support for Primus, Robbie Williams, Duran Duran, Garbage and Kiss.

MGF was noted for their wild live shows, which often involved both male and female nudity, light bondage gear and implied sexual intercourse with their instruments. This led to RMIT University and Swinburne University of Technology cancelling scheduled performances. Chit Chat himself was known for performing with just a Winnie-the-Pooh plush toy strapped to his genitals. In 2003, this practice caused issues at Los Angeles's Viper Room. Recounts Chit Chat: "The first problem was that it took a really long time to get my clothes off, because I had [a] broken collar bone. But we were still goin' nuts. I mean, I wanted to give the people the full show. Then these enormous black guys [working security] started walking towards me and it became obvious the venue was shutting me down. It was a bit scary. I guess it would have been scarier if there were two very large black men coming at me saying, 'Take your clothes off!'"[3]

Overall, MGF released three albums, all of which were co-produced by Chit Chat. Their debut, Bring It On!, was certified gold; the follow-up, Paging Mr. Strike, was certified platinum. Their final album, On Ice, was released in 2004.

Chit Chat is now a TV and radio host, documentary Film Maker and records with his new band “The Stickup Kids".

Television

Chit Chat is the primary artist interviewer for pay TV music channel MAX. During his ten years with the channel, he has interviewed over 800 acts, including Oasis, The Who, Foo Fighters, Slash, Mumford and Sons, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Pink, Blondie, Stevie Nicks, Lionel Richie, Kylie Minogue, Noel Gallagher, Marilyn Manson and Lenny Kravitz. He has been involved with the following programs: The Know, The MAX Sessions, MAX Masters (also wrote the theme), MAX Recommends (also wrote the theme), Take Five and various specials, including Sound Relief, the APRA Awards and twice hosting the St Kilda Festival and AMP Awards. Before the show ended in 2009, Chit Chat was, at five years, the longest serving presenter on The Know.

After the death of Crowded House drummer Paul Hester in 2005, Chit Chat took over hosting duties of The MAX Sessions. The show has twice been honoured with an ASTRA Award.

Chit Chat is the narrator and conducts all of the interviews for this MAX Masters, an ASTRA Award-winning monthly music documentary that focuses on an individual artist.

Chit Chat also served as host for the benefit shows WaveAid and Sound Relief, both of which won ASTRA Awards.

Great Music Cities of the World is an 8-part documentary series researched and developed by Chit Chat from a title by Dorothy Markek. Over 18 months Chit Chat interviewed 210 artists on 3 continents. The series started airing in April 2012 and is in constant repeat.

In late Sept 2012 Chit Chat appeared on SBS's RocKwiz under his birth name of Glenn.

Chit Chat is working on three new documentaries about 3 unique Australian talents Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel and Mike Chapman. He is also developing a six-part series dedicated to "Musical Oddities".

Chit Chat was a regular guest on Mornings with Sonia Kruger and David Campbell.

He has hosted the Australian Music Prize twice and The Rolling Stone Awards, as well as appearing as a presenter at the APRA and ASTRA awards.

The Abstract History of Music (podcast)

Chit Chat is the writer and host of the podcast series. As the name suggest, the show focuses on strange and odd stories of life inside the music industry. It ranges from absurd demands made by artist to untold stories of the creation of songs. At its core is story telling, stories gathered from years of personal research, much of which Chit Chat claims he cataloged from “a thousand drunken backstage conversation”.[4]

Film

In 2000 Chit Chat, 3k Short and Pinky Beecroft composed the score for Academy Award winner Lizzy Gardiner's documentary on director Stephan Elliott, Killing Priscilla.

In 2003, Chit Chat and 3k Short wrote the original score for the Jonathon Teplitzky film Gettin' Square. For this they won the IF Award for Best Music[5] and received an AFI Award nomination for Best Original Score.[6] The pair originally rejected this job but later agreed after seeing David Wenham's courtroom scene.

Chit Chat scored the 2010 documentary You Only Live Twice: The Incredible True Story Of The Hughes Family, which won the AFI Award for Best Documentary Under One Hour.[7]

In Sept of 2019 Chit Chat launched Stories of Our Town. A twelve part documentary series he’s researching and directing. The films are being produced by von Loopin Stab and Tony Whittaker of Carnivore Films. The site storiesofourtown.com launched with the first film covering the infamous Star Hotel Riot. Of the series Chit Chat, who is Newcastle born and bred, has said “Newcastle is changing at a dramatic rate, unparalleled in its history and only by knowing where we’ve come from can we fully appreciate how far we’ve come. Our history needs to be preserved and it needs to be told by the people who lived it while they’re still around to tell it.”

Advertisements

Chit Chat and 3k Short have scored many award-winning and controversial TVC's:

  • "Sperm Bank", "Bin Surfer" for Solo
  • "Snakeskin Tampons" for Libra
  • "Evolution" for TDK
  • "Skater" for Cottee's
  • "Pie Fight" for Davenport
  • "Bucket Boy" for Hans

Radio

From 2008 until 2010, Chit Chat presented two weekly shows: Planet Rock, which was syndicated to 56 stations nationally, and Homebrew, which appeared on Triple M.

Other work

The Abstract History of Music (podcast).[8] Chit Chat is the writer and host of the podcast series. As the name suggests, the show focuses on strange and odd stories of life inside the music industry. It ranges from absurd demands made by artist to untold stories of the creation of songs. At its core is story telling, stories gathered from years of personal research, much of which Chit Chat claims he catalogued from “a thousand drunken backstage conversation”.

Remixes

With 3k Short

  • The Whitlams – "No Aphrodisiac"
  • TISM – "Defecate on my face"
  • Custard – "Apartment"
  • Pre.Shrunk – "Hot Robots"

With Scottie Scott

  • Bellydance – "Ain’t No Use"

Recorded co-writes
  • The Whitlams – "No Aphrodisiac" (with Tim Freedman, Matt Ford) (Won the 1998 ARIA Award for Song of the Year)
  • Tex, Don and Charlie – "Fake That Emotion" (with Tex Perkins)
  • The Grandmasters – "Love Dies Slow" (with Jackie Orzarcsky)
  • The Grandmasters – "Light Off" (with Jackie Orzarcsky)
  • The Grandmasters – "Holiday From Myself" (with Jackie Orzarcsky)
  • Waikiki – "Mad and Beautiful" (with Juanita Stein)
  • Pre.Shrunk – "Crash" (with Dave Morris)
  • Pre.Shrunk – "All Day Sucker" (with Dave Morris)
  • Pre.Shrunk – "Legend of the Fall" (with Dave Morris)

Chit Chat has teamed-up with longtime writing partner Scottie Scott and formed The StickUp Kids. Their EP Take on the World was released in 2010. They won an ABC Broadcasters Choice Award for the track "Make Time For Love" and were nominated for Best Rock Song at the 2010 Musicoz awards for "Blame It on the Rock n Roll"

Adult films

Prior to Machine Gun Fellatio achieving success, Chit Chat provided scores for local adult films. According to Chit Chat: “We initially self-financed the band by doing porn soundtracks, which is funny and I don’t mind mentioning. It’s really hard to do porn. You think it’s going to be easy – you’re just going to get the wah pedal and knock it out, but you’ve pretty much got to write wall-to-wall sound and add dynamics for a 20-minute scene. It’s a lot of music."[9]

Present

Chit Chat is currently researching and directing a documentary series entitled Stories of Our Town. The twelve part series launched in September of 2019 and will run for a year. All films are a gift to the City of Newcastle and available on storiesofourtown.com.

Personal life

Chit Chat has been married since 2005 and has two daughters. He and his family live in Newcastle, New South Wales.

References
  1. "Pooh fighters". The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 December 2003. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  2. "VRAG (feat. members of MGF): FIRST SHOW IN 12 YEARS! Thurs. 16 Nov 2006". AnnandaleHotel.com. Archived from the original on 4 September 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  3. Dwyer, Michael (28 November 2003). "Love guns". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  4. "The Abstract History of Music with Chit Chat by Nova Entertainment on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  5. "IF Awards 2003 – Winners". Urban Cinefile. 13 November 2003. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  6. "AFI Awards 2003 – Nominations". urban cinefile. 31 October 2003. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  7. "2010 AFI Awards Nominees & Winners". AFI. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  8. "The Abstract History of Music with Chit Chat". rss.Acast.com. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  9. "MAX Tropscore: Tips on writing a good score" MaxTV.com.au. Archived 11 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
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