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I walked into the Agent Provocateur shop in Covent Garden an nearly tripped over a middle aged man in a suit already blushing at the fluffy ended dildo that he was holding in his sweaty palms, and then increasingly at my own nonchalance at having my shirt a little too open right under his nose. In the end, to quell his stare I handed him the Birth of Venus as a recommendation and went on my way. I was reminded of this little run-in when I came across the new Agent Provocateur band Dirty Stop Out.

Mixing music and lingerie? Well now I really have seen everything. Dirty Stop Out is Mick Jones, Joe Corre and Luca Mainardi, their new porn-rock album that is seeped in sex and satin.

The band is a strange mix of punk throw-backs and something a little bit now, with Mick Jones ghost of The Clash still resting uneasily behind him and Joe Corre the brains behind classy and outrageous Agent Provocateur, and the spawn of the Great Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, and then there is the little known Luca Mainardi. Yes, as you can see this is quite a tenuous combination.

Cuntro Classics Volume 1 is the debut album from Dirty Stop Out, combining, country and electro (hence the title), with strange fetishistic overtones featuring Nina Hagen, Les Rita Mitsuko and Bobby Gillespie. They have also collaborated with some of their friends to make them five polished videos that contribute to the whole porn-rock vibe. The DVD includes directors such as Mike Figgis, Nigel Askew and Douglas Hart. This is meant to enhance the experience, as they see themselves as a multi-visual outfit. I’m not so sure. The first, Sin City was the most innovative out of all, the track had elements of a James Bond open sequence, and the visuals something of the same. Ambiguous cutouts of breasts or gyrating hips, it did feel like a really good VJ set.

Overall it felt slightly cheap watching girls in underwear, or no underwear, running about the screen with the band, who in Kinky Melody, the second track are ironically playing a group of bandits! The whole thing seemed a little cheap considering the budget and the icing on the cake was vocals by the one and only Sienna Miller.
Each film looked like a really good fashion shoot, with great concepts and compositions, but somehow just not very original.

Aquila Dunford Wood