Radio with Pictures - Red Mole (Life is a Zoo)

Television (Full Length) – 1980

Avant-garde theatre troupe Red Mole serve up poetry, parody, shadow play and lowdown boogie in this musical Radio With Pictures clip. Red Mole perform four songs from their 1980 tour (and EP) I'll Never Dance Down Bugis St Again: the title track, Patti Smith-style stomp 'Agent Orange', sultry jazz number 'Julie's Song' (sung by The Neighbours' Trudi Green) and cautionary rocker 'Mr Asia', led by Red Mole founder Alan Brunton. Wellington Zoo provides a playground for the troupe, as they inhabit its empty cages and paths. In this backgrounder, ex Red Mole member Martin Edmond explores Red Mole on screen and on the road.

Music was indispensable for Alan. He used incidental music and song to create atmosphere, to assist narratives, to intensify or relax theatrical threads and to generate cooperative commentary. The band he used rather like a chorus in Ancient Greek theatre, and he wrote songs with musicians, keeping a sharp eye on their style, drawing maximum mileage out of their aptitude for his messages, humour and disturbing happenings.
– Musician Bill Direen on Red Mole frontman Alan Brunton, AudioCulture, 16 May 2018