Gaskrankinstation

Headless Chickens , Music Video – 1990

from the album Body Blow (1991)

Named after the German word for a type of gas chamber used in Nazi concentration camps, 'Gaskrankinstation' was the first single off Headless Chickens' second album Body Blow. Actor Peter Tait (Bogans, Kitchen Sink) stars as gas station attendant Ivan, whose desperate monologue drives the track, while the band play some comically tortured-looking instruments in the parking lot. Anita McNaught also makes a cameo appearance as the "lady newsreader" of Ivan's affections.

There was a strange phenomena in Australia when we originally played that song live there in the early 90s, which was for guys to come up to me after just about every gig and tell me in the most enthusiastic way that they loved that song because they themselves were Ivan and they identified so strongly with him. Which obviously, if you listen to the words, is a bit wierd 'cos Ivan's not necessarily a very nice bloke...
– Chris Matthews on Gaskrankinstation, on website Webcuts, February 2009