| Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Glenn Dormand |
| Genres | Pop Alternative Pop |
| Occupations | Musician Songwriter Television Presenter Radio presenter |
| Instruments | Keyboard |
| Years active | 1990s - present |
| Associated acts | Machine Gun Fellatio The Whitlams |
Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab (real name: Glenn Easton Dormand [1] better known by his stage name Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab) is an Australian songwriter, musician, record producer, remixer, TV presenter, radio announcer, and video director. He is best known as one of the founding members of the band Machine Gun Fellatio and his presenting work on pay TV music channel 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.
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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. Vrag’s four full members and two part-time vocalists would later form Machine Gun Fellatio (MGF). The only non-Vrag band member to be in MGF was Pinky Beecroft. In 2006, Vrag reformed and performed a show at Sydney’s Annandale Hotel[2]
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."[3]
He collaborated with Scottie Scott (Scott Chapman) and MGF bandmates 3k Short and Loveshark on the soundtracks to Raw Strip, AUS VR (also served as 2nd Camera) and Sasha And Amber’s Hardcore Holiday (also served as 2nd Camera and Producer).
Mention has been made in MGF press materials and interviews [4] about a film helmed by Chit Chat titled Fisting by the Pool but no physical evidence of the film exists. Not publicly, at least.
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 three 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 LA’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!'"[5]
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 the primary artist interviewer for pay TV music channel MAX. During his seven years with the channel, he has interviewed over 600 acts, including Oasis, The Who, Foo Fighters, Slash, Mumford and Sons, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Pink, Blondie and Stevie Nicks. 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.
He is currently working on two documentaries: A five-part series about the Nineties and an eight-part series titled Great Music Cities of the World. They are due to air in late-2011.
In 2000 Chit Chat, 3k Short and Pinky Beecroft composed the score for Academy Award Academy Award winner Lizzy Gardiner’s documentary on director Stephan Elliott, Killing Priscilla. The documentary featured Ashley Judd, K.d. lang and Ewan McGregor.
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[6] and received an AFI Award nomination for Best Original Score [7]. 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.[8]
Chit Chat and 3k Short have scored many award-winning and controversial TVC’s:
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.
With 3k Short
With Scottie Scott
Chit Chat has teamed-up with long time 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”[9] and were nominated for Best Rock Song at the 2010 Musicoz awards for “Blame It On The Rock n Roll”[10].
Chit Chat has been married since 2005 and has two daughters. He and his family live in Newcastle, New South Wales.