“Well it is a long time ago now, so it’s a bit hazy, but I believe we first met at a meeting of the local Mad Max re-enactment society. It’s kinda like those civil war guys in the states who dress up and have fake battles where we get together and simulate a lawless post-apocalypse society obsessed with racing hotted up busted up 70s Australian muscle cars for no apparent reason.

“We do it every weekend in Dandenong. On this particular day I was innocently towing my caravan when, unbeknownst to me, Richard Fyshwick happened to – œhave a moment’ as he was airborne on his way to the 7-11 via a nearby burning billboard. I just pulled over when I got to the coast and there he was parked in my caravan.

“So we got talking, discovered a mutual love of pointless prehistoric riffage, and never looked back” says Cameron Stops, one of the men behind that very manly band, the Legends of Motorsport.

The Legends of Motorsport were an institution on the Hobart scene. At the time that they began, the music scene in Hobart really was frontier territory.

“Hobart was a pretty cool place to start a band, it was relatively untouched by things like Triple J, and you could basically have a jam in your bedroom and then play a gig the next weekend.

“At times there was some really refreshing and genuinely original music happening around town, most of which compared pretty favourably to the homogenized crap…which we found when we came to Melbourne.

”(At that time in Hobart) there wasn’t much support in terms of venues to play at and touring bands to play with, but lots of people got involved because they could; for example there were lots more girls in bands in Hobart than in Melbourne, and it wasn’t so much a novelty as the norm. Though I must admit Baskerville and Symmons Plains don’t really compare to Sandown and Calder.”

After a couple of EPs and many memorable gigs, Melbourne was finally ready and the Legends obliged by moving there.

“Richard and I had lived in Melbourne before and pretty much always planned on going back, but early on all we really wanted to do was play all the time, and it’s pretty hard to do in Hobart, you can’t really just play the same pub every weekend, whereas in Melbourne there are so many different venues, and good access to go and play regional and interstate shows, so it was really just about being able to play more, and play at new venues, and to new people, and obviously to get back to the Mad Max re-enactment Society.”

So now, after a four-year hiatus, the Legends of Motorsport are returning to Tasmania for two shows. What are they expecting from their first time back since leaving?

“I don’t really know to be honest, I have been to a few shows in Hobart since I’ve lived in Melbourne and they were good fun. The crowds have changed somewhat and probably grown, and it seems a lot healthier in some ways with things like a decent radio station, more venues, street mags, websites, and all that kinda stuff which helps grow a bit of a scene. It’s been about 4 years since we have played down there so don’t know what to expect but I do know we’ll enjoy it regardless.”

The Legends of Motorsport play at Hobart’s Republic Bar on Friday, 8 June and at the Royal Oak in Launceston on Saturday, 9 June. Tickets are available from the venues. The Legends of Motorsport also have an album out, Remnants of the Big Bang, which is available on Reverberation.