Rounding off the bill at this year’s Punt festival in The Cellar, The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band describe themselves as ‘the undisputed heavyweights of chav jazz’ and are the ideal party band, assuming that your idea of a good party, like ours, is one that takes place in a Bugsy Malone-style 1920s speakeasy.

1.What do you think you sound like?

In the words of Jerry Lee Lewis, like ‘a damn good country song’… all messed up but full of swagger, lust and good tunes, like the music we love.

2. What do you do when you’re not making music?

We’re all total musicoholics, so we talk about music. Some of us DJ with 78s on wind-up gramophones and hope people get to hear music they wouldn’t usually hear. We just got a box full of Korean and Japanese pre-war pop and there’s some lovely stuff in there. Last year we found a box of records in a dog kennel and now we’ve got the chicken shit off they play pretty good!

3. Recommend us a good band or album and tell us what’s good about it

Marvellous Boy, a compilation of West African Calypso which just came out on Honest Jons last month. It’s a great Calypso for anyone who hasn’t explored the music. For me the best thing about Calypso music is lyrics about real life stories, current affairs… whatever is happening around the singer at the time. My favourite here is ‘Dick Tiger’s Victory’ – if you want a happy, upbeat song about boxing, check it out!

4. Where did you get your band name from?

Many of our heroes, like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Louis Jordan, started out with a black touring troupe called who used the Rabbit Foot in their name. Spasm bands in New Orleans in the 1890s made music out of homemade instruments, which is how we started out. The Original bit is just quite funny, and a little homage to a whole host of early Jazz bands who stuck that at the front of their name. Kid Creole had his Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band as well, and he was about as original as we are.

5. What do you like and dislike about Oxford and its music?

Oxford has the best music scene! When you start gigging around the country  you realise that there are cities much bigger than Oxford that have no music scene at all. There are loads of talented people in this town and there are venues and promoters putting on gigs.

What I dislike are open mic nights run by people who aren’t into music really because I really think they take the piss.