THE NEW HUGHES

Retaining the long locks and leather from his days in Slaughter Lord and Nazxul, Hughes stepped from behind the drum kit and into the stand-up spotlight. He’s a veritable one-man band – quite literally in fact.
“[The audience] may look more frightening because there’s no band to hide behind, but there’s another tension relief in the fact that there’s no band arguments and no band meetings,” Hughes says. “See, there are hidden benefits! It’s just now I’m in charge and I want to be in charge.
“It’s just bands, they’re difficult as fuck. They’re like relationships without sex.”
Which is not to say Hughes has given up on music all together. In fact since returning to Australia, he’s been recording an album, sans band. “I’ve even taken the idea of the stand-up comic to the band world; taken up guitar and I write the songs myself and go, “Okay, well, I’ll just do it all!
“Again, no arguments! [Whereas if] the drummer tells the guitarist that the guitar sound sucks…that’s two hours wasted right there.
“See the engineer can tell the guitarist how the guitar should sound, but the drummer can’t tell the guitarist how the guitar should sound. See the subtle difference?”
And yet Hughes is in no doubt that his drumming helps his comedy routines. “I’ve often thought about that. Timing does help a lot in comedy and in music.” But there perhaps the crossovers end, because Hughes’ caustic brand of comedy is less about rock’n’roll than it is about mining the socio-political landscape. “Having bouncers at the pool and police everywhere…making out that everyone’s drunk and binge drinking and fighting and killing and stabbing and ramming their cars into one another. It’s all very interesting isn’t it?”
While that might seem like a tall order for comedy, Hughes gets the laughs. Indeed he’s all but a national icon in the UK, where he’s been toiling away for over a decade to appreciative audiences. “The English just have experience of [comedy], because they’ve got so much of it. And they’re very adept at understanding lots of different types of comedy: surreal, to satirical to just plain stupid. It’s just part of their way of life.”
Another British right of passage seems to be the Australian comedy circuit; one Hughes has yet to tour. “I’d never done Adelaide or Melbourne Comedy Festivals before, so I thought I may as well do them. Everyone in the UK seems to have done them, except the Australians who are in the UK!”
But before venturing south, Hughes’ past and present will unite with Rock N Lol, the inaugural musical comedy festival from The Comedy Store. Joined by Luke & Wyatt, the Bedroom Philosopher, and Axis of Awesome, Hughes promises to tackle “the new world order, and the Orwellian society that’s being created for your understanding of the global apocalypse!” Oh, that little chestnut.   
Moreover, (and staying cerebral) Hughes describes the audience experience as, “a sort of cracking open of a probably invisible force that settles itself upon most people of the world that they’re not quite sure is there but they can feel it on a small level.
“So they can come and we can break that open and we’ll have a good fucking night.”
On just what that ‘invisible force’ is Hughes remains tantalisingly elusive, though it certainly shouldn’t be mistaken for apathy. “Australians are anything than fucking apathetic in one sense! They should start putting long trousers on and stop playing fucking sport for once! They’re far from apathetic on one level, if you give them a fucking surfboard they’re fucking laughing.”
Such straight talking is just what you can expect from Hughes. Australian comedy may already have a Hughsey, but this one beats to a decidedly different drum.
WHO: Steve Hughes
WHAT: Rock N Lol / Sydney Comedy Festival
WHERE & WHEN: The Comedy Store Thursday 28 January to Saturday 30 / 19 April to 9 May