The drummer-singer talks about his love for Alec Guinness, putting his foot in it with a Bad Seed and the ideal length of men’s shorts

Spiderbait is touring to celebrate 20 years since your insanely good cover of Black Betty was released. What is Black Betty to you?

It is an amazing song written by Lead Belly back in the 1930s that has somehow transformed over almost 100 years into many different versions. But essentially the song is still the same. We covered the Ram Jam version from 1979. But after our version came out, we went back and researched the song and heard the original version by Lead Belly. It’s just so different. It is like when you listen to Robert Johnson’s work – there is so much power that those guys could do with just their voice and an acoustic guitar.

Actor who has played Jarrod ‘Toadfish’ Rebecchi since 1995 says he has started training to direct episodes of long-running soap opera

Ryan Moloney, the actor who has played Jarrod “Toadfish” Rebecchi on Neighbours for nearly 30 years, is leaving the long-running Australian soap.

Moloney first joined Neighbours in 1994 aged 15, appearing as a one-off character named Cyborg. The following year he returned to play Toadfish, the brother of established character Kevin ‘Stonefish’ Rebecchi. Toadfish – or Toadie – was intended to be a one-scene role, but Moloney was called back and became so popular he was eventually made a permanent cast member in 1996.