'Narcotics, noise and nakedness.” That's how frontman Booga Beazley sums up legendary Kiwi band Head Like A Hole when their debut album 13 was released back in 1992.

'We'd only recorded our cassette S***tnoise and, you know, basically started HLAH without even the thought of recording music or playing to heaps of people, it was just an experiment to see if we could actually play music.”

A quarter of a century, five albums, a break up and make up, a line-up change and thousands of kilometres of touring later, HLAH are still in the business of getting down and getting crowds rocking all over New Zealand.

In celebration of the 25th anniversary since 13's release, the boys are embarking on a 12-date tour where they'll play the album in its entirety, starting at Totara Street in Mount Maunganui on May 4.

The last time HLAH performed at Totara Street was on New Year's Eve, 'a great night” but also a busy one for the band. Not only did they perform one hell of gig, prior to hitting the stage they spent the evening working backstage carrying out tasks like manning the door and cleaning up empties.

Working at their own gigs and taking a more hands-on approach with tours – Booga is organising the whole sch'bang this time around – is something HLAH have recently decided to start doing, he says.

'We just wanted to try and keep it more band-orientated, and that just means more work for us. But I think fans get a bit of a buzz when they come along and they see you on the door, they're like ‘what the hell?'

'Some people have this weird notion that, you know, I'm going to pull up on a big motorcycle and I've just been at my mansion counting money,” Booga says laughing, 'but in actual fact I'm in a rental van and I've just had a stinky pie from somewhere and I'm off to work the door.”

As part of their celebrations, HLAH re-released 13 in March and Booga says after all these years it's great the album is finally getting a bit of recognition, with it charting at #3 on the New Zealand Charts and #24 on the International chart earlier in April.

When Booga look back on those days, he recalls being 'full of energy and enthusiasm”.

'But when I listen to 13 I do realise I couldn't sing that well and I needed a bit more time to hone my expertise before we went into the studio. But back then we were young, we just wanted to get it done and I suppose it is the energy of the album that comes through more than anything.”

As the lyricist, he admits a lot of his lyrics on 13 was nonsense, word plays, and none of it hardly relates to each other.

'Apart from songs like ‘Penut' it's definitely got a direction and a subject matter which probably isn't to everyone's taste, but the songs have definitely moved on since then.”

When asked what his most vivid memory of the recording sessions for 13 was, he lets out a snigger as he remembers when they were mixing the drums with Bailter Space drummer Brent Mclachlan.

According to Booga, original HLAH drummer Mark Hamill kept saying the drums sounded like cardboard boxes, 'my drums sound like s***”.

'And we're like Mark, dude, it's the fact that your drum kit is a piece of s***, that's why they sound like s***, you can't polish a turd'. He kept on grumbling and the next thing you know, he spat this huge loogie on the back of Brent's head, and he's bald, he's got this shinny big head.

'Brent was like ‘did you just spit on me?' and Mark was like ‘no, I didn't' and we were like ‘bro, you just spat on the back of his head'. It wasn't by accident, he hocked a loogie.

'That's a very vivd memory for me, moreso than the recording.”

These days when HLAH enters the studio to record an album, it's a far cry from the 13 days. And hopefully the band members have stopped hocking loogies on the back of people's heads.

They know exactly what they want out of recording studio, and whoever's on the desk they have got a certain expectation of them, explains Booga.

'Basically with Head Like A Hole we always say that we're going to go in and do one guitar to the left, one guitar to the right, everything else down the middle and we're not going to add any frills on top.

'It never works that way, it's not the 70's anymore, you‘ve got so many tracks to play with and you end up basically over cooking everything.”

Once the 13 tour wraps up, HLAH plan to focus on writing material for a new album, which will be the seventh.

Recently, the band recorded a couple of tracks at Auckland's Depot of Sound with studio manager and head engineer Dave Rhodes, who Booga says did a great job, which they'll release following the tour, hopefully alongside a video if the grant-gods allow.

'But I think when we go into the studio next, we're just looking for a studio that's going to have the right space to capture the drums, we want something that's got a great room it's got to have a good, live, fat drum sound.

'Then we're just going to look at doing everything from home after that. We often capture stuff at home much better than the time constraints and pressure put on us in the studio.”

This upcoming show in the Mount promises to be a doozy, with Booga saying the band's in fine form and amping to go there.

It will be the first time ever HLAH have performed 13 in its entirety, and with the album reflecting a very specific era for Head Like A Hole, the band are 'looking forward to a bit of the old time travel”

There'll also be several songs from the ablum which Booga can't wait to crank out on stage again.

'I've always loved ‘Fish Across Face' and ‘Nevermind Today' which we still perform, I love playing ‘Ritual Groove Meister', and we're playing ‘Penut' again, we haven't play that for many, many years, and that's epic.”

The Weekend Sun has one double pass to give away to one lucky readers who can tell us the name of Head Like A Hole's debut album which they'll be playing in full on May 4?

Enter online at www.sunlive.co.nz under the competition section. All entries must be received by Wednesday, April 26.

Head Like A Hole performs 13 at Totara Street in Mount Maunganui on Thursday, May 7, from 8pm. R18 gig. Tickets cost $40 and available online via Eventfida.

Head Like A Hole in their younger, less clothed days.