Pretty Fly (For Some White Guys)

It's just before 6am on a chilly Adelaide morning. While most of the city sleeps, one of the world's most popular rock stars is going fishing.

Noodles, guitarist from American punk band The Offspring - which was in town for one concert last night - braved the chill at North Haven yester- day morning with a few mates.

They were armed with picnic hampers, vacuum flasks and a couple of dozen South Australian beers'

Noodles - and two members of the band's road crew - were escorted by local surf shop owners Matt Woolard and Darren Fox who took him scuba diving on his last Adelaide visit in November, 1997.

"We're definitely developing a fondness for Adelaide waters," said Noodles.

Frontman Dexter Holland declined the offer in favour of going flying at Parafield while bass player Greg K and drummer Ron Welty preferred a sleep-in. "I usually save this sort of thing for an off day but this is the best fishing we will be able to do on this tour," Noodles said. "There will be plenty of tune to catch up on lost sleep tomorrow."

The Offspring performed a series of sell-out concerts across Australia this month to follow up the success of their most recent album, Americana.

The first single from the album, Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) was voted Australia's most popular song in 1998 in Triple J's Hottest 100 poll. Almost 300,000 copies of the single have been sold - the second highest sales ever for a single in Australia. The album has sold 365,000 copies here.

While none of the trio claimed to be an expert fisherman, they planned to stay at sea until they caught something - or the beer ran out. But late yesterday the fish had not been biting and the group returned to North Haven empty handed.

By Sarah Thomas, from Adelaide Advertiser - June 24th, 1999