Cheatahs get shaky with their favourite James Bond themes • DIY Magazine

Fittingly, Cheatahs’ latest album ‘Mythologies’ is fast gathering a fantastical backstory of its own. Penned and put to tape in a myriad of locations across the globe, it’s a record that thrives on that wide-range of influence. One location in particular stands head and shoulders above the rest, mind.

In our November issue, we sat down to talk all things ‘Mythologies’ with Cheatahs, only to discover that much of the album had been recorded two doors down from the headquarters of MI5, home of none other than professional schmoozer and part-time super-spy James Bond.

Naturally, we asked Cheatahs guitarist James Wignall to take us through his top five of the band’s new neighbour’s various theme tunes. There’s a somewhat criminal lack of ‘Die Another Day’ by Madonna in there, but he’s well aware who Thom Yorke is, so still has one up on recent saucy ‘Spectre’ warbler Sam Smith.

The very ace new Cheatahs album ‘Mythologies’ is out now on Wichita Recordings and can be nabbed from here. They play London’s XOYO next Tuesday (19th January) with recent Class Of 2016 stars Inheaven.

5. ‘From Russia With Love’ — Matt Monro

John Barry wrote a pretty great score for this film, so it’s a shame that Lionel Bart wrote the theme song; it’s not terrible, just a bit meandering, so we chose this for the simple reason that Matt Monro has a great Scott Walker-esque baritone.

4. ‘Goldfinger’ — Shirley Bassey

Unlike the below, these aren’t bad lyrics - they’re beyond that, just knowingly, ingeniously stupid; and Shirley Bassy singing them with so much straight-faced conviction makes it all the better.

3. ‘Nobody Does It Better — Carly Simon

The lyrics are terrible (‘Like heaven above me, the spy who loved me’), but I guess Carly Simon had to jimmy the title in somewhere. The music has a nice languid feel though, and the beginning of the song is quite weird, as for a few seconds it makes you think you’re about to listen to a track from Bugsy Malone.

2. ‘Live And Let Die’ — Paul McCartney & Wings

I have to admit that I don’t think this deserves to be number two, but I was outvoted by the other three. The cod reggae section is the worst. As Alan Partridge said, “Wings, the band The Beatles could have been.”

And the winner is…

A no-brainer - Louis Armstrong singing a great Bacharach and David song. For me this has personal connotations, too, as when my friend Ben got married a few years ago I played a few songs at the ceremony, this included. Also, the brilliantly unsubtle irony of the lyrics given that Bond’s marriage to Tracy lasts about five minutes before she’s killed in a drive-by shooting by Telly Savalas.