Last July the Australian music media near stroked their chins clean off when the Triple J Hottest 100 Of All Time was announced. Namely due to the eventuating list showing a complete absence of females. "An outrage!", many people who never listen to the station nor voted cried. "'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'' is demonstrably better than 'Bohemian Like You'. Fortunately for these people an alcohol company slithered on to the bandwagon and polled their own female Hottest 100 of All Time. Pink's 'So What' came second. Case closed.

The Triple J poll wasn't completely devoid of female voices however. UK trip-hop masters Massive Attack featured twice in the list, firstly for 'Unfinished Sympathy' at #93 and again at #22 with 'Teardrop'; both songs feature female singers in Shara Nelson and Elizabeth Fraser respectively.

All this is news to Massive Attack as it turns out. In our forthcoming interview with the band, who are currently touring Australia, Andrew McMillen asked band member Daddy G - aka Grant Marshall - if he'd heard of the furore. 'No', as it turns out:

Are you aware of the Triple J’s Hottest 100 of All Time?

Is that the radio station?

Yeah. Last year they held the Hottest 100 Of All Time, which polled the nation’s favourite songs.

Did they? I didn’t realise that.

Two of your songs were voted into the top 100 songs ever written.

Which tracks are those?

“Unfinished Sympathy” and “Teardrop”.

Oh brilliant. Lovely.

There was a bit of controversy because your two tracks were the only ones to feature female vocals.

Is that right? That’s rather sexist, because as far as we’re concerned, the female vocal has always been the thing that’s softened our male approach. It was always quite male-dominated, even from the days when we were DJing and stuff like that. That was always the thing; we wanted to trade the rough with the smooth, as far as we’re concerned. A feminine touch was needed for our records, for the ones that gave us that edgy bit of angst that we were trying to squeeze out of tracks. I’m quite disappointed in that.

As were many listeners and female musicians here in Australia.

Jesus. That’s unbelievable, you know.

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Stay tuned for our full interview with Daddy G of Massive Attack.