FOREHEADS IN A FISHTANK - MR WHIPPY

Overlooked early 1990s post-punk / art-rockers originally from Southend whose output encompassed the bizarre and disturbing side of life. They were championed by the legendary John Peel, who booked them for two sessions the latter featuring Andy from Pram on extra percussion, and claimed that they were "too clever for their own good". With it's mass of samples, bass that rolled more than it rocked, and guitar that switched between Bogshed-style indie and slicing noise. Somehow they covered territory from noise-rock and industrial through indie and dance-club culture. After self-releasing four singles (Happy Shopper 7" got banned for using artwork from the chain-shop of the same name), appearances on "Alive & Kicking" compilations (of artists from Essex) and the Buttocks LP, they found their home with Some Bizarre, who re-released a remastered Buttocks CD, with additional versions of 4 tracks taken from a session for VPRO Radio Holland, with Jason from Stretchheads on drums, plus a remix of the interview they did along with the session. The following album Yeah Baby Wow! is a more coherent, mature work - musically that is, the same lyrical obsessions are still present and (in)correct. The accompanying Haircut ep was a cover of Haircut 100's Favourite Shirts. Around this time they put out a white label as F.I.A.F. to try and make it in the clubs. Called Chart Material ep it prominently featured samples of Ivor Cutler. Following this they signed to Newt Records, putting out the Stripper album (which unfortunately had cover artwork that they had approved believing it to be a rough sketch, rather than the finished product), and an accompanying single re-working Mr Whippy ep, which sounded a natural progression from Yeah Baby Wow!. But distribution was not good and spelled the end for the band. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.