It was October in the year 1981 and three friends were conspiring to form a now legendary band. Harry Butler and Agravaine McLachlan (both formerly from the band Void) and one Mr Chris Wiley (lighting technician for Agent Orange) disillusioned by the state of the alternative music scene at the time, decided to conduct a series of rehearsals inspired by early British and American punk music (mainly wanting to sound like Discharge). After months of practice (usually at Harry's place) they managed to acquire a second guitarist by the name of Steve Honeyman in Feb. '82.....unfortunately he only lasted a month, which left Fear A and Loathing (FAL). as a three piece again until June '83 when Andrew Cappo and Dave Williams joined F.A.L., it was then that the band had it's first full line up with Harry Butler on Guitar, Agravaine McLachlan and Andrew Cappo on vocals, Chris Wiley on bass and Dave Williams on drums.
By Jan '84 Cappo and Williams went their separate ways leaving FAL to practise among themselves. Wanting a second guitarist, the band auditioned a few Adelaide personalities to no avail, so it was decided that Chris Wiley (who had been teaching himself dodgy guitar at the time) would take over pole position on lead guitar therefore leaving room for his old school buddy Hermann Lauss (ex-Faith By Force) to take over bass duties. Both Wiley and Lauss would alternate on playing bass, Wiley playing on the old set while Lauss played the new. By May '84, FAL recruited Marek Urbanski on vocals and Mark Ferguson on drums both formerly of the band Ribcage Wrestlers. From this time forward the band played constantly around the pubs and clubs with this line-up until December '84 when McLachlan finally had enough of the riotous antics of the band scene and decided on a more artistic pursuit. Ferguson also left the band that year after he developed R.S.I. The band kept the same line-up until Jan '86 despite the fact that they were going through a new drummer every couple of months (Paul Smith, George Klestinis,Steve Amos,Justin Butler,Martin Bland,etc,etc,etc, Urbanski handed in the towel in January that year and moved to Sydney (to become a music entrepreneur). Much confusion as to who will do what followed,
It was at this time a young Roadie (and beer wrangler) called Dave Ormsby was kidnapped by the band and forced to play rhythm guitar while Harry took over the vocal duties, Wiley went to lead guitar/vocals and Lauss took over all the Bass duties. In August '86 John Scott (ex-King Bees) joined the band on drums creating it's first ever stable line up, it was also in that year that FAL released "A Box Full of Fluffy Ducks" on a dodgy cassette complete with lyric book. During the time of John Scott FAL toured Sydney with King Snake Roost and it was there that they got their first record deal with Waterfront Records (even though the guy who offered them the deal got spat upon by the rest of the band 'cause they thought he was full of shit) it wasn't until they got back to Adelaide did they find out he was serious, and by 1989 FAL's first full album was released 'Wait 'til the Cat Licks It Up'.
During that time also, three more cassettes 'Seven Garden Slugs On A Dinner Plate', 'Beer Fat Is Good Fat, But Cider Fat Is Better, But Who Cares We All Drink Flagons Anyway' and 'An Army Of Thalidomides Armed With Axes & Aardvarks' and three contributions to compilation albums 'Raw Cuts Vol' 4', 'The Not So Lucky Countr'y and 'Are We Still Here?' were also released. By March '89 John Scott decided to leave FAL and pursue his own band interests by forming a band with his brother Kym called The Mark of Cain. It was also that year that Harry Butler had finally had enough of nursemaiding a bunch of stoned degenerates and quit the band, leaving its only original member Chris Wylie to guide the band onwards.
In July '89 FAL managed to kidnap yet another soul who strayed too close to the band by the name of Terry Rowe, he was way too young (15 or 16 at the time) and impressionable, which meant that he was the perfect choice as the band's drummer. Waterfront also asked FAL to release another album that year but wanted FAL to release it under the bands own label (Thalidomide Octopus). By May 1990 the album 'Odyssey of the Trojan Meatball' was released and Waterfront went down the gurgler soon afterwards (coincidence????)
Without a singer now since Butler left, Wiley took over the main vocal duties as well as playing lead guitar and the core four (Chris, Hermann, Dave and Terry remains the same to this day. During this time though FAL has had a few singers go through the ranks....ie Ian Thomas who was 16 at the time sang for the band for a few months until Lauss moved to Melbourne but as soon as Lauss moved back, Jonas Dawson (ex -Bardle My Clistoid) joined the band on vocals from Dec. '93 to Nov.'98, during that time Jess Fisher was recruited to play Didge & Harp for the band (bizarre for a punk band I know), after Dawson left to pursue a career in teaching Tim Jarrett joined as one of the most colorful members FAL has ever had, unfortunately after three years both Jarrett and band parted company leaving Brother Jess to take over on Vocals. But Jess was taken from the band soon afterwards to study in a career in Glass Making in Melbourne. Fear and Loathing remained a 4 piece with Chris singing until Jess returned 5 years later in early 2007 to rejoin the band.
Members
Chris Wiley (bass, guitar, vocals), Harry Butler (guitar, vocals), Agravaine McLachlan (vocals), Steve Honeyman (guitar), Andrew Cappo (vocals), Dave Williams (drums), Hermann Lauss (bass), Marek Urbanski (vocals), Mark Ferguson (drums), Paul Smith (drums), George Klestinis (drums), Steve Amos (drums), Justin Butler (drums), Martin Bland (drums), Dave Ormsby (guitar),
John Scott (drums), Terry Rowe (drums), Ian Thomas (vocals), Jonas Dawson (vocals),
Tim Jarrett (vocals), Jess Fisher (harp, didgeridoo, vocals)
References
https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/fear-and-loathing
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