LAVISH

Lavish began in 1992 when Gary Beavis left Gold Coast band Art Collective and teamed up with guitarist Nigel Lacey to form Lavish. Early members included Brett Layton, Daniel Peterson, Michelle Wilson (later in the band Fur), and Richard Nixon. Eventually, Beavis and Lacey enlisted Nathan Thomas as singer following the breakup of his previous band Unloveable. His younger brother Luke was offered the position of bass player after Richard Nixon declined. The band relocated to Brisbane in 1995 and took on board drummer Justin Nelson. After initially being courted by Virgin Records in 1996, Lavish became one of the most in demand bands on the Brisbane rock music circuit in the wake of the Brisbane pop and rock market getting recognition by major record labels such as Savage Garden, Powderfinger, Custard, Regurgitator, Pangaea, Speedstar, and Aneiki.

Their music was a fusion of 80's New Wave pop, Australian classic rock, Britpop, and American alternative rock. In 1998, the band were signed with Festival Records and enlisted Jeff Lovejoy on production duties. The first single released was "Trashed", which received high rotation on local and national radio stations but was not a major hit. The lineup was :Nathan Thomas (vocals), Gary Beavis (guitar), Nigel Lacey (guitar), Luke Thomas (bass) and Justin Nelson (drums), It was later used in the TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer in the episode The I In Team.

Shortly after its release, Nelson was dismissed from the band and replaced by Glen Gibson, who had recently departed from Savage Garden. A second single, "Good For Me", also failed to chart. Their third single was a hard rock cover of Pete Shelley's 1982 synthpop hit "Homosapien", which was featured in Jimoin's film The Craic about Irish immigration in Australia in the 1980s. It reached #72 on the ARIA charts and they promoted it on Hey Hey It's Saturday. The fourth and final single to be released was "She Said", in which the synthesiser hook eventually became the theme tune to open the Australian Top 50 countdown on Rage as well as used to denote chart placings where a video was either banned or not sanctioned.

Lavish recorded one album 'Polaroid' for Festival with Lovejoy and Clint Mansell (from Pop Will Eat Itself) sharing production duties, as well as Mansell writing one track "The Beats". The album was not a hit despite the publicity it had, and the band were dropped by Festival shortly afterwards. Nathan took up guitar duties, and Glen's brother Slade Gibson briefly joined the band as second guitarist. In mid 2000, Beavis and Lovejoy (who had replaced Lacey as guitarist in 1999) departed the band, leaving Lavish down to a trio of the Thomas brothers and Gibson. They signed with independent record company MGM Records to record the EP 'Accelerator'. Whilst it received positive reviews, it was not a hit and the band disbanded towards the end of the year with the Thomas brothers relocating to Melbourne.

Members

Nathan Thomas (vocals, guitar), Gary Beavis (guitar), Nigel Lacey (guitar), Luke Thomas (bass), Justin Nelson (drums), Glen Gibson (drums), Slade Gibson (guitar), Jeff Lovejoy (guitar), Brett Layton, Daniel Peterson, Michelle Wilson (vocals), Richard Nixon (bass)

SINGLES

''Trashed'' 1998 Festival
''Good For Me'' 1998 Festival
''Homosapien'' (#72) 1999 Festival
''She Said'' 1999 Festival

EPs
'Accelerator' 2001 MGM

ALBUMS
'Polaroid' 1999 Festival