BOX OF FISH

In 1981 Bill Quarry and Andrew Johnson first met at birthday party show at Stranded a venue in Sydney in the Strand Arcade towards the end of 1981. Andrew recalls, ''A chance meeting in the men’s toilet, as Bill was holding Nick Caves belt, a large skull and crossbones on the front what was it was doing in men’s toilet I don’t know but Bill had the belt in his possession. I told him that he should hand it back to Nick at the Manly Vale Hotel show the next night. I asked Bill if he wanted to form a band he said yes of course. We settled on a name, which came from a Ripping Yarns episode (from the makers of Monty Python)''. He added ''We wanted to keep making our name larger by adding bits to it every show we did. The name at one stage was A Box Of Fish With Tarter Sauce On Sunday Afternoon Eating Down At The Jetty. We decided that it was too complicated so just kept Box of Fish and the band-rehearsed at the end of 1981 and early 1982. The first show was at the Entertainers Club in Redfern on a Sunday afternoon with Negative Reaction and a host of other experimental bands''. 

Box of Fish was born adding Carol Anderson on guitar and Craig Rossi on drums. Box Of Fish were one of the first Aussie bands to incorporate grunge into their music in the early '80s and they were also responsible for giving some high-profile talent their starts in the early days as support acts at their shows, including Died Pretty and The Scientists. The band's first single was ''Sex Cat Killer / Erosion'' released on the Method label in 1983. The band added another guitarist Bill Posters at the end of 1983 for a few gigs. Guitarist Chris Royal joined the band in 1984 until its demise. The EP 'Slap Em Around The Gills'' was released in 1985. In September 1985 the band broke up after the last show at the Strawberry Hills Hotel. A compilation album, 'Invented Grunge' was released on Fish Music in 2008.

Band members went onto form and play in other bands; Toys Went Berserk, King Snake Roost, The Deadly Hume, and The Fester Brothers, Siberian All-Stars.  After suffering from a short period of illness, Carol Anderson died in June 2015. Anderson's importance and relevance to the early days of the Australian music scene will not be forgotten.

Members

Andrew Johnson (vocals/guitar/keyboards), Bill Quarry (bass), Carol Anderson (guitar), Craig Rossi (drums), Bill Posters (guitar), Chris Royal (guitar)

SINGLES
''Sex Cat Killer / Erosion'' 1983 Method 

EPs
'Slap Em Round The Gills' 1985 Method 

References

http://www.last.fm/music/Box+Of+Fish/+wiki