The Fun Things
The Fun Things originally formed as a high school band in Brisbane, Australia called the Aliens in 1978, with Brad Shepherd on guitar and vocals, bassist John Hartley, and Murray Shepherd on drums. For a brief period after the Aliens, the Shepherd brothers, along with guitarist Graeme Beavis and Mark Lock, played as the Phantom Agents. In 1979, Hartley returned and with the Shepherds and Beavis became the Fun Things. Live covers included bands such as Radio Birdman, The Stooges, The Monkees, and Blue Oyster Cult, among others.
In 1980, the band went into the studio to record four tracks for what would be their one and only release: "Savage", "Lipstick", "(I Ain’t Got) Time Enough for Love", and "When the Birdmen Fly". Only 500 copies were pressed of the self-titled vinyl EP, issued in May 1980. When the EP was released, Beavis had already left the group, and the remaining three continued as the Aliens again for a short time until Brad Shepherd left for England in the summer of 1980.
The Fun Things EP has been the stuff of legend for decades - further fueled, of course, by rising popularity of the Hoodoo Gurus and the Screaming Tribesmen starting in the mid-Eighties. With so few copies pressed, getting one’s hands on a copy of the original was a rare thing indeed, next to impossible.
Following the Fun Things’ demise, John Hartley and Murray Shepherd went on to become two of the original lineup of the Screaming Tribesmen. When Brad returned from England, he first worked with Ron Peno in The 31st, later moving on to the Hitmen (as well as side project Super K with then-bandmate Clyde Bramley) and relocating to Sydney. By the fall of 1982, both Brad Shepherd and Bramley were firmly ensconced in the Hoodoo Gurus lineup that would make a worldwide splash with their first album release in 1984, and with whom Shepherd remains today. The Gurus, however, have retired and later reunited on a number of occasions since 1998 - during one of those periods (2000-2002), the Shepherd brothers played together once again in The Monarchs, a full-scale rock & roll assault outfit in which one might say Brad Shepherd revisited his rock & roll, Fun Things-era roots.
The Fun Things have, in more recent years, experienced even more of a resurgence in popularity - especially in Europe - mostly due to a number of bands who have released covers of Fun Things tunes. While "Savage" has probably been the most recorded, a cover of "(I Ain’t Got) Time Enough for Love" by The Devil Dogs in the early Nineties appears to have been the major catalyst for this huge European interest in recent years. In addition, the original and remastered "Savage" track can also be found on the excellent Shock Records compilation CD, Do the Pop! The Australian Garage-Rock Sound 1976-1987, renewing more interest in the band along with other important bands in Australian rock history.
The rare Fun Things tracks can be currently heard on the band's official MySpace profile, http://www.myspace.com/thefunthings. A new official website for the band is scheduled to open in 2008. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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