Just had a meeting talking about printing off some stuff for the local churches together, somehow we got onto talking about my obsession with red telephone boxes, which in tern led to talking about Fat and Frantic and much reminiscing of the good old days of Greenbelt in the late 80s and listening to Fat and Frantic on the main stage and their fantastic songs, a little bit of digging around and I was impressed to find you can even get one of their songs from itunes, although it was the not forest version of Brian, which while good would not give anyone a real taste of the true Fat and Frantic, you can also read a little about them here but there seams to be a great lack of info on this great band on line so for those of you that remember I thought it would be good to have a little reminisce here, please leave any comments on the subject of the great band Fat and Frantic, I might even see if I can put a proper FAF webpage together at some stage!
Update June 2007: This post is still getting hits and comments some 18 months after first being written, please click on the link below reading FAF to check out further parts of this conversation!
Fat and Frantic rocked. They were so cool live. I have three of their albums:
Quirk
Live at the Wonkey Donkey
Agressive Sunbathing
Favourite tracks, erm … Born to be a Brownie, Doris and Freedom
I used to have a FAF album, but I lent it to someone and it never came back 🙁
They were great tho!
Ian I have to agree with Doris, and freedom, also Im a big fan of Africa and of course Last night!
Kathryn
This is a bad offence that has been committed, you should track them down with dogs, the theft of FAF is a terrible crime. Although good on you for sharing the pleasure that only FAF can bring!
Hi. That’s my FAF web page you linked to! :o)
I will update it eventually. Honest.
I had an e-mail from someone the other day who intends to set up fatandfrantic.co.uk or some such web page, so there may be a better web presence for them sometime soon.
Lets keep the flame alive!
For what its worth I have most of their tapes/vinyl and cds (yes, I’m very sad) but have never even set eyes on the tape “Small hats, big heads”, if anyone has it I’d love to hear from them.
I remember FAF from my student days in Exeter once. I have 3 albums, Quirk, Live at the Wonkey Donkey and Very Best of Wendy Craig. Would love to get hold of Waxing a Hottie and Aggressive Sunbathing. They were bloody great and wish they had broken through.
Joe
Oxford
Can’t believe i’ve found online chat about faf. They were probably one of the best live bands i ever saw. I remember the first time i saw them at some small place in notts and never looked back. My wife once came to a gig with her leg in plaster from ankle to hip and the lads signed it. We still have it.
FAF were an awesome band and I was lucky enogh to seem them a couple of times live. Silas and Tufty used to worship at our church eons ago. I loved Teenage Werewolf, Doris and Wendy craig version of Brian.
As this has been such a popular topic I have progressed some of the stuff mentioned, click here to continue the debate.
A truly fantastic live band. They never really came across as well on record (record – that dates them!).
Not long ago I found my old video of their “last” gig, the Friday the 13th video. Seeing myself and my (now dispersed) group of mates at the front of that gig was something special.
When my band was first starting we played FAF covers, especially as we were playing Church venues. when we got more serious we lost the FAF stuff and lost some of the fun.
Somewhere, in a deep recess, I have a tape recording of the session FAF did on the Simon Mayo evening Radio 1 show. I think they did Last Night…, Senator’s Daughter and Waiting for the Queen to Burp. My favourite FAF moments, excluding all their gigs, was wearing a ‘Last Night My wife Hoovered My Head’ t-shirt around Europe in 1990 and trying to explain – needless to say, I gave up explaining.
Hiya found your site on a random google search for FAF. I was a fan too as a teenager – saw them at GB in the 80’s then played in another band which supprted them, then through various circumstances I got lucky & got to join as a keyborad player for the 91-92 season. Funilly enough I saw Fat recently & he told me about a site on myspace with a couple of tracks on. Someone should do a more up to date site & we even have a few unreleased tracks in the cupboard that could get put on mp3. Its interesting to see how the faf fanbase has grown up. Happy memories eh!
Hi FAF lovers of the world 🙂
Well, I’ve finally found some people who understand one of my obsessions! All my friends are too young to remember the great FAF! I have a number of FAF related items… but have just discovered 5 tapes lurking behind my stereo – waxing a hottie, aggressive sunbathing, quirk, wendy craig AND big hats and small heads! (Yes, Ricky I have it!) Somewhere I have a signed T-shirt too… Maybe I should put them on e-bay??!!
Hi Marmite
You cant put them on ebay, it doesnt count as an obsession if you would be prepared to part with it! I too have a signed Tshirt along with two or three unsigned ones, I keep them in my Tshirt draw but never wear them as I dont think they would survive another session in the washing machine and I cant bear to lose them. As for the big hats and small heads I think that is the only one I dont have and I am now very jealous, if you do want to part with it dont put it on ebay without talking to me first!
Hi Simo,
It was an empty threat as I wouldn’t dream of parting with them! Maybe I should start a library system for lending out my copy of “Big Hats…”?? Hmmm… but I don’t think I’d ever see it again… 🙁 And then never again to hear the classic “Dr Winkspong” – would be sad. Oh, I forgot to say that one of my dubious claims to fame, is that my name is on the inside cover of ‘Wendy Craig’ – anyone else’s name on there…? (No, not Marmite! It says Emma Sergeant for that is my true identity!)
No sadly I cannot make that claim, although I did at a FAF Gig in Norwich get called up on the stage along with 4 others, we had to take our shirts off (thankfully we were all male) and then we each had a letter spelling out the word Naked written across us, we then stayed there for the duration of the song! I think that was the best Birthday present anyone could have for an 18th (now Im showing my age!)
Awesome! We used to love FAF! I had most of the albums, T-shirts, fanzines et all. Not sure where they are now though… 🙁
But I do still run in my white “dancing man” vest from time to time. Still fits almost 2 decades later! 🙂
So many great memories from that era, with FAF central to many of them.
FAF were totally brilliant – I once saw them at St Ethelburgh’s School in Harrogate (goodness only knows what year it was, but I was still at school and now I feel soooo old).
I still have Quirk & Agressive Sunbathing on LP, Waxing a Hottie on Cassette, I Don’t Want To Say Goodbye and Last Night on 7″! Live at the Wonkey Donkey went to the tape machine heaven some years ago, along with the tape I also had of the Simon Mayo session.
If only I had the foresight to have got CDs, or at least could I get them on MP3 now!
Cheers
Michael
Oh, and a couple of things I forgot to mention:
1) I saw them at GB88 too – got them to sign my GB pass (still got that!)
2) Got here via a Google search – something popped into my head tonight that I had to find FAF somewhere 😀
Cheers
Michael
A quick Googling later, and I find that it wasn’t “St Ethelburgh’s” it was Queen Ethelburga’s! Does that really matter? It was years ago though – maybe even like 1987 or something? *shudder*
Cheers
Michael
Listened to Quirk for the first time in absolutely ages yesterday, and it made me really wish I had my FAF tapes on CD. Does anybody have them available as MP3s?
Any more goss about FAF? Dying to hear more about them, love their music, had the Very Best of WC on tape but that has fallen by the wayside somewhere. Sigh…
Hi Graham & Mazza
Good to have you join the conversation, I too have been listening to Quick again recently, its just classic, unfortunately I have no new gossip, it is rumoured that some of it may turn up on iTunes (this rumour coming from a former band member) but no further news yet, its just left for us to convert them ourselves, which I keep meaning to do, its just finding a tape deck in this day.
How very exciting! I’m in the process of bidding for the Friday 13th video on Ebay at the moment, but think I’m going to lose it! I’m so pleased it’s not just me who still listens to them – specially the Very Best of WC and Quirk! Also have signed I Don’t Want to Say Goodbye 12″ and others. I have the tape player and record player but no way to convert to MP3! Can’t let FAF be lost forever!!!!
Hi Jessica
Glad to have you come and join the discussion, if its not too late get bidding on the video its great, the mp3 issue is one that will be around for a while I think, it would be great thought wouldnt it, if you have the facilities to play it back though you would probably be quite surprised how easily and cheaply you could convert them, software is available for free and you probably just need a cheap cable to plug things into your computer!
Fantastic to find a discussion on Fat ‘n’ Frantic.
I’ve spent ages now, buying stuff off ebay, and looking out all my old albums etc, to try to get a definitive site together.
If ANY of your guys has ANYTHING to do with FaF, (especially pictures or memoribilia) PLEASE email them to me so that I can get the site up and running.
I now have copies (or scans) of all albums and singles, but gig photos or T-shirt photos or scans of “Trainspotter Quarterly” (if you subscribed to it) would be great.
email anything to: stuff@FatAndFrantic.co.uk
and have a look at the start of the site at:
http://www.FatAndFrantic.co.uk
Cheers
Jez
http://www.myspace.com/revsoftly
Hi everyone, for those interested my husband has just created a new myspace page for F and F at the above address and, wait for it, there are FOUR downloadable songs on it…he also has typed out the words to several songs on his personal website..I’ll put them on myspace to as apparently I now have to look after the page…anyone who knows how to contact any band members please let me know via myspace as I’d like to ask permission for the downloads. Thanks Heather
Am still trawling through trying to find stuff on FAF and found this chat – ace!
FAF are probably my biggest musical influence ever & have contributed to my many years writing & performing in a number of guises….
Still love them dearly & have many fond memories of their live and recorded genius…
A MySpace is a revelation & I hope people can check out for any similarities at all in The Austin Francis Connection (At GB again this year!)
I still somewhere have cassettes of their interview on Radio 1’s GB coverage, as well as a “NAKED” pair of shorts somewhere?!
I also happen to have had the pleasure of addressing Silas on several occasions….at Parent’s Evenings! I taught 2 of his children in Bristol & got them both into playing basketball! He has been at Hope Church in Bristol for a few years – I’ve moved on but I THINK he’s still there…
not sure what led me to start googling FAF last night… there’s a group on Facebook if anyone is unaware of that..
I’ve been having a nostalgia fest! I was at Homerton, Cambridge scene of several FAF gigs, from 85 -89, and home was London, …more gigs LOL!
when I finished Uni, the curate at the church I went to in Twickenham was Silas’s brother Nick!
I’m now trying to track down my albums – I had all of the 6 published. some cassette some CD.. I *think* I know where L@TWDB&G is, and I have Precious Lord safely here..
might have to rootle through my old t-shirt collection too 🙂
I have a promo copy of FnF ” Last night your wife hoovered my head” 7″ single complete with a Blue DJ promo flyer. All in Excellant condition. Would nebody be interested in it? Thanks Cath
Ive put the promo on ebay if ne1 is interested?
Just to let you all know, Fat & Frantic are now finally on iTunes & eMusic (http://www.emusic.com/). And the best thing – if you download Winamp (http://www.winamp.com/player/features) you get 50 free eMusic tracks. The trouble is there’s 65 tracks on there (Waxing a Hottie, Agressive Sunbathing, Live at the Wonky Donkey, Quirk & Last Night My Wife Hoovered My Head), so you’ll either need to sign up twice (with two credit / debit cards & email addresses), or wait for the free trial to finish and pay £8.99 a month for 30 tracks. Just don’t forget to cancel the free trial before the 14 days are up!