Sheep on Drugs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sheep on Drugs was a left-field UK group formed by charismatic English loons Duncan X (vocals) and Lee Fraser (guitar / keys). Originally classified as off-the-wall ravers, the duo emerged in the early 1990s with a string of singles - including Motorbike, 15 Minutes Of Fame and Track X (later covered by Grace Jones as Sex Drive), which grazed the lower reaches of the mainstream UK charts.
Their Gareth Jones-produced debut album, Greatest Hits, was released on Island Records in 1993 to some acclaim from the UK music press. However, with their Grand Guignol style stage shows and a musical mixture of sleazy rock, hard techno and punk nihilism, SOD found themselves pigeonholed as an "industrial" band and the 1994 follow-up album On Drugs (the title was decidedly un-ironic by this point) was a commercial and critical disappointment.
"For the 'On Drugs' album, it was basically me and Duncan locked in a room, with no guidance about what direction we were to take it in, no producer. Markus Dravs, who did the production for that album, he's a brilliant artist in his own right, but he wasn't the producer we needed. He was just brought into the studio to mix, it wasn't like he was an active part of the team, so they fucked that up. So, no wonder the second album wasn't as commercial as they were expecting, because they didn't give us any guidance," according to Lee. [1]
Dropped by Island, the band independently released two EPs, "Suck" in '94 and "Strapped for Cash" in '95, before heading to the US. Sheep On Drugs released their third album One for the Money, a live recording, Two for the Show, and a remix collection, Never Mind The Methadone, on Invisible Records in 1996. By this time, they had tired of their situation in the States and were unsatisfied with Invisible.[2] Frontman Duncan X departed Sheep On Drugs shortly afterwards to become a professional tattooist.
Lee revived the group in 2002 with himself as the frontman and released a new album, "F**K", on Invisible in 2005.
[edit] References
- ^ Donnacha DeLong (2002). Another 15 minutes. Sorted magAZine.
- ^ ibid [1] "We were worn down so much really by Invisible Records, who, by being so cheap, drained us of all our life-force."
[edit] Discography
Albums:
- Greatest Hits (Island, 1993)
- On Drugs (Island, 1994)
- Double Trouble (1996)
- One For The Money (Invisible, 1997)
- Never Mind The Methadone (Invisible, 1998) - remixes
- Two for the Show (Invisible, 1998) - live
- F**K (Invisible, 2005)
