The Labrats
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The Labrats were a post punk power trio formed in Sydney Australia in 1986 by former members of the heavy rock group Ironheart. Following Ironheart's disbanding in 1986, the instrumental elements of the band, namely John Botica (guitar), Brendon Venner (drums) and Mark O'Connor (bass guitar) made a calculated foray into the Sydney innercity power-pop scene, seeing Botica taking over the band's lead vocals as well as guitar, something he hadn't done for several years since his first high school band called 'Bad News' some ten years prior.
Initially inspired by bands such as Radio Birdman, Motörhead and even Frank Zappa the Labrats became a permanent fixture on the Sydney alternative scene throughout the late 80's and did the rounds of the indie circuit for at least 2 years before being ultimately picked up by Johnny Kannis (Johnny Kannis Explosion, Hitmen D.T.K). Kannis, acting as sarogate manager to the band helped to secure regular support slots to his own stable of bands such as the Psychotic Turnbuckles, Screaming Tribesman and his own J.K Explosion.
Move to London
After 3 years of solid activity and building frustration through their seeming inability to muster sufficient industry support, the Labrats finally packed bags and moved to London in search of a record deal and before too long found themselves headlining at venues such as the Greyhound and the Mean Fiddler where they played as support to Irish blues legend Rory Gallagher among others. Independent music journalist Paul Jolands after having witnessed the Labrats performing their first headline show at the Greyhound in London in early 1989 described the band thus, "John Botica, Brendon Venner and Mark O'Connor look like hard nuts and make a hard sound. They may trample you with out a second thought with what appears to be instinctive unity".
A sudden and by all accounts turbulent breakup in the UK in late 1989 saw the band's bass guitarist Mark O'Connor walking out on the band, catching the first available flight back home to Sydney. Botica and drummer Brendon Venner each eventually made their way back to Australia where around a year later they formed yet another power trio called 'Full Moon Radio' recruiting a working session guitarist by the name of David Fleming who took up bass guitar duties for the band.
Full Moon Radio despite still leaning towards the heavier end of the musical spectrum and having kept quite a number of former Labrats tunes in their repertoire were on the whole a somewhat more melodic songwriter driven band that could possibly be described in style to Arizona band the Meat Puppets, or perhaps even to the Canadian heavy rock trio Rush.
Full Moon Radio recorded a self titled mini album on the Mighty Boy AMO records label in 1991 which despite having gained some local radio airplay unfortunately wasn't quite enough to keep guitarist Botica's interest. Botica left Full Moon Radio later that year to take over lead guitar duties for the ex Masters Apprentices band His Majesty. Drummer Brendon Venner went on to play with a succession of Sydney cover bands and in 1995 once again found himself in a band with Botica called the 'Sunshine Crowd' a band produced by Jim Hilbun of the 'Angels' (USA - Angel City) and featuring the vocal and song writing talents of Marvin Druid former violinist for popular 80's art-rock band Widowed Isis.
