Savage - 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.