Fatal Microbes were an English punk rock band formed in 1978. The main line-up of the band consisted of Honey Bane on vocals, Gem Stone on drums, Pete Fender on guitar and Scotty Barker on bass. The band's name is regarded as a reference to the theme of disgust and toxicity, explored and embraced by many punk rock acts in the late 1970s and early 1980.

History

In 1979 Small Wonder and XNTRIX Records co-released a split

12-inch The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

EP entitled "Violence Grows", which also featured the Epping-based

Poison Girls The Poison Girls were an English anarcho-punk band from Brighton. The singer/guitarist, Vi Subversa, was a middle-aged mother of two at the band's inception, and wrote songs that explored sexuality and gender roles, often from an anarchist pe ...

(whose singer, Vi Subversa, was also mother to Gem Stone and Pete Fender). In the same year Fatal Microbes released a 7-inch single featuring "Violence Grows" on the punk rock record label

Small Wonder Records Small Wonder Records was a British independent record label owned and managed by Pete and Mari Stennett, that specialised in releasing records by punk rock and post-punk bands. It operated out of a record shop of the same name at 162 Hoe Stre ...

. The single was championed by British DJ and radio presenter

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

. Honey Bane later had a career as a solo artist, a film and stage actress and a model. Pete Fender subsequently went on to form

Rubella Ballet Rubella Ballet are an English gothic anarcho-punk band formed in 1979, who released several albums before splitting up in 1991. They reformed in 2000. History The band was formed by drummer Sid Ation (born Sid Truelove, 18 April 1960, Sutton ...

with Gem Stone (bass) and Sid Ation (drums). Fender later released a 7-inch EP, "Four Formulas", under his own name on XNTRIX records. Fender and ‘It’ had formed the band Punktuation in 1977. With an average age of 13 years, they were amongst the youngest punk bands in the country at the time. Scott Barker went on to become a founder member of the legendary 'Old Reenies' (sometimes spelt 'Ol Rene's') with former Sods front man Kevin Jones and former No Warning guitarist Martin Brown. Scott Barker now lives in Spain and continues to perform. The band's songs were included in the compilation album for ''

Rip It Up and Start Again ''Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984'' is a book by Simon Reynolds on the post-punk musical genre and era. It was first released in the UK in April 2005 by Faber & Faber. The US edition was published by Penguin Books and released in ...

'' compilation released in 2006 through

V2 Records V2 Records (or V2 Music; V2 being an abbreviation for Virgin 2) is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007 and sold to IASin 2013. In the Benelux, V2 operates separately from PIAS, as the label bought itself out from ...

Former members

;Main line-up * Honey Bane – vocals * Gem Stone (Gemma Sansom) – drums * Pete Fender (Dan Sansom) – guitar * Scotty Boy Barker (Scott Barker) – bass ;Other former members * It (Quentin North) – bass

Discography

;Singles * "Violence Grows" (1979; split single with

) * "Violence Grows b/w Beautiful Pictures + Cry Baby" (Small Wonder Records 1979)

References

External links

* English punk rock groups English post-punk music groups Musical quartets Musical groups established in 1978 Musical groups disestablished in 1979 {{UK-rock-band-stub