Band Members

Frenzal Rhomb have been ordered off touring for one year by the centre for disease control in Barooga in northern NSA, who believe they have discovered some kind of new 'super disease'. Singer Jason Whalley is no stranger to controversy of this kind. "Once this rash clears up and the swelling subsides I'll be back on me feet in no time" Whalley remarked at a recent press conference. Jason started on the long road to celebrity back in the mid eighties when he joined the Sydney University tabernacle choir as chief falsetto soloist. Whalley was promptly ejected for singing hymns too fast and for demanding holy wine on the rider.

Whalley was later sent to a military school, where he met Alexis Feltham. "Its not easy to fit an entire human body into a suitcase", Lex explained, before introducing Whalley to his secret cache of military style weapons. "have you ever seen a grown man vapourise?" Lex, dressed in full military regalia, wanted to know. Jason wanted to know if Lex would join the band.

Lex obliged, and enlisted the services of guitarist Benjamin Costello, whose Dad was not at all happy about having his son play in a band.

The lads decided that the most sensible thing to do would be to name the band after French Scientist Augustus Fresnel, whose contribution to the world was the invention of a light refracting box ~ the Fresnel Rhomb.

The Rhomb first gained notoriety in Australia when they played the legendary Big Day Out Festival in Sydney to over fifteen thousand underage maniacs, several thousand of whom tore the main tent to the ground, caused a mass evacuation of the site and an electrical fire. The riot that ensued gained national network news coverage and the band went on to become an all-ages phenomenon.

Frenzal Rhomb's aggressive brand of punk rock and traditional Australian mayhem soon found a home on the 1995 debut album "Coughing Up A Storm". Punk luminary and impresario Fat Mike from Fat Wreck Chords got his hands on a copy when NOFX toured with Frenzal later that year. He asked the band if they wanted to release something on his label. Jason told him: "you're the heaviest man in town. When you die it's going to be in the papers!" Fat Mike took this as a go-ahead and promptly released four tracks on the highly collectable single "4 Litres". The classic track "Run" was also featured on Fat Wreck's flagship compilation "Survival of the Fattest" which has sold over 200, 000 copies and become a staple in the CD collection of punk rock kids with spots worldwide.

The band continued on their merry way, but it did not take long for Ben's dad to become a considerable nuisance. Turning up drunk to rehearsal, and to the summer bathing parties where the demand to perform was constant; antics such as insisting on introducing each song and toasting members of the audience in a lascivious manner. Frenzal Rhomb were embarrassed for Ben and at the lukewarm reception that his father was achieving; as such Costello was asked to leave. He refused and was forcibly ejected from the band.

Lindsay McDougall had spent most of his childhood with his dad and his two brothers, in a home in Engadine which had all of its ceilings and walls painted mission brown. He was not allowed out of doors at all, the lights were always extinguished and the curtains always drawn. He was not a high achiever, not being allowed to attend school, although he passed the time reading his dad's unpaid parking tickets and copies of the Lancet, Hustler and other medical journals. Nobody knows how Lindsay came to join Frenzal Rhomb. Rumour has it that Jason Whalley phoned his home one day and that the conversation went something like this:

"Dr Lindemans, I think it's time for a private checkup"

"Oh, I'm not a Doctor"

"Bartender! Employ this man!"*

Later that year the Sir John Bosco memorial school in Engadine awarded Lindsay an honourary doctorate in Gross Motor Skills in an effort to boost their flagging Enrolment list.

The impending release of their follow up album, "Not So Tough Now" had legions of teenagers biting their nails in anticipation. In 1997 Frenzal Rhomb became one of the biggest selling independent artists of the year with their radio hit "Punch In the Face". "Not So Tough Now" went number 1 on the national independent chart and stayed in the top 20 for over 90 weeks, it now re-enters every time Frenzal announces another tour.

Later that year Frenzal Rhomb were invited to join a 58 show tour of the US with Less Than Jake and Blink 182. The incredible reaction to this tour led to interest from promoter Kevin Lyman, who decided to headline Frenzal Rhomb on the inaugural 1998 Australian Vans Warped tour alongside Pennywise & The Vandals. Frenzal followed this up with a spot on the US Warped tour in the same year with Bad Religion and Rancid.

Album number three, "Meet The Family", inspired by the breakdown of the band's own family lifestyles, led to unprecedented media coverage of and not a week going by without the bands antics being reported in the press. Frenzal Rhomb's first effort at a radio hit "All Your Friends Think You're A Fuckhead", was overshadowed by the intellectual genius of "Get Fucked You Fucken Fuckwit (You Can't Move Into My House)". In January 1999 "Meet The Family" was certified gold by ARIA.

Meanwhile in Gaven QLD, a swamplike community about 40 minutes inland from the Gold Coast, Gordy Hormone was busily practicing the drums. When his family were forced to move out because of a locust plague, he had no choice but to join Frenzal Rhomb and tour the world.

Frenzal went into the studio with producer Eddie Ashworth (Pennywise, Sublime), to work on their next album. Fat Wreck Chords heard it first and signed the band for worldwide release, Frenzal toured the US for a third time with ska band Reel Big Fish, went home, invited Eddie out to Australia and finished the album.

For this latest release, the band settled on the title "A Man's Not A Camel", feeling that it's best to stick to beer references when you're trying to honestly depict your life and values through music. The album is released through Shock Records in Australia and NZ, and on Fat Wreck Chords throughout the rest of the world. The first single, to be released worldwide, is called "We're Going Out Tonight", accompanied by a video documentary of a night out with the Rhomb, culminating in violence, humiliation and arrest for many of the "actors", or "accessories" as the police have described them.

Frenzal Rhomb's confirmed touring schedule for 1999 includes a tour of the west coast of the USA with Less Than Jake and All, and a spot on the 1999 US Vans Warped tour in July. The familiar pattern of drunken rampages and all manner of activity ranging from the immoral to the highly illegal, will continue in all states of Australia throughout the year.

*Bartender Sheds McGrath was dealing with management duties throughout this difficult period