Fat and Frantic

Fat and Frantic were a London-based pop music group who wrote all their own material, playing a wide variety of musical styles ranging from manic skiffle through rock 'n roll to a cappella which they sometimes described as "piffle" – a mix of punk and skiffle.

Formed in 1985, Fat and Frantic was a particular favourite on the UK live venues and University circuit playing some 300 gigs between 1989 and 1992, as well as playing frequently at the Greenbelt Festival and at Reading Festival. Its best-known song was "Last Night My Wife Hoovered My Head", one chorus of which was sung in French. The group were also somewhat notorious for once receiving a particularly bad live review from Damon Wise in the music paper Sounds, which closed with the line "Fat and Frantic ruined my weekend and I hate them for it", a line which they went on to use extensively in their publicity.

In July 2011, Fat and Frantic re-formed some 26 years after the first time around to play some live gigs (mainly) in the South of England. In preparation for the tour, all of their back catalogue became available on iTunes as well as 2 brand new recordings.

In 2014 the band reformed one more time for a reunion appearance at the Greenbelt Festival's 40th anniversary.

Their first album also featured John Lodge-Patch on bass.

Most albums include at least one a cappella track. The 1994 album, Precious Lord (a collection of unaccompanied worship songs), was a tribute to close friend Steve Fairnie who wrote the title track.

This song was voted "Single of the Week" on Simon Mayo's BBC Radio One Breakfast Show in 1989.

Reached the Radio Playlist meeting but alas didn't quite make it. Performed on Going Live BBC1.

Released when Nottingham Forest reached the FA Cup Final, with the original song's lyrics adapted so they had something to do with football, Nottingham Forest, and Brian Clough. Simon Mayo played 12 seconds of it before deciding to play something else instead...

During the 1980s, Fat and Frantic wrote a song, Darling Doris, as part of the campaign to stop the decommissioning of the red telephone box. The song lyrics describe the red telephone box as a characterful community beacon being taken away and being replaced with a modern uncharacteristic phone box spelling the ruination of the community. The powerful closing words of the song being "Now they've taken my Darling Doris away. How can I forgive them?"

...
Wikipedia