Fudge Tunnel

Fudge Tunnel
L-R: David Ryley, Alex Newport, and Adrian Parkin
Background information
Origin	Nottingham, England
Genres	Sludge metal,alternative metal,noise rock
Years active	1988–1995
Labels	Vinyl Solution, Earache, Relativity, Columbia
Associated acts	Nailbomb Theory of Ruin Red Love Tubesurfer
Past members	Alex Newport David Ryley Adrian Parkin

Fudge Tunnel were a band formed in Nottingham, England by Alex Newport, David Ryley and Adrian Parkin. After two critically acclaimed singles on Pigboy/Vinyl Solution Records ("Fudge Tunnel" in 1989, "The Sweet Sound of Excess" in 1990), they signed to Nottingham's Earache Records. Their debut album was Hate Songs in E Minor, which attracted a large amount of press interest after the original album artwork was confiscated by the Nottingham Vice Squad.

Fudge Tunnel's reputation was built around their massive guitar sound and ironic sense of humour, and were extremely popular with the British music press - at least at first. The band's first release was "Single Of The Week" in NME magazine in January, 1990, with NME declaring "Absolutely and totally the best single ever to be released in 1990. Total nine guitar attack-rock".

The band undertook several European tours in 1991 and 1992 including support slots with Fugazi, Silverfish and The Jesus Lizard, as well as support slots with Swervedriver, Godflesh, and regular performances at popular London venues The Camden Falcon and Camden Underworld.

Two more albums were to follow in 1993 (Creep Diets) and 1994 (The Complicated Futility of Ignorance), as did a collaboration between Sepultura's Max Cavalera and Fudge Tunnel's Alex Newport on the Nailbomb project, which saw one studio album and one live album of their Dynamo Open Air Festival performance.

After the release of their third studio album, the band split up. David Ryley ran his label BGR Records for a while. Adrian Parkin played with Tubesurfer until 1996 when they too split up, and then returned to being a quantity surveyor in Bolton. Alex Newport went on to pursue a successful career as a producer/mixer and now lives and runs his own studio in New York. He has produced albums by At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta, Bloc Party, City And Colour, and many others. He also formed the band Theory of Ruin, who released one album, Counter Culture Nosebleed and the Frontline Poster Child EP, both on Escape Artist Records and currently is playing in Red Love with Matt Tong.