Children On Stun Band History The Children On Stun Saga

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1991 Children On Stun originally formed around August 1991. Straight away gigs were booked and any offers for support slots accepted. The first gig, played at The Crypt, Hastings, was greatly received. From then on gigs followed along England's South Coast, up to the Midlands and then finally in London, where the band ended the year supporting Every New Dead Ghost at the Camden Underworld.

During this short space of time the first demo was also recorded and titled "Elegance". The demo went on to sell well and that along with a small review in Mick Mercer's second Gothic Rock book helped greatly in exposing C.O.S to the domestic goth audience.
1992 Into 1992 and first up a support tour with Rosetta Stone. Thanks to Rosetta Stone offering them this tour C.O.S. were now for the first time exposed to larger audiences. As a result of this C.O.S were offered more gigs, which eventually led to their own headline slots around the UK.

The second demo, titled "Choices" followed and not only served to gain the band even more exposure, but went on to sell over one thousand (1000) copies.

Concerts followed as well at London's Marquee, Nottingham's Rock City and a few more around the Midlands. This again boosted the C.O.S. fan base and a busy year was thus ended.
1993 The year started with the third demo Monochrome I and II being released. Again the demo went on to sell well resulting in C.O.S. now having enough money to release their first vinyl offering, called "Hollow". The track immediately became a club favourite, in Europe as well as the UK and to it's credit it's still being played both by the band live and by DJs in the clubs.

More concerts followed around the U:K: including a support slot again with Rosetta Stone on Halloween, which became the biggest C.O.S. audience so far. By now reviews in fanzines started to spread the word about the band. C.O.S were not only part of the UK gothic revival but also brought their own style into the scene; HUMOUR! Around this time a few people criticised C.O.S. for not being gloomy enough, but if you go forward a few years there are now many bands enjoying themselves, with no heads stuck up asses, within the goth scene (remember where it started).
1994 Finally all the hard work with demo releases, vinyl releases, and constant touring paid off and the band were offered their first record deal with the American label Cleopatra.
T.O.L.D. was the resulting album and boosted by the exposure and the album sales, C.O.S went on to headline their own first tour of the UK Proclaimed the new darlings of goth and with fanzine interviews everywhere 1994 was to be one of C.O.S. most successful years to date.

Towards the end of the year another label, Swedish M&A Musicart approached C.O.S. to record a mini album. Overland consequently became the bands second album release and mainly consisted of material the band had been playing for a while, an early version of Celebration (later to become a single) and the famous Tortured by a Sense of Humour. Overland also became the last album to feature guitarist and founder member Pete Finnemore, who left the band to pursue other things in life and so ending the first chapter in the C.O.S. saga. The band then finished the year of 1994 by playing Rock City as a 2-piece. People attending this unique concert saw Neil and Simon at their best and in total control of the stage and the show.
1995 Into 1995 and enter a new band member, Kyle Whipp formerly of Hastings beat combo "Soul Inside". Kyle accepted the offer to join the STUN camp and after being in the band for only two weeks played his first C.O.S. gig at London's Camden Underworld.The gig was a great success and the audience warmed to the new face in the STUN structure.

The band then did a disappearing act to chill out for a while and to concentrate on writing new material for a future single.Celebration Drug E.P. was the result and it's release continued where the bands last single, Hollow, left off. Again the E.P. was dance floor friendly and was played up and down the clubs in the UK, all to positive reactions. The track Whiskey a-go-go also featured on the E.P. and is regarded by the band as the main track. The Hipster, another track off the E.P. was NOT written about Neil, Simon and Kyle having sex with each other, as most people seem to believe, but was in fact just a different approach to a song with some stoned lyrics thrown in for good measure.

In August of that year C.O.S. toured Scandinavia for the first time, taking in concerts in Malmoe, GOTHenburg and Oslo, all which were greatly received. The band also appeared on a Norwegian TV show together with the video of Celebration Drug. Back in the UK C.O.S. underwent a series of concerts including Trevor Ghost's fetish night, The Whitby Festival (no vocals, no PA, nothing...) and more gigs up and down the UK, yet again to great reviews.

In the middle of the year Cleopatra released the "Celibacy and Anadin" E.P. which includes Rosetta Stone mixes and live favourite "Mr. Porcupine" as well as the track "Beginning of the End". A strange mix of songs on this E.P. that doesn't really do C.O.S. much justice and the contract with Cleopatra was here terminated.

1996 Into 1996 and an unusually quiet year for C.O.S. The band enter the studio in March to record tracks for the forthcoming release of the new album "Mondo Weird" plus remixes for future releases and again with Porl Young at the helm, a delightful array of songs is recorded. Styles ranging from goth, techno and industrial to punk and psychedelic are written into the STUN song structure and wait future release.

April sees C.O.S. visit Sweden once more for concerts in GOTHenburg and Lund. During the summer and now with their band name shortened to STUN the band toured the UK, yet again with the purpose of previewing material from the forthcoming album. Taking in smaller venues than the band had been accustomed to lately proved to make the tour a big success and the new tracks Felch, Aunty Crystal's Thieves, Style Police, Building Boxes and Scum all go down extremely well with the audiences. Bear in mind that rumours ranging from the band splitting up to change of music style had been spreading during STUN's absence from the scene.
1997 So into 1997 and the release of the third STUN album "Mondo Weird". A slight misunderstanding from record company and band sees the new album come out under Children On Stun and not STUN, but this aside the album get great reviews world-wide. In keeping their musical roots while getting the production of the 90's the album marks a great difference in sound to C.O.S. previous releases and makes the product more professional & commercial. The first gigs of the year are supporting the Dream Disciples around Italy, Switzerland and Germany. The STUN again only a twopiece for the Italy and Switzerland gigs, as Simon had a somewhat problem with transaphobia, but as it turned out he joined Neil and Kyle a week later for the German leg of the tour.

Back to blighty and another explosive Whitby festival performance in April with the STUN playing old and new songs while also airing recently written ones for the first time in the UK The gig once again resulted in a great response from the audience, despite the excessive use of strobe lights. M ore concerts follow in Birmingham, London and Sheffield, which ends the STUN music machine for the year. All problems with the fraud office are sorted out resulting in STUN being allowed to once again play live in 1998 and continue the Children On Stun Saga.

Another C.O.S. single called "Pin ups, Soap operas and Natural Disasters" is released during the summer of 1997 and even though the quality is not as good as previous recordings it sells out within two weeks of being released.
1998 Yet another M&A release called "Outrageous, Outlawed, Outspoken" (remixes from Mondo Weird) will be released in Feb./March 1998 and the next proper STUN album should be released during the summer of 1998. With the working title "Prostitute Malfunction" it will be STUN's craziest collection of tracks so far.

So stay tuned for the next episode.

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