Fat and Frantic were a band. They are no more. Sometimes they reappear to play concerts and call themselves "Rev Softly". But not very often. They played a mixture of gospel and skiffle which they called "goffle". Some people accused them of playing a mix of punk and skiffle called "piffle". They played netween 1985 and 1992, and a one-off reunion gig in 1998. They were often to be found at Greenbelt, occasionally on tour around the UK, sometimes at the Edinburgh Festival fringe, and even sometimes found playing gigs in all girls schools (where the audience response to the song "Not enough naked men" really had to be witnessed to be believed!). Consisting of Jim Harris (vocals/trumpet), Silas Crawley (vocals/washboard), Jon "Fat" Soper (vocals/guitar), Craig "Tuff" McLeish (bass) and Simon Saunders (drums), attendance at a Fat and Frantic gig was the most fun you could have in the eighties with your clothes on. Championed by Simon Mayo in his early days with Radio 1, the single "Last Night My Wife Hoovered My Head" received some Radio 1 airplay, but stalled just outside the Top 100, as did the follow-up releases. A stillborn attempt to re-record their classic "Brian" as the Nottingham Forest Cup Final Single for 1991 left the band broke, and they split soon after.
Fat is currently a clergyman in the Church of England - soon to be at St. Paul's Onslow Square. Silas ran a youth club in Bristol for eight years, he is now working in drug rehabilitation and with a church for the homeless. He has 5 kids! Jim is acting and fathering. Simon is being a carpenter. Tuff has re-married and is arranging and producing; working for a company called Crazletown. God bless you, boys- happy memories!
In 2011, the band announced plans to reform for four gigs to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the bands demise. Concerts are planned for Leicester, London and Bristol in late July. A new single "Paradise" was also issued on download sites, where the band's albums are also now available. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.