He's Dead Jim was formed in a garage in Aberdeen Scotland in 1981 by Troy Tempest (bass), Johnny Stud(vocals), Zelda Fenderbender (guitar), Colt Coldheart (guitar) and Flash Zip(drums). The ensuing racket alarmed the neighbours, who promptly took out an injunction for 'noise pollution' to prevent the band from practising. Undaunted, the lads of HDJ took their noise pollution to the world (well, the north east of Scotland) for a four-year 'rammy' of lo-fi garage pop. After a couple of years, Fenderbender left and Stud took over on second guitar, while Zip was replaced by Andy Milne (Cateran, Joyriders). Tempest thereafter shared vocal duties with Stud.
Upon Stud's departure in 1984, Screaming Blue Murdo Macleod (Cateran, Joyriders) was brought into the fold. During the last year of the band's initial run, the line-up was briefly supplemented by Mark Taylor (relieving Tempest of bass duties) and Rosie Savin (backing vocals). HDJ disappeared as a live entity in 1985 but continued for a short time via studio recordings.
Radio silence was broken in 2005, when the band reformed for a one-off gig in Edinburgh, comprising Coldheart, Stud, Tempest, Milne and Macleod. An album ("Colour Climax/ Monochrome World) was released on Hyped2Death Records in 2008. Additionally, a number of bootleg recordings, mastered by Stud, are in circulation, but largely restricted to the discerning few, HDJ 's appeal being, ah, "selective".
Rumours persist of further gigs and recordings being in the pipeline for 2013. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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