Getting the Fear were an English band of the 1980s. Its members were Barry (Jepson), Buzz (David Burrows), Aki Nawaz (Haq Quershi), and Bee (Paul Hampshire). The band was formed largely of former members of Southern Death Cult, with the exception of the singer Bee who replaced Ian Astbury on vocals.
A few words via their Demo tape on YouTube:
Bee, an ex member of Danse Society joined the back-line of Southern Death Cult namely Buzz, Barry and Aky.
Bee at the time was an on/off member of Thee Temple Ov Psychic Youth and friend of Psychic TV. The band got a lot of attention from Kill Your Pet Puppy’s fanzine’s successor in all things – colour-musu-politikal-magick – wise, Vague fanzine. Tom Vague was, in general, around the same squats and run down gig venues, that the Kill Your Pet Puppy collective would have been around.
There was a real buzz about this band and Tom who had a finger in both the Southern Death Cult and Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth camps, went onto champion this band and was rightly expecting huge potential from them.
RCA signed up this extremely good looking bunch of alternative boys in 1985 and sold them, as one would imagine, as a flat sounding, over made up pop band ready for the then dwindling Smash Hits magazine market.
Not quite as gritty as Vague fanzine or anyone that saw some of the celebrations that were the concerts that Getting The Fear performed imagined them to be.
Still…
RCA released one 12″ single entitled ‘Last Salute’ (with the B side ‘We Struggle’ being the pick of the tracks).
Getting The Fear seemed to be a band that were destined to burn out very quickly which of course they did.
1986 saw Bee and Barry start up Into A Circle and Aky got Fun-Da-Mental together.
Bee went to Thailand where he still resides and Buzz went to France where he may well still be…
So there you have it. The BBC session comes from October31, 1984 and is not from John Peel. Enjoy it anyway.
