Welcome to the lab, the first 'controlled' environment on the web actually controlled by The Scientists. Controlled is very much the operative word here. There's been plenty out there on us for a long time. Given that and the fact that we're not making anything off the bootlegs and second hand vinyl (not that we made anything when it was first hand) it seems only fitting and proper that we should have something to say and do about it.

To get some history and philosophy on The Scientists just click onto the Blood Red River, Human Jukebox or Pissed on Another Planet liner notes. These will give you my potted history and our 'manifestos' from the different eras.

As our archives are by no means completely plundered there will be considerable updating on this site from time to time. At this very time there is a project underway to render all those Dingwalls and Strawberry Hills cassettes redundant. Sure we can't offer the same sort of tape hiss and oxide shredding but the source is absolutely unbeatable. More later.

The latest news is a tour of Europe in October to promote the release of the Pissed on Another Planet complilation. This release comprises all the material the band recorded in its early Perth years 1978-1980. Now this was quite a different kettle of fish to the band you know from the 'dark eighties'. Whilst the adjectives 'raw', 'primitive' and 'punkish' still apply, 'swampy', 'minimalist' and 'blues driven' could be replaced by 'anglophile', 'melodic' and 'poppy'.

This tour comes hot on the heels of two aborted attempts at tours of U.S.A and Europe. With an unbelievable third offer to tour overseas it is rather apparent to me that it is better to take it before we 'miss the boat' entirely.

Pissed on Another Planet alone features 4 very different lineups to that of Blood Red River and indeed The Human Jukebox. I have therefore given some serious thought to putting together a lineup that reflect and deliver on all eras of The Scientists rather than the one specific to Blood Red River. I'd prefer to think of bands like the Cramps, Gun Club and Panther Burns (contemporaries of ours) who had myriad lineups, than to think of dodgey latterday lineups of the Sweet or Black Sabbath or whatever.

What I've come up with is a 3 piece, given that it has been a recurring format for the band. Leanne Chock who played on Weird Love and was with the band for1985 and 1986 will be drumming. Stu Thomas who did the 2000 Scientists tributes - with guests nights - will be doing the bass. I know from working with these folk that they are absolutely the right stuff for the task. I am absolutely hangin' to get stuck in and play all that stuff with this band!

Well…that's the present. How do we get there from when the band spectacularly imploded on its Australian Human Jukebox tour of 1987 (with the bizarre lineup of me on bass and Guitar, Tony Thewlis on guitar, Nick Combe on Drums and our 82-84 drummer Brett Rixon on Guitar and Bass! – more on this at a later date).

Yeah… what about those nineties, I ask myself. I spent a good deal of time trying to distance myself from the band with varying success. I used to joke that my tombstone would read "No I will not play Swampland" so rare was it to get through a gig without that or similar requests. The lowest point for me was when drummer Brett Rixon died of a heroin overdose on boxing day 1993. By the end of the nineties however I began to warm to the idea of tentatively approaching the beast (no not the plural).

We'd finished our eighties time with a big expensive legal fight to gain possession of our back catalogue. Having been exhausted by that we just sat on it, spending the next decade fending off inappropriate offers from various parties to release the definitive box set! Finally the inertia got so great that I realised we better do something with all that suff before we got too old and creeky.

Blood Red River was the firsts reissue comprising the original (mini) LP of the same name along with singles and EPs from '82-'84. In the absense of the Scientists I put together a 3 piece band and recruited a cast of guests to play the stuff. With members from Nitocris, the Hoodoo Gurus, Tumbleweed, Rebecca's Empire, Ratcat, Luxedo, Antenna, Died Pretty and Renee Geyer(!?) the nights were a raging success. There was actually some confusion including Rolling Stone mag that this was actually The Scientists. Still it was a thrill to play all those songs again!

A little later I did manage to get Boris and Tony to play with me with a stand-in drummer for a live TV appearance on Studio 22. Tony was back in the country and we nabbed him before he went back home to the UK. This sewed the seed for the highly successful Australian 2002 tour which coincided with the release of Human Jukebox.

That tour was something! The first gig in Perth had the White Stripes ligging onto the guest list. Our agent said to me 'I think you've just re-animated a monster!' after the soundcheck. We had had just eight shows and managed not to blow one of them! This for a band who used to throw one in three gigs as a matter of course!

The spookiest thing was that Brett Rixon's sister Marilyn happened to be walking by Boris's and Tony's hotel having just flown into town from L.A.to visit family with no knowledge that the band had reformed and a tour was about to begin. She came up to the hotel room for a few drinks and much reminiscing. Thankfully the more superstitious members of the band managed not to let it effect them too much. My memories of the tour are all very positive from a musical point of view. This truly was a bastard of a lineup that made a bastard of a sound! I'm sort of glad it didn't go on any longer to allow any of those niggling personal things that wore us down in the first place manifest themselves. Who knows, if the planets are aligned right it might happen again a few years down the track.