The Dark Ages/Drop Your Anxiety chronology

Those have been long years, but they are told quite quickly. In dark autumn of late 1984, on a wet November evening, Rascal for the first time entered the TFS rehearsal room.

He was the last of five, so they were complete. The other four may be named as well: L'O the guitar player, Blonder who still played guitar those days; A. Bang the Drummer; Myk with microphone; Rascal had brought his masterbass there. What was the idea behind the whole project?

Indeed, to be honest, there was none, or at best perhaps it was something very vague. Maybe you might describe it this way: the beat had to be straight in those days. The sound somehow cool, with a little bit of melancholic mood, and a touch of aimless wrath.

In early '85 Rascal took a small synthesizer into their room, which Blonder was appointed to attend. It was a ridiculous tiny Casio thing. The beginning of walking electronic fields. In February of '85 they recorded "Bushman" which was the first title they ever created together.

And it became some kind of a hit in a small club all Fair Sexers used to visit then : the famous club Kalei. The five were very proud of it, dreaming of fast arriving fame, and presto! The long years of fighting and struggling started at once.

What else might be said about 1985? "The Jumping" and "The Spire" were created, together with "Bushman" the only published '85 titles in late '85 TFS were near releasing a maxi single, the classic "Babygrilling" which was never released. Of all '85 concerts it was the gig in the Victoria Schule they liked most. Autumn was dark again, and they were disappointed.

The sad year of 1986 started. The Fair Sex wrote titles such as "Hanging in Kareyth", "ATR", "The Black Avenger", "Alyens", "Divine Service", "The pain that no one knows". They were in the studios, they had some concerts. It was boring. Nothing surprising happened. So perhaps...Hey! What about describing how I see The Fair Sex members? Some characterization perhaps?

First of all, of course, L'O is he what is commonly understood by cool? Probably. He does not talk very often. Indeed he never says a word. Moreover he is lazy. He is the best instrumentalist of all The Fair Sexers. But he does not offer many ideas of what he is carrying in his head to the others. He likes reading fantasy stories. Every Fair Sexer likes him, most of all The Fair Sexers. He does not forget one single guitar riff he ever invented unless it is older than five minutes. He always seems to be tired, but he is not as slow as he looks like. He founded the predecessor band of TFS in the amazing summer of 1982.

Blonder talks much more than L'O. Mostly by jokes. He has quite a very original, a special way. Sometimes he comes out with ideas that no one understands but Myk.(Rascal never understands them, but I suspect this is a strategy of his own). Blonder together with Rascal , supplies the greatest number of basic ideas, out of which the TFS company makes whole titles. The ripeness and boredom which comes along with growing up is what he despises I think. His titles are often quite melancholic, full of yearning. It is not reason what he admires. It is more intuition and emotion.

So he is quite a contrast to Rascal. Rascal wants strategies, plans that have grown out of reasonable basics. Rascal hates things that might be out fashioned. He lives in the situation that is called now, and only there. His activities often drive the whole TFS company into new fields which have not been entered before. His moods are infectious. If he is depressed, then soon all others will feel uncomfortable. On the other hand he is able to take all with him in a wave of enthusiasm.

Myk Brings into the TFS ideology the aspect of attack, the touch of wrath. I don't know why. But he is dissatisfied. He is not able to content himself within this world. This might be true of many people, but he suffers from it. But his activities are not fit to depress I think. Sometimes I believe he wants to be the Black Avenger that he often describes in lyrics. He is not yet, if he wants to. He still has to shape himself into that direction. A. Bang is here no more. For four years he was the drummer. He was a calm person, very friendly, with quite a big human touch. Sometimes he was in a dark mood. On the other hand he bore mistrust within him against many phenonenons in this world, which is totally wrong, probably. He was definitely not a child of luck. Dissatisfaction and restlessness were no unknown feelings to him. Sometimes I had the impression that he smiled with mild scorn about the others being so eager to make something great out of TFS ; but he worked for that aim as well and had many ideas and wrote many titles the most famous of which is probably "Divine Service".

This is enough of characterization for now. Where were we? Describing the boring year of 1986 I think. No more about '86 is there to tell except that the TFS favorite gig of that year was their support for the Bollock Brothers at the Memphis Club in Dortmund in beautiful May. 1987 was better "Divine Service" was released. They had more concerts, the July '87 Krefeld gig was their favorite of that year. In hot August they were in Studio 55 to record "Bushman" and the whole "House of Unkinds" album. "Bushman" was released in autumn, but it was a version that the TFS'lers never liked. Concerts, interviews" late '87 was ok.

In February '88 "The House of Unkinds" was released. By that time The Fair Sexers were already displeased with their debut album and they were working at titles such as boredom Kills and Atrocity. The teamwork and friendship with Ramon began. They had more concerts than ever before, the greatest of which and '88 winner was the Melodrom gig in April 1988 promised to become a classic, then Demented Forms were about to come. On the 10th of September '88 A. Bang died on stage in Augsburg. He had a sickness, the seriousness of which no one had guessed. Everything falls short of events like these; even nowadays, which is the summer of '92. I have the feeling that The Fair Sex members thrust aside the memory of that day, but of course they don't thrust aside the memory of A. Bang. It is not easy going on with the story after this. In December '88 they finished the Demented Forms album which might be characterized as a result of their "House" dissatisfaction. These two records are quite different.

In February '89 'Demented Forms" was released. It was quite a success, as the previous records before had been. It was there last success for a long time because the great 89/90 crisis was about to come. The '89 tour was cancelled, the "Demented Forms" successor maxi "Alaska/ATR" was being planned, but never published. The contract with Last Chance, which had started in January '87 ended. There were just a few live performances in the '89 season, and the greatest of those was the Meitingen gig in June .

In the new years night 89/90 the TFS rehearsal room was broken open, great parts of the equipment were taken away. The atmosphere between The Fair Sex members grew bad. The "Haematic/Alaska" maxi was recorded, but not published. Yet slowly things got better. The cooperation with Trik 3 started which developed into a friendship. During 1990 The Fair Sex spent many days in the studios. They signed the Our Choice contract, the Zillo tour in December was quite nice.

Then finally in April 1991 TFS released the "Outraged and moved/Alaska" maxi. In June "Bite Release bite" came out. The Outraged tour in June and the Bite tour in September were really great with their absolute peak at the Cinderella Club in Stuttgart. "Oddities" stepped into public like, followed up by the "Toys" EP. When TFS went on the '91 Zillo tour they had already created some Spell of Joy tracks such as "Not Now, Not here".

1992 started with writing the majority of Spell titles and during hot May '92 The Spell of Joy album was recorded in Munich. "Soulspirit" was released, and some days ago the album with the slit of joy motif came out. So we have reached nowadays which won't be nowadays for too long. It will change into deepest yesterday of course, but not too fast. The "What's to be done now/Vengeance/Eat me" maxi must be made. The autumn tour is waiting. TESTIFY urges. Have I forgotten anything to mention? With no doubt, but what? N.T.