Formation Fight Like Apes formed late 2006 following the breakup of the band Soft Cuddly Toys by Mary-Kate Geraghty (known as "MayKay"), Jamie Fox (known as "Pockets"), MayKay and Pockets first met as teenagers on holiday in
Spain where they realised they both went to nearby schools and shared the same "extremely optimistically cynical outlook on life". Pockets's parents were unhappy with their son's "disgusting" taste in music. Fight Like Apes played both
Electric Picnic (their first major Irish festival) On 13 October 2007, Fight Like Apes performed "
Jake Summers" on television chat show,
Tubridy Tonight. The title of their second EP,
David Carradine is a Bounty Hunter Whos Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch, released on 2 November 2007(produced by Lee Boylan), was inspired by the film
Future Force starring
David Carradine, which the band found on the internet. The EP's lead track, "
Do You Karate?", was a minor hit on the Irish independent music scene. Von Bondies member
Jason Stollsteimer has described Fight Like Apes as "candy wrapped in barbed wire". performing on 19 March 2008. They also appeared on
RTÉ Two's
WeTV television show. Fight Like Apes performed at the
South by Southwest festival in
Austin, Texas, in 2008. Upon their return from South by Southwest in March/April 2008, they went on a national tour of Ireland. Later that year, Fight Like Apes appeared at several music festivals in Ireland and the UK, including an appearance on the Futures Stage at
T in the Park, and two appearances at the 2008
Glastonbury Festival, as well as
Oxegen 2008 and
Indie-pendence in Ireland. The single "Lend Me Your Face/Lightsabre Cock-sucking Blues" was released in the UK on 21–28 July 2008. The album, titled
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion, was released on 26 September 2008 on
Model Citizen Records, selling continually well in Ireland and the UK. MayKay has said she is unbothered by any criticism as long as the album is simply being reviewed. They went on to support
The Ting Tings on a sell-out UK tour,
The Prodigy personally invited the band to support them on their sold-out arena tour of the UK; all of the members are fans of Fight Like Apes and
Liam Howlett entered their dressing room to give his regards.
Sony Music Entertainment Japan signed the band for the
Asian release of
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion. In December 2008, a video of students of the
Tisch School of the Arts in New York, featuring several females miming to "Digifuckers", was released.
Eurosonic, UK, US and Japan (2009) Fight Like Apes
represented Ireland in the
Eurosonic Festival in
Groningen, the
Netherlands, in January 2009, This appearance led to the band qualifying for admission into the
European Talent Exchange Programme, allowing the band to be booked for music festivals across Europe, including Glastonbury and T in the Park.
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion was released in the UK on 26 January 2009. The band played a studio session for
Steve Lamacq of
BBC Radio 1 around this time, with Maykay also encountering
Jonathan Ross, a fan of the band who has played their music on his show. and performed the song on
The View on 10 March 2009. Also In March 2009, came the release of the EP
You Filled His Head with Fluffy Clouds and Jolly Ranchers, What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? for the US market as well as a return to South by Southwest. . The band's
drum kit is visible in the background.
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion was released in Japan in April 2009, The newspaper claimed that "Ireland has, quite simply, never seen a band like Fight Like Apes", reasoning that this was due to them "acting as a palette-cleansing antidote to the dour "woolly jumper brigade" that dragged Irish music into the depths of despair not a decade ago". They played at the 2009 Trinity Ball in May, an event likened to "a mini-Oxegen without the mud". The band's 2009 summer tour consisted of both domestic and European festival dates, and an appearance in
Wales. Their performance at
Festival Internacional de Benicàssim in
Spain was cancelled due to a fire and extreme winds. Their performance at
Oxegen 2009 was their second at the festival, with band members banging chairs during their performance and
The Irish Times tipping them to appear on the Main Stage in 2010. At the end of 2009, Fight Like Apes performed a show in
The Academy inside a specially constructed wrestling ring. Their music was also being used to promote television series such as
Making the Band and
Valemont in the United States. They will appear at
Electric Picnic 2010.
Second studio album, Adrian's departure (2010–2013) The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner, the second album by Fight Like Apes, was released in Ireland on August 27, 2010, through Model Citizen Records. The first single was released as a download only in Ireland on August 20, 2010, with the lead single being "Hoo Ha Henry". The band began promoting the album in Ireland on July 30, with live performances in
Meath,
Cork,
Galway and at Electric Picnic in County Laois. The band appeared on
Beat 102 103 to promote their new album on August 8, 2010. Adrian Mullan left the band in 2010 due to "creative differences" and was replaced by Lee Boylan. On Friday September 3, 2010,
The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner entered the Irish charts at number 3. On 1 November, they announced an extension to their end-of-year national tour. In March 2011, they announced an Irish nationwide tour and released the single "Jenny Kelly". The band performed at The Trinity Ball 2011 with new bassist Conor Garry as Tom Ryan had gone back to college to study. ===Whigfield Sextape EP and
Fight Like Apes Third Album=== On April 9, 2013, Fight Like Apes launched its
Fund It campaign to help facilitate the making of their third album. The band received €20,000 in donations to cover the cost of PR, album artwork, equipment, mastering among other things. Donations ranged from €10 which would get the donor a signed version of the album up to €5,000 where the donor would receive VIP tickets to regular gigs and festivals. The band aimed to receive all donations within 34 days, and they were successful within a few days. In the run-up to the launch of this new album, the band performed at two dates one in Dublin and another in Cork in December 2013. The band played a number of new tracks at both live venues. Fans who funded the new album were to receive a special EP. On May 12, 2015, Fight Like Apes released the
Whigfield Sextape EP. In early 2015, the band played a number of dates in Japan and Ireland. They released their
self-titled third studio album on May 15, 2015.
Breakup On 2 November 2016, Fight Like Apes announced that their upcoming three shows would be their last, posting the following on their Facebook wall:''Stick a fork in us, we're done.'' ''We've been quiet for a while now. We've had a lot of thinking and talking to do.'' ''We'd be here all year if we started listing the people we wanted to thank, so we'll just do that in our own time.'' ''You'll see us all again under different musical guises but, these 3 shows will be Fight Like Apes' last. We want to call it a day while we're all still pals and are proud of what we've done.''
And we are very, very proud. ''It's a deadly time in so many ways to be in a band; you can have so much control over your work if you're clever; you can release it how and when you like and in our opinion, right now, Ireland is the healthiest it's ever been in terms of talent and diversity.'' ''But, there are massive challenges for a lot of bands, mostly financial, that make this a tough job and sadly, those obstacles have become too big for us. I think we all know that we're going to hear announcements like this more often. A lot of people don't seem to understand that we can't keep producing records if you keep not paying for them. Bands are having to sell beautiful albums for €2.99, labels can't give you as much support since they're losing income too and our alternative radio stations* are practically non existent now, meaning so many wonderful bands will not get a chance to get played on radio as they'll be competing with huge pop acts.''
Please buy your music in independent record stores or directly from the band. ''Don't fool yourself in to thinking that your £10 subscription to Deezer and Spotify helps us at all. It does not. Look how many bands are on there and do the maths.''
Please go to gigs. Please buy merch. Thanks to all you entirely crazy, wonderful people who have supported us and danced and screamed with us over the past 10 years. We could never thank you enough. ''I still can't believe some of the amazing things we've done together and how far we came.''
Return On 23 April 2023 Fight Like Apes announced their return stating they would be playing at Electric Picnic that year, posting the line up and the following on their Instagram:
The first festival & worst appearance we ever made was @epfestival in 2007. Absolutely tanked it. ''It's time for some redemption.''
See you in Stradbally On 11 May 2023 they announced on Instagram their participation at the All Together Now festival. On 6 September 2023 they announced their planned gig at
3Olympia Theatre for 6 April 2024. ==Style and influences==