Formed in 1988 by Dolan Hewison (guitar), Justin Crawford (bass), Perry Saunders (drums) in
Hulme whilst students at
Manchester Polytechnic, the line-up was complete when Andy Spearpoint, who at the time was at drama school in Manchester, joined on vocals. The name comes from a poem by
Adrian Henri that mixed an advertisement for the Dutch
DAF car with the
Wordsworth poem taking more inspiration from post punk labels such as
Postcard Records, the band's debut single, "Lions" was released in 1989 on Playtime Records (then home to
Inspiral Carpets), followed the same year by the
Music Is Shit EP. In 1990, after the success of their breakthrough single "Big" they signed to
Play It Again Sam Records, September of that year seeing the release of "Fishes Eyes", and debut album
Pigeonhole appearing in November, which reached the UK top 50. They developed a brilliant live reputation touring the UK, Europe and the US having secured deals with
Mute /
Elektra in the States. Further singles followed in 1991 working with legendary
Factory producer
Martin Hannett on a rerecorded version of "Get Better". and in 1992 they de-camped to Belgium to work with the equally famous
Craig Leon on their second album
Body Exit Mind, a more experimental record that was mostly recorded in live takes trying to capture the elusive live performances the band were famed for. Released in October 1992 and reaching No. 57 in the UK it spawned two NME singles of the week with 'Its Not What You Know" and "Stockholm" which became a top 10 college radio hit in the US. 1994 saw the band shorten their name to New FADS, with 2 EPs released that year, before a final album,
Love It All in 1995. The band split up in 1995. The band recorded three sessions for
John Peel's radio show, the first two of which were compiled onto an album,
The Peel Sessions in 1991. Their song "Big" also reached No. 14 in the
Festive Fifty in 1990 Singer Andy Spearpoint also flirted with acting, having a small part in
Coronation Street. ==Post band activities==