Fear

Genres:	Pop / Rock
Descriptive "tags":	punk • punk rock • hardcore punk • hardcore • old school punk
Decades Active:	1980s • 1990s • 2000s

Biography

One of the most entertaining and influential of the punk bands that emerged in the late 70s in Los Angeles, California, Fear consisted of Lee Ving (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Philo Cramer (guitar), Derf Scratch (bass) and Johnny Backbeat (drums). Formed in 1978, the band’s sarcastic, almost nihilistic, stance, captured on Penelope Spheeris’ The Decline Of Western Civilization film, formed the basis of a recorded career that never quite captured the band’s stroppy, chaotic live shows. The debut album, The Record, was, nevertheless, a searing document of the band’s potent rock ‘n’ roll, despite some primitive attitudes to women and homosexuals. Animated by a musical ability far beyond many of their peers, and fortified by Ving’s bar blues vocal presence, it is one of only two essential Fear recordings within a limited discography. The other was the band’s debut single, ‘I Love Living In The City’, a sneering put-down...

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