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Royal Flush Mike Peake EVERY BAND goes through a crisis. Someone leaves, someone f**ks up, someone dies. Something happens to make the rest of the band wonder if it's worth carrying on. Faith No More thought about splitting up in 1993. They'd just finished a rock-till-ya-drop, not entirely pleasant world tour supporting their 'Angel Dust' LP. Four of the band were, to put bluntly, pig sick of the fifth man - Jim Martin - and keyboard player Roddy Bottum was going through his own private hell with a bunch of personal problems. So, band frontman Mike Patton, bassist Bill Gould and drummer Mike 'Puffy' Bordin talked about calling it a day. Those words - 'splitting' - were actually mentioned. After all, what lay ahead for the increasingly malcontent San Franciscan five-piece? Another f**king album. More touring, touring, touring. All this and the band were - to coin a phrase falling to pieces. What would have been easier than saying, 'f**k it. We've made some money, we've had some fun, let's lay this f**ker to rest'. Anything would have been easier. So Faith No More came close, very close, to splitting up back in 1993. What happened instead has been well documented. They ganged up on Jim Martin and kicked the beardy-weirdo axe god the hell out of the band. They insist it was the best thing that they've ever done. But since that fateful December '93 day when Jim was given the boot. Faith No More have been pretty cagey about his dismissal. They've never really opened up. Not until now... FAITH NO More formed in San Francisco in 1980 and fooled around with several singers (including, amazingly enough, Courtney Love) before settling on Chuck Mosley in 1983. Mosley left in 1988 and, after a brief stint with Reggae punksters Bad Brains, formed his own band, Cement. Mr Bungle Singer Mike Patton then joined Faith No More and the ensuing album, 'The Real Thing', turned the band into a household name. In December 1993, Jim Martin was sacked, and was replaced by Mr Bungle axeman Trey Spruance, who worked with the band on one album - the imminent 'King For A Day... Fool For A Lifetime'. Spruance left during Christmas 1994 and was replaced by Dean Menta - a former FNM roadie. Which brings us right up to date. Faith No More, minus Menta, are in Venice in a hotel that overlooks one of the city's main waterways. St Mark's Square is about 400 yards west, and there are plenty of tourists despite the miserable weather. Things are pretty relaxed in the FNM camp, as Patton, Bordin, Bottum and Gould spend a few days touring the city and talking to journalists about their new album. But talk of Jim Martin is unavoidable. 'King For A Lifetime...' is a rebirth. An awakening. And it wouldn't have been possible if everything had stayed as it was. MIKE PATTON looks comically like a kid as he sits on a low chair behind a high table in the hotel lounge. Any writer will tell you he's not much fun to interview - by his own admission he's "not very good at it" - but he offers his full attention. He orders some espresso coffees. "After the 'Angel Dust' tour we didn't know if we were gonna be a band any more," he reveals. "We didn't want to do split up, and I think now that it would have been a stupid thing to do. "But for a coupla years we didn't confront any of the things that were wrong in our band. When you leave things to fester like that, it doesn't do any good." Adds Bill Gould, who's swapped his long locks for a goatee beard since he was last under the spotlight: "If we'd have kept on with Jim we would have broken up. In the end, Jim actually got the message that he was out of the band via a fax machine! None of us even wanted to talk to him." Drummer Mike Bordin: "This time in the studio, it was 100 per cent better. And it wasn't just because Jim wasn't there. It was Billy, Mike and Roddy and me. Let's get to work!" For God's sake -what was so bad about Jim?! "Well, that's a tough one," shrugs Bordin. "Why do people get divorced? Is it one thing? You just know. "We all felt that we could be better. We could feel it in our hearts. Yeah, maybe we were driving along at 90mph, but we knew there were a couple more gears up there somewhere so we could really f**kin' push it up. And I feel that we have. "Jim's a character, he's endearing, but I'm just over it. We were lucky to get 'Angel Dust' to turnout as well as it did. It was f**kin' difficult. It was f**kin' painful! There were two camps working at cross purposes, and that ain't good." It's been said that you had it in for Jim for years. "Whatever anyone says, we actually wanted to hear what Jim could contribute to these new songs and we really suspended judgement until then. We told him to bring some songs in and gave him some of ours to deal with." Did he do it? "Yeah, but it just didn't feel right. It felt like more of the same. Now, instead of one f**king difficult, strange, schizo-type record, maybe two really good records will come out of this. I really think that we made a record that's great, and when Jim gets full steam ahead he will make the picture out of his own vision." "Jim was a very vocal, very visual person," reckons Gould. "He was an image - but that's where it stopped, so when Jim left nothing really changed. Jim wasn't involved with the music nearly as much as people think. "He's the kind of person who takes well to the media. If I was his manager, I know I could sell him like a cartoon character. The rest of us are less likely to market our personalities and are more inclined to sell the music." Is there anything at all that you missed about Jim in the studio? Bordin:"No, nothing at all." Gould: "Nothing, man. It's over, We'd tried for years to sort things out and we were f**kin' exhausted." Patton: "Maybe his cigar smoke." TRENDS COME, fads go. FNM have been missing-in-action for what seems like forever. "I didn't mind that," says Bordin. "I was just desperate to get the album done right." "It's hard to take a break," Gould counters. "The big thing was wondering if we were gonna put a record out at all. "A lot of people were advising us that Jim has a very public image and that we shouldn't jeopardise everything by making changes. 'Find a way to work with him, don't do anything stupid...' So we had to deal with all this shit. Then Roddy's Dad dies and some of his friends died too. He was a good friend of Kurt Cobain, so that shook him up." But you were at least able to take stock of what you've achieved in the past five years. Your initial success came from out of nowhere. "We were falling to pieces!" Bordin laughs. "We were too busy to even notice when 'The Real Thing' broke. It was exciting, but we were busy being on tour when things really started hitting. I'm glad we didn't get to see MTV! "Having success thrust upon you is weird. You say, 'Hang on, I'm only doing what I do'. People then think you're ungrateful. "Look at Eddie Vedder What's wrong with that guy? He's the voice of a generation and he doesn't wanna do it! He doesn't wanna lead me out of the wilderness or make my life better or get me laid more often or fix my car!" Patton: "I don't remember if I enjoyed that time. To me, that period probably won't make sense for a while. It was almost like a big joke. There really wasn't any pressure, it was just like. 'Huh?' A lot of question marks. You don't learn until you start giving to people who want a piece of you, and then, suddenly, there's nothing left." What about all the, er... girls? "Yeah. Once again, you learn the hard way. You make a million f**king mistakes. But you learn. If you don't, you're a casualty. One more casualty. "People always expect you to complain about your success. To feel guilty for it. That's probably the worst thing about it. "If it was that bad, why didn't we all kill ourselves? This poo-pooing of success is very over-rated. We could have come back and made a noise album, and then we'd have been all happy, right?" Gould: "Back then we were perceived as a gimmick: a mixture of Metal and Funk and we had this pretty-boy singer We found it really repulsive. We started getting tapes from bands who were Heavy Metal Funk bands and they were saying we were their main influence! It was horrible! " 'Angel Dust' was a way for us to stretch our arms out and hold on to our identity. When Patton cut his hair and changed how he looked, it was seen as very negative. What he was actually doing was a positive thing keeping his own identity in control and not becoming like a piece of McDonalds hamburger People thought we had a bad attitude." But it must have been good when the money started rolling in? Patton: "I was very young back then, so it was strange. It didn't really seem real. I didn't do the usual Rock star thing and blow it left, right and centre - I put it in a f**kin' bank! Put it in a f**kin' bank and still lived with my parents to save rent! I did buy a car" A flashy one? "No, just a normal car." Very sensible. "Not so sensible -I wrecked it!" "The money didn't start till the 'Real Thing' tour was over," adds Gould. "It takes a year or so. We had a Platinum record, we were touring everywhere for two years and everyone was acting as if we were all millionaires. All this when you haven't even got your first pay cheque yet! It was very frustrating." How much was your first big cheque? "It was for $20,000 each - and that was an amazing day. But it's not all that much considering what we'd achieved. "If I knew then what I know now, I think I'd think twice about going into the music business. It's a very hard way to make a living, even at our level. For what we make and what we do, we're middle class Americans, really. "I'm sure all your readers think we're multi-millionaires. It's hard. It really isn't you think." FIVE YEARS after 'The Real Thing', Faith No Mo re are happier than ever. And they are almost embarrassingly enthusiastic about their new LP, which merges hook-happy, super-heavy FNM classics-to-be with a bunch of adventurous off the wall compositions.. Patton: "I can tell right now that we're gonna have a good time touring these songs live. In the past that wasn't always the case." "The new record is like being hit with a f**kin fist, with one finger sticking out!" beams Bordin. "I think this is a really f**kin' special record. I'm honestly, sincerely, really proud of it. "This is the best record we've ever done. But it doesn't just come outta your button a plate. The songs, the performance, the recording process, the tones, the mix, the mastering. It's a whole bunch of shit that makes a good album." Gould: "It's heavier, it's more direct and it's the first record where we had the guitar the way we wanted it. We always knew the potential we had, but everything was always a fight. Now it feels like we're a dog who's been let off the leash." Considering all that's been said about Jim, Trey Spruance must have seemed like an angel? Patton: "He was great. And it was a convenient thing to do. I know how he works, he knows how I work. Once we'd settled in with Trey, the writing process went really quick." But he didn't last long... "Yeah, but I wanted to give it every possibility for the situation to grow. I wasn't surprised when Trey made up his mind to leave, because it would have happened sooner or later-and if it had happened later it would have been ugly. Now we're separated it's definitely for the better, and it's not affected my relationship with him on a personal level either. I gotta record with him again soon for the new Mr Bungle record." Is there any concern that because of all the turmoil surrounding 'King For A Day...' - which features an axe man who won't be seen on tour - that it won't be perceived as a bona fide FNM LP? Patton: "Maybe but I don't think the majority of people will give a shit. I mean, the guitar's gonna sound good and it'll stop there. I mean, I've had people mistake me for Chuck Mosley! So that's the end of that!" Bordin: "The fact that he won't play these songs live doesn't matter, I because these are our songs." Gould: "I look forward to the day where we can write an album with a guitarist who can contribute as much as ; we can. A guitar player we don't have to fight with." ' What would new kid Dean Menta have to do to be out of the band? Patton: "Stop being Dean! Right now, I we've rehearsed for a month and recorded a few B-sides and that's it. It's very hard to guess how it will develop. But in terms of the band I feel more i comfortable than I have for a while. "Now I don't have to worry about turning my head this way so I don't see that guy, or feel forced to ignore something because I don't wanna fight anybody." Bordin: "The 'Angel Dust' tour was indispensable because we met Dean. He saw what we went through and respected that. He took two years of his life to hang out with us so we would know him, because he wanted to be in this band. "He said he's been been waiting for three years for this opportunity and he sure as hell isn't gonna f**k it up. I respect that."

Thirty oje years ago we were awaiting the arrival of the new Faith No More record King For A Day Fool For A Lifetime - several nervous ideas were pulsating around our brain boxes. Would it measure up against it's masterpiece of a predecessor Angel Dust ? How would it work out without the grinding axe work of big sick and ugly guitarist Jim Martin ? And how would it sound without Matt Wallace behind the mixing desk? At 9 am on February 28th 1995 the very first single release ahead of the album DIGGING THE GRAVE the hit record stores, and shortly after that the CD, Cassette and record players of the skeptics. We were three years in waiting for new FNM material, yeah it's true we were blessed with Another Body Murdered but this single was the appetiser to a whole new album, a renaissance, with additional mysterious guitar sounds and new fucking haircuts! "Digging The Grave is what Faith No More fans crave, adding a hint of melody to the usual primal ferocity." - Raw Magazine 1995 First impressions - where the hell are Roddy Bottum's keys? Is this really Trey Spruance from MR. BUNGLE on guitar? Have FNM finally given up trying NOT to be a rock band? A few more spins - damn this song is raw and it's hard, three minutes of jump around the room brutality. In true Faith No More tradition it's different, unexpected and spectacular. Digging The Grave continues the legacy of FNM's ability to progress their sound further with every single from each album. If you compare this song to From Out Of Nowhere or Midlife Crisis , though the characteristic FNM elements are present the songs are so diverse it's like listening to a different band. Even though the band lost their heaviest metal element (Big Jim) the song is bursting with brutal guitar riffs from the eccentric hand of Trey Spruance. A whole circus tour away from Mr. Bungle yet it carves a short-lived smile on the face of FNM. We might at first think he was trying too hard to 'fit into' the band but we were proved wrong by the following album. Mike Patton's vocals still have the schizophrenic shifts between ferocious growling and powerful operatic trills that we are used to from Angel Dust , but he is angrier, his statement is sharper, and his delivery is more maniacal than ever. The noises that man can produce are astounding, like a human guitar on overdrive he screams the living shit out of the middle eight. His harmonies on the chorus are also tighter than ever. The rhythm section revisits the early days of FNM like Introduce Yourself with an adrenaline shot! Bill Gould feverishly pounding on his strings and we can only imagine how many cymbals, drum skins and sticks Mike Bordin went though to create that untamed monster beat. "On that track I wanted to get that sound we had on our first records but tighter, faster and harder. The middle section of that track came from the beat me and Bill came up with before we started trying out guitarists." - Mike Bordin 1995 The lack of keyboards was explained when the band began interviews around KFAD . Roddy faced a few personal demons and wasn't as involved with the writing and recording of the song. He appears in the video playing guitar and also took up a six string onstage throughout the consequent touring. "Yeah, I understand how that album is revered but it's not my favourite. I wasn't that present in the song writing and i was going through some tough stuff at the time" - Roddy 2013 The most notable difference to previous FNM material is the production. The band decided to use Andy Wallace who produced bands such as Slayer, Nirvana, L7, Sepultura, Rage Against The Machine, Helmet - the good shit. This was a shift from long time producer Matt Wallace . He disconnected the band from outside influence and hauled up in the isolation of Bearsville studios in New York where, according to band, they developed 'controlled cabin fever' . Andy W's skills deliver a more disciplined and compressed overall mix which changes the feel of the band's music radically from what we had heard before. "It seemed ultimately self defeating to continue to do records with the same producer. Matt did some great stuff with us but over the course if your career why limit yourself to one person? We're the kind of band that prides itself on our diversity, versatility, change." - Roddy 1995 Patton has never really elaborated on the lyrics to DTG , but finding a final resting place in death or looking for a place to hide are an obvious interpretation. "I can't actually write words before music. Words are the last thing: before the words, I hear sounds. Sometimes the words have no connection to anything; they just have to fit into the sound. I'm sure a lot of what was going into the words on the new record were things we all were going through at the time. Kind of subtle ways of getting revenge on those people. People you see everyday, situations your in everyday that maybe it's better if you don't confront them. Everyone will know what its about but no one will talk about it. It's a beautiful thing" - Mike Patton 1995 The video which accompanied the single release followed in FNM tradition - dramatic, dark and mysterious. Director Marcus Raboy, famous for hip hop videos, was enlisted after his handling of the Another Body Murdered promo clip. The single was released on 12" coloured vinyl and a double CD pack with artwork by illustrator Eric Drooker . The full illustration was revealed when the album was released - taken from Drooker's 1992 book 'Flood! A Novel in Pictures' . The snarling police dog is a perfect accompaniment to the suggested violence of the song itself. "Radio will say the our song 'Digging The Grave' is too hard for them, too metal. If we do a song like 'Evidence', then none of the metal stations will want it!" - Gould 1995 King For A Day Fool For A Lifetime was a very important and personal record for the band and they were very positive about it. "The new album was a catharsis for us. We made a record that was very liberating. I think we really learned how to use our power as a unit. I mean, I have a total submarine view of it, but I see it as more if a release type thing. There is a great amount of stress let off on this album" - Bill 1995 "The new record is like being hit with a fucking fist, with one finger sticking out. This is the best record we've ever done. But it doesn't just come out of your butt on a plate. The songs, the performance, the recording process, the tones, the mix, the mastering. It's a whole bunch of shit that makes a good album". - Mike Bordin 1995 The importance of this song in FNM's history is that it illustrates how the departure of Jim Martin affected the band's image and sound. Could the band still have that edge without the tension between members that played such an important part in the creation of previous albums, and could a happy FNM camp produce the same results? When Bill was asked on how the writing process differed without Jim he had this to say: "We've never written stuff with Jim, as a band. Usually we'd give him a tape and he'd put stuff to it because he didn't like practicing with us much" - Bill 1996 According to Puffy in an interview with an Australian radio station the departure of Jim helped them focus on the new material more. "Very to the point, very straight forward and very strong". But it wasn't entirely plain sailing and the process still was fraught with difficulties; Roddy's personal problems, Trey's departure and a nasty car accident. Patton wasn't happy with appointment of his Mr. Bungle co-member in the first place. "Trey didn't come highly recommended by the only guy in the band that knew him. Patton said, 'he's a great guitarist, he'll do the job, but he's not dependable and he'll fuck us up ultimately due to his lack of any sense of responsibly' " - Bill 1995 Although Bill also says how happy they were with the end result. "It's heavier, it's more direct and it's the first record where we had the guitar the way we wanted it. Now it feels we're a dog who's been let of the leash" - Bill 1995 A lot of fans miss Jim but there is no denying Trey is a outstanding guitarist and his input created a new phase in FNM's history. And they pull it off, DTG is an awesome tune it is all out barefaced aggressive rock! Like the bark of Drooker’s police dog there’s no fucking about. The five best ways to relieve stress: light a candle, drink less caffeine, spend time with a pet, exercise, or put on Digging The Grave - turn up the volume and bang your head for three minutes!!

On February 24th 1994 Castle Communications released the The Real Story , a detailed history of Faith No More up until the end of 1993 written by Steffan Chirazi . The Real Story was Steffan’s first published book and the first official chronicle of FNM. It stands today as one of only two books written with the help of the band - Small Victories by Adrian Harte is the second. Steffan’s career in journalism began at age 15 when he interviewed the legendary Motorhead frontman Lemmy in 1983. Originally from London Steffan moved to San Francisco and was introduced to Faith No More by his friend Metallica bassist Cliff Burton . Steffan began writing articles championing the Chuck Mosley fronted band in magazines including Sounds, Kerrang!, and RIP. He was the first to report on FNM and was present for most of the major events in Faith No More’s career including Mike Patton 's first show, Rock In Rio II, Jim Martin 's sacking. Steffan and Jim’s friendship endured and the ex Faith No More guitarist was ordained and married Steffan and his wife in a beach ceremony. Steffan is currently the editor of So What! Magazine, Metallica’s official in-house publication. He also co-hosts The Metallica Report , a weekly podcast providing official updates and deep dives into the band's activities. For those who weren't lucky enough to bag a copy of The Real Story three decades ago, here is the introduction. FAITH NO MORE  'From The Author' This book gives you the first true and genuine account of everything that Faith No More have been through in their 11 year career.  It is incomplete in the respect that the band are nowhere near the end of their career. Doubtless there will be a whole lot more to document in the years to come.‘The Real Story' is made up of original quotes from the five current band members, ex-singer Chuck Mosley and producer Matt Wallace. All were interviewed between February and September of 1993 exclusively for this book. Warren Entner and John Vasillou at WEM Management felt it best not to make any comments, as they still work with the band. There are also two transcripts in the 'Onward' section from which some material was used for magazine features, the reason for their inclusions are explained within. Faith No More agreed to help me tell 'The Real Story', despite the fact they will receive no money from its sales. Each band member donated some of his free time to talk about their life, and the band's history, The copy has since been checked for accuracy, but in no way has anyone from Faith No More tampered with the flavour of any portion of the text. It was a dream situation. I whole-heartedly thank Bill Gould, Mike Patton, Jim Martin, Mike Bordin and Roddy Bottum for their unflinching honesty and their ability to leave me alone once they had given me their input. I also thank them for being the most interesting band to emerge in the last decade. I thank Matt Wallace for his unique insight and vision of the band. And I thank Chuck Mosley for talking about what must be a very difficult subject for him to deal with. I hope he has good luck with his latest project, Cement. I must also thank Warren and John for their total support of my endeavours over the years, their trust, and the fact that they never once interfered with this project.I would also like to say a big 'thank you' to Phil Scott for starting this whole ball rolling, to Laurie Pryor for wanting and believing in this book, to Sonia Bailey for helping the paperwork shuffle along, to Eugene Manzi for his help through the years, to Mary, Ann and Neil for just being, to Steve Stolder for helping me learn a little more about Grammar, to Lonn Friend for consistently supporting my work and to Geoff Barton for taking me in during the Summer of 1983 and sticking with me ever since. Oh, and thank you Deanna for the title!Thanks also to Cliff Burton (RIP) for introducing me to Faith No More way back when. He may be gone but he isn't forgotten. This is a book for people who like truth. There is no fabrication, and there are no lies in these pages. 'The Real Story' is for fans, both of Faith No More and rock music.  Kerrang! | January 1993 | KKKK THIS BOOK has big pictures. This is so the little girls can wank over Mike Patton. Every biog worth its salt must have the Stain Factor; no stain - no gain. Journeyman hack Chirazi is a close personal friend of Faith No More, so his book is minutely detailed. He describes these five knobheads as  "the most beautiful time-bomb in the history of modern music", so you can presume that such a close friendship might just have affected the author's perspective. Nowhere in ‘The Real Story' does he say that FNM are yesterday's news. Several major typographic fuck-ups excepted, it's also a relatively entertaining and incisive project. Written with passion and real on the spot interviews included.

Tony Alves Faith No More performed with Metallica and Soundgarden at A Day On The Green on October 12th 1991. MTV were at the festival and aired a round up of the day featuring the full pro footage performance of From Out Of Nowhere and an interview with Karyn Bryant. Thanks to a YouTuber markit aneight we now have pro footage of four more songs from the set! Death March , The Real Thing , Introduce Yourself and The World Is Yours ! Check this amazing footage out below.

In February 2009 Faith No More announced they would reunite for shows in the summer of that year. The announcement in February 2009 that Faith No More was coming back together surprised many. It was not just a nostalgic reunion but a chance to see if the band could recapture the energy and creativity that made them stand out in the 1980s and 1990s music scenes. Several factors contributed to Faith No More’s decision to reunite. The members had become distant since their break up in 1998 but reconnected at Roddy's wedding. Offers were made including to headline Download festival. On February 19th 2009 various music press websites reported that a FNM reunion was imminent but without Jim Martin on guitar. Four days later in a press release concerning Crank: High Voltage soundtrack the last sentence read, 'and the highly anticipated reunion tour with Faith No More in Europe this summer.' However it wasn't until February 24th that the band issued the following official statement. During the entire 10 years that have passed since our decision to break up we’ve experienced constant rumors and requests from fans and promoters alike. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, none of us kept in regular touch, much less to discuss any possibilities of getting together. What’s changed is that this year, for the first time, we’ve all decided to sit down together and talk about it. And what we’ve discovered is that time has afforded us enough distance to look back on our years together through a clearer lens and made us realize that through all the hard work, the music still sounds good, and we are beginning to appreciate the fact that we might have actually done something right…and so with this we’ve decided to hold our collective breaths and jump off this cliff…. BACK, GOD FORBID, INTO THE MONKEY CAGE!!! We can only hope that the experience of playing together again will yield results erratic and unpredictable enough to live up to the legacy of FNM. Who know where this will end or what it will bring up…only the future knows. But we are about to find out! FAITH NO MORE are: Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottum, Bill Gould, Jon Hudson and Mike Patto n.

Ross Halfin In February 2015 Faith No More began their tour of Sol Invictus in Tokyo before moving swiftly to Australia for four dates on the Soundwave XV tour. Saturday 21 | Bonython Park | Adelaide Across The Ocean - Andrew Stace Sunday 22 | Royal Melbourne Showgrounds | Melbourne Australian Musician A flower arrangement adorned the front of the Faith No More’s stage. On stage, white curtains flowed in the breeze as Patton and co casually strolled onto a scene resembling an exotic day spa. The crowd was quickly removed from any meditative state as the band tore into ‘Motherfucker’. The first thing which smacks you in the face with Mike Patton … he with eternally mischievous look in his eyes … is that voice. The man has lost none of his power, particularly evident on the iconic ‘Epic’. The warped mind of Patton had great joy in instigating the ‘wimmoway’ backing from the crowd for a verse of the ultra-daggy ‘Lion Sleeps Tonight’ before more FNM hits came. They were all there too; Midlife Crisis, Easy, Evidence, We Care A Lot, Ashes to Ashes, Matador etc. Whatever project Mike Patton is involved in is worthy of investigation, this one however is closest to most fans’ hearts. The less-nostalgic in the crowd had the option of finishing their day up with Lamb of God, New Found Glory or The Devil Wears Prada. As The Worm Turns completed FNM’s triumphant night out as the exhausted crowd headed for the exit. While the format of Soundwave 2016 is under review, the school of 2015 got what they came for and more. Louder Classic Rock | March 2015 General Patton leads the charge in a 336 degree heat knees up Alexander Milas It's a heat that'll straighten your pubes and make you wonder at the sanity of the settlers who, nearly 200 years ago looked around, dropped their bags, and went, 'this'll do'. But if today's furnace-like, 36-degree heat is currently roasting the sweaty throng that's rolled into the Melbourne Showgrounds for the first day of Soundwave 2015, then it stands to reason that it's nothing less than Hell on Earth for the leatherclad men of Priest up on stage right now. The real feat, though, is in belting out newer entries like Hall Of Valhalla and Redeemer Of Souls with the same conviction as cast-iron classics like Metal Gods, Jawbreaker and a spine-tingling Beyond The Realms Of Death. Given KK Downing's curious departure for presumably more aromatic pastures, new guy Richie Faulkner's ability to throw shapes and resonate with crowd and bandmates alike is undeniable, and the man can play. An inspiring opening salvo then for what is effectively Australia's biggest and baddest rock and metal festival of the year. More a travelling circus than a classic festival, it's become the go-to event for those of a heavier inclination, and that it hits multiple cities - this year it's Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and ending in Sydney and with a heap of so-called Sidewaves clubshows scattered in between - means it's as much a feat of logistical genius as it is a snapshot of rock and metal's State Of The Union. From Stash, to Marilyn Manson, to Steel Panther, pretty much every base is covered here, but this year there's a peculiarly early alt.rock bent in the billing as a Soundgarden-Faith No More double-header on the second day of Soundwave Melbourne that's probably to blame for the amount of frayed, Seattleite T-shirts amassed around the main stages. It begins with a screech - tone-king Kim Thayil's heavily distorted command of that classic, down-tuned crunch that would sweep the world sounds every bit as potent as it was the day it busted speakers the world over. Spoonman, Outshined - it's more a growl than anything, and spearheaded by Chris Cornell's inimitable banshee operatics, Soundgarden's set is a roll-call of classics that only suffers from blowy sound and that plodding, mid-tempo gait that'll do nothing to win you over if you're not already a fan. And as the bluesy melancholy of Fell On Black Days and the timeless, bittersweet charms of Black Hole Sun washes over the crowd in the waning light, why wouldn't you be? It's the perfect segue for headliners Faith No More to take the stage and own it. News of their impending album Sof Invictus - their first in 18 years and precisely about fucking time given this is their sixth year since the re-formation - has electrified the capacity crowd. The cadence of new song Motherfucker kicks it all off. Resplendent in all-white regalia on a stage bedecked with floral arrangements and white curtains they are, immediately, head and shoulders above anything that's been seen here all weekend. Mike Patton - all pitch-perfect delivery and hyper-animated stageplay - is an eye-magnet who peppers Ricochet with a few lines of Meghan Trainor's pop-hit All About The Bass before, a few songs later, stopping Midlife Crisis dead in its tracks for an a cappella The Lion Sleeps Tonight that kicks off a few field-wide choruses of 'a-wimoweh a-wimoweh' before dropping right back into where they left off. It's fun, it's silly, but more importantly it's proof-positive that one of the greatest bands of our time isn't just back, but - as evidenced by the stomp of new song Superhero - they're vital once again. You get the sense that this is really just the beginning. Welcome back, boys. Kerrang! | March 2015 THEY'RE BACK! REUNITED LEGENDS PROVIDE THE SHOW OF THE DAY DESPITE THE 30-degree heat, you'd be forgiven for thinking a snowstorm had hit Faith No More. Clad completely in white - the backdrop, the amps, even the roadies - the only splash of colour comes from the flowers that line the stage. At a festival where the predominant colour is black, trust Faith No More - who have gleefully gone against the grain for three decades - to do the opposite. That they open their set with a new song, Motherfucker, rather than an old favourite further proves the band's disdain for playing it safe. There's plenty of subversive hits to be had, however. From Epic to closer We Care A Lot, the only thing more staggering than FNM's songs is the vigour with which they perform. While some acts reform and are clearly just a shadow of their former selves, Faith No More have picked up exactly where they left off when they split in 1998. This much is evident in the other new song they play this evening, Superhero, a track bubbling with malevolence and a promise of magic from their forthcoming Sol Invictus album. Set of the day, hands down. Saturday 28 | Olympic Park | Sydney May The RocK Be With You But now it’s time for Faith. No. More. Flower pots all over the stage and the members all dressed in white, Faith No More bring us ‘Motherfucker’ the brand new single from the band as the opener and man, they really want to talk to this guy on the phone. What an interesting way to start the set, I always wonder why bands do stuff like that and open with a new one, is it to make sure the sound is right? Is it to say ‘hey we’re back and here’s what we’re doing now?’ or is it just that they are Faith No More and can do whatever the fuck they want? I think it’s the later. Ahhh that’s better, this is the FNM I know, ‘Caffeine’ is instantly rockin’ as every member in this band is a consummate professional, and are so damn tight. ‘Ricochet’ is up and if this set stays up like this we are about to get absolutely destroyed. Oh shit ‘From Out Of Nowhere’ takes me straight back to 1989 in about three seconds and it slays. Wow. As quick as that intensity was there it left us to turn the cool motherfuckers into extra smoothly cool motherfuckers with ‘Evidence’ and it just shows how versatile the band is with their music… straight up they have just started ‘Epic’ and holy shit the place just went nuts. What is it? Indeed!! I for one wasn’t expecting this one maybe at all let alone this early, but everyone here shouting the lyrics back was a moment indeed! ‘Get Out’ takes its place and then oh my god ‘Midlife Crisis’ and I’m in heaven, this is my favourite of theirs and still sounds amazing. Yeah now I’ve seen it all, FNM just lead the arena in a group sing along of ‘the lion sleeps tonight’ ha ha wow, that wins, Mike Patton is a genius, no doubt about that. Back to ‘The Real Thing’ with a big ballad ‘Zombie Eaters’ that builds and man, Billy Gould’s bass is tight, it’s almost a signature sound, actually scrap that, not almost. It is. ‘The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies’ flips the set again and this balance of what the band does in their set and on stage is outstanding, that was more like the gentle art of being awesome! I have to laugh as it’s time for ‘Easy’ and it still amazes me how good this goes over with everyone as I look up to see much swaying, which is a necessity for this one. Boom. Crazy again with ‘Cukoo For Caca’ and absolutely on point and tight as you want. The megaphone comes out for ‘King For A Day’ and turns atmospheric before ‘Ashes To Ashes’ gets the crowd on their feet and the pit going crazy for this one. This is heavy!! Telling us that there’s only one song to go is just mean… It’s ‘Superhero’ big, loud, technical and awesome. The band leaves the stage for about two minutes and they’re back. “Thanks ya cunts” is the perfect welcome back response for us all and ‘Digging The Grave’ is just what we needed as Mike Patton continually uses his new favourite C word as a chant throughout trying his best to not laugh as he does it. Then something from our culture as they throw in the cover of ‘I Started A Joke’ ha ha only FNM could get away with this, really, and this late in the set, bravo. ‘We Care A Lot’ is such a big, big song, that rhythm it hits, the lyrics are out of this world and it really is the only way this set and show could’ve closed tonight. Thunderous applause from those here, and a gracious Faith No More bid us adieu… So that was our day one, so many bands, so much fun, we’ll be back tomorrow, because as Faith No More say, “It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it…”

Faith No More 's smash single from ' The Real Thing' was released thirty six years ago on January 29th 1990 "Mean, Vicious, chunky and Funky, Faith No More continue to break barriers with their brain-scrambling amalgamation of seemingly counteracting styles. Rap with Metal? No problem mate. Funk with Hardcore overtones? Faith No More have it in hand. Hell, there's even a classical piano break at the end! FNM are the band to take Hard Rock into the '90s." - RIP Magazine 1990 Faith No More have over the years spoken openly about their dislike for the song Epic . Not about the music or lyrics but more the boredom of playing it relentlessly for such a long time. “It seems sometimes kids turn up just to hear that one song, we’re like stick around we’ve written all these other great songs, you just might like ‘em” - Bill Gould 1992 But as fans, we would have to concede that we can't help but love this song, but why?What is it that, even after all the amazing music that followed, brings us back to this point in FNM history? That's the eternal question, What is it ? For many fans Epic is THE song that began a their love affair with Faith No More's music. There is no denying that it is a work of genius, loaded with killer riffs, unforgettable hooks and some funky shit thrown in for good measure. With all these correct parts present and in order, it makes for a perfectly popular song. It is a certainty that FNM will always play it - you would be hard pushed to find a set list that didn't have Epic in it, strategically placed towards the end of the night to keep the fans happy and make sure they stick around. Despite the band’s unwillingness to admit the importance of Epic to their body of work, they understand that their fans want to hear it again and again. "Of course I knew straight away it would be a fucking hit! I already had a down payment on the Bentley and the bachelor pad in Paso Robles! However, I realised it wasn't an international smash when my speed dealer wouldn't even let me score on credit. Did 'Epic' spawn rap metal? Even it if it did, I wouldn't tell you. The again, the rest of the world seems to feel that way, so I suppose apologies are in order. OK, I'M SORRY!" - Mike Patton 2010 It is without doubt the song that propelled a group of misfits onto another level of musical stardom, From Out Of Nowhere had turned a few heads but Epic sent them spinning. The band themselves had chosen to release Epic in the U.S in mid 1989 as the second single from The Real Thing , but it wasn't until the single was released in the UK and Europe on January 29th 1990 that it found real success. In fact the record company Slash were it seems ready to give up on promoting the album until this point. Epic peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 (the band's only Top Ten hit in the United States), and was their first Number One single on the Australian charts. It is true that other 80s bands had experimented with mixing genres. Hip hop / rap outfit meets metal band crossovers existed before Epic . FNM did not set out to do this, instead they successfully wrote a great song which fed off their combined influences of metal, funk, hip hop and rap and fused them all together. The music itself has all the unmistakable elements of FNM we love. Mike Bordin and Bill’s balanced, thunderous but impeccably timed rhythms. Jim's powerhouse riff’s and ripping solo. Roddy’s graceful keyboard sounds and Patton's aggressive chants and melodic anthemic chorus. The mood of the song shifts depending on the listener, it can be the radio friendly bright and uplifting song labelled by the media or a dark and brooding experience. Bill had this to say about the inspiration for the song. "That was when we were writing ‘The Real Thing’- we’d just fired our singer and it was a song that was pretty spontaneous. Actually, it was like the release that came with loosing Chuck! I think with a lot our albums, most of the inspiration comes with the relief of loosing a member that’s too painful to keep! It’s like a sore that finally breaks, a storm that finally comes in.” - Bill 1997 Chapter 22 in Adrian Harte's biography Small Victories: The True Story Of Faith No More is titled 'The Making of Epic' in which members of the band describe in detail how the song developed. Here is a taste: ‘Epic’ started life when the trio of Bordin, Gould, and Bottum were working together in Los Angeles in the immediate post-Mosley interregnum. The rhythm section quickly worked up the groove of the song, and Bottum was also involved in the genesis, playing around with a horns patch on his keyboard. ‘I remember us wanting it to sound like 2001: A Space Odyssey,’ he recalls. ‘The horns were a reference to that. The song was all about space and not playing, as opposed to playing.’ ‘Quickly, Bill and I wrote the groove, the rhythm for “Epic”,’ Bordin remembers. ‘We knew it was cool, and it was good, and it was fun, and it was natural. We’d played it and said, wow, that’s just so massive—it’s just this huge broad, wide, open powerful thing, it’s epic.’ The name was one of the band’s few working titles that survived to become an actual title. Gould: ‘The name has to do with how it felt to play. It was epic because of the horns. The parting of the Red Sea. That was the visual imagery.’ Building on that groove, Gould wrote the rest of the song almost single-handedly. Matt Wallace remembers Gould’s demo as ‘a terrific piece of music. Before I even heard Patton sing on it. We probably spent two or three days on it. Tracking the drums, getting Bill’s bass, and then getting guitars even before the vocals.’ The meaning of Patton's lyrics have been interpreted by curious fans to be about sex, fellatio, masturbation, drugs, religion and more. They do seem to suggest an unattainable something, be it power, love or faith. The genius of the lyrics is that 'it' could be anything good or bad depending on the listener’s point of view. Mike is inviting us to guess the meaning and telling us 'it' is whatever we want it to be. Even though the singer has told us that his lyrics are more concerned with rhythm than meaning, which is very apparent in Epic , we can't help but attribute meaning to dig deeper into the singer’s mind and understand him better. “A lot of our songs start music first, lyrics later, and it was called ‘Epic’ as a kind of code word, because before the words came along, it was kind of like the parting of the Red Sea! It was a preposterous grandiose thing! Y’know, we’ve always had a sort of campy, semi-serious approach to writing, with these big cinematic sounds. Patton wrote the words to it about a week after he joined the band. I remember him explaining it to me and I didn’t know him very well, so I wasn’t sure what to make of it.” - Bill 1997 "It was about sexual frustration. Sex and lack of sex. [masturbation] Most people just don't like to admit it, I'm here to tell ya, I love it. That's kinda of what Epic is really about." - Patton 1990 "Epic is sort of a warped sexual state of mind. It deals with more material and physical things like sex. The song kind of teases you. but it's frustrated at the same time because the song want's it too. But at the same time it knows that it can't have it." - Patton 1989 "Believe it or not, 'Epic' was my best attempt at impersonating Blondie's 'Rapture'. Lyrically, I was more concerned with the rhyme scheme than any other constant train of thought. The lyrics mean whatever you want them to mean. They don't belong to me anymore, they are your responsibility now." - Patton 2000 It was the video for Epic which lent a hand in the success of the single release. A video which was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the Grammies, and Best Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Video at the MTV awards in 1991. It's still amazing that one song can have such a tremendous effect on the music industry and on the fate of the band in question. As fans we would like to believe that FNM would've enjoyed success without Epic, but it is a fact that within the music industry the media plays a part in the availability of music and the airplay it gets. The newly established MTV generation of 1990 helped channel FNM into ears and hearts of the world - Epic was played on MTV up to five times a day! The video was edited by MTV and FNM let them without realising the impact it would have. The video is bursting with striking visuals - an exploding piano, terrific lightening, that 'Master' t-shirt, that Mr. Bungle t-shirt and Jim Martin 's nod to the late Cliff Burton . The imagery is reminiscent of a Salvador Dali landscape with surreal dreamlike shots of floating hands with eyeballs peering from within, dark skies, and waves of liquid colour. The whole scene is set in a torrential thunderstorm that drenches the band to the skin. The direction of the video, by Ralph Ziman , is an accurate setting for the song without giving anything away towards the meaning. All that can be understood is that it is five men against the forces of nature - a reflection FNM's musical blend of crazy and calm. The video ends with an astonishing scene - A fish out of water which is flapping to the classical sounds of Roddy Bottum 's piano. This would again highlight the schizophrenic tendencies of the music - the grace of nature with a bizarre and cruel twist. The fish had no meaning beyond its visceral effect, which is both oddly beautiful and incredibly creepy. There are stories that the fish was stolen from Bjork at a party (started by the band) but it was simply bought from a pet store round the corner from the studio. Both Gould and Ziman claim the fishy idea was their own. "The floundering goldfish was my idea. It was that kinda (cult director) John Waters thing where you try to get maximum attention for minimum money! The piano exploding was pretty cool, too." - Bill 1997 "I remember, the band had one day off from touring and they were in London. The record company had phoned us on very short notice and asked us to do a music video. The y made it sound like a really low priority. I think it was being done for Warner Bros. at the time. I just made a list of things I thought we could do. Exploding piano. A fish flopping around. We literally had one day to pre-produce it. So we handed the fish off to the art department. I can't remember what it was. If it was a carp? It was a fresh water fish. We shot that in London in some studios next to the tour venue. And we wound up letting that fish go into the river when we were finished. We had a couple of them. We would let them flop around, and then we'd swap it over, and we'd shoot another one. I don't remember what kind of fish they were, but the animal handler had brought them in because they were feisty." - Ralph Ziman 2010 Faith No More had already been touring The Real Thing for a year before the tremendous whip-back success of the video and single forced them to continue. “More than anything I remember us being in Europe, and our manager would check in with us maybe once a week. He called and said: ‘Your single is blowing up over here,’ we didn’t believe him. We thought he was buttering us up so he could keep us on the road, and we all wanted to go home. I remember landing in the airport, going to the hotel, turning on the TV by chance and seeing the damn thing and going: ‘Oh shit….the jokes on us!” - Patton 1995 “We toured for about 18 months before ‘Epic’ was even released as a single. It becoming a hit made a big impression on us, because it was something that we chose to release on our own instincts. It worked and it gave us a lot of confidence to do the next record." - Bill 1997 The success of Epic has continued over the year. It was ranked number thirty on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs in 2006, number sixty-seven on their 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders list (unbelievable but understandable to those who go by such statistics) in 2009, it was named the 54th best hard rock song of all time also by VH1, also in 2009 it charted number 46 on the largest music poll in the world Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time . Thirty plus years since the single release of Epic and it is remembered as a ground-breaking moment, in not only FNM's career but in music. It is also a shining example of who FNM were back in 1989 and how a different kind of brilliance shined. It was the starting point for Mike Patton's career with the band, who's later input changed the music as well as the sound - it is a wonderful reminder of youth and enthusiasm. It's It... Check out the Podcast Croissant episode all about Epic.

On January 28th 1993 Faith No More released their home video compilation, Video Croissant. Kerrang! | kkkkk | December 1992 | Chris Watts JUST WHEN you thought it was impossible to buy anything else from Faith No More Ltd, the Christmas Cobbler turns up, late, but in good spirits. Yet more stuff. Yet more pop dollars to spend.Fund the cause and keep everybody smiling. They spoil you. Yes, they really do. 'Video Croissant' is basically a 10-track compilation of Faith No More promos, custom-FXed for the MTV machine. There are few surprises. As you might expect from America's least lumpen, the business of Faith No More is gorgeous and sick. There are snippets of gibberish from their Rock In Rio appearance, and 10 efficient videos for the likes of 'We Care A Lot', 'From Out Of Nowhere' and the maddeningly successful 'Epic'. It's a shame that 'Video Croissant' was completed earlier than the release of 'I'm Easy', because that video is as fresh and funny as anything on offer here, but 'Video Croissant' is still a tribute to the band's black humour, nonetheless. At the end of the day, this compilation is a luxury. Faith No More are too big now to be an entirely believable prank. They have been completely accepted by the industry they still claim to despise, and just such a release must be an exasperating display of buck-f**king on behalf of a band who were once too smart for the downright bleeding obvious. 'Video Croissant' is a rose-tinted package, but ultimately a graceless move.  Raw Magazine | xxxx | December 1992 | Paul Rees THERE CAN be no doubt that Faith No More are sick individuals. Watching Video Croissant is like going through a crash course in black, disturbed humour. This is good news, because it means that the band's promo videos are infinitely better than just about anybody else's you care to mention. With a recurring fetish for fish and paint, 'Epic' and 'Falling To Pieces' throw in enough lasting visual images (the dying fish out of water at the end of the former, Mike Pattern sprayed by a jet-stream of paint during the latter) to complement uniquely brilliant singles. 'Surprise! You're Dead', directed by bassist Bill Gould, is also suitably vile, with its black and white montage of dead meat shots. Indeed, it's only the routine performance clips for 'From Out Of Nowhere' and the Chuck Mosley-era 'We Care A Lot' and 'Anne's Song that fore-sake the twisted approach, and consequently they're Faith No More's least successful videos. The 'Angel Dust' selections, though, are all startling and shocking in their own right. 'Midlife Crisis' has Mike Patton being stretched between tour white horses, 'A Small Victory' mixes grim battlefield shots with a surreal game of chess and, worst of all, 'Everything's Ruined' shows guitarist Jim Martin topless. In between the clips Faith No More fool around on MTV, doggedly pursue helpless old ladies with camcorders, patronise just about everybody in sight, impersonate each other with pinpoint accuracy and perform a pure-noise live version of 'Caffeine'. It's all summed up by keyboardist Roddy Bottum's description of just why a recent gig in Seville was the band's best yet. "Mike Patton picked up this Evian bottle filled with piss," Bottum grins, "opened it and poured it over his head." Barking mad and resolutely strange, Faith No More are the vomit stain on your TV screen.

To celebrate Mike Patton 's 58th birthday we are focusing on one particularly significant year in his life. Mike Patton ’s career in 1991 marked a pivotal moment in alternative music. His work during this year extended far beyond the Faith No More 's rising fame. His involvement with Mr. Bungle and collaborations with Naked City showcased his versatility and fearless approach to music. This article explores how 1991 shaped Mike Patton’s artistic identity and set the stage for his future projects. Koh Hasebe | Tokyo 1991 At the end of 1990 Faith No More had completed two grueling years of touring to promote The Real Thing . The band's third studio recording, and their first with Patton, had been voted album of the year by many and had been nominated for several Grammys. FNM had been credited with creating a shiny new music genre, and Patton had unwillingly become metal's shiny new poster boy. 1991 became somewhat a transitional year for the singer as he searched for his place within the music scene while he consciously tried to shake popular opinion and unwanted attention. Patton entered into a twelve month cocoon phase from which he eventually emerged in 1992 as the much loved self destructive shit terrorist! The first thing fans noticed about Patton in January was a drastic new hairstyle. His long brunette locks were shorn to shoulder length dyed red and skull shaved to the bone beneath, a style lovingly imitated by fans all over the globe. While Faith No More were navigating mainstream attention, Patton returned to Mr. Bungle for an intimate Californian tour including nights at The Cattle Cub in Sacramento and Club Lingerie in Hollywood. The band were warming up to record their debut album at Different Fur in San Francisco. "I always knew in my mind that I would do Mr. Bungle, there was never any question of that. The question was whether I was gonna do FNM, and being the dull, indecisive person that I am, it was a helluva hard decision to come to. My initial reaction was, No way! I talked it over with the Bungle guys, and I talked to my parents about it and they were positive: 'Hey Mike, make us proud!' " Patton giggles. "I'm doing this all for my parents. I admit it, I've been doing it to support their drug habit." - Patton | Sounds, February 1991 Mr. Bungle’s music was a stark contrast to Faith No More’s more accessible sound. The band mixed genres like ska, jazz, metal, and circus music, creating a chaotic but compelling soundscape. Patton’s vocal experimentation was front and centre, showcasing his ability to use his voice as an instrument and sing in a multitude of genres. This period was crucial for Patton’s development as an artist willing to push boundaries. Mr. Bungle’s work in 1991 laid the groundwork for a career defined by innovation and unpredictability. During recording Patton took time out to regroup with FNM in South America for Rock In Rio II. The festival took place in January and February of 1991 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The band performed on January 20 to their largest ever crowd of 180,000 sharing the stage with other acts such as Guns N’ Roses, Billy Idol, Prince, New Kids On The Block, George Michael and INXS. Rock In Rio II | January 1991 ‘It was the biggest show we’ve ever done. It was really scary. I couldn’t tell how many people were actually in the audience until later when I watched Guns N’ Roses, because they lit up the crowd. I thought it was just people in front of me, but there were people here, here, here.’ - Patton | MTV Brasil, September 1991. The festival’s scale was unprecedented in South America at the time. It offered a unique platform for bands like Faith No More to reach a diverse and enthusiastic audience. The energy of the crowd and the festival’s vibrant atmosphere created the perfect backdrop for Faith No More’s dynamic and unpredictable live show. "Rock In Rio is, at times, like one enormous press junket and the bands get little escape from cameras or tape recorders or screaming fans camped outside the hotel. Mike Patton in particular is a target for the screamers: they love him, want to touch him, want to scream in his ear, want his signature, want everything they can from him. Bodyguards have to hustle the band through converging crowds pretty much all the time. Patton is bemused by the whole thing, understanding now what it's all about yet still not knowing why they do it." - Steffan Chirazi | Kerrang, January 1991 John Atashian | Rock In Rio II 1991 From Brazil FNM travelled to Chile for the first time and played two dates at Quinta Vergara in Viña Del Mar. Faith No More headlined the first night supported by local favourites Myriam Hernández and Chayanne . La Segunda negatively reviewed the show calling FNM 'thunderous trash rockers' and commenting on the lack of numbers in the crowd, 'When they began their performance, at 1:25, they had 12 thousand people, after seven minutes, there were only about fifteen hundred. The others? They fled in terror, covering their ears.' During their stay in Chile Patton bonded with local author Alberto Fuguet and on the second night he encouraged the singer to dress as a schoolboy, dedicate a song to Myriam Hernández and to kiss the much loved presenter Antonio Vodanovic on the cheek. All of the above designed to upset the establishment. The young generation who watched the band on television in 1991 were exposed to something that changed their lives and Faith No More's music became the soundtrack of Chilean youth. The bond FNM and the South American country has strengthened over the years and Chile has been the setting of more momentous occasions in the band's history with Patton being revered with god-like status. In February Slash Records were pushing FNM to record a follow-up to The Real Thing while fan fever was still at its peak, but with Patton busy with Mr. Bungle this would have wait. Instead the record company released the live recording of Brixton Academy from April 1990 to satisfy the band's fanbase who were hungry for new music. On March 2 Faith No More cleaned up at the fourteenth annual Bay Area Music Awards winning in five categories including Outstanding Male Vocalist. Patton collected his phallic shaped trophy commenting 'Behold the magnificent golden dildo.' Another important project for Mike Patton in 1991 was his collaboration with Naked City , a band led by avant-garde composer John Zorn, who would also produce Mr. Bungle's record. Naked City’s music was known for its rapid shifts in style and intensity, blending jazz, grindcore, and classical elements. Patton toured with the ensemble in April and July. With Naked City | 1991 Patton’s involvement with Naked City allowed him to explore even more extreme vocal techniques. His contributions added a new dimension to the band’s already intense sound. This collaboration highlighted Patton’s willingness to engage with challenging and unconventional music scenes. 'I guess I maybe met him in '90 or '91, and I asked him to work with Mr. Bungle. I had heard a bunch of his records and liked them. I approached him, and he was really into it. We kind of became friends, started off with a bang, and have been working together ever since. He'll be here tonight. I think that obviously I've learned a lot from his music, but he's a pretty amazing person and I've learned a lot personally from him as well. He's been like family.' - Patton | Tape Op, May 2006 Working with Naked City in 1991 further expanded Patton’s reputation as a versatile and fearless vocalist. It also connected him with a network of experimental musicians that would influence his future projects. In June Patton again returned to the ranks of FNM to perform Epic at the International Rock awards in London. In late 1990 Faith No More had re-recorded Sweet Emotion , adding fresh lyrics and re-titling the song The Perfect Crime. It was included on the soundtrack to film Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey  released in July 1991. Ross Halfin | London 1991 Mr. Bungle's debut album was released on August 13 which saw the band play shows in San Francisco and Hollywood to celebrate - but again his time with Bungle was short as the frontman returned to duties with Faith No More. Through September FNM toured in Argentina and Brazil with dates in Japan during October. These months proved crucial in the development of the Patton's place within FNM and the band's evolution. The South American shows allowed the band to showcase new material. RV and The World Is Yours were played for the first time at the Estadio Obras Sanitarias in Buenos Aires, while an early version of Caffeine was unveiled in Recife. Brazil | 1991 "In a relationship, in the beginning, there's inhibitions. After a while, all of those things fall apart, and that's how you get comfortable with somebody. I think that's probably how it happened. You learn how to fart and cuss in front of them. That's healthy. The way the band operates, politically, is, whoever steps out of line, everyone pounces on him. So if you're constantly afraid of doing something, nothing gets done. When everybody gets a little more comfortable, you can pull out any idea, and it can be manipulated, raped, made fun of, whatever. But still ... that's OK. Because that's how shit gets created; I'm convinced of that." - Patton | Kerrang! 1993 During 1991 Patton was busy devising some of the most profound, poetic and often disturbing lyrics of his career for FNM's fourth record Angel Dust . His extreme and bizarre methods of finding inspiration would help to create characters which Patton inhabited for different songs on the album. He spent the later part of 1991 involved in self torturous sleep deprivation experiments and observing human behaviour. With his relationship with Faith No More maturing his contribution to the music became more significant, helping to shape the future sound of the band. "It was strange for me because I had spent every musical moment with the Bungle guys, and we have our own thing - we're Nintendo kids, so we get into a studio and there are all these little knobs,!and we've just gotta play with the dials and push the buttons. [Mr.Bungle] basically doesn't know how to write songs - they're like A-B-C-X! - so it was weird for me to try and put something over a song that was really linear, and very verse/chorus/verse/chorus. So I think I did what was really...obvious. That's fine, but since then, I've definitely vowed to spend a lot more time and put a lot more into anything I do." - Mike Patton 1992 Faith No More’s final show of 1991 was at the Oakland Coliseum on October 12 for Metallica 's A Day On The Green festival. Here Patton had freshly broken out of his cocoon and it was our first glimpse of the new improved singer - as Adrian Harte writes in Small Victories - 'He was only an eyebrow-ring and some self-harming stage flips away from Angel Dust Patton. ' Tony Alves | October 1991 The events of 1991 were a turning point for Mike Patton. His work with Faith No More brought him ongoing mainstream success cementing his god-like status in South America and Japan, while his projects with Mr. Bungle and Naked City demonstrated his commitment to artistic exploration. This balance between commercial appeal and experimental risk-taking became a defining feature of his career. By the end of 1991, Patton had established himself as one of the most exciting and unpredictable figures in alternative music. His ability to move between different styles and projects without losing his unique voice set him apart from many of his contemporaries. Looking back, 1991 was more than just a successful year for Mike Patton; it was a foundation for everything that followed. His work during this time showed that he was not content to stay within one genre or band. Instead, he sought out new challenges and collaborations that would keep his music fresh and innovative. It was also the year in which he found his place within Faith No More, writing some of his most extraordinary lyrics to date. Fans of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle can trace many of the qualities that define Patton’s later work back to this year. His fearless approach to vocals, his genre-blending style, and his willingness to collaborate with diverse musicians all began to take shape in 1991. For anyone interested in the evolution of alternative music, understanding Mike Patton’s activities in 1991 offers valuable insight into how one artist can influence multiple scenes at once. Ross Halfin | San Francisco January 1992

The party to celebrate the release of Faith No More 's debut album was on November 30th 1985. We consider this to be the original release date for We Care A Lot. Here is an our A to Z of We Care A Lot on it's 40th anniversary. Enjoy. A IS FOR As The Worm Turns Track eight on the record has remained a fan favourite throughout the band's career. As The Worm Turns was reclaimed live by Mike Patton during The Real Thing tour and eventually re-recorded as a b-side in 1992. As The Worm Turns is anti-protest song, according to Chuck Mosley . ‘It’s my take on a San Francisco mentality; vegetarian and peace-loving hippies. My take about people that are protesting and complaining. If you want to do something, don’t sit around - just get off your ass, and choose family.’ - Chuck | Small Victories 2017 B IS FOR Mark Bowen Track three on WCAL was given the working title after Faith No More's previous guitar player simply because an early version began with Bowen’s guitar. 'The truth behind "the Mark Bowen" song, is that prior to having a permanent singer, the band named their songs after persons, places, or things that were around when the music was formulated, rather than naming them song A or song B, etc. There were no lyrics and therefore no real song name. When the boys sent a tape to LA, so that Chuck could write some lyrics for his upcoming stint as singer, he made up lyrics for the song that was labeled as, "Mark Bowen". I had spent a day or so with Chuck prior to that, but he did not really know me. He just made up a song. I'm happy to have my 15 minutes of fame from that, ha!' - Mark Bowen | Faithnoman.com 2013 C IS FOR City Beat On May 28th 1986 Faith No More appeared on the music show City Beat for an interview with Steve U. D IS FOR Dodge 66 In early 1986 Faith No More set off on their very first national tour - five band members and a roadie (Roddy’s boyfriend J im Olson ) in a rented ‘66 Dodge van with a trailer. Songs were written and other personal discoveries made behind the doors of that van. E IS FOR E-Z Street At the age of 15 Mike Bordin and Cliff Burton joined the band E-Z Street whose leader was future FNM guitarist Jim Martin . The band which took its name from a strip-club in San Mateo. E-Z Street didn't last very long due to the mutual dislike between Bordin and Martin. Burton would of course go on play bass for Metallica but always championed FNM. F IS FOR 'Fuck the haters. That is all' In August 2016 Bill, Mike B, Roddy Bottum and Jon Hudson reunited with Chuck Mosley as Chuck & Friends for two incredible US shows. Bill tweeted a message for reluctant fans “Fuck the haters. That is all”. ‘Yes, you know, it’s curious and partly true. With a thirty-three year-old band, we’ve always had people telling us what to do. And also people sticking up for us like “this is what you are”. And us... we responded and explained our intentions. Then we started to have fans who appreciated us for what we did, for doing what we felt and not what we supposedly had to do. Reaching this point today and seeing people, some of them fans of ours, punishing us for having Chuck singing in the band makes me wonder: “Who the hell are these people? How can our own fans adopt the same attitude as that of the idiots who questioned my band at the very beginning?” It’s sheer crap. They can’t put Chuck in a defensive position because they have nothing to defend themselves against. He’s the original singer! (laughs) So, maybe there was a bit of drama, but I didn’t get too upset. It was more like “this is who we are and this is what we do, and if you don’t like it you can go fuck yourself”. I just felt it was necessary to express it. - Bill | Mondo Sonoro 2016 G IS FOR Olga Gerrard Olga and her husband were Faith No More's management team in the early eighties. Olga was also responsible for the cover design of We Care A Lot . Olga would go on to manage artists such as Monster Magnet, Diamanda Galás, Killing Joke, and Nine Inch Nails. H IS FOR Hancock Park Hancock Park is the Los Angeles suburb in which Bill and Roddy grew up together. They both attended elementary school, cub scouts and Catholic high school. At nine years old the young friends would get into allsorts of adolescent trouble - once even calling in a bomb threat to a Safeway supermarket! I IS FOR I-Beam On Monday 13th January 1986 Faith No More played at the I-Beam in San Francisco. On 25th August 2016 an audience recording of the entire show was shared on Faith No More's official YouTube channel. The We Care A Lot deluxe band edition includes two tracks from this show. J IS FOR Joan Osato Joan was Roddy's roommate who took early photographs of FNM some of which were included on the cover of We Care A Lot. Check out more photos HERE. K IS FOR KXLU In the early eighties KXLU was a college radio station broadcasting from Loyola Marymount University. Two DJs Bunny Bouffant and Adam Bomb played FNM regularly and attracted attention to an early recording of We Care A Lot . 'By 1984, I had seen Faith No More live several times in the LA clubs, and was anxious to get their sounds on Demolisten. Their live shows had a lot of power with the fusion of funk, punk, rap, soul. It was a new genre that was moshable and danceable. Chuck personally brought up a test pressing of some of the songs from the eventual We Care A Lot release—‘Greed’, ‘Mark Bowen’, ‘Arabian Disco’, and ‘We Care A Lot’. I carted up Faith No More and the other top songs from Demolisten for regular airplay on KXLU. There was a huge positive response, and lots of listeners called in saying, ‘Finally we get to hear these guys on the radio.’ I’m happy the band’s music reached the multitudes; that was always my intention with any band featured on Demolisten.' - Bunny Bouffant | Small Victories 2017 L IS FOR Live Aid! The title track We Care A Lot is a sarcastic parody of what was going on in music and pop culture at the time. The Live Aid concert and USA's Feed the World song seemed to have irked FNM into creating some kind of statement. The lyrics were written by Roddy with Chuck throwing in the odd line here and there. 'Well, ah Roddy wrote all the things that he cared about and I just wrote the part that says, "it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it" 'cause I figured that's just the feeling I got. That's the only thing I submitted. That, and the newer lyrics in the updated version.' - Chuck 1988 M IS FOR Mordam Records Mordam Records was a San Franciscan independent record company founded in 1983 by Ruth Schwartz . After hearing Faith No More's music We Care A Lot from a friend Schwartz signed FNM to the label. Faith No More's debut album was the first release on Mordam. ‘My friend brought their demo home and told me that we should go see them. The record was already recorded, and they just wanted someone to put it out and distribute it, which I did. The rest is history.’ - Ruth | Small Victories 2017 N IS FOR Numb Tongue Numb Tongue, No Taste is the name of a compilation cassette released by German label Making Tapes on December 20 1984. It was the first official release of any Faith No More music featuring Mark Bowen and Arabian Disco . O IS FOR Oberheim Roddy's distinctive keyboard sounds are what sets early Faith No More music apart from their contemporaries of the time. ‘My first keyboard that I used on We Care A Lot was an Oberheim, and that was such a key sound to what we were doing. I actually got that keyboard from this dude in L.A., we pooled all our money and bought this Oberheim from a guy named Dwayne Hitchens. He had just finished the score to Flashdance on that keyboard. And we thought that was hilarious, that we had the Flashdance keyboard. We were like, 'Oh this is magical.' It was so fucking funny. Now we played those shows in California with Chuck, and I was at this guitar store before the gigs checking out keyboards and I picked up this reissue of that old Oberheim that I had and I used that keyboard. The Oberheim is what S U R V I V E use, I believe, for the Stranger Things score as well.’ - Roddy 2016 P IS FOR Prairie Sun Prairie Sun Recording Studios is an audio recording studio located in Cotati, California. In the summer of ’85, FNM and Matt Wallace recorded a new five track demo, featuring the songs We Care A Lot, The Jungle, Mark Bowen, Why Do You Bother and Jim . “The studio was set up in a farm and it was free from any distractions. We only had three days to record, because we only had so much money. Matt had a little eight track studio at home, but I don’t think he’d ever worked on 24 tracks before, so it was a new experience for all of us. We were very military about it, we did a lot of pre-production so that when we went in we didn’t waste a single second. There was zero fun: we just worked, slept on the floor and start recording again as soon as we woke up. We recorded everything in two days and mixed it on the third day.” - Bill | Louder 2016 Q IS FOR Kings Of Quarantine The title track has proven to be one of Faith No More's most popular and recognisable songs for forty years! We Care A Lot was re-recorded for Introduce Yourself (1987), released as a live track (recorded at Brixton Academy in 1990) with Mike Patton on vocals, re-recorded by Chuck Mosley and VUA (2009) - most recently recorded by the supergroup Kings Of Quarantine in 2020 featuring members of Slaves On Dope, Anthrax, Korn, Mastodon, Men Without Hats, Refused, Quicksand, Brutal Truth, Czarface, Run DMC, Filter and Our Lady Peace. R IS FOR Run DMC The inspiration for the aesthetic and lyrics of the title track came from Roddy who was a big fan of Run DMC . 'When 'We Care A Lot' came out I was listening to a lot of Run DMC, I was crazy about it. I like Rap that incorporates really interesting sampling. It works as a background, rhythm-wise, but I couldn't see us using it constantly. It's meant we've got through to a wider audience, but it's also to keep everyone happy in the band. We're all so different that we have to compromise, but I don't think anyone is unhappy with the songs we've done, although sometimes it takes a bit of coaxing!' - Roddy | Circus Magazine 1990 S IS FOR Star of Chaos The star symbol featured on the record sleeve is referred to in Hinduism as The Star of Lakshmi where it represents Ashtalakshmi the eight forms of the goddess Lakshmi. However this is not where the beloved logo derives from, the original FNM logo was adapted from the symbol for chaos which originates from The Eternal Champion , a fantasy novel by Michael Moorcock published in 1970. It was Bill Gould who first had the idea to use the star. 'The star was my thing. It's a pretty deep and pervasive symbol that has meaning in several different cultures. What it signified for me at the time was chaos...order through disorder. ....chaos was the thing that drew me to it originally. In a nutshell, musically as well as personally I think all of us found ourselves faced with certain structures in our lives that didn't really work for us..either through coming of Faith No Man or just turning 20, living on our own, and wanting to do things differently, and the way we approached this was to try something that had no rules, only the rules we made ourselves. So this mean doing new things and seeing where they would go. The point of this chaos is that we were trying to discover who we really were, and maybe in this recording you can hear a little of that." - Bill | FnmFollowers 2018 T IS FOR The Jungle Track two perfectly describes FNM’s beginning of their journey. “ Once the music is recorded and it let out into the world, everything becomes subjective: is it better, is it worse, is this the band at its most intuitive or most naive? On a techical level, this one is far from our best work. But in terms of spirit, it’s right up there. A highly willful gang of presumptuous kids, not quite understanding who they were, but yet, clearly feeling where they need to go. The band was unknown, so there were no outside expectations. But plenty of freedom and drive, and though we did argue a lot, we were united in the project on a core level..we spent money that we didn’t really have to create a vibe, and when it was finished, we looked at ourselves differently. So to me, this might be the one that matters the most, and set the stage for what was to follow.” - Bill | 2025 U IS FOR UC Berkeley Bill, Mike B and Matt Wallace all attended UC Berkeley together. It was at college that Faith. No Man was formed. V IS FOR The Vats The Vats was an abandoned brewery building on 4th Street at Bryant. The space was occupied in the early eighties by bands like The Rhythm Pigs who lived and rehearsed in huge beer tanks spread across its four floors. Faith No More moved in to rehearse in 1984. 'On the upper floors, there were just regular big studios. And we had one of those. Not because we had more money. I think we coveted—everyone coveted the vats. But that’s what we were rehearsing in, was just a big basic room up on the fifth or sixth floor. Billy and I, we were kids from Los Angeles. We were brought up in sunny, sunshine, entertainment-industry Los Angeles. And we moved to San Francisco, and it was a marked difference. “Oh wow, this is really foggy and dark and serious, and there’s people on speed, and bicycle messengers. “Just the vibe was so different and so much darker. We would never be exposed to anything like the Vats in Los Angeles.' - Roddy | Who Cares Anyway: Post Punk SF and the End of the Analog Age 2023 W IS FOR Will Carpmill Will attended college with Bill and Mike B, he would come up with the band name Faith No More’s after Faith. No Man disbanded. 'Mike and I were in rhetoric class, trying to come up with a new band name. We were passing a sheet of paper back and forth with our ideas, riffing on Faith. No Man. I think I suggested Faith. No Morris with a laugh, and then a few seconds later, one of us had Faith. No More.’ - Will | Small Victories 2017 He also worked at Rough Trade Records at the time that Ruth Schwartz of Mordam Records first heard FNM. '‘Just play it when people are shopping for records’. It turns out that Ruth Schwartz – who started Mordam Records – was played the tape, and she came up to the desk to ask what music that was. My friend told her: ‘It’s just my roommate’s band’. She asked what label we were on and he said: ‘They’re not signed’. And she called us up two days after that. It’s bizarre, but that’s what happened.'  - Bill | Classic Rock 2014 Will would later be in Systems Collapse  with Jon Hudson! X IS FOR DeluXXXXXe On August 19th 2016 Faith No More re-released their debut album We Care A Lot via Koolarrow Records. Rolling Stone called it a "raw punk album" while Select Magazine dubbed it "a lustful marriage of mutoid metal and dance floor verve." ‘I've been a touring guy most of my life, even when the band split up, I was still travelling a lot and I kept picking up all kinds of stuff and storing it in the basement’ he says of the discovery. ‘I have stuff in boxes that I haven't gone through for years and my wife got to a point where she said, 'We're living in boxes! You don't even know what’s down there, can we just dump some of that s**t you have down there!?’ ... and that's when I found the tapes. I was like, 'Oh my God, what is this?' I’d found the half inch masters, which were the finished mixes and I found one 24-track reel that had the three songs that Matt Wallace has remixed for this re-issue (We Care A Lot, Pills For Breakfast and As The Worm Turns). I said to him, ‘if you could remix these songs today, what would you do with them?' and what you hear on the record is the result.’ - Bill | The Independent 2016 Y IS FOR Yazoo In 1985 FNM had a varied selection of influences from David Bowie, Killing Joke, Run Dmc, Sade and… English synth pop duo Yazoo. ‘I remember bringing this record to San Francisco after a season in Los Angeles. I lived with Mike Bordin, Billy and other people by then. One of our mates said “Wow, this sounds so gay!”. And he was right. I had never considered a sound that evoked “the gay”, so it began to intrigue and scare me at the same time. Once more, this record had great influence on me when it came to production and music in general. Its sound was very bold, gay and sexy for that time, intense and brave. It was very different from what we did, but it had great impact on me.’ Z IS FOR Wiring Department Zine Wiring Department Zine was a San Francisco music magazine which featured the first review of We Care A Lot , and quite possibly Faith No More's first features. Here is a parade of uncanny drums, bass rhythms, melancholy keyboards. All the excitement of Killing Joke. The sound is original in treatment. To give authenticity, the music has been based in varying degrees upon well-recorded incidents or experiences in which the members sincerely believe. The excellent recording puts Faith. No More’s music where it rightfully belongs—in our minds.

On January 22 1988 Faith No More hit the United Kingdom live scene for the first time. The venue was Dingwalls in Camden, London. It was in fact the first time FNM played outside of the United States and Canada. The show was the first date of a European tour that ended in July of that year, Chuck Mosley parted ways with FNM shorty after the tour ended. Tony Mottram Sounds Magazine | 23.01.1988 SOMETHING ABOUT all this reminds me of the early Southern Death Cult gigs. Perhaps it's simply Chuck Mosley's whiplash mohawk awakening memories of a long forgotten Astbury haircut. Then again, it could be that most dangerous of things — a hunch that tonight we're in at the start of something big, a feeling, would you believe, almost of smugness. The buzz that now surrounds Faith No More seems perfectly justified judging by tonight. That's rare in these days of fresh 'saviours' coming and going every week, I know, but it's true. Understandably, the expectations of the assembled hyped-up longhairs, punks and Walkman-wielding bootleggers are high, but does this worry Mosley and the boys? No way! They emerge confidently, aware that they've much to live up to but determined to lake it at) in their stride. Slipping effortlessly into their hard, pumping music they proceed to let events follow a natural course, holding back to begin with, simmering gently, but clearly building up to something very strong, very convincing. To our left, a baseball-hatted Rob Bottum plays keyboards; next to him, bassist Bill Gould darts around like a younger, sprightlier Angus Young. In the middle a furry freak called Mike loses himself in his drums, and to the right stands guitarist Jim Martin — all beard and corkscrew locks, happy for the time being to let loose just the odd fork of crackling power at selected moments, master magician at this most compelling of musical black masses. Slowly but surely they turn up the heat, 'Chinese Arithmetic' and 'We Care A Lot' triggering off a flurry of flying bodies, the band's appetite for irony, confrontation and recklessness finally making its presence felt when the guitar starts to scream. And all the while the tension is mounting, propelled by a tightly compressed dancebeat, the constant stormy presence of Bottom's intriguingly wistful keyboards and Mosley's deftly spattering phraseology. We're almost there now, a segment of 'Stairway To Heaven' (one of many classic rock references made tonight) leading into a solo acoustic spot from a seemingly spaced-out Martin, and finally it's Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs'. Insanity reigns, everything takes on a hot white glow and, like dominoes, one by one the senses collapse. Glorious oblivion. Kerrang! | Issue 174 | 13.021988 | Chris Watts STRANGE. FAITH No More would love you to think them incompetent. They would love me to denounce them as goo goo doll deviants who don't really belong in this Rock 'n' Roll circus. Strange, then, that Faith No More belong. Tonight is satisfying if unspectacular London Records are out in force and probably think the world shifted on its axis. Cover stories, major label releases, critics' choice.. Faith No More have arrived. The Dingewalls (sic) crowd give the band two numbers of cold shoulder before letting loose. The sound is horrendous. Perfect. 'We care a lot about you people, about your guns, About the wars you're fighting.' Faith No More would never admit to caring about you and me but they do. Their rhythms - gutter grebo rhythms - are battered mercilessly before you and me. For our benefit. Maybe you weren't there? Too bad. Let's face it - Chuck Mosley cannot sing. Fact of life. Sometimes his Beastie Boy rap wail can grate on the nerves. Perfect. Stripped to the waist, mohican dribbling over his head, 36 Chuck is OK. Don't worry 'bout him. He's having a ball. Around him the band look sloppy-tight with the nonchalance of the professional. These slapping bass assaults could smash bottles at your local disco dance. The drums could tear down your hairspray. Keyboards add a texture to 'We Care A Lot' and 'New Beginnings' but the evening belongs to James B. Martin. One man and his Flying V. Marshall amp in the shadows. Very rock'n' roll. Martin plays guitar like you Just wished Blue Oyster Cult would again. Red Framed glasses beneath his redneck mopstack. He has no delusions, no arrogance, but Christ can he play? ("Yes" - JC) They betray their origins with bursts of the great. The climax to 'Stairway To Heaven' is inserted like a thumb up your nose. The crowd wave their hands because they understand the Joke. Faith No More and Led Zeppelin? Er, you really had to be there. The encores are sweet. A dream. "A great song," says Billy Gould. They've just crucified Bon Jovi's 'Wanted Dead Or Alive' I think Billy's serious. "Hey, man, what f**kin' day is it?" lurches Jim and you know Faith No More are a little drunk and plenty intoxicated. There's a little blonde scrap standing on the stage furiously facing Jim and he smiles. So much attention to these Atlanta racketeers? They leave in a film of sweat. The sound never improves and Chuck never really sung a note. If it's Metal then you could just die laughing. If Faith No More are a little more important then you may well be on the right track. "You've been a great audience. An ugly audience, but still a great audience!" Strange band.

Faith No More performed at the second Brazilian festival Rock In Rio thirty five years ago on January 20th 1991. Photo Ross Halfin By the end of 1990 FNM's music was achieving huge success with platinum album sales and headlining tours. However it was their performance in Rio de Janeiro which truly caught the larger world's attention. In 1985 headliners such as Queen, AC/DC and Yes had prompted the erection of The City of Rock stadium to house the one million people who attended the ten-day-long festival. Six years later Rock in Rio II was an attempt to create the biggest rock festival in history and continued its reputation for attracting globally famous acts with headliners Guns N' Roses, Prince and George Michael. For FNM's first appearance in South America they had their largest audience to date of 180,000 playing ahead of GnR and Billy Idol. The TV and press coverage was immense and the media storm that followed FNM around Brazil over those few days was intense - they were mobbed by fans in the street and interviewed for numerous TV stations including several features for MTV. Their set was broadcast throughout Latin America by TV Globo. Rock In Rio II followed two years of constant touring to promote The Real Thing and the band were looking forward to slowing down and starting work on their next album ( Angel Dust ), but not before a string of unforgettable performances in South America which would go down in history as greats and begin a solid relationship with the continent. Small Victories : The True Story of Faith No More | Adrian Harte The band’s Brazilian record label marked their arrival by hiring a small plane to repeatedly fly over the Copacabana beach, trailing a banner reading ‘PolyGram welcomes Faith No More’. Looking back at the band’s composed, controlled, and confident show, it seems remarkable that they did not go onto to join those acts in rock and pop’s inner circle. Patton, sporting a shorter haircut and the plaid shirts he first adopted as stage wear the previous year, looked like a grunge harbinger, and won over the crowd with a dedication to Pelé. He could command their attention and acclaim just by lying prostrate on the stage at the end of ‘Epic’ or by hanging from the stage during ‘War Pigs’. ‘It was the biggest show we’ve ever done,’ he said at the time. ‘It was really scary. I couldn’t tell how many people were actually in the audience until later when I watched Guns N’ Roses, because they lit up the crowd. I thought it was just people in front of me, but there were people here, here, here.’ Faith No More were the lowest-paid international act at the festival, pocketing $20,000 when the festival generated $5.2 million in ticket and concession sales alone. But according to a report in the magazine Veja, ‘The presentation at Rock In Rio II reverberated abroad, consolidated the group among fans of heavy rock and had a side effect: turning the singer and leader of the band Mike Patton into an idol in Brazil, mainly among the girls aged fourteen to eighteen.’ Kerrang! | Issue 327 | 09.02.1991 | Steffan Chirazi The first I saw on stage at the monstrous Rock In Rio II festival were Faith No More on Sunday, January 20. It was a huge moment for the world's best band right now, a culmination of their 18 month 'The Real Thing' campaign in the most spectacular of settings. The Maracana stadium was full. The band were on form. Vocalist Mike Patton was unstoppable. Patton's become more and more part of the FNM fold over these last few months, and he chose Rio to put on one of his strongest performances yet. In front of 180,000 people, he sucked in the energy and threw it out in a series of charismatic spazz-outs, rolls and jumps including a spectacular one from atop the amps. Guitarist Jim Martin knew whose hour it was, striding around in total control, not putting a pick wrong, enticing the crowd into his filthy web of activity and personality (they screamed at the merest flick of his arm). Bassist Bill Gould and drummer Mike 'Puffy' Bordin locked solid into a huge rhythmic punch, whilst keyboardist Roddy Bottum continued to prove his indispensability. At times, FNM's performance reminded me of U2 playing Live Aid... Y'know, that one mighty show that just pushes a band over the edge from being a big act to a huge phenomenon. The crowd? It was genuinely chilling to see the vast sea of arms wave in unison at the start of 'The Crab Song', while 'Epic' sent them into a huge bobbing mass, Patton crawling along the stage front scaffolding, using every last inch of the boards to make his point. Faith No More ate this show up and spat it right back at the people, almost making the damn venue seem like an intimate club gig, not a vast stadium. In rising to this occasion FNM proved they are really here to stay. Kerrang! | Issue 328 | 16.02.1991 | Mick Wall Emerging onto the poolside third floor terrace to the sound of a half dozen drums the size of tree trunks furiously being thumped by a roving cluster of semi-clad tribesmen — the Rio Palace's lizard-brained idea of the kind of mid-morning entertainment the poolside decadents like served up with their eggs and sangria – the first person I ran into was Big Jim Martin from Faith No More, themselves just arrived that morning from San Francisco. He was wearing a black baseball cap with the words 'Satanic Gulf’ clearly scrawled in Portuguese across the front. "The guys at Customs just laughed at me when they saw it”, he told me, non-plussed. RETURNING JUST in time to catch last call at the bar of the Rio Palace, I bumped into Big Jim we shared a glass together. Jim said he was on his way out to see a live sex show. "I just live for naked women," he explained, tugging on his beard, his dark bespectacled eyes fixed on a space about two inches above my head. But then, as he will be the first to acknowledge. Big Jim Martin is a very sick man and a persistent hankering after naked female flesh is merely one of several more worrying symptoms of a condition , doctors have told him may actually be incurable. Ladies, he deserves your pity, not your scorn. He also needed someone to go with him to the live sex show but that someone was not going to be me. I was so tired I wasn't fit to shit and the idea of travelling many miles just to watch Jim's glasses steam up somehow failed to appeal. I left the big fella to his ablutions and disappeared to my room. Jim promised me a full report. Raw Magazine | Issue 65 | 20.02.1991 | Helen Vassallo Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford smears a sweaty palm across his newly shaven and tattooed scalp, and peers up at the concrete monstrosity that is the Rio Palace Hotel. Who knows, he could be right. Not having been to the Spanish resort myself I'll reserve judgement for now, but if it smells constantly of sewerage and vomit, gives you diarrhoea within seconds, has a virtually worthless currency, is inhabited by violent knife - wielding peasants whose sole purpose in life is to rip of tourists, and enjoys drug addiction, prostitution and murder as its national pastimes, then the comparison is an accurate one. For the civilised mind the place is a hell-hole, and hardly the ideal venue for the biggest and (for the top performers) most buck-raking Rock festivals in the world - geographically or morally. Faith No More had it sussed from the moment they hit the stage at the massive 170,000 seater Maracana Stadium. On the two previous nights before their long overdue arrival, the teeth-grinding tedium and sense-torturing superficiality of acts like Billy Idol and INXS had been almost too much to bear: only the superlative axemanship of Latin licksman Carlos Santana had been worth braving the stadium's eau-de-khazi for. But suddenly. 'From Out Of Nowhere', there were five slovenly urchins shining like beacons out there in the distance. sounding like an alarm clock during a hangover, and the roar inside the Maracana suggested that the crowd had woken up at last. Faith No More played the proverbial blinder, Brian, their already considerable popularity in Brazil swelling with every track from 'The Real Thing'. Kerrang! Magazine | Issue 329 | February 1991. A little bit of trash never hurt anyone... Reckons chief gossip-monger and FAITH NO MORE keyboard player RODDY BOTTUM. The man who topped the Kerrang! ivory tinklers' poll talks to STEFFAN CHIRAZI about his nose for digging the celebrity dirt, while BIG SICK UGLY JIM MARTIN tries to canvass innocent Brazilian children for his own election for president and MIKE 'PUFFY' BORDIN fearlessly jumps off Pedra Bonita hill with a six loot wooden board attached to his back. Yup, it's just another humid, jape-packed day in the wacky Faith No More camp... "Hi my name's Roddy and I'm the keyboard player in faith no more, and I just wanted to say it's great to meet you because I'm a big fan of your music." The small pimp-like space cadet we know respectfully as the talented and gifted musician prince, and disrespectfully as a basket case of major and incurable proportions, puckers his closed mouth and offers a small nod. The Trap, a small club hidden in Rio de Janeiro, has become the black-lit haven for Prince and his six bodyguards to park their serene and important bottoms for a short while. No there wasn't an alcoholic beverage in front of his highness. Yes I do now know why he was cast as a pimp on 'Miami Vice'. No he wasn't that friendly. Yes I think he might very well be insane. Patton, Gould, Bottum and I retreat to our corner and think about what the most fucked up drink we could send over to the special boy's corner would be. Someone suggests a hot chocolate, and it seems about right for his tee total nibness until he blows out our fun and leaves. "A lot of people have told me he's really shy, but I just think he's really clever and crafty," furthers Bottum, the man who's got closer to him than any media for the last few years. "He looked like he was so fucking bored and he's chosen this place to be bored, which tells you he's looking for some company. So I didn't feel bad at all for going up and talking to him. I think I asked him how his show went and he just said 'Fine' - all - one - word answers - and I told I went to see him once at Wembley and I was so far away I couldn't see him at all.....I even told him that was the day in my life I realised I needed glasses!" He didn't even react when you told him he was responsible for a major realisation about your personal health? "No, not at all. " What a bastard. "Well I thought it might bring him out if his shell, but he just sort of liked at me and smiled. But I wouldn't say he's an arsehole." Did you feel the aura? "I smelt the magic. He smelt very purple, lavender maybe. A strong smell but subtle at the same time. Not masculine definitely, but what fragrance is? Almost feminine but more spacey.... "I did come away from the conversation regretting I didn't ask him a little more, that I didn't just unashamedly ask him something off the wall like how big his dick is. It might well have brought him out if his shell, caught him by surprise." Do you think he's a space cadet? "He seems a little spacey, but he's up something." It'd been a strange night already. FNM vocalist Mike Patton had had a few sips of a disgustingly sweet, very strong sugar-cane alcohol, and then bassist Bill Gould had decided inexplicably to pour some highly flammable sambuca onto his hand and set fire to it. Poor deranged man. Brazilian MTV then attempted to take us to samba school in a hippie wagon VW, 12 of us jammed together in the tin sweat box screaming, yelping, pounding back at the hundreds of kids who pounded the outside of the thing, and generally driving the MTV crew crazy. Gould in particular was behaving like prime Broadmoor material, pounding the roof in arm circling motions, eyes screwed shut, mouth wide open, a continuous yell roaring from it. The key then broke off in the ignition whilst we crossed a quiet, dangerous part of town. Gould was warned not to walk to far as he would probably be shot by gun-welding guards who don't like asking questions when they pack bullets. Then we went to The Trap. As can tell, it was all go. There's 95 degree humid heat and FNM are in Brazil to turn in their 110 degree performance at the Maracana Stadium. 'The Real Thing' has been out here for nearly three weeks and has already sold 10,000 copies. The Brazilian arm of PolyGram see this as an excuse to hire a small plane to circle Copacabana trailing a banner reading 'PolyGram welcomes Faith No More'; hospitable for sure but trying after a few hours. "Jee-Zus it's cool an all, but we've had enough. Go away!" Grouches Jim Martin. The prongs maybe longer, the spot maybe thinner, but in that mountain-man frame stills lies a demon and it's negative commentaries. He laughs - "Fuck man, I dunno" - and I believe him. The Rio Palace Hotel may very well be hell. Close your eyes and think dark enough for a few seconds, and it's a music - biz - whiz - kidz convention in any town, anywhere any country. The word circus does come to mind. FNM do their bit for the world's massed media ranks and sit for a half an hour holding what is rumoured to be a press conference. The room is packed with shutterbugs and eager questioners, most requiring a translator. The whole thing drifts by, with Martin making a diligent effort to answer some of these things honestly, but to no avail. Of course Mike Patton us asked the obligatory Mr Bungle question, after which they sit for some quick pictures and then head off for some personal interviews with specially chosen magazines. It's necessary groundwork grind-work. Show day arrives, and it's not something I'll dwell too long on as a full account has already been written. But those hands waving all the time was a sight never to be forgotten.... Rock In Rio is, at times, like one enormous press junket and the bands get little escape from cameras or tape recorders or screaming fans camped outside the hotel. Mike Patton in particular is a target for the screamers: they love him, want to touch him, want to scream in his ear, want his signature, want everything they can from him. Bodyguards have to hustle the band through converging crowds pretty much all the time. Patton is bemused by the whole thing, understanding now what it's all about yet still not knowing why they do it. And when it isn't press or fans it's MTV. FNM are their latest darlings and they intend to get full mileage out of them. Knowing it will make good footage, MTV have arranged for the band to hand-glide from a tall hill called Pedra Bonita in São Conrado. Watching Mike 'Puffy' Bordin strap up and spring off the six foot wooden board into thin, crisp air was quite a high in itself. And considering he isn't really a whole lot into the trimmings of success or doing interviews ("I'm only here to play my drums," is a famous and much-heard Puffism) he seemed more than fair game for a tape-recorded chat. I start off by asking Bordin what he feels the sudden rush of success has done to the band as a unit? "I think it's made us realise that we're probably the only ones who understand what's going on. We're all starting in the same circle and going our different ways, and because we're all starting out from the same central point we're the only ones who really understand what's happening." Creatively, does success cramp your style when thinking of future releases? "It gives you a little more confidence, in as much as what we've been doing and what we believe in is good, so we're gonna head on." And what has success done to Mike Bordin personally? Made him uncomfortable, perhaps? "I feel like a snake that's shed its skin, but it isn't confusing, it hasn't made me question things I've never questioned before - there's new things to think about. That's all." I shift gear to ask Bordin just what it meant to play to a crowd as huge as at Rio. Could he focus on the audience? "No. I don't focus on the audience anyway, ever." But you did tell me you noticed the crowd during 'The Crab Song'? "During the quiet part? Oh fuck yeah, definitely, and I was excited. I could feed off the energy. We've all been in situations where we've played in front of two people and they've been real loud, and then two people and they've not been loud, and there's a difference. "Same with 10, 100, 1000, 15,000 people, it's the same thing - and when your in front of 185,000 and they're loud, and you don't speak the language, you've never been there before and your records just come out and guy know that the crowd are totally getting into it...." He exasperates at the mere recollection, "that's a huge rush." It's always been of interest to me just what someone who isn't really into being in the limelight makes of the whole fan phenomenon; the crowds, the screams (which were abundant in Rio)... "Screaming is a wonderful tribute," admits Puffy. "It's nice that people feel excited when they see your face, but I don't take it personally. If you broke the band into groups, there'd be a certain assembly that wouldn't be screamed at and another that they would scream at. I feel guilty getting screamed at by association and it makes me feel very uncomfortable. "I'm sure that if you got into thinking, I'm so bitchin' because people are screaming at me, it could ruin your life. But I don't see anyone in our band getting addicted to that screaming. When you meet peers who are addicted to that whole star-trip, do you learn front them and allow yourself a snigger at their expense, thinking of them as unfortunate human beings? "You've gotta learn first of all that there are certain tools in this business and it's important to use them. And in response to the second part of your question, yes, that's the way I am. All the band members are different and that's my first reaction: to feel sorry for them, not to tell them that I'm gonna stick a football up their ass the next time I see them or something... I feel sorry for them. It's a really sad, really lonely, really hollow existence for anybody like that." Singularity is something Bordin's been thinking about for quite a while, and the constant schedule has certainly taught him a thing or two about home-life. "If you commit five years to working, and you're lucky enough to work (by that I mean touring and making a success or trying to better things for yourself) you've gotta realise that however terrific you are, you can send flowers or call a lot or Fax or draw pictures and send them in the mail, but all the time you're not there and it's very difficult. It all depends on how it's set up, if you want this regular relationship where it's like one your parents might have, I think it's unrealistic to think that can happen." Are Faith No More's grass roots fans still with them or are they going to be inevitably lost as the band gets even bigger? "I think a certain amount of that will be inevitable, but I don't see it on the whole. I don't think we've put off an awful lot of people. We don't even have a fan club. The fans see us out there, they see us touring for two years, they see us not saying the same raps between songs, they see us act a little foolish and a little silly and maybe say the wrong things and not look perfect all the time, but at least they see we're real people." I wondered if Bordin was content with the 'Puffy' character he is seen as? "Yes and no. Sometimes it's like a caricature, sometimes it's hilariously enhanced, but..." You can live with it. "I'm very happy being me, thank you." The hang-gliding goes off without any casualties, and on our return from the site Gould and I decide it'd be a fine night to attend a Macumba. This is the sacrifice of a chicken to the voodoo gods, so I'm told, but watch the film 'Angel Heart' and you'll see one starring Lisa Bonet. We go to the Rock In Rio coordination office to find out the facts. The head of operations tells us that we must be crazy to think about going out to find one unless we're bent on loosing limbs. Gould and I are unable to find anyone who will take us, and instead we have to settle for an introduction to the infamous and disgusting paper O Povo, which shows in full detail the grisly undoings of cops and drug traders in graphic photos. Next day MTV take the band out to the beach where they film them body-surfing. Martin, still waking around in army surplus gear, is trailed by a gaggle of small children and attempts to canvass support from them for a political campaign to become their next president. It's a sick thought. I ask Martin about his feelings on the new FNM release, a live slap-together thing from the band's Brixton show last summer. He isn't impressed at all by it, forcibly requesting that I stress his displeasure with the release. Bordin, whilst being less than ecstatic, doesn't see it as necessarily a bad thing at all, as long as the price is kept low so as to make it very affordable, and wants it not to be seen as a live album but the live EP he feels it is. Roddy Bottum, meanwhile, has this to say about it: "We didn't authorise all the tracks. Four months ago London released a promotional CD of four live songs and that's what we thought they were releasing now. We didn't want them to do it at first but then we thought, 'What the hell, it's a live thing, four songs, doesn't seem like a big deal' - but now it's nine songs! And two of the cuts weren't released on the album - they were out on limited release - and it would've been nice to save them or thrown them away, but we didn't know they were gonna be put on this live record. "I think London were just worried about keeping up the band profile because they know we're gonna be away touring for a while. It's almost crass the way in which we've pursued our thing. Maybe we should've stopped touring a while ago and done another album, but at the same time it was important for us to keep on going. But now I just wanna get started on another album." Any particular ideas? "Well, the stuff we've been working on is pretty ethereal and probably less 'rock' than the last album..." Doesn't that change once Jim Martin becomes involved? "Yeah, this is always the way it starts out and it usually follows on and changes a whole lot. Right now we're just playing around with ideas that are totally different from the last album." How much of a role will Mike Patton have in writing? "I dunno. I mean, I'm totally willing to collaborate with him as much as he wants. It's hard to really say what his music is right now but it's a pretty comfortable situation. Other people maybe worried about it, not within the band so much as elsewhere. To me, everything's fine." Whilst it's well known that Gould is into seedy underworlds and Martin could be in Deliverance , Roddy Bottum is a self-confessed trash gossip hound. "A little bit of trash never hurt anyone! We can talk music shit all day long, but I want to know what's really going on! Who s doin' drugs, who's f**king up...?!" Time to share some celebrity trash maybe? "No, not right now! I'm still lookin' for stuff. But I'm especially into it -with different bands because we all share the same things in common and I want to see where they're coming from." And are you prepared for people to snoop around looking for dirt on you? "Absolutely- and for the most part I'll tell them what's going on! We're pretty open about stuff, we'll talk about each other behind our backs and totally spill the beans. Mike's pretty into the dirt-scene too..." However successful they get, Faith No More will never get a personal washer and dryer. It s still too much fun doing their own dirty laundry in public. Set List From Out Of Nowhere Falling To Pieces Introduce Yourself The Real Thing Underwater Love Carnival In Rio (Heino) Edge of the World The Crab Song We Care A Lot Sweet Dreams (Nestles) Surprise! You're Dead! Epic Woodpecker From Mars War Pigs (Black Sabbath) Easy (Commodores)