*SIDE BANDS*

Within the very talented lads of Powderfinger there is even more talent - who would've thought that it was possible?!? Yes Ian, Darren the guitarists and Jon the drummer of Powderfinger have side projects they are currently working on in between the hectic schedule of Powderfinger........

"Put together for fun... still fun..... but we never thought we would still be at it but are very glad to be. We come up with stuff very easily together, and it seems to sound fine."

Is how Ian Haug describes his side band f.o.c. Formed in October 1998, the band includes Grant McLennan (formerly of the Go Betweens), Adele Pickvance (former cohort of Dave Graney), Ross MacLennan (Turtlebox) and finally Matt Murphy (You may have seen him if you caught powderfinger live at the opera house last year). Matt is also a ring in for Darren's band 'Drag'. Together they make a dynamic quartet which is most evident in their debut album released last year......

The bulk of the material for the album was written in unusual circumstances, responding directly to visual art, having images as the fount of inspiration. "It was quite interesting, because I'd never written like that before," says Ian Haug. "We'd come in, and things would be projected on the walls. We were writing to what we were looking at, it was a totally different approach." "We were starting with no idea, and looking at images. It was the opposite to making a film clip. There was urban stuff, images from travels overseas...mainly Super-8 black and white."

The single from this album 'Don't Blame the Beam' saturated commercial radio and F.O.C were no longer 'the band with that guy from powderfinger in it' The two filmclips that f.o.c currently have were produced by their friends Scott & Paul who also did the Powderfinger 'passenger' clip.

F.O.C toured briefly in '98 but finding time between each others bandtime has proven difficult. They will hopefully be returning a little after the P2K Tour........

Darren Middleton's new project looks to be an exciting and different one in 'Drag'. 'Drag' is a 3 piece band (with an occasional 4th member) and has Darren as the frontman......he describes the conception of the band as an 'outlet' for some of the songs he had written but did not fit into Powderfinger's 'mould'. Darren has had his turn at the vocals in Powderfinger (Come Away, Over my head and Maxwell's great mistake to name a few) and decided he'd like to explore the vocals side of a band then came Drag!! Their music has been described as pop..

"Drag is the next instalment of singer/guitarist Darren Middleton's fantasy of being amazingly good at music....this attempt comes to you via the much congested pop freeway, although drag sound nothing like any of those other bands...old beat up Datsun 200b's, while with us you cruise in your dream car....windows down...friends in the back...partner up front... singing yourselves to the next drive through. See you soon............... Darren xoxo"

Gigs aren't so frequent for Drag as we'd like this year mainly because of the time involved with Powderfinger but next year should be a bigger one in the aspect of Drag.........Gigs at the moment are 'spontaneous and fun......for everyone's enjoyment'

*RELEASES...... "Average rumble" lp release date unknown*
I have very little info on this one ......Jon Coghill is share drummer with Dave Atkins (Pangea, Resin Dogs) and Paddy Dempsey is the lead singer. Apparantly this band was formed for fun and have not played all that many gigs (if any). Darren was involved at the start but is now focusing on drag. Sorry guys.....I'll try and find some more info soon.....