Fruit Eating Bears

The Fruit Eating Bears came from the Croydon area and were originally known as The Bicycles Turds before highjacking the name of a little known 60’s beat group, whose drummer Kenny Mundye was the band’s original drummer before Chris Crash joined.

Both the band’s singles were produced by Vic Maile, Chevy Heavy’ / ‘Fifties Cowboy (Lightning, 1978) is the weaker single and was originally to have come out on Raw Records on green vinyl, but Lee Wood hated it and passed it on to Lightning. “…but not before they’d put us in a photo shoot laying flat out completely covered in fruit!…and I mean covered, except our heads.” Chris Penhale

Both sides of the follow-up Door In My Face/Going Thru The Motions (DJM, 1978) is much better though still basic pub rock’n’roll. Their publishers Jackson Music bizarrely entered Door In My Face in ‘A Song For Europe’, the UK heat for ‘The Eurovision Song Contest’. The ‘Fruit Eating Bears performed the track on national TV, introduced by Terry Wogan. Unfortunately they finished joint 11th (out of 12). Terry Wogan, in this first encroachment of punk into Eurovision, described the band as “gentle creatures despite their fierce appearance”

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Above article courtesy of James Denholm

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