Ian Stephen
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Ian Stephen born in Armadale, Victoria, is a Melbourne musician, who in 1984 together with bass player Mark Ferrie, guitarist Terry Doolan, guitarist Andrew Pendlebury and drummer Des Hefner become collectively known as known as the Slaughtermen a mid eighties post-punk Southern gospel group, albiet 12,000 miles away from their original source of inspiration, America's Deep South, Bible Belt. Prior to the Slaughtermen, Ian's checkered career included The Armchairs, a satirical four piece outfit co-founded with Johnny Topper which had its debut in 1979 at the infamous Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda. Other members included guitarist Pierre Jaquinot, Andrew Snow, drums, and Fred Cass, bass. Later incarnations featured Rod Haywood, guitar, and Sue Parncutt, bass. The Armchairs released a 7 inch Ep, Ski Lo Lo, and a 12" album, Party Time, with the entire B side taken up by a 20 minute version of La Bamba. The Armchairs, later with the help of Stephen Cummings, who in the early eighties Ian had struck up a songwriting partnership with, morphed into the mildly successful, yet short lived 11 piece group, Go Wild in French, which featured songs of Elvis Presley, as well as original Ian Stephen and Stephen Cummings compositions. Fed up with the claustrophobic Melbourne scene, Ian moved to Sydney in 1989 and recorded a solo album with some members of The Danglin' Bros and others, entitled "Workin' on The Nightshift", which was released on Agape records through EMI. This was followed in 1996 by "King Of the Cross", released on the Massive label. A collection of original and Southern gospel songs, including a new version of "Jesus Saves White Trash", an Ian Stephen composition made popular by The Slaughtermen. In 1998 he recorded and self-released "Cementville", the title inspired after visiting the town of the same name while driving through Indiana enroute to Memphis, TN. in 1997. The album contained bleak and acerbic observations of Australian life. In 2000, Ian moved to San Francisco and continued recording and releasing a number of left of center albums. Since 2006 a compilation series, Eden vol 1 and Eden vol 2, featuring musical highlights from the past 25 years has been commercially available. In June 2006 Ian moved to Orange County, in upstate New York recorded and released a new CD, Singing Is A Hobby And A Waste of Time, which featured right of center musical content such as "Cuntry Music Makes Me Puke", "U Two Suck On Wheels" and "You're A Fucking Genius" under a musical banner described as Psychedelic existential urban alternative rock. In 2006 Ian, together with fellow Melbournian Keith Glass, Alabamian Betty Breslin and Queenslander Sharon De Milo, as the Suicide Doors, released a 12 track CD, Blue Ribbon Hell. The result, "a Southern Gothic saga summoning up slices of Erskine Caldwell, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Henry Lawson and Barry Humphries". In Dec 2006 at Federal Hall in New York City Ian became a US citizen.
website http://www.jesussaveswhitetrash.com
Ian Stephen
