Fruupp

History

The group was assembled by guitarist Vincent McCusker in early 1971 in Belfast, and consisted of primarily classically trained musicians Peter Farrelly (bass guitar and lead vocals), Stephen Houston (keyboards and oboe), and Martin Foye (drums and percussion). After two years of performing, they created a demo tape, and were signed by Pye Records for their underground music and progressive rock label Dawn Records. Between 1973 and 1975, the group released four studio albums and three singles. Despite having played hundreds of concerts in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe during that time, no live output had yet been released. A concert at the Friars Aylesbury club played on 6 December 1975 was recorded using a mobile unit for a possible album Live at Friars Aylesbury, but after some time the master tapes were completely destroyed by fire in a flat the musicians shared in Peckham, London.

In January 1975, Stephen Houston left the band and became a Christian clergyman. He was replaced by John Mason, with whom Fruupp recorded their last album, Modern Masquerades (1975), produced by multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, best known as a founder of King Crimson and Foreigner. Although the band was working on the fifh album Doctor Wilde's Twilight Adventure in 1976, pure record sales along with the advent of the punk/new wave movement caused Fruupp to break up in the end of the year.

Personnel

Studio albums

Compilations

Singles