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Crazyhead are an English garage punk music group from Leicester, England. Though lumped in with the largely media-created grebo scene, they were more influenced by the garage rock of the late 1960s, as well as bands like the Ramones, The Stooges and Captain Beefheart. They have often described themselves as an "urban bastard blues band", and their songs range in theme from trenchant social commentary to the surreal, but always with an underlying vein of black humour.
Previous band members:
They have occasionally been joined by:
The brass section on "Rags" was The Phantom Horns:
In mid-1988, their third single "Time Has Taken Its Toll on You" reached No. 65 in the UK Singles Chart, their label now owned by EMI. The band embarked on another UK tour to promote their début album Desert Orchid, released in October 1988, along with another single, "Rags", and then toured Europe supporting Iggy Pop. They then released the Have Love, Will Travel EP (which reached #68) before embarking on yet another UK tour.
In 1989, they made two brief tours of the United States, and appeared at the Reading Festival. At the behest of the British Council, they played an international music festival in Moscow, and in early 1990, along with Skin Games and Jesus Jones they became one of the first western bands to tour post-Nicolae Ceauşescu Romania. Later that year they played at the Independence Day concert to an audience of 50,000.
The band were dropped by Food Records in 1989, and their second album Some Kind of Fever was released by Revolver Records. In 1992 they gigged across Europe, and in 1993 embarked on a tour of the UK to promote an album of , Live in Memphis, even though the deal to release it fell through.
Over the next few years, Crazyhead made sporadic live appearances. In 1997, they released Fucked By Rock – a collection of previously unreleased material, demo versions, and live tracks, and an EP of new material, 13th Floor. They again toured the UK, supporting The Mission on a number of UK dates. They started recording material for a new album, but the departure of Anderson to work in Thailand and Cambodia (where he continued to perform, in bands such as the Lazy Jazz Drunks and Stiff Little Punks) meant the end of Crazyhead. They played a farewell gig in Leicester on 21 December 2000.
Kev Reverb and Vom went on to play in an alternative rock band called Scaley Fuego, based in Leicester. This three-piece band was fronted by singer/bassist Stewart Brackley.
In 2013, Porkbeast, Vom and Anderson joined Robber Byker from Gaye Bykers on Acid to form a new band called Swamp Delta. They subsequently released a number of singles and played at the Bearded Theory and Rebellion festivals during the summer of 2014. A tour of venues across the UK followed in the summer of 2015. Ian Anderson went on to front The Scavengers – a punk/rockabilly influenced band, based in Brighton.
Crazyhead reformed in 2017 for a series of autumn shows throughout the UK. They played at the Indie Daze 4 festival in October 2017, with further shows taking place during 2018: at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, London on 4 May; at the Uprising Festival in Leicester on 26 May; and at the Bearded Theory Festival (main stage) on 27 May.
Due to the retirement abroad of guitarist Reverb, Crazyhead's final concert of the 2019 tour took place at Leicester's Donkey Bar on Friday 30 August.
Crazyhead reformed for the Mad Dog Went Insane Tour in 2023, playing Leicester, Leeds, Manchester, London and Nottingham venues.
| 1987 | "What Gives You The Idea That You're So Amazing, Baby?" | Food | FOOD 8 | 2 | |
| 1987 | "Baby Turpentine" | Food | FOOD 10 | 96 | 4 |
| 1988 | "Time Has Taken Its Toll on You" | Food | FOOD 12 | 65 | |
| 1988 | "Rags" | Food | FOOD 14 | 78 | |
| 1990 | "Everything’s Alright" | Revolver Records | REV 64 |
| 1989 | Have Love Will Travel | Food | Food 16 | 68 | |
| 1989 | The Food Christmas EP | Food | Food 23 | 63 | Shared release with Jesus Jones and Diesel Park West |
| 1998 | Chemical Lunch | Self-released CD-R of cover versions | |||
| 1999 | 13th Floor | Snatch Records | ATOG1 |
| 1988 | Desert Orchid | Food | LP1 | |
| 1990 | Some Kind of Fever | Revolver Records | REV 162 | |
| 1995 | 'Live in Memphis' | Unreleased covers album | ||
| 1995 | Grind | Bliss Out | BOE-003 | |
| 1999 | Fucked By Rock | Snatch Records | Gash 3 | Compilation of demos, unreleased tracks and new material |
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