New Wave Outpost Forum

I have "The Fanatic" album by Felony and was always wondering whatever became of them.Does anyone know? Thanks.

Jesus I feel like the bearer of bad news on these boards...

Felony was made up of two brothers (can't remember their names at the moment) and one of them (the main one in the band) died about 10 years ago.

After The Fanatic they released a second album called "The Vigilante" which had a really different sound than the power-pop new waveness of "The Fanatic". Vigilante was more AOR rock sounding - and though it got (serious) overplay on KROQ (like ranked #2 on their top 106.7 one year and then was promptly forgotten) - they never really had a second hit.

Now then, just so I don't get some weird complex about telling everyone that the obscure '80s artists have all died, the only others, off hand, that I know have shuffled off this mortal coil include:

Falco
Baltimora
Ebn or Ozn (not sure which, but one of them passed away)
Cee Farrow
Adrian Borland

I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that come to mind...

When the heck did Falco die?

Do you think that God finally punished him for one too many re-mixes of "Rock Me Amadeus"?

I believe that Falco was killed back in the early to mid 90's.And I had no idea of the demise of Felony's lead singer.What could he have possibly have died from at such a young age? Don't tell me that it was Aids related or something,that wouldn't really surprise me? I had no idea of a second album by them either,and thanks for letting me know.I knew about Ebn Ozn and Baltimora though.

Who is Adrian Borland? I know his name from somewhere,but just can't place his name with a face,sorry.

Adrian Borland was the lead singer/songwriter with The Sound. He also released several solo albums later after The Sound dissolved in the late 80's. He committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train about 3 years ago. Pretty sad ... he had a family and was just about to release a new album.

As for Falco, he died in a car accident about 5 years ago on some Caribbean island. Another sad way to go.

I could have sworn that I read that Falco was killed when a bus backed into his car?

Here's the info from the slightly twisted and morbid Fuller Up Dead Musician's directory:

http://elvispelvis.com/falco.htm

They have tons of info, news articles, etc. on--you guessed it--musicians' deaths.

Felony was Jeffrey Spry (lead singer) who shot himself a few years after The Vigilante was released. Joe Spry, his brother, who played lead guitar. Danny Sands on Keyboards, Doug played bass, Artie played drums on the first album for CBS/Scotti Brothers. The Fanantic is still available as part of the Valley Girl sound track album. It was re-released as a "dj" mix in the 1990's. They also did a dj mix of the Vigilante. Jeffrey's wife Lucrecia was in the MTV video for the Fanatic, she went on to get some hard rock action with an ASCAP current performance song entitled "No One Gets Out Alive."

The Fanatic is also available on Richard Blade's best of the 80's compliation.

Joe Spry is still doing music. Danny Sands was playing in Las Vegas and other places when last seen. Artie was playing with other bands in Los Angeles when last seen.

Jeffrey had a little girl and a stepson and he was a very cool person.

Almost forgot, one song off the Vigilante albums was in a recent horror movie, I think the one with Jamie Lee Curtis. Was that one of the Friday the 13th or something? It was one of those horror films with a Roman numeral that was released in the last 4 or 5 years.

Falco bit it in a car accident in Austria I believe.

I just realized I still have that Felony album stashed in my garage. I only bought it because of The Fanatic.

Edited by - froid on 07/07/2003 22:48:45

I hung out a bit with Joey Spry and the boys back when they used to live above a mortuary in the late 80's. The guy that owned the mortuary (I believe) was financing that current Felony operation. I'd also see Joey at the race track (horses) quite a bit. After the Vigilante EP, they recorded new tunes like "Hey Billy", "World Gone Wild" and others which were eventually scrapped. Shortly thereafter, Joey and Jeff weren't seeing eye to eye. They were recording their new album "In The Name of Rock N' Roll" and Joey wrote a song called "Love Junky" which Jeff thought was stupid (at least the lyrics). Joey decided to sing it himself. The result was an album that featured Joey singing half the tracks and Jeff on the other half. Joey didn't quite have the voice of Jeff and the album fizzled. I think I heard the title track (Joey's vocals) one time on KROQ. There were two eras of Felony's music that I wish I had. After the Fanatic album they had a slate of new songs for their never released second Scotti Bros album. Songs like "All the Kings Horses", "She's My Little Girl", etc were pretty damn good. The only song to be released after the Fanatic album on Scotti Bros was "Pied Piper" which was only a 7" single (and rec'd light KROQ play). After a while they canned all those proposed songs and started fresh with a new "rock" sound. They had some great melodic heavier stuff like "Time Bomb" and others. They then scrapped those (common theme) and recorded "Vigilante". As someone mentioned it was a KROQ hit although DJ's on the station always hinted that the ballots were stuffed to make it number #2 for the year. After that they recorded a song called "All of Us" which was trying to cash in on the We Are the World/Hand Across America feel good era of the time. The B-Side was a remix of Vigilante by Arthur Baker, a hot dance producer of the time. The rest is unfortunate history. I lost touch with Joey before Jeff passed away. The Fanatic CD was in print for awhile and is a must have. I would love to get a copy of the videos they did for Fanatic and Kristine. Man, all this seems like forever ago.....

IF ANYBODY KNOWS WHERE I CAN GET A CD OF FELONY " VIGILANTE " I WOULD APPRECIATE IT I DONT EVEN KNOW IF IT WAS RELEASED ON CD . THE FANATIC WAS BECAUSE I JUST PURCHASED IT . AND IT WAS'NT THAT HARD TO FIND . I FOUND IT ON GEMM MUSIC THEY HAVE THOUSANDS OF CDS AND THERE IS NO HASSLE ORDERING THEM . I DONT WORK FOR THEM BUT WHEN I FIND A GOOD PLACE THE BUY I LET THE PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED KNOW . THANKS MIKE
TEIKITALK1@ONEMAIN.COM

I was the sound engineer for Felony and my brother is Danny Sands (keys) What's up?????

I just bought their album off of eBay a few days ago. It's not here yet.

It will be at least two months before I have that on CD. I think I paid $12.00 for it and they do come up from time to time.

"I now inform you that you are too far from reality"