Formed in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, in 1989 by James Atkin (b. 28 March 1969, Cinderford, Gloucestershire, England; vocals), Ian Dench (b. 7 August 1964, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England; guitar/keyboards), Derry Brownson (b. 10 November 1970, Gloucester, England; keyboards/samples), Zac Foley (b. Zachary Foley, 9 December 1970, Gloucester, England, d. 3 January 2002, London, England; bass), Mark Decloedt (b. 26 June 1969, Gloucester, England; drums), and Milf (DJ). All had previously been in local indie bands, with Dench in Apple Mosaic and Foley in the IUC’s. The band claimed that EMF stood for Epsom Mad Funkers or, more controversially, and more attractive to the gutter press, Ecstasy Mother Fuckers. Parlophone Records countered that it stood for Every Mother’s Favourites, which is hard to believe, given the band’s notorious touring antics. Their record company signed them after just four gigs and without the advance warning of a demo. However, their opportunism was rewarded when the debut single ‘Unbelievable’ became a Top 5 UK hit. The follow-up, ‘I Believe’, was criticized in many quarters for being a straight rewrite, while many were also suggesting that the band had stolen Jesus Jones’ pop/sample thunder. However, their ability to win over the teen-pop market was proved by debut album sales of over two million.
Together with the aforementioned Jesus Jones, the band proved particularly successful in breaking into the USA, where they were bracketed as part of a new ‘British Invasion’. The band ran into some trouble with Yoko Ono over ‘Lies’, where a sample of the voice of John Lennon’s killer Mark Chapman reciting Lennon’s lyric for ‘Watching The Wheels’ from his prison cell resulted in an out of court settlement of $15, 000 and a retraction of the offending voice from subsequent pressings. Other samples proved less controversial, and included Radio 3 announcers and Kermit The Frog. Stigma disappointed, with sales less than one fifth of the debut, a fact blamed by chief songwriter Dench on an over-demanding schedule and tabloid controversy: ‘It was a self-conscious record and deliberately anti-commercial. At least we got everything out of our system.’ Their label encouraged the band to spend their time getting new material right, leading to a three-year gap between 1992’s Unexplained EP and 1995’s Cha Cha Cha. Band suggestions for producer included Jim Foetus and Butch Vig, but these were eventually rejected in favour of Johnny Dollar, who had previously worked with Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry. Dollar, however, walked out of the sessions, and the resulting album failed to sell. The band did return to the charts when they teamed up with comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer on a cover of the Monkees’ ‘I’m A Believer’, but having been dropped by Parlophone they decided to split up. Brownson and Atkin both went on to play with Bentley Rhythm Ace before forming LK and Cooler respectively. Foley toured with Carrie, Dench recorded with acoustic outfit Whistler, and Milf released singles as Jose Sanchez for Skint Records. The unit re-formed for some gigs in 2001, but the following January Foley died after collapsing in Camden, London. Substantial traces of heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy were found in his body.
