Faith No More

Recently reunited, Faith No More formed in 1982 with the name "Faith No Man" in San Fancisco, California, with it's original line-up consisting of Mike "The Man" Morris on Vocals and Guitar, Billy Gould on Bass, Wade Worthington - Keyboard, Mike Bordin - Drums. When the band decided to fire Morris due to his dictator-like behavior, they renamed themselves Faith No More, seeing as how "The Man" was no longer present in the group.

The band ended up playing with Mark Bowen for a very short period before he was replaced with Jim Martin. A number of singers were tried, including a six-month stint by Courtney Love, who was fired after only four gigs. Eventually, Chuck Mosely was hired as the band's vocalist. Their self-financed debut "We Care a Lot came" in 1985 on Mordam Records in the US, which led to a deal with Slash Records. Introduce Yourself was released in 1987, and the single "We Care a Lot" saw minor success on MTV. During this period, the band gained a reputation for serious infighting and friction. There were frequent rumours of physical confrontations between band members. Indeed, in a short history of the band in one issue, the British music newspaper Melody Maker observed that the band's internal relationships had descended into "pathological hatred". Bordin in particular seemed to be very much the "whipping boy" of the band and the butt of numerous cruel pranks and practical jokes.

Mosely was fired in 1988 due to his erratic behavior during sessions and at shows and the release party for the album "Introduce Yourself". He was replaced with singer Mike Patton. Patton, who was singing with his high school band, "Mr. Bungle", was recruited at Martin's suggestion after he heard a demo of Mr. Bungle's long-over death metal days. Patton dropped out of Humboldt State University to join Faith No More, and in two weeks, had written all the lyrics for the songs that would make up the Grammy award-nominated The "Real Thing". In 1990, the band went on a extensive US tour, sending The Real Thing to Platinum status in Canada, the US, and South America. The album also had big sales numbers in Australia, UK, and the rest of Europe, pushing the total sales well above 4.0 million worldwide. In 1991, the band contributed what is probably the most popular track from the motion picture soundtrack to "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" with the song "The Perfect Crime". Jim Martin also made a brief cameo in the film as "Sir James Martin" and head of the "Faith No More Community".

Faith No More displayed an even more experimental effort on their next album, Angel Dust. One critic writes that the album is "one of the more complex and simply confounding records ever released by a major label" and another writes that the single "A Small Victory", which seems to run Madame Butterfly through Metallica and Nile Rodgers … reveals a developing facility for combining unlikely elements into startlingly original concoctions."

1995's "King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime" was a less experimental album, nevertheless varying in styles and moods from heavy and slow to jazzy. In the U.S., the album failed to get any sort of mainstream following, slipping out of the charts quickly. The record did manage to go Gold in some countries like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands and Germany, which gave the album a respectable sales figure of around 1.5 million. However, this was significantly less than their previous albums, and the band accordingly decided to cut their world tour short by 4 months. "Album Of The Year" was released in 1997 and featured yet another new guitarist, Jon Hudson, who was a former room mate of Billy Gould. The album debuted much higher than expected in some countries (for example, in Germany, the album debuted at #2 and stayed in the chart for 5 months). In Australia, "Album of the Year" went to #1 and was certified Platinum. The album charted In many countries in Europe.To date "Album Of The Year" has sold around 1.5 million worldwide.

In early 1998 the new flaring of break-up rumours on the Internet began which would eventually lead to the of Faith No More. Starting with a rumour posted to the Faith No More newsgroup faith-no-more claiming Mike Patton had quit the band in favor of side projects, this rumour, although denied at the time, proved to be at least partly true. The band cancelled their planned support tour for "Aerosmith" and on April 19, 1998 Billy Gould began spreading the following by email and fax:
“After 15 long and fruitful years, Faith No More have decided to put an end to speculation regarding their imminent break up... by breaking up. The decision among the members is mutual, and there will be no pointing of fingers, no naming of names, other than stating, for the record, that "Puffy started it". Furthermore, the split will now enable each member to pursue his individual project(s) unhindered. Lastly, and most importantly, the band would like to thank all of those fans and associates that have stuck with and supported the band throughout its history. ”

Faith No More played their last show in Lisbon, Portugal on April 7, 1998. When Mike Patton was questioned in 2008 by co-hosts of Fuse TV's "Talking Metal" if a Faith No More reunion was a possibility, Patton responded "I highly doubt it", but also stated in a January 2008 interview with Artisan News that he "wouldn't rule it out", adding "I don't think we would need to reform the band, but maybe there's other things we could do together."
After the dissolution of Faith No More, the members went on to numerous different projects such as Mike Patton going on to create his own record label, ipecac Records, returning to Mr. Bungle (who he played with in High School), formed Tomahawk and a range of other different bands, Mike Bordin regularly playsed with Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne and the other band members went on to other things also. Faith No More have been credited for influencing many of the nu metal bands such as Limp Bizkit, Korn, Linkin Park, among others. Bands at their time such as Metallica, Anthrax and Guns 'N Roses have picked Faith No More as one of their favorite bands. They were voted #52 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock"..

Faith No More reunited on February 24th, 2009, announcing they would be reforming for a European tour with a lineup identical to that at the time of their dissolution 11 years earlier.
On February 18th 2009, it was announced that Jim Martin would not be participating in the rumored Faith No More reunion tour. On February 24, 2009, Faith No More announced they would be reforming with a line-up identical to the "Album of the Year" era. A prior statement from Mike Patton's publicist suggests they will be touring Europe. On 2nd March 2009, it was confirmed that Faith No More would be headlining the Main Stage on 12th June at the Download Festival at Donington, England. They will also take part in the Hurricane and Southside festivals in Germany. On March 24th it was announced that they will also headline the Greenfield Festival in Switzerland, as well as Hove Festival in Norway and Kaisaniemi Festival in Helsinki, Finland.

To coincide with the band's reunion tour, Rhino will release the sixth Faith No More compilation, titled "The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection", a double album that includes their hit singles and b sides & rarities, in the UK on June 8th, 2009. According to Killyourstereo.com, it is a possibility that Faith No More might be gearing up for a new studio album in the near future, although no release date has been set and it is unknown which label will handle it.

Some parts of this article were taken from Wikipedia.org

Mike Patton - Vocalist 1988 - 93

Roddy Bottum - Keyboard

Billy Gould - Bassist

Jon Hudson - Guitarist (1997-98)

Mike Bordin - Drums