Purple Jesus

My first true musical endeavour, Purple Jesus began as a tongue-in-cheek ode to Spinal Tap. The band members all had ridiculous stage names to compliment their faux Brit accents and stage performance. Initially designed as a studio only project, it featured Daryl Turd (me) on vocals, Reg Nully (Jeff Kraneyk) and Malcolm Redrum (Ian Blythin) on guitars, Tubby "Tubbs" McGee (Cameron Dempsey) on keyboards & bass, and Kooky Doo (John Matthews) on drums. When they decided to go "live", Ian and John resigned and were replaced by Stewie Navell (Darren Ward) on drums and Desmond "Buster" Hymen (Jeff Rosiana) on guitar. After nearly a year as the Tap-esque rockers, the band dropped their stage names and comic rock for more serious alternative style music in the veins of Jane's Addiction and Pearl Jam. By this time, Cameron had left the band and had been replaced on bass by Jeffrey Jones (who briefly used the stage name Lenny Winthorp). All original music fuelled this band to great acclaim but internal factors lead to its demise in 1994 (following a failed attempt to relocate to Halifax, Nova Scotia under the new name Her Idiot Sister). Jeff Rosiana and Darren Ward have since moved on to new projects: Jeff Rosiana is now a part of the successful Canadian indie band Reason Disappears and Darren Ward was recently behind the drums for the band Vegalite.