Full Scale Revolution
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Full Scale Revolution

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The latest version of the name – Full Scale Revolution – is a necessity of sorts, but there’s also a kind of poetic justice to it. “That’s just a legal wrangling,” singer Ezekiel Ox says. “It seems to suit the brand. Full Scale Deflection became Full Scale, which became Full Scale Revolution. When we had our extremely ill-fated record deal in the States [see the documentary Colour, Light, Movement, Sound! for an inside look at this particularly tumultuous period in the life of the band], part of the wrap-up was that we got sued by a music company called Full Scale Music. A very United States story. We couldn’t use the name Full Scale or the old logo. We’re still playing Full Scale Deflection songs written in 1998. There’s one song we wrote in 2010 called “High On The Feeling” which we’ve played a couple of times and will be bringing out. But the bulk of the material will be the Full Scale stuff.”

The band reunited in 2010 and the Creepshow set will be performed by that line-up – Ox, Matt Crute, Tristan Ross and Ben Brennan – to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease. “It affects one of the members of our band quite deeply through a family member and there’s still no cure,” Ox says. “Full Scale is one big family, of which I’m the patriarch, so when one of us is in need we pitch in and put a line-up together. This was an opportunity to do something nice for the family.” Anyone who has spent any time around Ox in person or at a Full Scale show knows he’s an incredibly creative guy with a background in musical theatre, opera, political activism and spoken word. So you can expect him to come up with something pretty special to wear on stage for an event like Creepshow. But Ox is keeping mum on exactly what he’ll be doing. “No hints!” Upon further problem he offers only “It’s going to lampoon someone. That’s it.”

So that’s Full Scale Revolution as it stands for now, and it’s awesome to have them back. But the future holds something slightly different for the band, with a surprising collaborator that many will know well. “Melbourne audiences should know Electric Mary,” Ox says. “Since Irwin Thomas left there’s been a guitarist called Glenn Proudfoot playing for them, and I’ve been working on new Full Scale songs with him.” Proudfoot is well-known to guitar fans for his lesson videos for Guitar World magazine, as well as for his musical flexibility honed during years on the covers circuit, and for generally being a great showman. All of these personality traits are not lost on Ox. “There’s a quality of musician that I expect to work with at this stage of my career, and Glenn is certain at that level,” he says. “I’ve been working on songs with him because the band, in the line-up it had when it came back in 2010, wasn’t set up in the right way to move it forward.” So the band will continue after Creepshow with a different line-up featuring Proudfoot, although Ox says it will take some years to get the band to the point where it’s ready to release a new album. There are conversations happening with Lucius Borich of Cog and F L O A T I N G M E fame – not to mention Ezekiel Ox and the Fury – to play drums when that time comes. “I think one of the strongest points of the Full Scale was the almost-ballad melodic stuff, but you’ve really got to be alive to who you’re working with and a player of Glenn’s technicality is quite interesting. So I really don’t know what form it’s going to take.”

But for now Ox’s mind is on the Creepshow festival, which will be the last chance for fans to see the band in its current incarnation. “I’m just really looking forward to Creepshow,” he says. “I think it’s going to be really fun and I can’t wait to see the costumes. Enjoy Full Scale while it’s in this form before it evolves again. I can’t wait to see what kind of a beast it’s going to become, and I hope that everyone is going to come with us on the journey.”