My Drug Hell

After a brief stint in the band Chelsea, Tim Briffa formed the Atomic Vicars with Paul Donnelly on bass and Chris Argyrou on drums. They released one 7" single[1] after which Argyrou left to be replaced by Joe Bultitude and soon after they changed their name to My Drug Hell (a reference to an over-used tabloid headline.)

Debut single "Girl at the Bus Stop" was released in the UK by Diversity where it spent several weeks in the Melody Maker/NME independent charts, becoming Single Of the Week on Radio 1's Evening Session and several shows on XFM and GLR. In Australia it was released through TWA Records making Triple J's Hot Hundred for 1997 and in the US via Countdown/Unity where it spent over three months in the college charts and was Number 1 Most Requested on every commercial station to play it, including a record ten week run on WHTG in New Jersey. The song was later used in a Miller Genuine Draft Beer commercial and two feature films Origin Of the Species[2] and Black Circle Boys.[3] The accompanying video also won a Best Video vote on MTV's Alternative Option.

Two more UK singles followed ("2am", "You Were Right I was Wrong"), both making the Indie Top 10.

Their This is My Drug Hell LP was recorded at the all-analogue Toe Rag Studios, but was delayed due to a series of technical problems that included the loss of half the master mixes due to a faulty tape machine. Two weeks before its planned UK release Diversity went bust.

By this time the album had been released in the US and Australia where it received a series of good reviews and made the US Specialty Show Top 10. The album was eventually released in the UK through the band's own Voltone label along with a single of "Maybe We Could Fly" and a re-release of "Bus Stop", which was Single Of the Weekend on the Mark Goodier show on BBC Radio 1. By this point Bultitude had left, replaced by Raife Burchell (Ed Harcourt, The Lightning Seeds) followed about a year later by Donnelly who was replaced by Sebastian Hoog (Izia Higelin.) This second line-up gigged for around three years, before also breaking up. A third incarnation was put together with David Preston on bass and Sebastian Kellig on drums and their second album My Drug Hell 2[4] was released on Forthesakeofthesong with the single "Mysteries of Love". The song was used in British gangster film, The Crew, along with two other tracks from the album, "Nowhere Town" and "You Don't Need Me Today".[5]

The band have recently released their third album entitled The Good Times Are All Gone as well as a four language EP, Spider's Web. Following the departure of Sebastian Kellig and David Preston in early 2017, Briffa has put together a new line-up featuring Harry Stam (also of The Pacers) and Steve Jones. Tim Briffa has recently released a solo album of songs originally written while he was a schoolboy entitled I Was A Teenage Pop Star.

The band are strong supporters of vinyl and fully analogue recordings which they record in their own studio (Voltone International). As a protest against being asked to provide an extra track for a CD single release, Briffa recorded a 16 minute spoken word diatribe against CDs and digital technology entitled "Bonus Track No 9" which included a request for fans only to buy their releases on vinyl record in future.

Several My Drug Hell songs have been recorded by other artists including, "Don't Say Goodbye" (Lilys), "Girl at the Bus Stop" (Lida Husik, Kiesgroup, Mr Pink), "Garden Party" (Jason and The Prisms), "Simply Years Ahead", "Smear Campaign" (The Blofelds).

• Official website