End of Fashion
End of Fashion are an Australian pop rock band from Perth, Western Australia. In January 2014, the band took a hiatus, with former lead singer and guitarist Justin Burford explaining in a Facebook post: "Triple J ended the career path of End Of Fashion, no question." The group gained mainstream attention with its 2005 single, "O Yeah", that was voted into eighth position of the "Hottest 100" poll, compiled by Australian youth radio station, Triple J. The group has released three studio albums. The band performed their first show since their long-term hiatus on 22 September 2018 at the Indian Ocean Hotel in Scarborough.
History
Formation
The band was originally formed as a side-project by guitarists Burford and Rodney Aravena, together with drummer Malcolm Clark and bassist Jonathon Dudman. After two years, Burford and Aravena split from The Sleepy Jackson to devote their full attention to a band they named "End of Fashion". After a series of bass players and drummers—including Vanessa Thornton from Jebediah, Mike Hobbs, Hugh Jennings from Autopilot, and Nicholas Jonsson—the band settled on the line-up of Hobbs as drummer and Tom King as bass guitarist. The band name also represented the band's modus operandi, as Burford explained:
I want to break down the walls – within that context, that image, we can do anything we want no matter whether it's super cheesy or punk, I want to kill fashion, see the end of it.
In 2003, the band started work on its first recording, the four-track EP, Rough Diamonds, with former Midnight Oil guitarist, Jim Moginie, as producer. The EP was jointly released through independent label Hello Cleveland! and major label EMI.
Triple J added both singles, "Anything Goes" and "Rough Diamonds", to high rotation in the first week of the EP's release, and the band then performed sold-out shows during a five-week national tour in support of Little Birdy and Betchadupa. The EP was released in March 2004 and debuted at number 57 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart and reached number 81 on Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2004. The band signed to EMI/Capitol Australia for overseas licensing options in early 2004, before playing SXSW.
Debut album
On 25 August 2005, End of Fashion released their self-titled debut album, which was recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, US and was produced by Dennis Herring, who had previously worked with Elvis Costello, Counting Crows and Modest Mouse. The album peaked at number 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified gold in Australia and New Zealand, and was released in the United States in May 2006.The band's first single, "O Yeah", reached number 21 on the ARIA Singles Chart, number 8 on Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2005, won two ARIA Music Awards and was nominated for the prestigious APRA 'Song of the Year'. The fourth single "The Game" debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at a career high number 13 in 2006.
Their songs have been on the games Thrillville, ATV Offroad Fury 4, and FIFA Street 2. "The Game" was featured as the theme song for the television coverage of the 2007 NRL season on the Nine Network.
Second album
On 15 December 2007, End of Fashion released a new song "Biscit" on the band's official website, Facebook and MySpace pages. In May 2008, the band confirmed on their website that their second album, titled Book of Lies, would be released in September 2008. While End of Fashion released a further two new songs, "Kamikaze" and "Walkaway", on their MySpace page on 27 June 2008, the first single to be released from the album was "Fussy", which reached number 47 in the charts.In an interview with Time Out Sydney in February 2009, Burford revealed that Simon Fasolo had replaced Tom King as the band's bassist. "He's been a really good friend of ours for years and he's been brought into the fold to take Tom's spot who we encouraged to go pursue his own project. "
The second single released from the album was "Dying for You", a collaboration between Burford and Julian Hamilton of The Presets:
The third single "Down or Down" was released digitally in March 2009 and received radio coverage. During their 2009 Australian tour in support of Evermore, Burford announced that "Force of Habit" would be the fourth single taken from Book of Lies.
Third album
End of Fashion's third studio album Holiday Trip of a Lifetime was released on 4 May 2012. The album was independently produced and released, with the band writing the album over the period of one year. However, the band members parted ways following the album's release, and Burford's focus shifted towards acting and solo music work. Burford attracted media attention in January 2014 when he identified Triple J as the primary reason for the band's demise, explaining: "'The question becomes, when your entire fan base is tied up in a radio station and that station decides to no longer broadcast your output or even barely acknowledge your existence, where do you go from there?'" Burford's perspective, initially published in a Facebook post, followed criticism of the radio station from other musicians and an article published by the Age newspaper, in which the journalist addressed the issue of whether Triple J has led to the "homogenisation of Australian music". In an interview in 2013 Burford stated that the band hadn't broken up but was in hiatus, "We've never had the chat where we have said 'Let's call it a day', It's just that everybody has fallen into other rhythms of life."Side projects
Burford joined the cast of the rock musical, Rock of Ages, in 2010, following a meeting with producers in New York City, United States. Burford played the lead role of Drew Boley. Rock of Ages ran from 8 April to 4 December 2011, and played in Melbourne and Brisbane. Burford was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Musical at the 2012 Helpmann Awards.Burford also appeared in several episodes of the music-based game show "Spicks and Specks", at the time hosted by Adam Hills for the ABC including:
- Episode 22, series 2, air date 12 July 2006
- Episode 14, series 7, air date 10 August 2011
Burford appeared with Perth Symphony Orchestra on 25 September 2013 for Vivaldi by Candlelight at the heritage listed Wesley Church in Western Australia. He later performed with Perth Symphony Orchestra at Symphony By The Lake on 8 March 2014.
In 2014 Aravena formed a blues duo, She Leaves the Mountain, with vocalist Dimity Magnus.
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | AUS chart peak | Certifications |
| 2005 | End of Fashion
| 3 | Gold |
| 2008 | Book of Lies | 26 | — |
| 2012 | Holiday Trip of a Lifetime | — | — |
Extended plays
Singles
Music videos
| Year | Single | Album | Director |
| 2003 | "Anything Goes" | Anything Goes | Matt Lovekis |
| 2004 | "Rough Diamonds" | Rough Diamonds | |
| 2004 | "Too Careful" | Too Careful | Adam Howden |
| 2005 | "O Yeah" | End of Fashion | Ben Quinn |
| 2005 | "Lock Up Your Daughters" | End of Fashion | |
| 2006 | "She's Love" | End of Fashion | Michael Spiccia |
| 2006 | "The Game" | End of Fashion | Tom Spark |
| 2008 | "Fussy" | Book of Lies | Natasha Pincus |
| 2008 | "Kamikaze" | Book of Lies | Natasha Pincus |
| 2008 | "Dying for You" | Book of Lies | Steve McCallum |
Appears on
- Kiss My WAMi 2006 – "Too Careful"
- Triple J Hottest 100 Vol.13 – "O Yeah"
Awards and nominations
- 2005 ARIA Awards – Breakthrough Artist - Single for "O Yeah"
- 2005 ARIA Awards – Best Video for Ben Quinn as director of "O Yeah"
- 2006 WAMi Awards – Most Popular Music Video for "O Yeah"
- 2009 WA Screen Award – Best Video for "Dying for You"
- 2006 MTV Australia Video Music Awards – Spankin' New Aussie Artist
- 2006 The Jack Awards – Best Live Band
- 2006 APRA Song of the Year – "O Yeah"
- 2006 WAMi Awards – Best Rock Act
- 2006 WAMi Awards – Best Male Vocalist for Justin Burford
- 2006 WAMi Awards – Most Popular Single/EP for "O Yeah"
- 2006 WAMi Awards – Most Popular Album for End of Fashion
- 2006 WAMi Awards – Best Commercial Pop Act