Fat White Family

Fat White Family are an English rock band, formed in 2011 in Peckham, South London.

History
The band, fronted by Southampton-born and Castlegar/Ayr/Cookstown-raised Lias Kaci Saoudi, formed in 2011. Lead guitarist Saul Adamczewski was previously the frontman of indie pop band the Metros, which also featured Fat White Family's bass player, Joe Pancucci. Nathan Saoudi previously played guitar with his older brother Lias in their former group, The Saoudis before becoming the keys player of Fat White Family. Adam Harmer (guitarist) had been a solo artist before joining the original six-piece lineup which also featured Dan Lyons on drums.

They released their debut album, Champagne Holocaust, in 2013, on UK label Trashmouth Records. It was released in 2014 in the U.S. on Fat Possum Records. The band released Fat Whites/Taman Shud, a split EP with Taman Shud, on 11 December 2013 on Trashmouth.

On 10 March 2014, Fat White Family issued their first single, "Touch the Leather", on Hate Hate Hate Records.

In early 2014, the band launched a PledgeMusic campaign to fund their show at the South by Southwest festival, with a subsequent US tour. Pledgers were given the self-released EP Crippled B-Sides and Inconsequential Rarities. Next was the single "I Am Mark E Smith" (referencing singer Mark E. Smith of the Fall), released on 15 December 2014.

Their second album, Songs for Our Mothers, was released in 2016 by the Without Consent label. Lias Saoudi described the album as an attempt to "really to get at the shittiness lurking in the core of my own soul, and in everybody else's". It was promoted with a single for "Whitest Boy on the Beach", which was later chosen for the closing credits of the 2017 film T2 Trainspotting.

Fat White Family's next single, "Breaking Into Aldi", was released on 16 August 2016. The single was recorded with Sean Lennon, as well as Cole Alexander from The Black Lips.

On 9 January 2019, Fat White Family announced that their third album, Serfs Up!, would be released on 19 April 2019 on Domino Records. This was followed by the singles "Feet" and "Tastes Good with the Money", the latter featuring spoken lyrics by Baxter Dury, and a video directed by Róisín Murphy. The album was described as "triumphant" and "transcendent" by Adelle Stripe in The Quietus, and The Irish Times said it "feels like a pop album you might slap on as the world is about to end or you’ve just learned Brexit has been pushed back to 2020".

In 2022, a biography of the band – Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure – was released, co-written by Lias Saoudi and Adelle Stripe. Writing in The Observer, Miranda Sawyer described it as "the story of a band that's always on the brink: of stardom, of madness, of brilliance, of disgrace". It was shortlisted for the 2023 Penderyn Music Book Prize.

On 26 April 2024, the band released their fourth album Forgiveness Is Yours.

Other projects
In 2014, the post-punk and disco group Warmduscher formed and both Saoudi brothers and Adamczewski are on-and-off collaborators in the studio and at live sets. Other Fat White Family members with a more consistent role in Warmduscher are Harmer, Everett and Romans-Hopcraft.

In 2015, Adamczewski and Lias Saoudi collaborated with Adrian Flanagan and Dean Honer of experimental band Eccentronic Research Council on their album Johnny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine... I'm Your Biggest Fan. After its release, the partnership took concepts from the album to form a new band called the Moonlandingz. The act ended up touring together, as well as working with Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Philip Oakey, Randy Jones and Slow Club frontwoman Rebecca Taylor, resulting in the 2017 release of their debut album, Interplanetary Class Classics.

In January 2017, Adamczewski formed the band Insecure Men with Lennon (guitar), Ben Romans-Hopcraft (bass), Jack Everett (drums), Jon Catfish de Lorene (keyboards) and Alex White (saxophone). Lennon co-produced their eponymous debut album, released in February 2018.

Lias Saoudi is a member of Decius alongside Liam and Luke May (founders of Trashmouth Records) and Quinn Whalley (Paranoid London/Warmduscher). The group released their debut full-length album Decius Vol. I on The Leaf Label in November 2022.

Members
Current members
 * Lias Kaci Saoudi – lead vocals
 * Nathan Saoudi – keyboards
 * Adam J. Harmer – guitar
 * Adam Brennan – bass
 * Alex White – saxophone
 * Sam Toms – drums

Former members
 * Saul Adamczewski – guitar, vocals
 * Ciaran Hartnett – bass
 * Jack Everett – drums
 * Joseph Pancucci-Simpson – bass
 * Dan Lyons – drums
 * Jak Payne – bass
 * Taishi Nagasaka – bass
 * Severin Black – drums

Temporary members
 * Chris O.C – drums
 * Dale Barclay – guitar (d. 2018)
 * Martin Dean – drums
 * Mike Brandon – guitar
 * Mairead O'Connor – guitar, bass
 * Chris Taylor – guitar
 * Rob Doyle – bongos

Studio albums

 * Champagne Holocaust (Trashmouth/Fat Possum, 2013)
 * Songs for Our Mothers (Without Consent/Fat Possum, 2016)
 * Serfs Up! (Domino, 2019)
 * Forgiveness Is Yours (Domino, 2024)

EPs

 * Fat Whites/Taman Shud (Trashmouth, 2013)
 * Crippled B-Sides and Inconsequential Rarities (self-released, 2014)

Singles

 * "Touch the Leather" (Hate Hate Hate, 2014)
 * "I Am Mark E Smith" (Without Consent, 2014)
 * "Whitest Boy on the Beach" (Without Consent, 2016)
 * "Breaking Into Aldi" (Without Consent, 2016)
 * "Feet" (Domino, 2019)
 * "Tastes Good With The Money" (Domino, 2019)
 * "When I Leave" (Domino, 2019)
 * "Religion for One" (Domino, 2024)
 * "Bullet of Dignity" (Domino, 2024)
 * "What's that You Say?" (2024)