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the drunk and the legless

the drunk and the legless were an Australian rock band formed in 2001 at the Cooper's Arms Hotel in Newtown, Sydney. Ranging from 1 to 5 band members, the drunk and the legless were active up until their EP launch/last ever concert in 2005, but have appeared in sporadic reunion performances since.

The founding members were las e. dog (vocals/guitars), Patch (bass), Sull Sullivan (drums/backing vocals) and Muzz Musgrave (guitar/backing vocals), but Disco Dave (keyboards/guitars/backing vocals) would also occasionally perform with the group.

Sull Sullivan, Patch and las e. dog went to music college together and while there, for an assignment las e. dog wrote a theme for a soap opera titled The Drunk & The Legless (a nod to The Young & The Restless). One night at The Coopers Arms Hotel in Newtown, Sydney, the three friends joked about forming a band using "the drunk and the legless" as their band name. As well as going to college together, the three also worked together and spent most of their time together coming up with song ideas and band mythology.

In 2001, the three friends got on a train to Wollongong where they were travelling to mutual friend Muzz Musgrave's house for his 21st birthday party. While on the train, las e. dog wrote lyrics for Muzz as a birthday present for a song entitled "Lovely Mother"

Not long after, Muzz informed the others that he had booked their first gig at his friend Sparky's 21st birthday and that also he (Muzz) would like to play guitar in the band. It was three weeks until the gig and the four members desperately tried to pull a set list together. Seven original songs were written for the party. For two of the songs ("Lovely Mother" and "Picture Tent") it was the first and last time that they were ever played live. The rest of the set was made up of covers, El Scorcho by Weezer, Happy Birthday, Land Down Under by Men At Work and Frenzal Rhomb's cover of the Home and Away theme song.

the drunk and the legless self-produced an EP called Soberly Challenged.

Once the EP was sent to local bookers, the drunk and the legless went on to play many shows around Sydney.

the drunk and the legless were booked by The Excelsior Hotel in Surrey Hills and for the first time ever the venue was sold out for a Wednesday night. From here on the band and venue had a very close relationship.

In the meantime the drunk and the legless compiled all of their home demos onto a CD entitled "a bunch of slongs in alfabetical order" (spelt incorrectly as a pun to 80's TV alien ALF who featured on the cover). This CD was very popular around the CD and contained many experimental songs that would never be heard live.

the drunk and the legless played in the University of Wollongong band competition and despite a rousing reception were disqualified because las e. dog jumped into the drumkit at the end of their set.

On the 5th October 2002 at Thurles Castle in Chippendale where they support Australian favourite SPOD. A night of many firsts, this would be the first time that keyboardist/guitarist Disco Dave would play with the drunk and the legless, the first time that the song "Wobbely Slong Road" would be played live and the first time that friend "Thomas The Tank Engineer" would do live sound for the band, after the house sound engineer disappeared.

Amongst gigs and work, the drunk and the legless worked on their next recorded work with local producer Scott Macrae, but the members of the band were rarely in the studio at the same time during recording, so the recordings sounded very little like the band did live.

In 2004 the drunk and the legless supported New Zealand band Evermore at The Cat & Fiddle in Balmain. After the drunk and the legless finished their set Dann Hume said to las e. dog "I lilke your stuff" and las e. dog said "I like your stuff too". Unaware of how much Evermore were being played on Australian radio, Dann said "We haven't played yet" and las e. dog said "yeah I mean on the radio and shit!".

In early 2005, the drunk and the legless had a gig booked, but at the last minute Sull Sullivan and Patch couldn't make it. Rather than cancel, las e. dog called long time friend and musical collaborator Pipe Wilkins and the pair played using a drum machine, as "The Australian Drunk And The Legless show". This was the only time that songs "Irrelevant Elephants" and "Differ Stiffer" have been played live.

In 2005, three of the hand's members (Patch, las e. dog and Sull Sullivan) decided to move to London. They played a "last ever" concert at the Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills which also doubled as the launch of their long awaited EP "thou donk in my legsets". There were three unplanned encores and the band went on to play nearly every some written, including many they didn't know how to play anymore.

Once in London las e. dog, Sull Sullivan and Patch thought little of performing, however when Patch and las e. dog attended the Wireless Festival in 2005, an opportunity for an impromptu performance arose and the pair played Gaybar for the crowd. Later that year las e. dog and Patch visited Ireland, whilst in Killarney at a session they were pressed to play some songs and delighted the pub with Bourbon 4 Breakfast, Mr Wang's Nailgun and an improvised song that they announced as "The Irish Breakfast Song".

Patch went back to Australia and no-one saw the drunk and the legless until 2006 when Sull Sullivan and las e. dog played as a duo formation of the band at The Swan in Brixton. As well as crowd favourites "Famous As" and "Have You Been Drinking Today", the duo also treated the crowd to Elvis Presley's Heatbreak Hotel and Beyoncé's Check Up On It. Not long after Sull Sullivan returned to Australia. In 2009 las e. dog joined Sull back to Sydney.

In 2010 the drunk and the legless reformed for a reunion/last ever concert at The Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills. The line-up featured all 5 members and was the last time that the 5 piece band has since been seen together.

Having been seen at the Excelsior Hotel, the drunk and the legless were booked to play another show in Tempe, Sydney. This time as a four piece with Muzz not taking part. The drunk and legless were booked for an additional show after being seen in Tempe and played in Bathurst as a four piece without Muzz. The band frequently made reference to parallels to Australia's John Farnham and his inability to play a last ever show and played an iconic cover of Shania Twain's Man! I Feel Like A Woman!

In 2017 Patch got married, which prompted Muzz and las e. dog to re-record the drunk and the legless classic "Love Slong" on vinyl on a compilation called "that's the grease! that's the ticket!". The compilation also contained live tracks from their 2010 reunion concert and remastered tracks from "thou donk in my legsets".

No-one has heard from the band ever since but their Spotify bio makes it pretty clear there will be no more live performances or recordings.