AMONG the broken guitars, demo tapes and shattered nerves Fathead's Deano and John have sat, waiting for the day when they would find a bass player as dedicated as they.

That day has come and Fathead, feisty pop punk ogres from Newport, are back.

"This is the return, again," said Deano, who drums. "We always get to a certain point that we are ready to go out and start doing some serious work and then the bass player either looses interest or disappears," said Deano.

"Now we have found Gareth (formerly of On Concrete), this is the final return of Fathead. You can just tell sometimes."

A Fathead is an idiot. The band calls themselves this after one of their songs, probably because we're all of a bit of an idiot when we're drunk and drinking and Fathead go together like bog and roll.

They have been playing for three years on and off although singer-songwriter John has previously worked in bands, such as, Naked Ape, Sweater and Armstrong.

Their poppy punk owes some to the Buzzcocks and the Foo Fighters and nothing to Green Day.

"There's nothing wrong with them, but we sound nothing like them," said Deano. "You can harp on about types of music 'til the cows come home (or not). You've got pop punk, American punk, hardcore dance etc - but stuff all that, we are a rock'n'roll band!"

The Buzzcocks had a healthy streak of romanticism through their songs, such as, Every Fallen in Love and Orgasm Addict (sic), a trait also found in Fathead.

"There's an element to our songs, mostly how relationships can go disastrously wrong, but some of them are positive," said Deano.

But that doesn't detract from the violence too much, though and things can get angry on stage.

"John has a thing about smashing up guitars," said Deano. "Once he loses his rag, it's on the cards he'll smash it up. One time, he'd completely destroyed it at a gig and borrowed a mate's guitar for the next. But when he did that gig, with his mate watching, he smashed that up as well!"

* Fathead play Riverside Tavern, Newport, on Tuesday August 14 with support from Dogzuki.