'Too Drunk' formed as a four-piece in May '87, by Matt Tipple (drums), Ant Brown (bass), Rich Barden (singer) and Nick Mitchell (guitarist), to play a one-off gig at 'The Hatfield Poly Garden Party' with a set of 'dodgy Goth covers'. Despite Nick being the only member of the band who had ever played an instrument until a week before, they went down a storm, mainly due to their thrashed, lager fuelled, 'out for a good time' performance, than their out of tune and out of time renditions of 'Sounds Of Silence', 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go', a few Bauhaus tracks and a few others that are probably best forgotten. It was a year before anyone told Ant that 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' had more than two notes.

Two years later they reformed (to play the 'Garden Party' again), changed the line-up and ditched the Goth nonsense in favour of trashing some sixties garage punk instead. Nick had left to move 'up North' and as Ant had decided that playing two notes on one string constituted a complete mastery of the bass, he took over the guitar (which he knew would be more challenging as it had two or three more strings). Two friends, Rob Pierce and Paul Bailey joined to make it a five-piece. Rob took over the bass, which was a bit unfair on the others as he could already play, and Paul (son of Brian Bailey, rhythm guitarist with the legendary one hit wonder sixties band, 'The Four Specs'), started playing guitar. Drawing inspiration from the days of 'The Standells', 'The Thirteenth Floor Elevators', 'Love' and 'The Rivieras', and adding a taste of 'The Ramones', they took their philosophy of 'Faster!Louder!MoreFuzz!' to the crowds at the Garden Party. They were supported by The Levellers, who have since gone on to greater things and probably consider supporting Too Drunk the turning point of their career. Some critics have claimed that the only reason The Levellers were 'supporting' Too Drunk was that the gig was in the afternoon and that they had to leave early to go to a better paid and more important gig elsewhere, but that's just speculation.

Flushed with the success of the Garden Party, they decided to flaunt their wares at the pubs, clubs, halls and parties of their adopted home, St Albans, becoming the godfathers of the Albanbeat scene. Soon they began to move further afield and opened the Winchester festival in 1992, partly, they believed, because their reputation for providing a great live performance had spread as far as Hampshire, but more likely because Matt was one of the festival organisers. Chumbawamba headlined the festival and it's almost certain that, like The Levellers, playing with Too Drunk was their first great step towards the success that they're enjoying now. Some critics have claimed that as Chumbawamba probably didn't arrive until ten hours after Too Drunk had finished their set any connection is unlikely, but the band themselves still haven't publicly denied the link.

In 1993 Too Drunk were once again hob-nobbing with the big names when they supported Glen Matlock's The Mavericks at the notorious punk venue The Stick Of Rock in Bethnal Green. One of their fondest memories is of Glen Matlock pissing himself with laughter while Too Drunk played their soundcheck. The seal of approval from a living legend. It has been rumoured that this chance meeting with Too Drunk was to spark off the Sex Pistols reunion gigs of 1996, although some critics claim that this is bollocks.

The line-up remained pretty stable (apart from the occasional substitute drummer when Matt couldn't be arsed to make a gig), until 1993 when Rob had to leave St Albans and the band, making a hasty escape back to Wales, where he now still lives under a new identity provided for him by the Mid Wales Constabulary.

This left room for Chris Guest, an old friend and bass player from several St Albans bands, to fill Rob's boots (amongst other things). He lasted for over a year and a half until revealing that he hated sixties music and wasn't interested in playing garage punk, then left to become a Techno Trance DJ (which is a bit like disco, apparently) under the name DJ MC Guesty G, or something. His replacement Neil Kelly, a doctor of chemistry with the appearance of an amiable but unwell Sid Vicious (if you can picture that), fitted the bill nicely, and forms part of the now solid line-up.

It was round about this time, mid 1994, that Too Drunk found what they regarded as their 'town home' in the form of The Western Room at St Johns Tavern in Archway. Slim Chance used to run a small club there for the hopefuls (and hopeless) of the garage, thrash, punk, noise, R'n'B and psych scenes. He used to book bands that he liked and thought deserved a chance to be seen, and would repeatedly re-book bands that had played their previous gig in front of four people. Too Drunk became one of the regulars there, until, in 1997, Slim moved the operation to the much more salubrious Dirty Water Club at the Boston Arms in Tufnell Park, which provided them with the novel experience of playing for an audience.

It was Slim who was to inspire the band to finally record in a studio. Slim and a friend, Steve Coleman, wanted to put out a four track EP of unsigned bands that played at St Johns and asked Too Drunk to be one of them. They decided to record four of their own tracks and let Slim and Steve choose which one they wanted. They recorded '(Have You Got The) Voodoo Too', 'Five O' Clock Girl', '(Here Come The) Good Times' and 'The Shape I'm In' at Cazimi Studios with Charles 'Charlie' Charles producing. When they'd finished they decided that they might as well put all four out on an EP of their own, which you should have bought by now.

As well as playing with Too Drunk, Paul was invited to do some session work in the studio with long-time friends and indie popsters, Twister. They desperately needed a short, chinese looking, guitarist/keyboard/harmonica player and in no time at all they’d poached him as a full time member, and dragged him off round the country and parts of Europe.

Paul wasn’t the only one to be tempted by the bright lights and screaming crowds of more successful bands. Neil sold them out TWICE. First he was lured into the folds of King Prawn, a hard-core punk/ska band that he’d been following around for years. They wanted a skilled cornet player who was cheap. Neil was cheap, so he was half way there already. King Prawn were about to tour with Snuff, so Neil was folded up into a small suitcase, thrown in the back of the Prawnmobile and began disappearing for weeks on end with the constantly touring KP. As if playing with his idols King Prawn wasn’t enough, he also managed to scam his way into Dolls House, after falling in love with the singer when they supported Too Drunk at The Camden Falcon. Dolls House at that time were a poppy acoustic duo, with Martin from Voice Of The Beehive playing guitar and Alex singing. When they decided they wanted to become a full band, they asked Neil to play bass, and Woody, from the marginally more famous Madness, to play drums. In July 1999, they returned to The Camden Falcon for their debut gig, this time, however, headlining on a Saturday night in front of a full house.

At the start of 1999, Too Drunk claimed that this was going to be the big year, as they had every year since 1986, and this time it was. The previous year, Twister had headlined at a festival in Belfort (a town in France near the French/Swiss/German border). This year Too Drunk applied to play as well. They were pretty surprised when they were invited to play, and even more surprised when they were told that they'd be headlining on the Saturday night ..... on a huge stage ..... for an hour ..... in front of thousands of people. They were even more surprised when they played and the audience stayed. Too Drunk had been offered their fifteen minutes of fame and managed to stretch it out for an hour. Two weeks later they were back at The Horn Of Plenty in St Albans playing in front of twenty people.