Zac Foley. December 9 1970 - January 3 2002. RIP
Zachary Sebastian Rex James Foley. Forest boy. Epsom Mad Funker. Ecstasy Mother Fucker. RIP

07/01/2002

Zac Foley, larger than life bass player with 90s electro-indie party-pop nutters EMF, has passed away. The following was posted on the official EMF site:

"Unfortunately, I have to confirm rumors that Zac passed away this morning. They are not rumours, they are in fact true. Zac was 31 years old. More as it becomes available. He will always be in our hearts. WE LOVE YOU ZAC!"

EMF are of course best known for the hi-octane international chart mauler 'Unbelievable', which will always hold a place in Crud's heart for continually smuggling the line "Woah! What the fuck was that!" past producers and schedulers onto prime-time pre-watershed TV and radio.

That was taken from their '91 debut album 'Schubert Dip', also featuring 'Children', 'I Believe' and 'Girl Of An Age', all classics of that particular time. They were hurled to the forefront of the early 90s rave/indie/pop crossover, sharing column inches, fringes and t-shirts with the likes of Jesus Jones and Pop Will Eat Itself. Though less commercially successful they followed that up with 92's excellent 'Stigma' and 95's eclectic 'Cha Cha Cha'.

Following EMF's split in 1996 they all found themselves diving into their own projects, Zac's being the post-Britpop polished cartoon rock of Carrie, also featuring Steve Ludwin now of Little Hell, who released one album, 'Fear Of Sound' and toured pretty relentlessly on the back of debut single 'Molly', drumming up a small dedicated following.

2001 though saw the EMF reunion, with a cracking comeback show at London's Astoria on June 5th that saw them recapturing some of that old reckless forest boy magic, and a best of album release. At the London show they all had smiles ear to ear, shared by the audience, but no more so than Zac. If they had a reputation as hell-raising party lunatics then that was in no small part down to Zac, his OTT drug intake, character excesses and a certain party trick involving foreskin and citrus fruit.

If any conciliation can be taken from this great loss to his many friends, family and fans it's that he seemed to unquestionably squeeze every last drop of juice from every last one of his 31 years.

Zachary Sebastian Rex James Foley. Forest boy. Epsom Mad Funker. Ecstasy Mother Fucker. RIP.

Band website - http://www.emf-theband.com/

James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2002

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