the AGE OF CHANCE information page

	STEVEN E. MOB-ORATOR. FUNCTION: NAMELESS UNREST. MEGAPHONE DIPLOMACY. "IF YOU DON'T LIKE TO DANCE YOU DON'T LIKE TO LIVE" TALL.
		NEIL H. POWER-NOISE GENERATOR. A MOTORCADE OF METAL. "MY FIRST IS IN CACOPHONY" SATISFACTION CAME IN A CHAIN REACTION. NOW?
	GEOFF T. ALL NITE BASS FREQUENCIES. APOCALYPSE NOW OR ROCKY IV. "METALLIC K.O., RESISTANCE ZERO" ABSTRACT FURY. TAUREAN.
		JAN P. BEAT DOMINATOR. "HANDS THAT BATTER, LOOKS THAT KILL." MOTOR CITY STEEL. LASER-CHIC. BLONDE.

The musical style of Age of Chance is difficult to define precisely, because it comes from a time when rigidly-defined musical types were starting to give way to more amorphous areas of style. When I first started listening to Age of Chance I described them as "beat-metal"; they seemed to be basically hip-hop, but had a heavy guitar sound. I was later calling them "proto-house," when the club music scene started to move into the mainstream (again). Their beats are very clanky and their songs are laden with samples of machine noises, sometimes actually used as a backbeat or an instrumental element. It isn't so heavy that it would be what we (in 1995) call "industrial," though this element is there also.

They come from Sheffield/Leeds in the UK, although the original vocalist for them, Steven Elvidge, sounds like he could be out of Brooklyn. This may be an affectation, or just something he does without thinking. Strident, nasal vocals which gave the band a pretty distinctive sound when he was with them. Backing vocals of the cheerleading type, bringing to mind football matches, or mass-gatherings turned to riots, all part of the AoC aesthetic. Jan Perry laid down the beats, Neil Howson presumably played guitar (though this is never actually stated on paper), and Geoff Taylor was on bass. Additional scratching and turntable destruction was provided by "The Almighty Power-Cut."

After a fairly unpretentious self-titled EP (subtitled "The Twilight World of Sonic Disco") under their own label, they put out a cover of Prince's "Kiss," under the Sheffield-based Fon label. Most people, if they've heard of AoC at all, have heard of this one single... there was in fact a video for this track in the US.

Age of Chance put out two more 12" records under the Fon label; these were compiled into an EP called Crush Collision. This title relates to the philosophy/aesthetic of the band, and is also the title of a (possibly fictitious) book by the shadowy figure John F. Power, about the growing industrial music scene ("Crush Collision: Story of a Sound" (Selby & Heller)). There are two versions of Crush Collision, the UK and the US; the UK version has a second platter.

The band's aesthetic is also reflected by their cover art. Starting after their initial release, this was produced by the Designer's Republic, also based in Sheffield/Leeds. (Since that time, DR has become well-known; we will return to them later.)

After this they were picked up by Virgin Records, and released a full album, One Thousand Years Of Trouble. Their sound had by now become a bit more polished, a bit more detailed in its mixing, with a much wider stereo picture. The graphic image of the band was truly setting up by this time, also, with an avalanche of defining images covering the cover and inner sleeve (the medallion at the top of this page is the main element of the front cover). Singles spawned by this album were "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Noise?", "Take It!", and "Don't Get Mad... Get Even". This album had all kinds of samples on it, layered and dotted in, the sources of which I only later came to know. Some backup vocals were provided by the distinctive Lorenza Johnson (her "T-R-O-U-B-L-E!" appears on the Pop Will Eat Itself album Cure for Sanity; we'll also be hearing more about PWEI later).

Despite the more refined and ostensibly more marketable sound that Age of Chance had developed by this time, sales of One Thousand Years of Trouble weren't all that hot, and AoC was under pressure from Virgin to make up for these and other losses. Although they'd written most of the songs for their next album, Mecca, by this time, Steven Elvidge ended up leaving the band because he disagreed about its future, and the band continued with a more synth-pop middle-of-the-road sound, and a new singer, Charles Hutchinson.

The band at this point sounded rather a lot like Fine Young Cannibals... the original clanky industrial feel was gone, replaced by a lot of nondescript synth and beats. In my opinion, at least, the band was effectively dead at this point. Furthermore, even with this drastic change in sound, AoC still wasn't as successful as Virgin wanted, and they were dropped. Virgin itself was subsequently sold to EMI.

The Designer's Republic continued to do cover art, and created an entire corporate identity for a band contemporary with AoC, called Pop Will Eat Itself. They'd come out of the same music scene, and at around this time, PWEI's music was leaning away from its house/club music roots and more towards hip-hop. Pop Will Eat Itself looked to be the heir apparent of the AoC legacy with the release of This is the Day... This is the Hour... This is This!. The cover of this album is graphically a direct step from AoC's One Thousand Years of Trouble, even containing some of the same graphic "bits." DR's graphics were really hitting hard by this time... I can only imagine that somewhere between AoC and PWEI they'd gotten hold of some serious computer equipment!

Though Pop Will Eat Itself was clearly a different band, musically it had similar elements to the old AoC. Hip-hop lyrics, a lot of harsh guitar sounds, and piles of machine noises and samples which run through it as harmonic voices. In a later interview in Volume Magazine, they cited Age of Chance as either a great influence, or perhaps just a group they were listening to a lot at the time.

The Designer's Republic has since gone on to further pervasiveness in album cover art, doing mostly techno and club music albums. They are greatly responsible for the visual identity which has formed around these music types.

AoC Discography
This discography only contains items published before "Mecca"; it's probably somewhat incomplete.

FORMAT	TITLE/INFO	#	HAVE IT?
7"	Motor City/Everlasting YEAH! (UK)	RIOT 1	Y
7"	Bible of the Beats/Liquid Jungle (UK)	RIOT 002	Y
12" EP	The Twilight World of Sonic Disco (UK)	BIBLE 001	Y
7"	Kiss (UK)	AGE 5	Y
12"	Kiss/Kiss Collision Cut/Crash Conscious (UK)	AGE T5	Y
12"	Kiss remix (UK)	AGE-L5	N
7"	Kiss (US)	7-99472	Y
12"	Kiss/Kiss Collision Cut/Crash Conscious (US)	0-96780	Y
12" EP	Beneath the Pavements of the Dancefloor	AGE-X5	Y
12" EP	Crush Collision; 2 record set + insert (UK)	AGE 9	Y
12" EP	Crush Collision (US)	7-90583-1	Y
Cass EP	Crush Collision (US)	7-90583-4	Y
7"	Don't Get Mad... Get Even! (UK)	VS 989	Y
12"	Don't Get Mad... Get Even! (The All-Nite Crank Powermix) (UK)	VS 989 12	Y
12"	Don't Get Mad... Get Even! (The New York Remixes) (UK)	VS 989 13	Y
12"	Don't Get Mad... Get Even! (US)	7-96726-0	Y
7"	Take It! (UK)	VS 1035	Y
12"	Take It! (Unlimited Credit Mix) (UK)	VST 1035	Y
7"	Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Noise! (UK)	VS 962	Y
12"	Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Noise! (promo) (UK)	(no catalog #)	Y
12"	Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Noise! (Dancepower Mix) (UK)	VS 962 12	Y
12"	Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Noise! (Let There Be... Sonic War Sculpture) (UK)	VS 962 13	N
CD LP	One Thousand Years of Trouble (UK)	CDV 2473	Y
12" LP	One Thousand Years of Trouble (UK)	V-2473	N
12" LP	One Thousand Years of Trouble (US)	7-90672-1	Y
Cass LP	One Thousand Years of Trouble (US)	7-90672-4	Y

Age of Chance gets a mention in the following music databases: The WWW Music Database at the University of Tromsø.

I'm always looking for more information to update this page with, so don't be shy, and please mail me with any new information you may have.

--ASHTORETH,PURVEYOR OF UNPLEASANTNESS

Go back to Ashy's home page.
All artwork by Designer's Republic, except for title graphic and star separator, which are by Ashtoreth. Band photos by Mike Prior. Band profiles by AoC. Retouching/cleanup by Ashtoreth. The textual content of this page is copyright © 1995 Ashtoreth (William Haas), except where otherwise noted.