[1] One of the most popular bands within that scene, they played hundreds of gigs across the U.K., Europe and America and were, according to author Ian Glasper, "an integral part of the fiercely independent underground that existed at the time.
The two began writing songs together despite the fact that Kanaan was an anarchist punk rocker who admired The Mob, Zounds, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag and Hüsker Dü, while Brown sported long hair and patched denim and preferred hard rock bands such as Saxon, Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow, Status Quo and Dire Straits.
Low's simple, tom-heavy drumming contributed to an emergent post-punk sound as they worked up a live set and began organising DIY gigs around the Stirling area.
These were mostly multi-band benefit gigs held in non-commercial venues, with the proceeds going to the kind of social, left-wing and radical causes espoused in the band's lyrics, as would continue to be the case throughout their existence.
By now the band were playing gigs further afield, including a trip to Belfast to support Subhumans and Conflict, where they were spotted by Tim Bennett of the Bristol-based Children Of The Revolution label.
This led to their first vinyl release, the 7-inch EP Winter, which featured new versions of three Fresh Hate songs and a 5-piece lineup which added Francis' Gracemount friend Pete Barnett on rhythm guitar.
[5] Reverting to a 4-piece, the band recruited drummer Keith Burns, a university friend of Brown's from Buckhaven, Fife and recorded the five studio tracks featured on the Walls Have Ears cassette release.
The band continued to gig constantly, but Thomson decided to leave in the spring of 1986 and was replaced on bass by Ewan Hunt, a school friend of Burns' from Leven, Fife, who had a more virtuosic and melodic style.
Kanaan then began to concentrate on his radical distribution and publishing house, AK Press, while Dewar moved to Rotterdam, Netherlands and Burns switched to guitar to form the alternative rock trio Nectar 3.
[15] Nectar 3 released the EP Lost in 1993[11] and Burns switched instruments again after the band split in 1995, establishing himself as a bass guitarist,[16] although he also returned to drumming for a while, co-founding the heavy metal trio Zapruder with Oi Polloi bassist Roland Wagstaff.