[1][2] Their lead vocalist, bass guitarist, Craig Bloxom,[1][3] was born on 31 July 1959 in Los Angeles and, with his family, moved to Australia in August 1965.
[1][2] After secondary education, Bloxom and Weiley moved to Cammeray in Sydney's north shore, playing in various local bands.
One of Bloxom's ex-bandmates introduced them to a drummer, Cliff Grigg, who was from Northern Territory and lived in a squat in the inner suburb of Glebe.
[2] v.Spy v.Spy's first performance was at Sydney's Sussex Hotel, substituting for the Fast Cars, whose singer had taken ill.[2] The band developed a following for their ska-influenced rock music.
[5] Dirty Pool management picked them up and the group performed at Sydney venues, particularly the Trade Union Club where they supported INXS.
[1][2] It was followed by their four-track debut extended play (EP), Four Fresh Lemons in August, the 1,000 pressings sold out in five days.
[1][2] Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane described their early recordings, "[they] displayed a strong ska inflection which found the band instant favour amongst the rude boys who packed into Sydney pubs".
[1] The New Zealand release of Six Fresh Lemons, combined the four Australian EP's tracks with the A & B sides of their debut single.
[1] The band became prominent on the pub rock scene, performing high energy songs dealing with social issues: racism of any kind (particularly that against Indigenous Australians), drug addiction, homelessness, homophobia, sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence.
"[2] Their music suited Australian pub audiences, who listened to AC/DC, the Angels, Lime Spiders, Rose Tattoo and Radio Birdman.
[1][2] Midnight Oil's label, Powderworks Records, released their five-track EP Meet Us Inside in October 1984,[3] which was followed by the single "One of a Kind" in November.
The third album, Xenophobia, was written and recorded in six weeks, its title is inspired by racism surfacing in the lead-up to Australia's Bicentennial year of 1988.
[1] During this time the band played smaller venues to dedicated fans in Sydney under the pseudonym, the Drug Grannies.
[14] Grigg quit the band in late 1991,[2] joining Mixed Relations as guest percussionist, whilst Bloxom and Weiley took a year off performing.
In May 1993 they released their fifth album, Fossil, produced by Karski and Peter Cobbin,[3] which provided the singles "Comes a Time" in March 1993 and "One Way Street" in June.
The Age's Nicole Brady observed, that their changing sound has a "new emphasis on gentler vocals, [which] has made their music more accessible.
In 1993 they were heard in two episodes of The Big Backyard, a weekly radio programme promoting Australian music, sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for broadcast on college radio stations in the United States and Canada - this gave the band a spike in interest in North America.
[1][2] Bloxom and Cuffe formed a band, Shock Poets, while Weiley worked on his side-project, the Honey Island Project, with producer Danny Bryan.
Cuffe left to concentrate full-time on Shock Poets and was replaced by Australian drummer Paul Wheeler (ex-Icehouse),[3] In November 1999, Festival Records issued a compilation album, Mugshot: The Best of... which included five previously unreleased tracks.
[7] In August 2024 Craig Bloxom’s Spys were due to tour Brazil in support of fellow Australian groups Hoodoo Gurus and Ganggajang.