Even those of us that were permanently pissed during the heady days of Sydney thrash circa late-eighties/early-nineties can still remember Frozen Doberman.

“We are the frozen few / Gonna have fun with you!
We are the frozen few / Gonna mosh it up with you tonight!
Frozen, frozen to the core / Frozen, frozen once more!”

A fun-loving mosh crew from up Central Coast way, Frozen Doberman became regulars on the Sydney scene around the time of their first demo, 1990’s Beer Can. In addition to sharing local bills with Mortal Sin, Massappeal, Armoured Angel, Massive Appendage, Hard-Ons, etc. at places like Seven Hills Hotel, ‘Haunted Castle’ at Lewisham and ‘Cobra Club’ at Parramatta (where Rob Halford allegedly propositioned their drummer), they toured around the country several times, supported Motörhead and Sepultura, and enjoyed a memorable two-night stand in the foyer of the Entertainment Centre during Metallica’s 1993 visit!

After releasing two EPs – 1991’s Dying Phase and 1995’s Beautiful Day – and one album – 1994’s Bonsai – they split around ‘97 citing “musical indifferences”.

Thirteen years later, which is 66 in dog years, the original frozen few – Adam Marsh (vocals), Red Fortune (guitar), Tim West (bass) and Shaun Barry (drums) – are making a comeback for the Monster Session 2 benefit.

Monster Session is an annual Sydney-based event that raises money for sufferers of Multiple Sclerosis by resuscitating a bunch of long-forgotten acts from the eighties and nineties alternative scene.

Coming up at the Manning Bar on March 13th, this year’s stellar line-up will feature a fully thawed-out Frozen Doberman alongside Depression, The Meanies, The Hellmen, Hard-Ons, Happy Hate Me Nots, Lime Spiders, Nunbait and heaps more.

In honour of the occasion, UB.com’s Danger Coolidge took a mosh down memory lane with Frozen Doberman bassist Tim ‘Westy’ West…

Metal is serious business. Were Frozen Doberman taken seriously with a name like Frozen Doberman? Ever cop complaints from animal lovers?
I don’t know how ‘serious’ we were. The name was a drunken pisstake, a joke that stuck and we really didn’t give too much of a shit about it. We were teenagers heavily into US thrash metal and lots of the skate/punk metal as well. When we played shows all we wanted to do was just play tight and fast, we were definitely serious about that. We were obsessed by it. The name didn’t matter too much to us, people thought Frozen Doberman was funny, so we never thought to change it. It’s kind of grey how the name actually came up. It was after a rehearsal one night, a couple of car loads of us were drinking and shit and somehow it involved John Farnham, a dog and some weird… well… you know how those drunken conversations go… it ended with Frozen Doberman. We never copped any shit from any animal welfare groups. In fact, when we did a press release about our reformation a Doberman lovers blog kindly posted a link to the press release on metalunderground.com. I don’t think they really had any idea what they were posting. Too funny.

What was the best gig you ever played?
No doubt the Sepultura show in ‘92 at the Hordern, Sydney. The crowd was just so pumped to see them that we went on first before Massappeal who were the other support and copped 4000 fucking enthusiastic metal heads completely primed. It was awesome. We came out and played one of our best shows, we were all pretty fuckin’ nervous beforehand and Seps stood side stage and watched it, which didn’t help our nerves, but after the first crowd burst we were off. Pure adrenalin. It was a blast to hear a crowd roar that big. Good times. We hung out with them the following weekend and had Max [Cavalera] at the helm of an Aussie BBQ, stubby in hand. They were straight out of Brazil and completely down to earth. We are first and foremost fans so it was a memorable week. The Hordern has a lot of history, it was great to play there. I also remember us laughing at the size of the PA system in a venue like that, the drum/side fill on stage was the size of PA at the Iron Duke, we had never played through something like that. Never will forget the shit-eating grins on our faces when we heard ourselves through the PA that big during the 40-second soundcheck were generously provided. It didn’t matter, we are a straight up three-piece, you can mix that shit quick, it ain’t brain surgery!! Sepultura were outstanding and in complete form. They were top of the heap at the time. Massappeal got given some shit by the crowd, but it just made them play a more possessed set. Awesome gig all round.

You once supported Motorhead – got any cool Lemmy stories?
Another pretty memorable gig for us, the Playroom on the Gold Coast. They were pretty cool to us. We chatted to them all at soundcheck and Filthy [Phil Taylor] gave us all Motorhead tees. They must have looked at us young blokes and thought we were so green, which we were. We were stoked. In the dressing rooms before the show they were all super relaxed before they played which kind of surprised us. Lemmy was actually reading a novel ten minutes before they went on. As we went to start our set Red lost his guitar sound and Phil Campbell offered us his guitar rig which was cool of him, we got Red’s going with 30 secs to spare and played to a full biker crowd which preferred their metal a bit straighter. We won a few in the end, we didn’t get heckled and survived. Was a pretty full and primed crowd, it’s a bit of blur. Motorhead only played four or five songs before some dickheads kept hurling cans at them and Lemmy warned ‘em do it again and they will walk off. Next song, dickhead throws a can, Lemmy stops mid-song, tells the crowd to fuck off and the band walks. We were like, “What the fuck? Did they just walk off?” We raced backstage to check what was going on and they were off their nuts, Lemmy was recalling how they copped shit like that in Europe years ago at some festivals where they threw coins with blades glued between them. He had this scar on his wrist as a legacy. He was just like fuck ‘em! I don’t put up with that shit. We were like, awesome! They took off to their motel and the promoter was nervous. I think he refunded portions of the ticket price. The crowd was pissed. Motorhead left us with all their beer and food rider. We hadn’t eaten much for the last day so it was welcomed even though it was under shit circumstances. We proceeded to get completely off our nuts on booze, trashed the dressing room with an all-in food fight, got busted and ejected from the venue and then a phone call with veiled threats from ‘connected’ management seeking a damages refund. We paid. Promptly scampered back to the relative safety of the Western Suburbs of Sydney and went, “Did that just fucking happen?”

We’ve been looking for a copy of the Dying Phase EP (1991) on vinyl – know where we can get one? Are any of the old Frozen Dobes recordings still available?
Dying Phase EP is long out of press, it appears on a few metal collector want lists, but rarely is one around for sale, there only 500 or so pressed, we sold a ton of cassettes. The tracks “Dying Phase” and “Scrubber” off the Dying Phase EP will be on a CD collection we are releasing called Frozen Once More which will have about 17 tracks including a couple from our first 1989 demo as well as other demos, compilation and previous released tracks. We might one day re-press Dying Phase on vinyl. We have no hidden stashes of any of our releases anywhere. We hope to have Frozen Once More out this month in time for the Monster Session and shows we have planned for mid-year.

What were the reasons behind the band splitting in ‘97?
Musical indifferences. After a drummer change in ‘95, the band was a disillusioned, broke bunch of fellas. After years of having patchy and in the end no label or agent support and the constant grind of doing the band, funding it and having to spend more energy on things other than music to keep it going, it simply broke us. We faded off into the sunset. With probably some of the best stuff we had written never seeing the light of day. (Cue: lights and violins). The sad tale of woe, many bands can tell.

What did you do after the band split?
Packed up the lights and violins.

Frozen Doberman are coming back after 15 years to play the MS benefit Monster Session 2 – how did all the members make contact again/settle old differences? Any arm-twisting required?
We have loosely and closely stayed in touch over the years in varying degrees… a lot of shit happened in those 15 years. It wasn’t until we were all in the same room for the first time together last year at a friend, [Nazxul guitarist] Greg Morelli’s funeral. Greg as well as being in bands we played and were good friends with, he on occasion was our guitar tech, stage hand… just a real nice dude and an incredible musician. His death was tragic. It was sobering. Life is too short. I guess us getting together kinda stemmed from that day, we all spoke about it and then Glen [Koek] from Monster Session got in touch and told us about the second one this year, and it all just felt right. There had been a few aborted attempts over the years to get the dog back but never a time when all four were keen at the same time. I am glad we waited till now. In the end no twisting of anyone’s arms, we are keen to smash it up.

How much preparation will you need for Monster Session? Started rehearsals yet?
Probably more rehearsing than we will admit… ha ha. Generally remembering the songs was OK, it was the execution that has near killed us. The first few rehearsals were; play a song, play it loosely, finish and spent five minutes doing laps of the rehearsal room shaking the cramps from limbs. At first it took us two hours to play a 40-minute set!! It’s coming together now, we hope we stand up and do alright, at least the 40 set is down to 45 now! After playing some of those songs for ten years during the course of FD, after 15 years they are surprisingly refreshing to play and we have had some fun tweaking bits ‘n’ pieces!!

When I think of Frozen Doberman I can’t help but think of the leather and spikes. Will you be getting them out of storage for the gig?
Adam loves his armbands… he will probably dig them out at some point!

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Frozen Doberman MySpace: www.myspace.com/frozendoberman

Monster Session 2 happens on March 13th at the Manning Bar, Sydney Uni. Doors open 1:30pm.
Line-up as follows:
Daredevil                           1:50 – 2:15
Lunarcide                           2:30 – 5:55
Throwdown                        3:10 – 3:35
Tweezer                              3:50 – 4:20
Celibate Rifles                   4:35 – 5:05
Happy Hate Me Nots       5:20 – 5:50
Frozen Doberman            6:10 – 6:40
Lime Spiders                     7:00 – 7:30
Nunbait                               7:50 – 8:20
Depression                         8:40 – 9:10
Hard-Ons                           9:30 – 10:00
Hellmenn                           10:20 – 11:00
Meanies                              11:20 – 12:00

Monster Session MySpace: www.myspace.com/monstersession