Australian band Ward 13 started out as a brash 1960s-influenced rock & roll band, working the Sydney pub circuit for 19 months before issuing the EP Robot Wizards in 1980.
The EP sounded like a cross between The Angels and Mi-Sex – albeit with none of the endearing features of either of those bands.
Thankfully the record vanished without a trace and the band took a three-month break to contemplate their future and explore new musical avenues.
Their debut LP, Flash As A Rat (1981), was a vast improvement, and the single from the album, See Venice and Die, charted in Sydney.
Other singles followed but by the time the band came to record the mini-album Too Much Talk, only Arthurs, Roberts and Mullens remained from the original lineup.
Newcomers Steve Lunn (guitar and sax), Andrew Ross (keyboards and sax) and Tim Powles (drums) completed the new lineup.
Ward 13 broke up in 1983 with Tim Powles joining The Venetians.
‘Irish’ John Arthurs
Vocals
Ron Roberts
Guitar, keyboards
Leigh Hamilton Johnston
Guitar, vocals
Peter Mullens
Bass
Stephen Walls
Drums
Steve Lunn
Guitar, sax
Andrew Ross
Keyboards, sax
Tim Powles
Drums