A DJ at big-beat melting pot the Sunday Social alongside
the Chemical Brothers and Jon Carter,
Richard Fearless formed the studio project Death in Vegas to pump out a similar type of audio adrenaline. With the helping hand of Steve Hellier,
Fearless spent two years working on material for an LP, then released Dead Elvis on Britain's
Concrete label in early 1997. After it was licensed for American distribution, the single "Dirt" became a moderate MTV hit later that year.
Fearless gained a new production partner (Tim Holmes) as well as a few celebrity guests (
Iggy Pop,
Bobby Gillespie) for 1999's The Contino Sessions.
Paul Weller,
Hope Sandoval, and
Oasis'
Liam Gallagher were on hand for 2002's Scorpio Rising.
Gallagher and the duo hit it off and in 2004 it was announced that Death in Vegas would be producing the next
Oasis album, but things didn't go as planned and the sessions were scrapped. Without any guest stars and very few vocal tracks, Death in Vegas' fourth album, Satan's Circus, arrived in 2004 in the U.K. and 2005 in the U.S. The mix CD Fabriclive.23 got its worldwide release in 2005. A move to New York City kept
Fearless away from the Death in Vegas project until 2011, when the "Your Loft My Acid" single preceded the release of the album Trans-Love Energies. The band followed up in early 2016 with its sixth full-length, Transmission, a collaborative effort with writer and former adult performer Sasha Grey. ~ John Bush, Rovi