Who Are The Fink Brothers?

THE FINK BROTHERS

(Left) - Fink Angel - Graham "Suggs" McPherson
(Right) - Mean "Machine" Angel - Carl "Chas Smash" Smythe

Suggs and Carl are two members of Madness the seven piece ska and pop band from London. They are the lead and second vocalists in the band. www.madness.co.uk

The Fink Brothers was a side project these two undertook in 1985 after setting up the Zarjazz record label to expand the creativity of the band, into other areas. They were both avid 2000AD readers at the time of this project and they took the name the Fink Brothers from the comic strip Judge Dredd .

Fink Angel and Mean Machine Angel are two members of the angel gang a vicious band of hill-billy mutants from the waste land outside of Mega-city one. Sworn enemies of Judge Dread not least because he killed most of their family. They sampled Judge Dredd's voice and came back in time with this record to make money and take over the world, without a Judge to stop them!

Suggs and Carl on why they chose the Fink Brothers characters...

Suggs: "We wanted as much as possible to make it like the comic, not just a record by a couple of out of work pop stars, but to make it something that (was) actually part of the comic, more for the people who read it and for other people to be able to get a vague grasp of what it is, as opposed to just writing a Madness song about Judge Dredd. We keep to the characters because it makes it more fun for the readers of 2000AD, it would have spoiled it if it said the real
people on the back."

Carl: "Y'see the comic is full of thrill power, every Friday we get up and we look for our comic, so if we let the front slip and admitted it was by us, then our thrill circuits would be sucked by thrill suckers who are all around us at all times." - Jammin Magazine February 1985

Fink Angel

Fink angel is the character the name The Fink Brothers originates from. (Although they starred together in the strip Destiny's Angels as a Duo, they are not referred to as the Fink brothers directly in 2000AD.) Coming to life in the four part story "The Fink", he appears as a badly mutated member of the Angel family out for revenge on Dredd for his deceased family members. A ghastly killer he is an expert on poison and used to live in a hole estranged from his family kept company by his bowler hat wearing pet rat. He later teams up with Mean and goes after Dredd , finally perishing when Dredd pushes him onto his fathers own torture machine.

The Fink appears in 2000AD PROGS 194 - 197 and 280 - 288.
In Prog 1250 - 1261 a Fink from another dimension appears.



Mean Machine Angel

Mean machine Angel was actually nice before his cruel father, wanting him to be evil like the
rest of the family, had him operated on. Given a robotic claw arm and his brain mostly replaced with a metal helmet featuring a dial that sets his emotions - 1-Surly 2-Mean 3-Vicious 4- Brutal - he occasionally he gets stuck on 4 1/2 and goes into a head butting frenzy. He lost his other arm when Dredd shot it off. He died when head butting a petrol pump. This is his general level of intelligence. He was later resurrected by a powerful mystic called the Judge Child and has been in and out of the Mega-city one jails (Iso-cubes) ever since often failing attempts at rehabilitation.

He appears in 2000AD PROGS 160, 177-180, 195, 280-288, 450, 730-736, 958,1084. Dredd annual 1983, In the graphic novel "Three Amigos", the Batman crossover "Judgment on Gotham", The Lobo Crossover Pycho Bikers from hell. He appeared in the Judge Dredd film. Had his own solo series running in Megazine #2 issues 47, 63-72, 82. 1995 and 1996 Sci fi specials. 1995 Judge Dredd Yearbook. 1996 Judge Dredd Mega Special. Megazine #3 issue 69, 74, 78 And issues 215, 218 - 220. And a prequel series on the Angel gang in issues 258-256.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW

After serving seven years in an Iso-cube (pop wilderness) for sampling a Judge on their record, the Fink Brothers reformed for a series of one off concerts in Finksbury park where the ground shook (cus they blew it up). They recently set up Fink Book a ghastly time sucking website that enslaves the masses and makes them into brainless mutants.

Madness are still rocking away with a new top five album "The Liberty Of Norton Folgate" out in 2009, Suggs has worked on solo music projects and numerous TV and Radio shows since the 80's and even written a book about London. Carl was very much the star of the movie version of "The Liberty Of Norton Folgate" directed by Julien Temple and his solo victorian character moments echoed the tough spirit of his creative comic past and he is currently working on a dubstep album, his return perhaps to dance rythms too, he now lives in Ibiza.