The beltones (Introduction)

Formed in Fort Lauderdale back in 1994 by Bill mcfadden (vocals, guitar) and Robert Sessions (guitar). Bill borrowed his girlfriends little brother to keep the beat on drums and also added Chris Arocha (used to play bass in Class war) and the band was complete.
They recorded their first demo in late 1994 called Please god make them stop that got Tim Pagones from Far out records attention. He signed them directly and the band released their first record a 4-track 7'' named Lock and load in 1995. Later that year they made a song for
Just add water records compilation called I Can't Believe It's Not Water. The owner of the label Jason Duncan was impressed and helped them release their second 7''called My old man. In 1998 they recorded another 4 song 7'' called Naming my bullets for TKO records. All of these where big underground successes so the year after that they decided to go back intio the studio and re-record their first two 7inches and together with Naming my bullets they finally had their first fill-length called On deaf ears.
After this release the band moved to Gainesville but Chris decided to stay behind since he had his wife and business in Fort Lauderdale. Now being a band without a bassplayer they hooked up with Will Thomas who was a..... drummer. Being a man on a mission he decided to give it a try. In 1999 after a big fight between Bills wife and his ex-girlfriend (Kevins sister) Kevin left the band so their new bassplayer jumped in on drums. This was just before they where going on their US tour so James Ross jumped in to fill the gap on bass. This was only temporary and after the tour they replaced James with Mike Mutti. With this line up they recorded their 2000 7'' and their infamous 2001 release Cheap trinklets.

The band went at it and did some tours, crashed some tourbusses but finally decided to call it a day in 2003 when Bill moved away. After this Mike Mutti went to play in Nervous tics an Bill would form his side-project Pink Panzer.
Bill reformed the band in New jersey in 2006 with an all new line-up but after some shows they disbanded.

This is the one of the most influential bands of the 90's and would inspire many bands in the future. Funniest thing with Beltones is that they never really played Oi!, no skinhead was a part of the band and they never (in the beginning) hung around in skinhead-circles. Even so the majority of their harcorefans was always skinheads.