Cripple Mr Onion were a progressive metal band from Christchurch, New Zealand, whose name was borrowed from the fictional card game featured in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Pratchett gave the band his blessing, though with characteristic candour: he has been quoted as saying the band have his permission to use the name, “although he doesn’t care much for the music.” Formed in 1996 by guitarist and bassist Mike ‘Fud’ Fudakowski and vocalist Andy Woodd, who had first met as music students at the University of Otago in Dunedin while playing together in the eclectic metal outfit Umlaut, a band whose own tagline said it best: “giant basses and melted faces.”
Fudakowski — who had been playing electric bass since 1988 — relocated to Christchurch in 1996 to study at Jazz School, with Woodd following the year after. A virtuoso bassist, Fudakowski is perhaps best known for his extraordinary custom 10-string instrument, the Namazu, which he designed himself and had built by Lyttelton luthier Peter Stephen. With a range approaching that of a grand piano, and widely regarded as the widest-range bass in New Zealand, the Namazu became central to the band’s sound. Alongside his performing career, Fudakowski has worked as a music teacher since 2000. They formed Cripple Mr Onion alongside John ‘Hooves’ Clayton on drums and Jeremy James Brown on keyboards.
After Clayton and Brown departed in 1999 to pursue overseas music opportunities, the band rebuilt around René Harvey, who joined on drums in July 2000, and expanded with the addition of second guitarist Aaron Burns in 2001. The band released their debut album Chronocide that year, a nine-track record that established their signature blend of primal atmospheric heavy metal — tribal percussion, layered harmonics, and the gravitational pull of Fudakowski’s extended-range bass at its centre.
Over a decade building a devoted live following, Cripple Mr Onion shared stages with Motörhead, Shihad, Blindspott, 8 Foot Sativa, and The D4, earning a reputation as one of the most compelling live acts in New Zealand heavy music.
One of NZ’s only progressive metal bands… among the most talented acts performing in the country — they have a Tool/Wig/Miosis vibe.
No Clean Singing
The sudden departure of Mike Fudakowski in March 2004 prompted a five-month search for a new bassist, eventually resolved when a music shop employee discovered Shoki Kamishima — a Japanese musician of exceptional ability — playing a Cripple Mr Onion bassline in the back of the store. Kamishima became an integral part of the band’s sound through their final Christchurch years and into the Auckland period. In 2010, following the non-renewal of his visa, Kamishima was deported from New Zealand; he subsequently took his own life. Devilskin vocalist Jennie Skulander later wrote a song in his memory.
In 2006 Cripple Mr Onion relocated to Auckland to expand their reach. Their second album Antigravity followed in 2007 — an eleven-track record running to nearly an hour, representing a significant artistic evolution: the atmospheric density of Chronocide expanded into more layered and nuanced territory, while the eleven-and-a-half-minute closing instrumental “Exuviae” illustrated the band’s willingness to pursue ideas well beyond the constraints of conventional song structure. The band also contributed to The Axe Attack: New Zealand Metal Vol. 1, a compilation that brought their music to an international heavy music audience. In 2010, they shared a stage with American industrial metal act The Genitorturers at the Transmission Room in Auckland.
Cripple Mr Onion performed their final shows in 2016, returning to Christchurch for a farewell concert after two decades of music. Following the band’s dissolution, René Harvey and Aaron Burns went on to form His Master’s Voice; Mike Fudakowski, who had departed in 2004, had meanwhile joined Rhomboid, a psychedelic funk project with Ari Freeman, a former student and fellow virtuoso bassist.
Members
- Jeremy James Brown (keyboards, Cripple Mr Onion)
- Aaron Burns (guitar, Cripple Mr Onion, His Master’s Voice)
- John Clayton (drums, Cripple Mr Onion)
- Mike Fudakowski (bass/guitar/vocals, Cripple Mr Onion, Umlaut, Rhomboid)
- Daniel Hawkins (bass/vocals, Cripple Mr Onion)
- René Harvey (drums, Cripple Mr Onion, His Master’s Voice)
- Shoki Kamishima (bass, Cripple Mr Onion)
- Andy Woodd (vocals/guitar, Cripple Mr Onion, Umlaut)
Discography
- Chronocide LP (2001, self-released)
- Antigravity LP (2007, self-released)
- The Axe Attack: New Zealand Metal Vol. 1 [compilation]