The brainchild of punk legend Chuck Walker, Bedlam Hour was South Carolina's primary proponent of the straight-edge movement. Catchy hooks and deft guitar work punctuated Bedlam Hour’s music, but the true heart of the band's creativity lay in Walker's lyrics. Ten years before "emo," Walker penned sensitive, introspective and poetic lyrics that struck a chord with kids in the punk, metal and straightedge scenes. Later, bands such as Green Day and Blink 182 would score massive hits with a sound Bedlam Hour embraced in the mid 1980s.

 

Bedlam Hour was known throughout the southeast United States for its wild live shows in which the band would feed the audience freshly-made snacks (made on stage with a small waffle iron). The band's core lineup in the late 1980s consisted of Chuck Walker (guitar, vocals), Scott Frey (drums) and Adam Kolesar (bass), who often appeared on stage wearing only an adult-size diaper or dressed in a rubber chicken suit (a jacket with a bunch of rubber chickens attached to it), there was also a cow suit complete with utters.

 

They released Corn Dances 7” EP (Manifest Soundworks, 1983). Rock The Cradle (Positive Force Records, 1987). Porcupine 7” EP (Family Fest and Friends Records, 1990). Sardonic and Sublime EP was released in 1992. American Technology, a split 7” EP with ‘Stretch Armstrong’ (Koogle Records, 1993). Their last record recorded was Contact.

 

Band members:

Chuck Walker – Vocals, Guitar

Scott Kenneally – Guitar

Ed Baker - Keyboard

John Leroy – Bass

Adam Kolesar – Bass

Scott Frey – Drums

Derek Roddy – Drums