Biography
The earliest version of this band was The Five Cigarettes who played Dublin (including the Underground) around 1981-82. I have no more details about this lineup.
The original version of Thee Amazing Colossal Men was part of the 60s-inspired garage psych/punk scene of the mid-80s (along with the Golden Horde and The Gorehounds; the "Rockabilly Psychosis" compilation was very influential). They played psychedelic 60s covers and were reputedly a fantastic live band. This lineup included Dave Clifford (of Vox fanzine fame), Garret Lee on guitar, Sid Rainey (ex Sid & The Stonecrushers), on bass and Mark O'Sullivan on vocals. Their only vinyl appearance as far as I'm aware was on the "Guru Weirdbrain" sampler. The recorded several demo tapes, two in 1987 alone. The first of these contained voiceovers which Hot Press described as distracting. The second 6-song demo reviewed in November 1987 was described as being much better, with the live sound production suiting the powerful rock music on offer. The band still had very few live gigs under the belt at this stage.
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Josephmary AKA Joey Barry of (ex Above The Thunderclouds, The Spies) and Declan O'Sullivan (also ex , later in ex Swinging Swine Eamonn Dowd's band) were members circa 1987. Paul O'Brien was ex McClintic Sphere.
They were signed by Siren Records in February 1989. By this time they were playing neo punk and were touted as one of the New Wave Of New Wave bands (NWONW was an invention of Melody Maker). They later sued their record company and regrouped as Compulsion with Dutch drummer Jan-Willem Alkema and made far better records on One Little Indian and Interscope Records during 1992-96.
Garret Lee later formed Jacknife Lee and now works as a producer (U2, Snow Patrol). His brother Derek is in Sack.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.