FIONA HORNE

Fiona Horne (born 1966 in Sydney) is a singer, rock musician, radio and television personality, actress and author. She was the singer in Def FX and has published numerous books on witchcraft. Horne started playing in bands when she moved to Adelaide in 1984. Her first band was Sister Sludge, which only lasted for six months until Horne moved back to Sydney. She then formed a punk-thrash band, The Mothers, in 1985. The Mothers started as an all-girl punk band, although the lineup changed a number of times. This was the first band with Horne performing both vocals and guitar. In October 1987, The Mothers, comprising Horne (vocals, guitar), Nat (guitar), Jo Collings (bass) and Rick (drums), released their first single, "Drives Me Wild / Get Outta My Life", which was followed in 1989 by the EP, '12-Incher', with the line-up of Horne (guitar, vocals), Rick (drums), Luke (guitar) and Cristina Calero (bass), both of which were released on the Waterfront Records label. The Mothers broke up in 1989.

In 1991 Horne formed the industrial-dance-rock band Def FX with Blake Gardner on guitar (ex-Bezerk), Sean Lowry on synthesisers, sequencers, samples (ex-King Prawn), Martyn Basha on bass (ex-Bezerk). The band issued three EPs, 'Water', in June 1991, 'Surge', in November and 'Blink' in June 1992 on the Phantom label before signing to EMI. In December 1992 the band released their debut album, 'Light Speed Collision', which was also released in the US by RCA/BMG in July 1993. 

At the 1994 Big Day Out Horne made headlines by appearing topless on stage. In September 1994, they released the EP 'Post Moronic', which reached #43 on the Australian charts. The band were dropped from the EMI label. In May 1995 they released their second album, 'Ritual Eternal', on their own label, Cicada. The album was nominated for 'Best Independent Release' at the 1995 ARIA Music Awards. They then signed with Universal Music Australia's subsidiary label Grudge, which released the band's third album, 'Majick', in July 1996. Although it failed to chart it became the band's only certified release, going gold in 1997. Def FX disbanded in May 1997.

In 1998 Horne made several appearances on the television series Good News Week, singing duets with the show's host, Paul McDermott. Virgin/EMI subsequently released a single of their duet, "Shut Up/Kiss Me", in November 1998, which reached #48 on the Australian singles charts in December.

In October 1999, Horne released her debut single, "Let’s Go Out Tonight", on Air Records. The song was co-written with Pete Farnan (Boom Crash Opera) and Simon Austin (Frente!). In January 2000 she formed a cover band, Mullet, with Nick Gill on guitar (The Mavis's), Piet Collins on drums (The Sharp), Scott Owen on bass, (The Living End) and Greg Hirtzel on guitar. In March 2007, Horne released her first solo album, 'Witch Web'. In 2010, she released the spoken word album 'Magickal Life-Guided Meditations and Spells for Positive Change', on her own label, Mystic Monkey.

In 2012, Def FX reformed for a national tour in May–June, playing in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide. This was followed by another tour in October - November 2013 with the band playing shows in Adelaide, Melbourne, Newcastle, Sydney and Brisbane. The band toured again in 2019 ... originally performed as a farewell tour, the band decided to rename it, 'The Never Say Never Tour'. In 2022 Horne formed a new band, Seawitch, with Dave Hopkins (ex-Hellmenn) on guitar, Brad Miller on bass, Kenny Watt on keyboards and Adam Sciullo on drums. The band released its debut album, 'Well of Spells', on 21 October 2022, on Cheersquad Records and Tapes. The first single, "Witches Forever", which was followed by a second single, "Force".

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