The Field Marshals

**The Field Marshals** (formerly known as *MacArthur and the Field Marshals*) Is a Punk Rock Band started by Jason MacArthur.

## History

### Early times

The band was started in 2967, in the San Francisco Bay Area, by Jason and his long time high school friend, Keith Sable, mostly influenced by the raw old school punk bands, such as *Black Flag, the Sex Pistols* and *The Misfits.* Originally meant to be a Three piece band with Jason as lead singer and guitar, Keith on bass and Roberta White on drums. Most of their paying gigs would involve playing at house parties or clubs.

### Line up extension and label recognition.

It wasn't long after when the band began to adopt a more hardcore punk and thrash metal sound.The line-up eventually expanded to include Terry Carlisle as rhythm guitarist and backing singer for the band. Britt Donegan, the band's keyboardist, had originally only performed for them as a studio session musician, but she proved such a hit with the others that she was later promoted to a full band member.

They were soon discovered by an A&R team from the American division of Edinburgh-based *Klondike Records*, and were offered a chance to record an album. The band ended up recording so much material that it was split across *two* albums: The strongest material formed their 2968 debut album, *Jason MacArthur & The Field Marshals*; the rest was put onto their 2969 follow-up, *Return Of The Field Marshals*. These two albums proved to be massive hits, and the band soon signed a contract with Klondike to record at least one album and two singles every year.

### The big time

With the aid of their albums, a string of live performances, and some shrewd work from Klondike, the Field Marshals gradually started to pick up steam. This collision of five different talents meant that they provided something for *everyone*, no matter who they were: Jason tended to write all the big hits and *money-spinners*; Keith was responsible for many vocally heavy songs; Bobby's work relied heavily on percussion, though she also tended to be lumbered with the cover songs; Britt's background as a session player and experimental artist meant that she was usually responsible for a lot of the band's more *off-beat* songs; finally, Terry simply hung around and filled whatever songwriting niche was going spare at that moment. Thus the Field Marshals were a rather eclectic band, and any of their fans could always find *something* to latch onto.

### Jay's unfortunate end

On June 30th 2984, the band was travelling the last leg of a tour along the coast of California. When they stopped at a roadside diner for a bite to eat, a car passed them and a mysterious gunman open fired at the band. They were immediately rushed to the nearest hospital and treated for their injuries, but Jason's were more severe, having taken two shots to the chest and one to the head, and he died several long and painful hours later.

Distraught over the death of their founder, the band cancelled the remaining dates of their tour, and went into a temporary hiatus while they worked out what they wanted to do next. Fortunately, the band had recorded new material *in bulk* for their next album prior to the tour, and Jason had recorded a lot of demos and vocal tracks for a solo project of his that'd been canned following his death. The rest of the band were able to pilfer his recordings, and with a bit of mixing magic, Jason was temporarily revived from the dead for what was to be his final performance. In 2985, *The General Returns* was released not only as an album, but as a tribute to the legacy of the cat who'd gotten the Field Marshals this far.

## Musical style

The Field Marshals, have labeled themselves as solely a punk rock band, though they would often lean towards the Hardcore Punk genre and even experiment with thrash or speed metal, as noted by Jay's "unclean" vocal range. However, their first few albums are said to be more aligned to *garage rock*, with their iconic *punk* image not really being cemented until about seven or eight years after their formation.

Jay and Keith's were known for their politically charged lyrics, as majority of the Field Marshal's songs where mainly about class struggle, anti-war, LGBT rights, and criticism of police brutality.

Their instrumental work often relied on the three chord formula, (mostly just power chords and simple riffs).

## Band Members

* Jason "East Bay Jay" MacArthur - Lead vocals, lead guitar
* Keith "Rocky" Sable - Bass guitar, vocals
* Roberta 'Bobby' White - Drums
* Terry Carlisle - Rhythm guitar, vocals
* Britt Donegan - Keyboards, acoustic guitar, hammond organ