The band’s debut album was praised by the critics but never really accepted by mainstream listeners, fans suggest that this is because their music was ahead of it’s time and that tenny boppers could not appreciate the art in their music. The key changes, style shuffles and time signature changes were hard for many to digest and in the opinion of some - over-experimental.

However the album was doing rather well in the underground alternative scene and the band began to make arrangements for their first world tour. But tragedy struck in early 1978 not long before the band was due to embark on the tour when Sid died of a Heroin overdose. Darrel and Ace decided to give the band a rest due to Sid’s death, the new KISS album and the forever increasing ratings of Hey, Hey… But in a public statement the pair promised their growing number of fans “Friends Of Ron will make a return, bigger and better than ever. But that will happen only when we find a suitable replacement for Sid, which won’t be easy.”

That day came in1982 when Ace and Darrel met Maurice Gibb, the oldest of the Bee Gees brothers. Together they immediately started writing new material for the next Friends Of Ron album, but there was still a problem – Maurice didn’t play bass. This problem was solved when the trio recruited Cliff Burton, bassist of emerging metal band, Metallica, keeping up the super group tradition. The new version of the band recorded their second album entitled “Friends Of Ron: The Second Installment” in a matter of days. The album debuted in the top 10 in several countries around the world and sold a million copies in its first week.

Friends Of Ron enjoyed more success in the following decade with 3 world tours, 4 studio albums, 1 live album and in excess of seven million records sold world wide and the whole time keeping a very stable line-up and balancing the success of Friends Of Ron with their other musical responsibilities. But tension was building among the band whilst they were on their third world tour in 1992. During the final show of the tour, in London, Cliff threw his bass guitar at Ace, breaking his cheekbone and nose and forcing an early ending to the show.

But before the curtains closed Ace announced on stage his retirement from the band because he could no longer work with people whom he’d lost all respect for, mainly Cliff. This left many fans leaving that night wondering if this would really be the end for Friends Of Ron.

But one man who left that night thinking that this was not the end for the band but an opportunity for them to head in a new direction, that man was ex-beatle and solo artist George Harrison. The next day George got in contact with the manager of Friends Of Ron and arranged to meet with the band. Three days later Paul was made the official replacement of Ace.

The first single with George - “Bass in Ace’s Face” was released in June 1994 and debuted in the top 10 in Australia, USA, Sweden, Greece and Czechoslovakia. The subsequent album “Friends Of Ron: The Seventh Installment” sold 3 million copies in the first week and was branded by critics as “A musical mater piece” and “Record of the decade”. But in a controversial decision made by Friends Of Ron’s record company Sony, the album was pulled from shelves all over the world because many believed that some of the songs, mainly the ones written by Cliff contained Satanic messages when played backwards. So the band sat around for the next week playing the CD backwards trying to find to supposed “Satanic messages”. When no such messages were found they hired a lawyer and took Sony to court. After three weeks battling it out in court, Friends Of Ron won the case and walked away with 4 million dollars and no record label.

The band made a conscious decision never to trust record companies again and to release all their records from then on independently. The problem with this was that when they released “Friends Of Ron: The Eighth Installment” in 1997 it was backed with very little advertising and although many believe it was one of their best, most experimental albums, it failed to make any significant impact on the charts. However they did follow up the album with a very successful world tour.

At the conclusion of the tour the band decided to have a year of in-activity to clear their heads. But one year turned into two years, then into three. Darrel went through devastation his Television show was axed, Cliff left Metallica, Maurice went on several Bee Gees reunion tours and George spent a lot of time being George Harrison, something which he does very well.

But in 2001 the band decided that it was time to regroup and release “Friends Of Ron: The Ninth Installment” which various members had been writing whilst on a break from the band. The album was released with Virgin and debuted at number 1 in 17 countries around the world, including USA, Germany, Fiji, New Zealand, Ireland and Sudan. The band then started their fifth world tour but mid way through George was rushed back home to England where he lost his fight with cancer, not only had the band lost their guitarist but they’d lost half a tour and a best friend.

Once the other band members had had time to deal with George’s death they finished the tour in June and July of 2002 with various replacement guitarists, including a re-appearance from Ace. The band then went in to the writing process of “Friends Of Ron: The Tenth Installment” which was said to be a very depressing album, written much about the death of George. And ironically death hit Friends Of Ron for a third time in January 2003 when Maurice passed away.

This left the 2 surviving members in complete devastation, losing 2 members in less than two years really took its toll on their mental health. After months of leaving fans on the edge of their seats over whether they’d find a replacement singer and guitarist, whether Ace would return or whether they would split, Darrel and Cliff made a public statement announcing that there would be no more Friends Of Ron. 

That was of course until early 2004 when Darrel was holidaying in Tasmania and was confronted by a teenager by the name of Robert Fisher. Robert insisted to Darrel that he was the reincarnation of the original Friends Of Ron front man Sid Vicious, his incredibly poor bass playing and singing was enough proof for Darrel. Rob told him that he felt the reason in his reincarnation was to get the band started again and to show what they were really meant to be about it beginning; experimenting, playing differently to anyone else and putting on a live show that can only be described as truly unique. Rob told Darrel that he and his friend Luke Eaton who was just a normal boy, no reincarnation, had learnt the entire Friends Of Ron back catalogue in hope that one day they could get in contact with Darrel and re-start the dream.

The trio started to play together in Hobart and began writing “Friends Of Ron: The Eleventh Installment” which excited fans immensely. Some fans criticized Darrel for going against the tradition of super stars only but he insisted that it was because Rob was on a mission from Sid. The album was released on Virgin and charted well so they began to tour Australia. Then in what may have been the most controversial event in Friends Of Ron history, Luke and Rob kicked Darrel out of the band* and replaced him with their school friend Michael Eastman, better known as Pickle. Friends Of Ron now had none of its original members.

Friends Of Ron, in its new form cancelled the deal with Virgin and began writing material for a new album “The Best Of Friends” to be independently recorded and released. They new band played their first gig at their high school on October 13^th that year, a day that will be remembered by many as the day that Friends Of Ron made a return to their earliest and best days. The band left the audience confused; many had never been acquainted with the original ways of Friends Of Ron and didn’t understand the very intense live performance. Yet some new fans saw the potential in the new group and took a liking to the bands performance which they described as art. With Rob and Luke running around the stage, play guitar with their mouths, falling over, leads falling out, singing incredibly out of key and time, stage invaders making sure the show didn’t run smoothly, Sid would say that this is what Friends Of Ron was all about, on that day Friends Of Ron was truly re-born.

At the beginning of 2005, Friends Of Ron saw it fit to take a break in a Blink 182-like hiatus. Much controversy surrounded whether or not the group would ever return to perform again. Some said it would never happen, but in late July of the same year Rob, Luke and Pickle decided it was time, what the world needs right now in it’s time of crisis (what with the wars and everything) is Friends Of Ron!

Rob and Pickle are also playing together in a two-man band which is yet to be named and the boys are planning on getting together a Weezer tribute band called "Geezer" so look out!!

* Darrel soon went on to secure a deal with Australian Television station The Seven  Network to appear as the host of a new television show; “Dancing With The Stars”