Bedlam Hour
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The brainchild of South Carolina punk legend Chuck Walker, Bedlam Hour was South Carolina's (SC) primary proponent of the straight edge movement. The most prolific of the SC punk bands, Bedlam Hour released several full-length records on vinyl, including the pop-punk masterpiece "Rock the Cradle". 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's music was punctuated by catchy hooks and deft guitar work, but the true heart of the band's creativity lay in Walker's lyrics. 10 years before "emo," Walker penned sensitive, introspective and poetic lyrics that struck a chord with kids in the punk, metal and straight edge scenes.
Bedlam Hour was known all over 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 was made up of Walker (guitar, vocals), Scott Frey (drums) and Adam Kolesar (bass), who often appeared on stage clad only in an adult-size diaper.
One of the most long-lived of the SC punk bands, Bedlam Hour continued to release material through the late 1990's with several different lineups fronted by Walker, though many fans still point to "Rock the Cradle" as the band's definitive work.
Now, the infamous Chuck Walker works as a Creative Writing teacher at his local high school. His influential and groundbreaking music is often played in the classroom to give his students a source of inspiration. Now that he has "found Jesus," he is working with a band called the Mill Village Apostles, who only play punk renditions of traditional hymns and other religious works. His new self-titled CD can be found in Hot Topics throughout the southeast.
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