Andy Martin (ex-Black Flag / Carnage) joined them as singer at the end of 1981, and the group gave their first concert on September 22, 1981. This formation of the group recorded a demo – "The Apostles" – at the end of 1981.
The band's music is generally characterized by a varied eclecticism that encompasses punk, blues rock, industrial music (with influences like Lemon Kittens, Nocturnal Emissions and Five Or Six cited) and more abstract avant-garde experimentation.
The band's remaining founding members left the group in early 1982. Martin recruited Dave Fanning (ex-Innocent Bystander) as bassist, as well as a rotating line-up of musicians (which included John Soares, Kev Apostle, Flump, Chris Low (ex-Political Asylum) and Olly Bucket (Eat Shit)) in order to perpetuate the group which gave numerous concerts in the London area, and recorded 8 demo cassettes and 4 7/" singles between 1982 and 1984.
Andy Martin and Dave Fanning were joined in 1984 by Malcolm /"Scruff/" Lewty (later of Hellbastard, Sidewinder, Nero Circus and Heavy Water) and drummer Chris Widni who created a line-up that remained relatively stable (with (addition of Sean Stokes and Colin Murrell) until the band's demise in the late 1980s. The group recorded over 10 demo cassettes, 4 7/" singles and 7 12/" LPs between mid-1984 and 1990. Original guitarist Pete Bynghall joined the group at the end of 1988 for their final recordings and final concert (see Live At The Académie).
Always highly critical of the seemingly inward-looking anarchist movement of the time, the Apostles' autonomous and extreme libertarian approach seemed to portray classical anarchism, as opposed to the conformism of many of their contemporaries. This led the band to receive respect from notable members of the anarcho-punk movement such as Conflict, who released three records from The Apostles, and Crass with whom the band cooperated during the Zig-Zag Club squat and at the he era when the anarchist venues The Autonomy Center and Centro Iberico operated. Martin and Fanning worked during this period at Little @ Printers – an anarchist print shop located in the same building as the Autonomy Center in Wapping.
The anti-communist and anti-gay lyrics of "Rock Against Communism" and "Kill or Cure" on the ep "Giving of Loving Costs Nothing" and other similarly themed later songs opened the band to accusations of fascism and of homophobia. While this material was intended to denounce the indifferent attitudes of those within the "anarcho punk" milieu who did not question such openly provocative sentiments (a tactic Andy Martin had used since joining the band), they undermined the coherence of the group. ideology, leading Stewart Home, in his book Cranked Up Really High, to describe the Apostles as "locked in… stasis, even real paralysis /".
While the band was together, Andy Martin began writing about his homosexuality and the subject in general, which alienated many of their former fans but did not deter Martin. In 1989, Andy and Dave did an interview with the fanzine Homocore that addressed this issue.[1] Among their many released recordings, The Apostles contributed the song /"Forbidden Love/" to the first queercore compilation, JD.s Top Ten Homocore Hits, released by the JDs fanzine in 1990.
The Apostles broke up as a group in 1990, immediately forming Academy 23 which also included Nathan Coles (of The Unbelievables) and Lawrence Burton (formerly of Konstruktivists). The band collaborated with industrial band The Gray Wolves on two songs, /"Terror Chamber/" and /"Terror Intensifies/.
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