Fu Manchu formed in 1985 in Orange County, California, originally under the name Virulence, a hardcore punk band with the lineup of vocalist Ken Pucci, guitarist Scott Hill, bassist Mark Abshire, and drummer Ruben Romano. In 1990, Pucci left the band and was replaced by vocalist Glenn Chivens, and they changed their name to Fu Manchu. Not long after, Scott Hill opted to take over on vocal duties along with playing guitar, and the band's sound shifted from raw hardcore into more of a rock sound inspired by the California lifestyle, UFOs, bigfoot, muscle cars, skateboarding, surfing and 70s movies among other subjects. The group's debut full length, "No One Rides for Free," followed in 1994, cementing their template of thick, downtuned riffs paired with a distinctly Southern California sensibility.
The band's breakthrough arrived in the mid to late 1990s as the classic lineup solidified. The third Fu Manchu album, 1996's In Search Of, was their first under a new contract with Mammoth Records, and was also their last album with Eddie Glass and Ruben Romano, who left to form the group Nebula with fellow alumnus Mark Abshire. With guitarist Bob Balch and drummer Brant Bjork, Fu Manchu was once again fully staffed, and 1997's The Action Is Go, the first album with this lineup, would be hailed by critics as a step forward for the band. That momentum carried the band onto major stages, and during this era Fu Manchu cemented their reputation as a prodigious live act touring alongside the Melvins, White Zombie, and Clutch. The band also toured successfully with Ozzy Osbourne in 1997. The follow-up albums "King of the Road" (2000), recorded at Monkey Studios in Palm Desert and built around songs about cars and car culture, and "California Crossing" (2001), whose lead single "Squash That Fly" received regular radio airplay upon its release, further established Fu Manchu as leaders of the burgeoning stoner and desert rock movement alongside peers like Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age.
Fu Manchu's lineup found lasting stability in the early 2000s. 2001's California Crossing would be the final Fu Manchu album for Brant Bjork, and Scott Reeder took over as drummer, providing the final piece in what became Fu Manchu's most stable and longest-running lineup. Over the following two decades the band continued to release acclaimed records including "We Must Obey" (2007), "Signs of Infinite Power" (2009), "Gigantoid" (2014), and "Clone of the Universe" (2018), the latter featuring a guest appearance from Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson. In 2020 the band marked a major milestone, celebrating the 30th anniversary of FU MANCHU's inception with the announcement of a massive global tour , reflecting on origins that traced back to "generator parties" in the high plains of Palm Desert that sparked an underground music scene which would define and shape the sound of Southern California rock and inspire a generation of bands. Fu Manchu remains active today, still fronted by founding guitarist and vocalist Scott Hill alongside longtime members Bob Balch, Brad Davis, and Scott Reeder. In 2024 the band released their 14th studio album, The Return of Tomorrow, and embarked on a world tour to bring the new music to the fans, which led to the 2025 release of "The Return Of...Live," their first official live album in 20 years. Decades into their career, Fu Manchu are still widely regarded within the genre they helped define, having built a reputation as, in the words of one outlet, "one of the most loved and revered... bands in the stoner rock world." For this archive, Fu Manchu occupies a modest but meaningful place in Wayne Dennon's body of work. Wayne photographed the band at one show in 2004, capturing them during the fertile period following "California Crossing" and around the "Start the Machine" era, when the band's now-classic lineup was firmly in stride on the road. The dozen photographs from that night remain among the collection's steady favorites, having drawn 9,688 views from visitors exploring the archive, a testament to the enduring pull of a band whose riffs and road-worn ethos have kept fans coming back for decades.
