Orange County Punk act THE OFFSPRING have crossed over successfully into the mainstream as part of the 90's American Punk Rock revival. The Orange County band were formed at a SOCIAL DISTORTION gig in 1983 by former members of CLOWNS OF DEATH and MANIC SUBSIDAL. The act's original line up comprised of frontman Dexter Holland (real name Bryan Holland), bassist Greg Kriesel, guitarist 'Noodles' (real name Kevin Wasserman) and drummer James Lilja.

Holland and Kriesel had vowed to create a Punk band together after hearing the TSOL track 'Change Today', subsequently forging MANIC SUBSIDAL with singer Doug Thompson and drummer Jim Benton. When Thompson bailed out Holland took the lead vocal role. Local gigs led up to a name change to THE OFFSPRING in 1985. Rehearsals were conducted at Kriesel's family home inbetween study sessions- Holland was devoting time to achieving a PhD in molecular biology whilst Kriesel scored a finance degree.

The band pulled in Noodles- the eldest at 21- on second guitar supplanting their previous six stringer. Following the release of a self financed single 'I'll Be Waiting' in 1986- limited to 1000 copies- THE OFFSPRING drafted former FQX ('FUCK QUALITY X RAYS') drummer Ron Welty- then a sprightly 16- to replace Lilja. The band was now stable but finances were far from being so and every cent was scraped together to record and manufacture. Unable to afford sleeve assembly costs for the 'I'll Be Waiting' release the group designed and individually stuck together the jackets for the single. Released on their own Black imprint 'I'll Be Waiting' took over two years to sell out. Now a collectors item 'I'll Be Waiting' rarely turns up on the market in less than a sorry state as the cheap glue used by the band to stick the two halves of the sleeve together soon gave out.

A demo ensued in 1988 but found little favour with record companies. After many fruitless months a deal was finally cut with the Nemesis label for the 'Baghdad' EP. Produced by Thom Wilson, a Punk guru whose credits numbered such esteemed names as TSOL, THE VANDALS and DEAD KENNEDYS, the record fared well and led to a full album deal. Issued in 1989 'The Offspring' was released in a blizzard of Californian Punk product and was largely overlooked.

The OFFSPRING signed to erstwhile BAD RELIGION guitarist Brett Gurewitz's Punk breeding ground Epitaph Records for the 1992 'Ignition' album.

The 'Smash' album, featuring a cover of THE DIDJITS 'Killboy Powerhead', went onto sell over 11 million copies but its success would fuel a major label bidding war, eventually won by Columbia Records, and a lengthy and vocal fued with Epitaph. By contrast it's follow up 'Ixnay On The Hombre' gained a respectable 3 million but the critics knives were out.

Kriesel and Holland founded their own Punk record label Nitro in 1995.

THE OFFSPRING's 1997 single 'All I Want' included a cover version of the DAMNED's 'Smash It Up' as a B side track. Follow up 'Gone Away'paid homage to JIMI HENDRIX's 'Hey Joe' as an extra track.

The band put in a short burst of American dates in late April 2000 supported by LINKIN PARK, ORGY, SPACEHOG and EVE 6 to promote their second single from 'Conspiracy Of One' titled 'I Want You Bad'.

The 2001 single 'Million Miles Away' was backed with a version of AC/DC's 'Sin City'. Other studio activity found the band appearing amongst a genuine all star cast donating their take of 'I Wanna Be Sedated' to the 2002 Joey Ramone and ROB ZOMBIE assembled RAMONES tribute album 'We're A Happy Family'.

After a 15 year term of service drummer Ron Welty opted out in March of 2003 to build up his new band project STEADY GROUND. Initial reports suggested A PERFECT CIRCLE and VANDALS man Josh Freese had been enrolled as substitute. A six week US tour commencing April of 2004 saw support lent by Aimee Echo's THE START and Swedish act THE (INTERNATIONAL) NOISE CONSPIRACY. Subsequent dates, commencing 11th May in Minneapolis, found former HOLE and SMASHING PUMPKINS bassist MELISSA AUF DER MAUR acting as opener.

'Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace' emerged in June 2008.