In the first years of the 21st Century, 5 individuals at the height of their fame playing in different bands pushed the envelope of music too far. Playing in groups as well known as the The Ozric Tentacles, No Faffin' Philarmonic, The Vinyl Frontier, Shepherds Moosh and Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds Orchestra they were so innovative in their approach and aspired to such dizzy heights that looking back now, it seems so obvious that disaster was inevitable:

One dark night in October 2001, playing a behind closed doors gig to some foreign exchange students, The Big Shmigelsky played such an awesome and far out drum fill that due to its raw intensity an audience member's head exploded. Despite attempts to reconstruct the head using a nearby discarded avocado and some chicken wire the audience member sadly died. A week later in a small Scandinavian restaurant in Chiswick, Stu was in the throws of a voodoo guitar solo. Unfortunately, one party goer was stupid enough to stare at Stu's fingers for longer than the industry guideline of 5 seconds resulting in his eyes permanently rolling back into his head. That same night Elmo was arrested on the Isle of Man for breaching the Island's legal limit for uttered syllables in any one minute. 3 days later, the KRL's Didgeridoo playing caused structural damage to all buildings with in a half mile radius of Totton Working Men's Club and finally, only 2 further days later at a concert in Slough the UBQ played a sawtooth wave based sweep on a synth which covered frequencies that caused a nearby pensioner's hip replacement to melt!

News of these catastrophes travelled fast. Coverage in the media was relentless and damning. Despite their ground breaking feats they were shunned by large sections of society who were unappreciative of their achievements. The ensuing verbal onslaught meant that all 5 men were thrust from stardom to infamy with in a matter of weeks. Hearing of each other's fates propelled them together, at first only to console one another but as the wounds of the past were slowly repressed the temptation to make music returned and was too great to ignore. From that day on, they made the compromise that was necessary: for the sake of our planet and the survival of the human race they made a vow that they could never be that good again! They became The Elementalists!