The Armchair came into being when four Fine Arts students studying at W.A.I.T. joined forces to engage in what was basically performance art. Poetry was read in a lugubrious voice by Fred Gilbert, while others banged pieces of metal and sometimes jammed on more conventional instruments. Their occasional public performances were usually at venues such as the Wizbah.

Val, Peter, Fred and others hung around an old weatherboard house in Sussex Street in Victoria Park, a house that had been rented by art students since time immemorial. The musical jams that took place there were the crucible for many bands to come. The Armchair passed out of existence but out of the same core of people came The Inevitable Boo and Love Pump, among other bands.

Val Tarin

Ian Sinclair

Peter Morse

Fred Gilbert

A performance piece by The Armchair was videotaped at the televison studio at W.A.I.T. sometime in 1983, directed by Thomas Kayser (and therefore with a cropped image to resemble an extreme "letterbox" effect). It lasts approximately 15 minutes, and ends with the participants giving an impromptu accapella performance of "Blue Moon".