The God Machine

The God Machine was a rock band active in the first half of the 1990s. Its members were all from San Diego, California, U.S., but they all lived and performed mainly in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, they were one of the few foreign acts to play at the short-lived Repre club in the Obecni dum in Prague

The band consisted of three members, Robin Proper-Sheppard (born Gary Sheppard) (guitar/vocals), Jimmy Fernandez (bass) and Ronald Austin (drums), and they first performed officially under the name The God Machine in 1991. They released an EP, Purity with the record label Eve, and were later given contracts with the label Fiction. They released two albums in their career, both with their trademark dark and industrial-sounding alternative rock, before Jimmy Fernandez suddenly died from a cancerous brain tumour. Robin went on to form The Flower Shop Recordings label, and bands Sophia and The May Queens.

Their second album, One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying, was recognized by Alternative Press as one of the "90 greatest albums of the 90s" (#88) in their December 1998 issue.

Their San Diego incarnation was called Society Line and also featured guitarist Albert Amman, who left the band before its move to London.