diff --git a/client/css/style.css b/client/css/style.css
index f3e20e0c..2d8b281c 100644
--- a/client/css/style.css
+++ b/client/css/style.css
@@ -915,6 +915,18 @@ button {
 .bg-14 { background: #aaa; }
 .bg-15 { background: #ddd; }
 
+.irc-bold {
+    font-weight: bold;
+}
+
+.irc-underline {
+    text-decoration: underline;
+}
+
+.irc-italic {
+    font-style:italic
+}
+
 /**
  * TrackpadScrollEmulator
  * Version: 1.0.6
diff --git a/client/js/libs/handlebars/parse.js b/client/js/libs/handlebars/parse.js
index b0950d54..a8e6a770 100644
--- a/client/js/libs/handlebars/parse.js
+++ b/client/js/libs/handlebars/parse.js
@@ -48,46 +48,96 @@ function uri(text) {
 	});
 }
 
-var regex = {
-	color: /\003([0-9]{1,2})[,]?([0-9]{1,2})?([^\003]+)/,
-	terminator: /\x0D/,
-	styles: [
-		[/\002([^\002]+)(\002)?/, ["<b>", "</b>"]],
-		[/\037([^\037]+)(\037)?/, ["<u>", "</u>"]],
-	]
+
+/**
+ * MIRC compliant colour and style parser
+ * Unfortuanately this is a non trivial operation
+ * See this branch for source and tests
+ * https://github.com/megawac/irc-style-parser/tree/shout
+ */
+var styleCheck_Re = /[\x00-\x1F]/,
+    back_re = /^(\d{1,2})(,(\d{1,2}))?/,
+    colourKey = "\x03", colour_re = /\x03/g,
+    // breaks all open styles ^O (\x0F)
+    styleBreak = "\x0F";
+
+
+var styleTemplate = function(settings) {
+    return "<span class='" + settings.style + "'>" + settings.text + "</span>";
 };
-function colors(text) {
-	if (!text) {
-		return text;
-	}
-	if (regex.terminator.test(text)) {
-		return $.map(text.split(regex.terminator), colors);
-	}
-	if (regex.color.test(text)) {
-		var match, bg;
-		while (match = regex.color.exec(text)) {
-			var color = "color-" + match[1];
-			if (match[2]) {
-				bg = match[2];
-			}
-			if (bg) {
-				color += " bg-" + bg;
-			}
-			var text = text.replace(
-				match[0],
-				"<span class='" + color + "'>" + match[3] + "</span>"
-			);
-		}
-	}
-	for (var i in regex.styles) {
-		var pattern = regex.styles[i][0];
-		var style = regex.styles[i][1];
-		if (pattern.test(text)) {
-			var match;
-			while (match = pattern.exec(text)) {
-				text = text.replace(match[0], style[0] + match[1] + style[1]);
-			}
-		}
-	}
-	return text;
+
+var styles = [
+    ["normal", "\x00", ""], ["underline", "\x1F"],
+    ["bold", "\x02"], ["italic", "\x1D"]
+].map(function(style) {
+    var escaped = encodeURI(style[1]).replace("%", "\\x");
+    return {
+        name: style[0],
+        style: style[2] != null ? style[2] : "irc-" + style[0],
+        key: style[1],
+        keyregex: new RegExp(escaped + "(.*?)(" + escaped + "|$)")
+    };
+});
+
+//http://www.mirc.com/colors.html
+var colourMap = {};
+for (var colour = 0; colour < 16; colour++) {
+    colourMap[colour] = {
+        fore: "color-" + colour,
+        back: "bg-" + colour
+    };
+}
+
+function colors(line) {
+    // http://www.mirc.com/colors.html
+    // http://www.aviran.org/stripremove-irc-client-control-characters/
+    // https://github.com/perl6/mu/blob/master/examples/rules/Grammar-IRC.pm
+    // regexs are cruel to parse this thing
+
+    // already done?
+    if (!styleCheck_Re.test(line)) return line;
+
+    // split up by the irc style break character ^O
+    if (line.indexOf(styleBreak) >= 0) {
+        return line.split(styleBreak).map(colors).join("");
+    }
+
+    var result = line;
+    var parseArr = result.split(colourKey);
+    var text, match, colour, background = "";
+    for (var i = 0; i < parseArr.length; i++) {
+        text = parseArr[i];
+        match = text.match(back_re);
+        colour = match && colourMap[+match[1]];
+        if (!match || !colour) {
+            // ^C (no colour) ending. Escape current colour and carry on
+            background = "";
+            continue;
+        }
+        // set the background colour
+        // we don't overide the background local var to support nesting
+        if (colourMap[+match[3]]) {
+            background = " " + colourMap[+match[3]].back;
+        }
+        // update the parsed text result
+        result = result.replace(colourKey + text, styleTemplate({
+            style: colour.fore + background,
+            text: text.slice(match[0].length)
+        }));
+    }
+
+    // Matching styles (italics/bold/underline)
+    // if only colours were this easy...
+    styles.forEach(function(style) {
+        if (result.indexOf(style.key) < 0) return;
+        result = result.replace(style.keyregex, function(match, text) {
+            return styleTemplate({
+                "style": style.style,
+                "text": text
+            });
+        });
+    });
+
+    //replace the reminent colour terminations and be done with it
+    return result.replace(colour_re, "");
 }