Biography
Something of a dark horse in the New Zealand rock canon, Breathing Cage reads like a super group of New Zealand musicians (vocals by Jay Clarkson, guitar by Greg Malcolm, drums by Gary Sullivan and bass by Michael Kime) and actually went on to win the then coveted Rheineck Rock Award.
At the time they were quite a controversial choice – factions within the New Zealand Music industry thought that the group was not commercial enough to be deserving of the prize, and that the NZ$44,000 prize (which was ultimately spent on recording costs) would be better allocated to a group more likely to recoup the costs.
Unfortunately things didn’t pan out when it came to spending the prize – recording at then state-of-the-art Airforce Studios in Auckland, the group went beyond their sizeable budget. Ultimately the studio foreclosed on their recordings as the group couldn’t get a record label to pay for the excess, and the album went unreleased for many years with the groups members all moving on to other projects.
In 2006 Christchurch label Failsafe Records compiled the groups early demoes for Misericord into a new compilation titled ‘Split Milk’, and then in 2017 the ‘classic’ group lineup reunited for a couple shows.
Members
- Jay Clarkson (vocals, Breathing Cage, Expendables, Jay Clarkson & The Containers, Playthings, They Were Expendable, The Matches, The Pikelettes)
- Greg Malcolm (guitar, Breathing Cage, Don’t Make Noise, One Leg Too Short, Three Leaning Men, Surfing USSR)
- Gary Sullivan (drums, Chug, Dimmer, Jean-Paul Sartre Experience, Solid Gold Hell, The Stereo Bus, Breathing Cage)
- Michael Kime (bass, Breathing Cage, Expendables, One Leg Too Short, Wang)
- Dave Deacon (drums/vocals, Breathing Cage)
- Marc Howe (bass, Breathing Cage, Triffids, Rocketmonster, Surfing USSR, South Tonight)
- Shane Bollingford (drums, Pleasure Boys, Dolphin, Breathing Cage)
- Graeme Jeffries (guitar, Nocturnal Projections, The Cakekitchen, The Sombretones, This Kind Of Punishment, Breathing Cage)
Discography
- You and Me and the Old Hill Cassingle (1991, as Jay Clarkson Breathing Cage, Flying Nun Records Records, FN135)
- Misericord (1991 as Jay Clarkson Breathing Cage, Tall Poppy, L30589)
- Split Milk (2006, Failsafe Records, SAFE078)