Biography
Formative and short-lived Christchurch post-punk band featuring Ian Blenkinsop (Scorched Earth Policy, The McGoohans, Gas) and Mick Elborado (Scorched Earth Policy, The Terminals, King Loser, Palace of Wisdom etc) along with Craig Davison and Andrew Vallance.
The short history of the group was mentioned by Peter Stapleton in the oral history he did with Zoe Drayton of Audio Foundation in 2009:
Then I got a phone call from these guys … it was either Mick or … there was this band called Drowning is Easy. They were all English immigrants. They’d come out here sort of when they were 12 but they were young, they were much younger than us, and they played. They weren’t old enough to get into the Gladstone. That’s right, they used to hang around outside and occasionally Rose would let them in towards the end of the night.
I remember the last time the Pin Group played we insisted that they be allowed in because we thought they were quite … we knew their band was quite funny. They had a weird kind of jokey punk band, sort of like the TV Personalities or something like that and they had these recrimination songs about everybody. They were hilarious and they were pretty good, sort of punk/ pop, with these just hilarious lyrics. They had this great song called ‘Spoons for Christ’ I remember that the drummer sang and it had all these outlandish lines in it and they had another song called ‘Arson’ which was also great.
Peter Stapleton – Oral History (Zoe Drayton – Audio Foundation)
Formed in early 1981, and split in late march 1982, originally leaving behind only a split 7″ EP left to document their brief existence. ‘Arson‘ would later resurface as both a McGoohans and Scorched Earth Policy song, with Ian and Mick recruiting Peter Stapleton to form the later band:
Anyway one of them rang me up and said ‘Do you want to play, we’re starting a new band?’ or something. So I started playing with them and I said ‘Is it okay if Mary plays too?’ So it was Mary and me and Mick and a guy who was called Chauvin. His real name was Ian but Desmond gave all these people names and he became Andre Chauvin ‘the Urban Guerilla’ because he’d done this robbery of a brewery. He and two other guys had robbed the brewery in Christchurch and got away with all these crates of beer. They got caught of course and he got community service or something but he became Andre Chauvin the urban Guerilla. So he was just called Chauve.
Peter Stapleton – Oral History (Zoe Drayton – Audio Foundation)
In 2014 German label Unwucht (who have also released recordings from the likes of Bill Direen and Ritchie Venus) put together a retrospective 7″ EP release compiling their 2 Tandem Studio recordings alongside 2 songs taken from a live at the Star and Garter pub in Christchurch, 1982.
Members
- Ian Blenkinsop (Gas, Scorched Earth Policy, The McGoohans, guitar / vocals, 1981 – 1982)
- Mick Elborado (Minus 2, Alien, Gas, Negative Nancies, Ritchie Venus and the Blue Beetles, Scorched Earth Policy, The Palace Of Wisdom, The Shallows, The Terminals, bass / vocals, 1981 – 1982)
- Craig Davison (Junkanoo, drums / vocals, 1981 – 1982)
- Andrew Vallance (keyboards, 1981 – 1982)
Discography
- You Explode Me! Woman 7″ Split EP (1982, w/ Erich Zann and The Zeds, Tandem, PR2012A)
- Drowning Is Easy (2014, Unwucht, UN022)
Links
- Discogs Entry
- Peter Stapleton – Oral History parts 4- 5 (2009, Zoe Drayton – Audio Foundation)