the brain-child of temperamental crazy-guy chris matthews, the headless chickens started out as a children’s hour spin-off band, and took a while before their bizarre, synth-inflected style took hold. members included matthews, johnny pierce, grant fell, michael lawry, bevan sweeney, rupert taylor and anthony nevison.
one of the most popular bands in the country during the mid 90s due to the hit laden body blow and greedyalbums, their body of work various quite markedly from start to finish. songs like ‘cruise control’ and their mammoth hit ‘george’ (which featured one-time vocalist Fiona mcdonald) had big choruses and affectionate instrumentation, whilst previously they had been a dark and quite unusual beast. mcdonald later left the band, leaving matthews to pick up the pieces, but they faded into the background as mcdonald contributed vocals to the strawpeoples eclectic debut.
Discography
picks in bold
- headless chickens 12″ ep [1986 flying nun / mushroom uk FN061 / D19853] rn
- ‘sour catcha’/’donka’ 7″ single [1988 flying nun FN088]
- stunt clown
[1988 flying nun FN100 / FNE24] rn - expecting to fly 12″ ep [1988 flying nun FN102]
- ‘gaskrankinstation’/’crash hot’ 12″ / 7″ / cassette single [1988 flying nun FN131/139/140]
- body blow
[1993 flying nun FN206] rn - ‘cruise control’ (album mix)/’cruise control’ (eros mix)/’cruise control’ (sob mix)/’i’m talking to you’ 12″ / cd single [1991 flying nun FN207]
- ‘donde esta la pollo’ (kentucky freud mix)/’donde esta la pollo’ (hen party mix)/’donde esta la pollo’ (cock rock mix)/’cruise control’ (house of harrow mix)/’cruise control’ (karaoke mix) 12″ / cd single [1992 flying nun FN231]
- ‘juice’/’choppers’/’choppers’ (heli-bator mix)/’play it again, kiri’ cd single [1992 flying nun FN255]
- ‘mr. moon’/’inside track’ (natty house mix)/’inside track’ (natty instrumental mix)/’attack of the killer androids’ cd single [1993 flying nun FN267]
- ‘george’/’cruise control’ (eskimos inegypt mix)/’bestiary’/’milton babbit’s rarotongan holiday’ cd single [1994 flying nun FN302]
- ‘juice’ (ollie j 12″ remix)/’juice’ (ollie j 12″ dub)/’juice’ (original mix) 12″ single [1994 flying nun FN304]
- ‘magnet’/’smoking big ted’/’monster’/’magnet’ (browning version) cd single [1997 flying nun FN319] rn
- greedy [1998 flying nun FN320]
- ‘secondtime virgin’/’stalk of a cherry’ [screaming chickens version]/’dumbhead’/’ce4’/’used to’ cd single [1998 included with greedy flying nun FN408]
- chickens hits double cd [compilation 2002 flying nun FN467]
awards etc
rianz awards 1991
- album of the year body blowrn
- top female vocalist of the year fiona mcdonaldrn
rianz awards 1993
- single of the year ‘juice’/’choppers’rn
- top group of the year headless chickensrn
- top female vocalist of the year fiona mcdonaldrn
rianz awards 1994
- international achievement headless chickensrn
- top female vocalist of the year fiona mcdonaldrn