Biography
High School punk group formed by Jeff Batts (who would go on to find same with The Stones), Craig Easton (The Verlaines), Martin Phillips (The Chills) and Alistair Dunn. The group played their first live show in April 1979 (with Paul Baird replacing Dunn as drummer).
Over Labour Weekend 1978 Batts and Phillipps stayed up all night with their friends Craig Easton and Alistair Dunn bashing away at their instruments (Dunn on biscuit tins). That was the birth of schoolpunk band The Same.
A slightly revised line-up played covers of ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘Louie Louie’ and moved on to some “fairly out-of-control punkish originals”. For a long time, the band’s magnum opus was ‘Thalidomide Baby’ – a ballad-cum-punk thrash in the worst possible taste.
From ‘Dunedin Draught: the Birth of the Chills’ by Peter Ellison (AudioCulture)
By early 1980 Batts and Easton had left, with Phillips’ sister Rachel and Jane Dodd joining Martin Phillips and Baird – This prototype Chills line-up would write and perform future fan favourites ‘Frantic Drift‘, ‘Satin Doll‘ and ‘Kaleidoscope World‘, before disbanding in mid-1980.
When it came for The Chills to record their contribution to the famed ‘Dunedin Double’ 4-band compilation which essentially defined The Dunedin Sound, Phillips chose the 3 older songs as a way of clearing the decks for future recordings.
Martin Phillips passed away in July 2024.
Members
- Jeff Batts (Bored Games, The Same, The Stones, The Pterodactyls, vocals)
- Craig Easton (The Verlaines, guitar)
- Martin Phillips (The Same, The Chills, Time Flies, Pop Art Toasters, Martin and the Moondogs, David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights, guitar / vocals)
- Alistair Dunn (drums)
- Paul Baird (drums)
- Gaynor Propsting (bass)
- Jane Dodd (bass)
- Monica Hales
- Rachel Phillips (guitar, keyboards)
Discography
- None, though The Chills contribution to the famed ‘Dunedin Double’ is comprised of 3 songs written by Phillips for The Same.