English-born composer who on settling in New Zealand in the early 1980’s started working with many of New Zealand’s best and most creative contemporary independent musicians and groups – Tall Dwarfs, Blam Blam Blam, Big Sideways, Avant Garage etc.
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One off x-mas theme side-project (joke release?) from Toy Love’s Chris Knox and his soundman cohort Doug Hood (who both lived in Jessel Street in Grey Lynn, Auckland) featuring their partners Barbara Ward and Carol Hood. Sometimes credited to David Kilgour and Martin Phillips too.
Though lasting just 18 months, Toy Love were one of New Zealand’s most influential groups. Chris Knox, Alec Bathgate and Mike Dooley had come from The Enemy were joined by the Christchurch duo of Paul Kean and Kate Walker to form the most brilliantly dynamic new wave group.
The And Band were an outgrowth of influential but undiscovered Wellington punk-oddities The Spies. When feed up with the limitations of the Wellington scene, the band, along with several of their friends relocated to a small Christchurch flat, sharing a recording space (and the actual 4-track) with Perfect Strangers.
Alec Bathgate’s always kept a couple steps back in his fellow Enemy, Toy Love and Tall Dwarfs shadow, but released a lovely little Byrds-jangle-pop album (with heavy Beatles and Beach Boy flourishes) in 1996.
More technically competent than Knox, and somewhat reserved (in comparison at least), Bathgate is a reflective, precarious song-writer of great talent.
The Clean have left a giant stamp on New Zealand Independent Music. The group that came to define ‘The Dunedin Sound’ had a terrific topsy-turvy career that spanned 5 albums and a number of EPs, singles, compilations and live releases over a 31 year time-span.
The Old Star Tavern (aka The Star Tavern, Lion Tavern) was a large old Pub on Lincoln Road, not far from Hagley Park that sprung to life with live entertainment during the mid 1980’s.
Circa 1983-4, local Punk and Dance impresario (and general taste-maker) Tony Peake was responsible for booking bands at the large, popular Gladstone venue, alongside Al Parke. Meanwhile up in Auckland Peter Urlich was establishing the original Zanzibar dance-club in Auckland – and was planning a similar spot in Christchurch with the help of local proprietor John McCarthy, who owned the Old Star Tavern.
Peake was brought in to establish a new nightclub within the pub, taking the same name as the Auckland venue and putting on regular nights, DJing a mix of Post-Punk, Dance, Dub, Hip-Hop – whatever he saw fit.
2001, Flying Nun Records, FNCD456 After 20 years of continually releasing dynamic, independent and thoroughly inventive music – the Tall Dwarfs have released perhaps their most laid-back and restrained full length with ‘The Sky Above, The Mud Below’, their 13th… Read More »Tall Dwarfs – The Sky Above, The Mud Below
Alec Bathgate isn’t a household name in New Zealand. Though his most famous group (Tall Dwarfs) and his subsequent partner-in-crime (Chris Knox) may have achieved a level of recognition slightly beyond the typical indie-rock crowd, Bathgate remains one of New… Read More »Alec Bathgate [November 2004]
Biography After Toy Love (the bastard son of The Enemy) disintegrated in 1980, Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate were so fed up with the ‘band’ approach to making music, that they formed The Tall Dwarfs as a performing collective absolutely… Read More »Tall Dwarfs
Biography I’ve had a hard time starting this profile. A man who’s done so much for New Zealand (underground) music that it wouldn’t really be the same without him – Knox was responsible for so many changes in the way… Read More »Chris Knox
2004, Lil Chief, LCR009 I’ve tried to start this review several times now. There is something about Alec Bathgate‘s music that is so compelling that it’s a mystery why I find it hard to describe why his subtle blends of… Read More »Alec Bathgate – The Indifferent Velvet Void
After the abstract computer-orientated Friend project, Chris Knox (guitar and vocals) got back to business as a live performer by forming the Nothing with the very talented Stefan Neville (Pumice) on drums, and Jol Mulholland (Gasoline Cowboy on guitar. The… Read More »Chris Knox and the Nothing
The independent label that put New Zealand Music on the map. From Roger Shephard’s formation of the label in 1980 through to now, Flying Nun has been a mark of creative, quirky, inventive music with a distinct kiwi flavor.
Over the last 20 years The Bats have garnished a label of dependability – and with good reason. Though now taking a little bit of time between releases (one might jump to the conclusion that ‘At The National Grid’ is… Read More »The Bats [February 2006]