Chris Matthews - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Samples, Drums (1985-2000);
Michael Lawry - Keyboards, Samples, Tapes, Guitar (1985-1995);
Johnny Pierce - Bass, Vocals (1985-1986);
Grant Fell - Bass (1987-1996);
Rupert E. Taylor - Vocals (1987-1990);
Bevan Sweeney - Drums (1987-1997);
Anthony Nevison - Keyboards, Samples, Guitar, Vocals (1989-1993);
Fiona McDonald - Vocals, Keyboards (1991-1995);
Angus McNaughton - Keyboards, Samples (1995-1997);
Bevan Larsen - Bass (1997-2000);
Simon 'Flex' Claridge - Keyboards, Samples, Guitar (1997-2000);
Ian Taylor - Drums (1997-2000).
Influences
Erik Satie, Yma Sumac, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Beatles, The Doors, Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett, Velvet Underground, Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra, Silver Apples, The Residents, Iggy & The Stooges, Leonard Cohen, Popol Vuh, Captain Beefheart, John Cale, Nico, Can, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Brian Eno, Neu!, Faust, Split Enz, Lydia Lunch, Suicide, Toy Love, The Mekons, Pere Ubu, Robert Haigh, Wire/Colin Newman/Dome, The Gordons, Cabaret Voltaire, Tuxedo Moon, Skeptics, This Heat, Coil, etc, and loads of films and film composers.
HOT Firstly: This page is maintained by Chris Matthews so I don't speak for anyone else from the band. Secondly: I (Chris Matthews) am Robot Monkey Orchestra so if you want to know what I'm up to then go and check my songs out on my profile on the Top Friends or go and buy my new CD, The Map Of Love on
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Headless Chickens formed in 1985 and performed for the first time as International Headless Chickens (I.H.C.) at the multi-media event The Nitpickers Picnic later that year. The initial line-up was ex-Children's Hour members Chris Matthews and Johnny Pierce, along with Michael Lawry. The project became permanent following Chris and Johnny leaving This Kind of Punishment and their first release was a track 'Trigger' on the 1986 student radio compilation album Outnumbered By Sheep. Also in early 1986 they recorded a track 'Throwback' for The Children Of The Generator compilation album released by Pagan Records. They were one of the first bands in NZ to experiment with new technology: samplers, drum machines and synthesizers.
They played a handful of Auckland gigs and toured NZ as support act to Nico & The Faction before the untimely suicide of Johnny Pierce in August 1986, and they subsequently released an eponymous mini-album on Flying Nun Records in early 1987 containing the 7 tracks recorded with Johnny from early in 1985 up until his death. In June 1987 Grant Fell, formerly the second guitarist in Childrens Hour (and N.R.A.), joined them as bass player and soon after they also took on ex-Bird Nest Roys singer Rupert E. Taylor.
Fortune came when they entered the 1987 Rheineck Rock Award and won, which proved to be very controversial with the mainstream media but meant the band was able to record an album and promote a national tour with the $60,000 prize money. Up until then they had been performing without a drummer, using drum machines or recordings instead, and ex-Childrens Hour and NRA drummer Bevan Sweeney joined the band to give the album the feel of a real drummer. Stunt Clown was recorded in Dec 1987 - Jan 1988 and when released later in the new year it sold well and received positive critical response. The material on the album is quite diverse and was at the time quite different to the typical NZ music sound and even anything else on Flying Nun. Do The Headless Chicken is described as "an epic featuring at least two scintillating guitar riffs and ending with a drum machine that's almost terrifying." Star At Night was also a highlight with its cynicism and sarcasm evident in the line "Hip hooray, hip hooray, here comes another day." The first single off the album was Donka which remained a favourite with audiences for years. A successful tour of Australia was undertaken in late 1988.
In early 1989 keyboardist/guitarist/bass player Anthony Nevison was added to the band following the release of the Expecting To Fly single, described as being "on its way to becoming a NZ classic" (RAD Magazine, December '88). The band then recorded the 12" Gaskrankinstation, a powerful song about a tale of moral despair which in a review received the comment "This song gathers momentum like an articulated lorry left on a slope with the brakes off." (Rip It Up, May '90).
Headless Chickens had some trouble being accepted and promoted because they did not have the 'normal' (i.e. Dunedin) sound of a N.Z. Flying Nun band, an attitude they obviously didn't have much time for. Their extensive use of technology and samples was seen by some as an "easy way to make music" and supposedly not exciting to play, but Grant Fell of the band disagreed, "I find it a lot more satisfying. As a band we're continually finding new ground and the way for us to do that at the moment is to experiment with things like new technology." (Rip It Up interview, July '90).
During early 1991 Australian label Mushroom Records became involved with Flying Nun and a second Chickens album, Body Blow, was able to be financed and recorded: the first single off that was Cruise Control which featured new member Fiona McDonald on co-vocals, and was quite a change from their previous material. The song did incredibly well in N.Z., spending some weeks in the Top Ten and being only the second Flying Nun single to do so, and although it lost them some old fans it also gained them a lot more new ones. Even though Fiona's vocals gave that song - and a few others - a lighter feel, the album had a darker undercurrent throughout; Million $ Dream, for example, makes a harshly oblique comment on the likes of TV game shows which promise 15 minutes of fame and big money for everyone. "Everybody would like to think they can win Lotto one day, have instant riches. It's probably my working class upbringing and attitude to needing and wanting money from being poor as much as anything else." (Chris in a Rip It Up interview, October '91).
Body Blow was well received, described by one critic as "striking, ambitious and some way short of perfect, but it will more than stand up internationally. There's a continuity and confidence about it that wasn't there on the debut, Stunt Clown" (Rip It Up, October '91). "This is neither a rock band with some gee-whizz samples or a bunch of art-boffins making whoopee with guitars . . . Body Blow sounds like no one else on earth." (Rip It Up, November '91). The album did mark a big change for the band towards a more produced and some would say ..mainstream' sound, but giving it a label is difficult - "The well-muscled eclecticism of Body Blow makes it harder than ever to put a tag on the Chickens' own style. Chris will kill anyone who calls them an 'industrial dance' band and they all shy away from that awful, empty phrase 'alternative'" (Rip It Up, October '91). Donde Esta La Pollo, with Anthony Nevison on lead vocals, was the second single released off the album and was described as: "Catchy as hell, a real foot-stomping, blow-out of a track." (Rip It Up, May '92).
Later in 1992 the newly recorded single Juice/Choppers was released and Juice was described in a review as "a downbeat, mood-driven showcase for Fiona McDonald's voice", and Choppers was "sure to drive 'em wild in the city's more flamboyant dance establishments, all boom-boom beats and crazy sax scribble." (Rip It Up, February '93).
In early 1993 Anthony Nevison suffered a back injury which, along with tinnitus, led to recurring health problems and meant he was forced to leave the band.
Another new single released mid-1993 was Mr Moon and in early 1993 a rehashed version of Body Blow was released less a couple of tracks but with 4 new ones, including the recent singles Mr Moon and Juice (the latter being a revamped cover of the song Dreamchild originally released a year earlier by Fiona with The Strawpeople). The reason for this was that the Body Blow album had never been released in Australia where the band had a good following so the old album was spruced up for the occasion.
In June 1994 Body Blow was also released through Flying Nun Europe, clearing the way for Headless Chickens' imminent assault on Britain and Europe. They toured in October/November, playing over three weeks in England, Scotland, Germany, Holland and Belgium on Pop Will Eat Itself's Amalgamation tour, then headlined several sold-out shows in London and finally flew to New York to play the legendary CBGB's and The Mercury Lounge. Following their return to New Zealand, they not only discovered their single George was number 1 for 5 weeks (and they remain the only Flying Nun band to have a N.Z. number 1 single) but McDonald and Lawry also both announced they would be leaving and their last gig with the band was at the Big Day Out in January 1995. McDonald embarked on a solo career, releasing a solo album, playing a lead role in a musical stage version of Peter Jackson's movie Braindead, and also presenting several T.V. shows including N.Z Idol.
At the 1995 NZ Music Awards in April they were voted Top International Performer and Fiona McDonald won the Top Female Vocalist category. In mid-1995 the band were busy recording demos and there were plans for a tour in late 1995 to take in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Europe and the USA.
Headless Chickens' contribution to Flying Nun's Abba tribute album, Abbasalutely, in 1996 was the track Super Trouper, which was also the single release from the album, and featured guest vocals from Celia Church of Auckland band Nonoxynol 9. The replacement for Lawry was Angus McNaughton (keyboards) of Incubator Studios, and the new line-up debuted in October and, following some live dates in the North Island, recorded a number of demos but in the new year Grant Fell and McNaughton announced they were also leaving the band, leaving Matthews and Sweeney and new bassplayer Bevan Larsen to complete the demos and begin the recording of the Chickens last album with new, but unfortunately temporary, singer/keyboardist Rachel Wallis.
The end of 1997 finally saw the release of new material in the form of the Greedy album, following hot on the heels of the Magnet single. The then four-piece band - with new keyboard player, Simon 'Flex' Claridge, and ex-Supergroove drummer Ian Taylor replacing Bevan Sweeney - toured New Zealand and were set to tour Australia in early 1998 but had to cancel due to Chris being assailed by a severe ear infection. They continued playing sporadically in New Zealand over the next 2 years but finally laid the fowl's bloody body to rest in early 2000:
"Oh, my darling Papa, who will buy me lollipops for breakfast now?" -
R.I.P.
Webcuts interviews Chris Matthews of the Headless Chickens as he lends us the keys to his "Gaskrankinstation" for the night. Come on by and fill'er up!
Awesome gig at the Powerstation. Headless Chickens is one of the few bands I've listened to consistently for over 10 years, so it was great for me to finally do the Chicken live for the first time. I would've liked to hear Nose or Inside Track or a couple more tracks from Greedy, but of course the show was perfectly epic anyhow!
Here's my best attempt at remembering the setlist. Correct me if you can!
Ghost Of Some Cold Street Donka Railway Surfing Slice Cruise Control Mr Moon Monkey Jar Untitled Million Dollar Dream Soulcatcher Juice Totalling Dad's Car Gaskrankinstation Donde Esta La Pollo Choppers George
Do The Headless Chicken Dark Angel Expecting To Fly
Hey thanks for last night ... It was like you guys had been abducted by aleins for the last 10 years and time stood still. Great to be back at the powerstation too ... We will be headless at the BDO for sure. Thank you Chooks, Heart, *SDN
Hey everyone, I have accidentally bought an extra ticket for the Melbourne gig on the 4th of December.. Would anyone like to purchase it at cost price? Mail me if you're interested!
(Otherwise I guess I'll chuck it onto ebay..) cheers, Toby
