New Zealand alternative rock legends STRAITJACKET FITS return to the stage to play their first shows in 11 years this April. The band that formed in Dunedin and took their sound to the world have reunited for a special New Zealand tour with their organically-correct blend of noise, pop and sexy angst intact.
Straitjacket Fits bowed out on the mainstage at Aucklands Big Day Out in 1994 but the groups legacy and influence has grown with time and they are acknowledged as one of the great New Zealand rock bands of the modern era.
Formed in Dunedin in 1987, Straitjacket Fits signed with Flying Nun and went on to release three fine albums. They toured the world several times, releasing their first album outside New Zealand with famous indie Rough Trade Records and the subsequent albums with major label, Arista.
January 2005 saw the Straitjacket Fits together again to play an old friends birthday party in a barn. And while the reminiscences flowed and fuelled the sense of great fun, it was the magic that came together onstage that fired the decision to take things a step further.
The Straitjacket Fits tell it in direct terms - if it hadnt been any good, it would have stayed in the barn.
We were pleasantly taken with how surely those tunes still did the business, the group said, A good band is a good band, and removed from some of the politics and expectations that surrounded us, thats exactly what Straitjackets Fits is.
They had unleashed the rock spirit again. Faces were beaming, feet were moving, hairs on the backs of necks were on end. It was as good as it ever was.
Remember what it was like In his liner notes to the Flying Nun compilation STRAITJACKET FITS, Andrew Mueller writes
Rocknroll success should not be measured in units shifted, but in hearts ignited, minds invigorated and worlds turned upside down, and Straitjacket Fits racked up more than their share of these everywhere they went. In 1989, I saw them play twice. The first of these two shows was the first thing I ever wrote about for a British music paper - my slightly hysterical despatch, which I dont recall in detail but which doubtless argued something to the effect that Straitjacket Fits could take the Horsemen of the Apocalypse at polo any day of the week arrived, unsolicited, at Melody Maker days after the paper had awarded Single Of The Week honours to Life In One Chord. The second of these two shows was the night of my 21st birthday, and Id still take it again over any of the other 28. I next saw Straitjacket Fits, for what turned out to be the last time, in 1991. I remember thinking that night that Straitjacket Fits were the best band in the world. Its a possibility I still havent ruled out.
Straitjacket Fits
Shayne Carter
David Wood
John Collie
Mark Petersen
Andrew Brough was invited to join the reunion but declined.
STRAITJACKET FITS 2005 SHOWS - all tickets on sale from 14 February
22ND & 23RD April - THE STUDIO, AUCKLAND
(tickets available from Real Groovy & Ticketek)
29TH & 30TH April - BAR BODEGA, WELLINGTON
(tickets available from Real Groovy & Ticketek)
6TH May - THE CIVIC, CHRISTCHURCH
(tickets available from Real Groovy & Ticketek)
7TH May - SAMMYS, DUNEDIN
(Radio One Birthday Party)
