"North By North"

I spent more time than I care to remember in the back of transit vans, sometimes exceedingly uncomfortably, amongst amps, guitar cases and gases of hopeful indie pop bands. Sometimes disasterly, like when The Bachelor Pad got stuck in snow for 24 hrs on a motorway near Birmingham. Often these journeys where drunken affairs and occasionally euphoric, after an adrenalin rush of a show. One that got away was when The Bats when they where in Scotland around 1986.

The Bats played a very lo-key gig at the Halt Bar in Glasgow’s west end. Boy, they where great. Winning over what can only be described as.. the general public. If there was a handful of people in the bar that had anything decent in there records collection never minding having heard of Flying Nun, I'd be surprised. To try to make them feel appreciated, a friend and myself shouted out for "Made Up in Blue" , being the most well known track amonst the dozen or so The Bats songs known to man at that time. We got chatting after the show. The band where heading up to the north of Scotland and the Scottish Isles on a small tour. They invited me along. I declined as I had arranged to go down to London to see Primal Scream. The fool was I. If only I had known that Primal Scream would have become one of the most successful, acclaimed and influential acts of their generation and The Bats one of the best of their generation.

By some other twist of fate that holiday in Scotland got The Bats some free time in a studio in Glasgow ran by a fan of the band, this session became half of their debut album.

These events summed up The Bats at this time, the lo-key gig in Glasgow, when really they could have got a bigger gig. A tour that was more like a holiday. Understated, unassuming, hiding their light under a bushel. Much of The Bats recordings of that time are like that. There's a comfortable, easy going, understatement. At peace with their music.

"Made Up In Blue" (1986) was the hit single from the first three NZ singles. A classic. The debut LP "Daddy Highway" followed in 1987 and eventually followed by 1990's "The Law of Things". These 2 albums fit well with each other. ("The Law of Things" possibly recorded much earlier than its release date.) Songs like "Block of Wood" and "North by North" are classic The Bats. Little hooks, distinctive bass sound and rhythm. The Bats sound is unique, their own brand of part jangle, part chiming guitar. There is simplicity about The Bats songs. The trade mark thumpty dump bass line. The Bats rhythm is driving. Not fast but a steady drive over a country road, a small bump here and meandering bend there, that distinctive rhythm.

The Bats early years (84 - 87" yielded 1 LP and 4 EP's, then one LP a year followed from 91 to 95 and a couple of EP's to boot. The Bats found some much deserved backing and acknowledgment and a steady growing number of devotees. Unusually The Bats achieved this without a wholesale change in sound or a jump on the latest bandwagon. Until 1995 "Couchmaster" that is, which found a new voice and a remarkable bold achievement. "Couchmaster" blows away the cosy sound of The Bats with a complex, guitar, laden, dark album. The Bats had watched the sounds of the early nineties go raw, noisy, soundscapes complex and dark. The must have watched as many of their Flying Nun comtempory's followed the influences of the day. Then after the storm had calmed down released their own attack, as usual, in contrary to the fads on the time. "Couchmaster" is all subtle chord layers and atmospheres. Songs of texture rather than melody and rhythm.

I later heard that that The Bats van blew up on that journey to the north of Scotland. Maybe just as wel I didnt join them. The Primal Scream gig, funny I can’t remember that at all.

- June 2005

Recommended Listening
Daddy Highway	LP Treason, Sir Queen, Round & Down, Take It, North By North, Tragedy, Block Of Wood, Miss These Things, Mid City Team, Some Peace Tonight, Had To Be You, Daddy's Highway CD re-issues includes the first 3 EPS as bonus tracks. (Calm Before the Storm, Candidate, Mad On You, Trouble in This Town, Made Up In Blue were bonus tracks on re-release)		1986
Law of Things	LP Other Side Of You, Law Of Things, Never Said Goodbye, Yawn Vibes, Time to Get Ready,Ten To One, Mastery, I Fall Away, Cliff Edge, Nine Days, Bedlam, Smoking Her Wings		1988
Couchmaster	LP Outside, Afternoon in Bed, Around You Like Snow, Work It Out, Train, Land o' Lakes, Chain Home Low, Supernove, Shoeshine, Crow Song, Smorgasboard, Knowledge, It's Happening to You, Lost Weekend, For The Ride, Out Of Bounds & Down To Me		1995
1000's of Tiny Luminous Spheres	Compilation with couple of unreleased tracks. North by North, Courage, Claudine, Afternoon in Bed, Block of Wood, Mastery, Smoking Her Wings, Ride, You have the Right, Seen It All Before, Too Much, Spill the Beans, Black & the Blue, Boogey Man, Tragedy, Made up in Blue, Supernova		1986 - 1993
Compiletely Bats	Collection of first 3 EPS I Go Wild, Jewellers Heart, By Night, My Way, Man In The Moon, United Airways, Earwig, Chicken Bird Run, Blindfold,Joes Again, Offside, Claudine, Neighbours, Calm Before the Storm, Candidate, Mad On You, Trouble in This Town, Made Up In Blue		1984 - 1896 Released 1995
Samples (Real Audio)
	North By North (full song but lo quality)	4:07	459K
	I Go Wild (full song but lo quality)	2:41	300K