old news

Old Bats and Minisnap news from 2001 - 2003

The Bats, Minisnap go touring!! 2003
Dunedin - Re-fuel, Sunday 2nd March. Orientation
Hong Kong Pearl River Rock Festival 1st & 2nd March (postponed!!! due to revoked permits! Hah!??) we'll believe it when we get our flights paid for. GLAD IT NEVER HAPPENED NOW - SARS MUST'VE BEEN INCUBATING NICELY AROUND THEN!
Australia
Annadale Sydney - 6th March with Knievel & La Huva
The Corner Melbourne - 8th March with Cassette & The Bites
Christchurch
Jetset Lounge
Minisnap with Gramsci - 24th Jan
Godzone The NEW Sweden
The LA Times reckons New Zealand is the 'hot, new' music scene, suggesting bands like The D4, The Datsuns and Pacifier have ensured Aotearoa is "the New Sweden".
According to writer Steve Hochman, the current state of New Zealand rock "marks the coming of age of a generation inspired by a late '80s and early '90s scene there centered on the Flying Nun Records label and such bands as the Bats and Straightjacket Fits, which itself attracted a lot of influential global acts to play there."
Christchurch Bats and Minisnap at Jetset Lounge with Pine. Great hometown crowd including someone in the audience that was at our very 1st gig at the Empire in Dunedin, New Years eve 1982 - AND Jenny C. who managed the Kings Arms in Islington, London, were we did some filming for Made Up In Blue back in 1986! Good deal of new faces too. Bats tried out a bunch of new songs that went down well. (The venue has been freshened up with a garden bar and new decor inside -nice!) - 8th Feb
"In My Pocket" Gasoline Cowboy remix Number 3 in NZ alternative Charts ... YAY!!
Minisnap special guests for Mestar at the Dux de Lux Chch. Thurs 12th Dec.
Minisnap play early evening (8pm) Dux de Lux "mixed bag Christmas Eve" gig with 4 Man Bob and F.U.S.A..
Bats and Minisnap played Dunedins Arc on Sat 30th Nov 2002. Great fun energetic gig. Tried out a few new songs with Bob. (Kaye's Peach, Mir and Rehash. Bob's September Song and Face Inside The Sun. - went surprisingly well considering degree of rehearsal) November in Dunedin is getting to be a habit! REVIEW
30th Aug - Bodega in Wellington (w. P.Jefferies and Breakfast of Champions) went very well for Minisnap. The new bar looks ... new. good stage and better capacity and comfort for punters. We were also lucky to get Nightline, Morning Report, Radio Active and 1/2 pg in the Dominion. Big thanks to Fraser.
MINISNAP recent dates
23rd Aug - Dux De Lux in Christchurch (w.Pine)
6th Sept - Jetset with Sola Bravo
20th September - Dux De Lux in Christchurch with Gasoline Cowboy
27th September - Harbour Light in Lytellton (w. The Bites from OZ and Pine)
RDU party, 8th Nov at Jetset.
A recent Email from Bob
"Hello,
how is your winter going..im still getting used to it after being in warm Germany, in the 30's most days..it was quite a trip got robbed of my essentials in one town, searched
by Police at a petrol station for drugs, and had a riot at a gig by a nazi skinhead..so all in all a trip..gigs were good not big crowds tho...tell you more another time..is mal coming down to play on friday (Trillionaires) tell him there is a bed here if he wants..upstairs too...doing the folk album soonish..and organise the Bats stuff i guess am busy tho till years end getting the baby's room ready and helping with that..may be
able to come up for a weekend in the next hols and do some music ?..i guess we could do it in the summer hols somewhere
ok bye for now bob "
Minisnap play Wunderbar Sat 13th July 2002 with Slipstream in support. WOW! WE'RE HEADLINE ACT!!
Minisnap decided on "In My Pocket" as our first single. We've asked the Gasoline Cowboy to do an alternative mix and I'll also do an instrumnental version for the CD release. Expect late September release Party at Harbour Light with Kirsty Stegwazi's "The Bites" from Australia.
Minisnap played with Pluto at the Cauldron on Saturday 15th June. Used Pluto's gear which was nice of them. Started to sleet on the night so not a huge crowd but comfortably full - now it's snowing. Went OK - tried out new songs "In My Pocket" and "Takeaway" which are good to play live. Pluto felt a bit flat but word was their Dux gig on Sunday night went better.
Started on Minisnap overdubs - borrrowed a good vocal mic from rdu (Campus Radio) make Kaye's vocals sound as sweet as they are.
June 2002: MINISNAP went into John Kelcher's "National Grid" studio to record rythmn tracks. Great natural and full sound and Malcolm was on form on the drums. We'll load these tracks onto the computer at home and work on overdubs over the next couple of months. Good winter project.
Thanks for all the recent emails from Europe. We might create a new page to post some of these. What do you think? Your encouraging words are making us consider touring there - maybe with both The Bats and Minisnap once we sort out distribution of our CD's over there.
April 2002: A quiet time over the last few months for The Bats although we hope to record some time this year - Bob is busy with The Clean tour around NZ. He's also been working on a soundtrack and solo recording. He's off to Germany for the premier of a film that uses Harmonic Delux's music. Meanwhile, Minisnap have been practising up after a summer break (Paul was too busy with Orientation Festival to even think about Minisnap) and have just done a great gig with Peter Jefferies at the Dux De Lux. (see review)
19th Nov 2001 - A REVIEW!!
Subject: Bats, Fusion @ Fuel Bar, Dunedin, Saturday Nov 17, 2001
It's hard to believe a band can keep going for so long and continue to get better, but the Bats can. With every year a Bats gig becomes an even more treasured gem. Chords, melody, rhthym, singing, who would have thought it could sound so good? It's a joy to see how Kay's confidence as a singer has built, handling lots of lead vocals and Minisnap sounding excellent. The new material sounded great, Bob's new song about September 11 in particular. May their litttle Bat fangs continue to shine bright and sharp, forever more, amen.
Special mention to Thomas Bell for providing an excellent mix. Go soundguy!
- Jay and Brett played a great set. Brett played some banjo! Good to see the crowd arriving early for their set.
6th Nov
Jay Clarkson and Brett Lupton will open for Minisnap and The Bats at Fuel Cafe / Bar in Dunedin on Sat 17th Nov.
Sat 3rd Nov 2001
Chick Magnets played a private gig 40ks Nth of Christchurch on a stormy spring night at Pukeko Inn- excellent food and coffee if you're ever in the area and the venue has a wine shop and gallery. Nick Fitz's band "Slip Stream" played a great set of originals and his dad (party host Gerard Fitzgerald ) played some mean harp with both son's band and John Mullholland (John played with teh Waite in Chch back in the mid 70's among other things. Does anyone know of the Waite or any film/tapes in archive??)
28th Oct
Minisnap track, "Nova" is being included on a Rip It Up free CD for December/ January issue. Tentativly called "murmer" although I suspect REM may not be too sure about that. Minisnap are considering ideas for a video
26th Oct 2001
Minisnap played the Warners to a moderate crowd. Big reverby room with a nasty electronic buzz in all the speakers. Hard work playing and couldn't hear my bass through borrowed gear from Marineville. People actually danced towards the end of our set. I think we pulled it off but we weren't too happy with our set. Heka (2 piece with Steven Kilroy on guitar and Heath on drums) played some great rythmns and drone guitar grooves but people started to leave. By the time Marineville finished their set it was down to about 10 diehards in the audience.
23rd Oct.
We've confirmed a Dunedin gig for Minisnap and the Bats on Sat 17th Nov at Fuel Cafe and Bar.
1st October, 2001
Bob in the USA with The Clean.
First The Cleans vehicle caught fire then the front axle broke when they were zipping along the Hiway. No-one hurt thank goodness. Reports say gigs have been going well.
Minisnap have a gig coming up at Warners in Cathedral Square Christchurch - Fri 26th Oct 2001. Playing with Heka and Marineville.
Still haven't listened to the Dux recordings. Rob's been busy with another project, Mals been touring with Trillionaires and as you can read, Bob's been in the USA.
18th September Heard from the Kilgour bros. mother that the Clean have started their tour and have had a great gig in New York.

11th September 2001
Bob arrived in New York city with David Kilgour to meet up with Hamish Kilgour for CMJ gigs with The Clean. They are stranded there and we hear they are staying in a hotel not far from the exclusion zone. Hamish has a flat just inside.

25th August 2001
We played at the Dux De Lux to a packed house, recording the show with Rob Mayes onto a G4 running Pro-Tools.
Robert opened the evening with a few of Harmonic Deluxe songs
Kaye and Paul then played as MINISNAP and Malcolm joined on drums all but 3 of the set before Bob joined for the full Bats set.