This Christchurch band formed in 1989 with vocalist
Simon MacLaren coming from shoegazer Cure style
band Blue Flesh Syndrome who also contained half
of another dark pop outfit Lurch in drummer Stuart
Britten and bassist Wayne. The other member being
Leon.
MacLaren originally played guitar and sang for Blue Flesh Syndrome, but moved
to vocals only for Loves Uglies.
The bands line-up was:
Simon MacLaren - Vocals
Scott McArthur - Guitar
Floss (Angela Leslie) - bass
Simon Crockett - Drums (Trawler)
The band played it's debut gigs
in support slots for Dolphin at the Subway venue
on the corner of
St Asaph Street and Madras.
The band recorded a set of six songs on eight track in MacLaren's Old Mill Warehouse apartment with Rob Mayes engineering and producing. Five of these tracks appeared on the Failsafe release Stagger.
The remaining track "Breaking Vital Ground" was left off and has never been released.
The band eventually disbanded
when Floss split up her relationship with McArthur
to pursue one with MacLaren.
Floss and MacLaren eventually continued their music initially under another
name, MacLaren singing and playing guitar, with a new drummer from Dunedin.
They didn't play any of the material from the previous line up and so were
essentially a new band.
The band recorded a bunch of songs on eight track, none of which were released.
One track 'I Think I Need Her' was re-mixed by Mayes for release to radio. The band eventually settled their
line-up as a three piece with drummer Jason Young
taking over, and they settled into developing their
sound and becoming one of the most successful new
acts out of Christchurch. They won the 1991 Christchurch
War of the bands and their profile and following
rapidly increased. By the end of 1992 they had
established themselves as one of the most popular
bands in Christchurch. In mid 1992 the band received
an Arts Council Recording Grant and recorded material
for the Purge EP. This CD-only release was put
out on the Flat City label and came out in August
1993 after the release of the Avalanche CD,
the
material for the Avalanche CD coming from a more
recent batch of material. The sessions were recorded
by Bart at The Redd Acoustics Premises. Floss and MacLaren had a child
Felix which didn't seem to slow down the band's
progress, Floss playing live shows right through
her pregnancy and her stick figure cutting an interesting
shape with growing baby inside. In December of 1992 the band recorded
5 songs for Failsafe Records for the Avalanche and
Good
Things compilations. The fifth track "Pleasure
And Pain" was never released. The sessions were
recorded in The Redd Acoustics Armagh Street premises
in a studio purpose built by Mayes and Redd acoustics
owner Terry Molloy. The sessions were recorded
and produced by Rob Mayes. The band sealed their success
in Christchurch with their triumphant performance
at the Avalanche release concert on the 26th of
April 1993 with up to 1000 people in attendance.
The band followed this success with a further few
months of sell out concerts drawing local crowds
of up to 900 people. The band slowly built up their
national following with successive North Island
tours.
Eventually attracting the attention of Flying Nun, label head Roger Shepherd
approached Failsafe to OK their approach to the band and Loves Ugly Children
were signed to the label in early 1994. The band were very prolific during
their 1992 - 1994 period and the band would write
great songs play them a couple of times and drop
them
completely. Consequently a number of local classic
songs were lost to the waste pile. One such LUC
classic "Awesome Feeling" was performed live at
the Avalanche party and was recorded, but never
released. The band recorded the Cold Water
Surf EP for Flying Nun, followed quickly by an
album, the band tending toward their thrashy noise
numbers, which made for a sonic live set but not
great home listening. Both projects were recorded with
Tex Houston at the Fish Street Studios in Dunedin,
before moving themselves to Auckland. A world tour in November 1995
saw the band playing gigs in the UK and recording
an
EP in a London studio.
Returning home they continued gigging, hitting trouble with drummer Young and
eventually replacing him with Paul Reid, now frontman for Rubicon and Shortland
Street heart throb. A second album, Showered In Gold,
was eventually recorded and released and the band
supported this release with gigs but by August
of 1998 the band had not managed to return to the
UK to cement their status
By September relations between Floss and MacLaren had deteriorated and they
parted company from each other. According to official press releases the band
is now officially disbanded as a result.
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