With
their New Age hippy name this band were a lot more than
met the eye or ear as time would tell. The band consisted
of 2 musically prolific writers in Guitarist / Vocalists
David Hunt and Brett Lupton. Lupton was fresh from drumming
with All Fall Down and showed an adept talent for sweetly
melodic well crafted guitar pop, as did Hunt. The band
members were all at early stages in their musical careers
but the seeds of talent were growing, and Genie And The
Wild Children had some pretty good melodic ideas going,
if in need of a little pruning. The band originally performed
as a 2 guitar led 3 piece, with drummer Marcus Puentener
filling out the rhythms in a speed up / slow down kind
of way.
They eventually enlisted bassist Mark Tyler before disbanding.
They recorded 3 tracks before splitting, one of which ended
up on the Failsafe South
Compilation.
Lupton, Hunt and Tyler went on to form Catherine Wheel
(no relation to the UK band of the same name, this one
was formed in 1988 if it makes any difference) with Paul
O'Brien, and the band became brilliantly adept at working
up catchy pop and indie rock numbers. The band recorded
6 songs with Rob Mayes in the band's warehouse on 4 track
yielding exceptional results, and self-released minimal
copies of it to friends. One track "Love And Justice" was
included on the Pagan records indie guitar compilation
Positive Vibrations.
This batch of songs mined similar territory to The Jean
Paul Satre Experience in their Flex EP phase, but with
The Catherine Wheel's own slanted style. Easily as good
though.
Another series of recordings were completed at the same
warehouse on 8 track yielding 4 more songs, none of which
were released.
The band also committed to tape a large part of their set
at a recording session at Rob Mayes Gilby Street home but
the sessions were scrapped due to difficulty with O'Briens
drum sounds. These songs represented a wealth of cool pop
songs, and most were not recorded again. Later developments
in recording technology would have allowed correction of
the original problem, but no use crying over spilt milk.
Catherine Wheel stumbled on to average success, the band
always having trouble with live gigs, through technical
difficulties, and in some cases stage fright. Eventually
the band split with Lupton going on to form Squirm
Hunt went on to form Supertanker, and recorded and released
material with Failsafe. Supertanker went through a few
line-up changes before folding, and Hunt eventually ended
up as replacement guitarist for Christchurch Grungsters
Pumpkinhead. At Pumpkinhead's demise Hunt joined David
Yetin's (JPSE) Stereobus project, joining after the release
of the first album. The Stereobus are preparing for the
recording of their second album, this time featuring the
complete band.
Bassist Mark went on to collaborate with drummer Dave
Deacon as the Sly and Robbie rhythm section of Christchurch
working in Golf Course Alligators, Salmonella Dub, and
147Swordfish, amongst many others.
| GENIE AND THE WILD CHILDREN RECORDINGS |
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