This has been kind of my main band for, uh, lemme think, 6 or 7 years or something…since ’93 actually, jeez it’s been a while. It’s been going along pretty slowly for the last couple of those years due to personnel redistribution - new people join - nobody ever exactly leaves tho’ - but anyway, all the members live in different towns at the moment. In fact 2 of the members of the last "working" lineup aren’t even in this country anymore (Cameron Bain's in London [London England that is] & nobody knows where Sean O'Reilly is. Possibly somewhere in South America)(actually he's been back in NZ for ages - DZ, 15-11-01). I don’t think we’ve played in front of an audience since the Hawkwind support slot in Auckland early last year (can’t even remember) - the last band activity was recording a couple songs for Gillian Ashurst’s movie "Snakeskin" which I think you oughta be able to see soon. Anyway, the band still does technically  exist, if anyone was wondering.

It started in 1993 when I moved back to Christchurch from Auckland & I had this plan to do a new band with Mick Elborado & Brother Love. Both of ’em had been in the last band I’d been in before I left Chch a couple years earlier - that band was Cease To Exist - the plan (mine anyway - not necess. anyone else’s) was that this band was gonna continue somewhat along the same sorta lines, i.e. sloppy "psychedelic" rock - & my sister Violet was going to be the singer. She'd never been in any kind of band before but she could sing & we'd vaguely planned to do this for maybe a couple years.OK so me & Mick & the Brother started payig together - add John Chrisstoffels on bass before Violet started turning up to practices - & we’re off to the races. That’s the 1st lineup of the band, as featured on the 1st couple of record releases - subsequent lineup changes are a Pete Frame nightmare as we meet more & more people that we’d invite to be in our band, Mick starts to hate everybody else in the band & eventually left (although we got him back in the band a couple times)(*)…anyway the full story (+ discography, lyrics, poster artwork, etc etc) is SOON TO FOLLOW. According to Hamish Noonan it all started to go downhill after Mick quit, & he’s an impartial outside observer & I’m not, so it’s probably the truth.

* 1st guy to join us after Mick left was Matt Alien on gtr. Then Matt Middleton on clarinet (added overdubs to stuff by lineup #1 for the "BEATLE!" [18 Wheeler] & "1st to the Future" [Carburetor] LPs). Then Annabel (from the Chch band Hawaii 5-0)(can’t remember her last name) started playing organ with us so there was a couple times we played with a 7-person lineup (see track on the Dirtlove compilation cassette "Say Something Funny" - a live in Timaru version of "Love is Mean") . Then we went to America & the lineup over there was Violet, the Brother, me, Doug Pearson on synthesiser & violin, & John Allen on bass.(Same lineup minus Violet doubled as the Brother Love band). Then the next person to play with us when we got back I guess was Lisa Preston played organ with us, Bill Fosby played gtr one time at party, also John Segovia (slide gtr) & Rock Hardman guested on 1 or 2 recordings (that mighta been a bit earlier actually). Then Violet moved to Auckland so the next incarnation of the band was when I went up there & we started to play with Roddy & Cameron (Constant Pain) - they both played gtr, but later Violet kicked Roddy out...& Sean O’Reilly started playing bass, also gtr & synth & other stuff...the Brother was living in Wellington by this time & he started to come up more often so he was on most of the shows & recordings (none officially released) of this period. That’s 16 people there...Simon Cumings played homemade electronic instruments at the Hawkwind show & Chris Heazlewood played gtr & bass on some recordings we did in Auckland, oh yeah & once Rich Mixture played drums for a few songs because I was passed out drunk (impressive fact - they were the 1st few songs of the set, not the last ones...I got up & started playing even tho’ I felt sick)(I woke up in the back of the place & Heazlewood was shouting in my face, Wake up, your band’s on the stage! & I went Whuh? who’s playing drums? & he went, Your dad. I just wanted to go back to sleep but he made me get up).

P.S. Hamish Noonan never even saw the Auckland Space Dust with Cameron & Sean so the worth of his opinion now that I think of it is somewhat compromised...the person who saw the most Space Dust shows (Chch, American & AK lineups) is Saskia Leek, ask her.

P.P.S. - this just in -

From:
Hamish Noonan hnoonan@hermes.otago.ac.nz
To:
tedium2000@hotmail.com
Subject:
space dust
Date:
Fri, 20 Apr 2001 14:44:24 +1200 (NZST)
Bullshit i saw that band (or something similiar) at this stupid white wall gallery in K' rd and they were a fucking terrible free noise band that even Bruce Russell would be ashamed of. I took photographic evidence that you are welcome to.

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po box 6283, dunedin, new zealand
[XXXX]@ihug.co.nz (03)477-7345

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OK, sure, all true,he was there & it was pretty rude. In our defence tho I gotta say that it was the very 1st attempt at putting together the AK. version of the band & in fact I had just arrived in that town that day so we hadn't practiced together or anything, we just hooked up with Roddy & Cameron & went, OK, turn up & turn on. With predictable results. I'd like to see those photographs tho'.

P.P.P.S. - (Re: "BEATLE!" -) It was supposed to be our 1st album (although all recorded around the same time as "1st to the Future") but it’s still unavailable to the world at large...We got our share of the copies (about 75 of ’em, don’t ask me for one ’cause they’re all long gone) to bring home with us from America in 1996 but then we never heard from the guy again. We were getting real bugged about it, but then we found out from John Allen last year that his wife got cancer so doing a record label was understandably way down on his list of priorities. Last I heard his wife was better & it was back on, but I dunno. I still haven’t heard from him (Tom Scharpling) & now the only other person I know that might know where he is, John Allen, he’s kind of slipped off the radar screen too. If you know where he is tell him to write me ok.

P.P.P.P.S. - end part of this page mysteriously disappeared, Nov. '03. It's just one of those mysterious Geocities bonus features, dunno why. more here