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Headless Chickens
On Tour38,941 plays (3,895 listeners)
new zealand, kiwi, flying nun, electronic, alternative… see all
Formed in 1985 (initially as `International Headless Chickens’) as a special project to perform at the multi-media event The Nitpickers Picnic. The initial line-up was Children’s Hour members Chris Matthews, Johnny Pierce and Michael Lawry.
The project became permanent following the end of This Kind of Punishment and their first release was a track on the 1986 student radio compilation album Outnumbered By Sheep. Also in 1986 they released a self-titled EP that was well received both in NZ and overseas. They were one of the first bands in NZ to experiment with `abused’ technology: samplers, drum machines and synthesizers.
“The Headless Chickens steal the best bits from everything: a heavy dose of morbid surrealism, nursery rhymes, surf pop, the aforementioned psychedelia and lotsa brutal noise . . . Hedge Song’s opening being a psychedelic mess of backwards tapes and voices, tumbling into a whine of violins and voices screaming, cackling `here it comes . . .’ . . . It culminates in Chris Matthews’ `cinematic’ lyrical technique, a gallery of mostly grotesque characters, lurching up to leer at the camera/listener, before turning back to resume their tasks at hand . . . It’s a carnival and a house of horrors, claustrophobic, life, maybe art, maybe that psychedelia I was talking about.” (Rip It Up, April ‘87).
They toured NZ as support act to Nico before the untimely suicide of Johnny Pierce in August 1986, which forced them to find a new bass player. In June 1987 Grant Fell, formerly of Childrens Hour and NRA, joined them as bass player and soon after they also took on ex-Bird Nest Roys player Rupert Taylor.
The project became permanent following the end of This Kind of Punishment and their first release was a track on the 1986 student radio compilation album Outnumbered By Sheep. Also in 1986 they released a self-titled EP that was well received both in NZ and overseas. They were one of the first bands in NZ to experiment with `abused’ technology: samplers, drum machines and synthesizers.
“The Headless Chickens steal the best bits from everything: a heavy dose of morbid surrealism, nursery rhymes, surf pop, the aforementioned psychedelia and lotsa brutal noise . . . Hedge Song’s opening being a psychedelic mess of backwards tapes and voices, tumbling into a whine of violins and voices screaming, cackling `here it comes . . .’ . . . It culminates in Chris Matthews’ `cinematic’ lyrical technique, a gallery of mostly grotesque characters, lurching up to leer at the camera/listener, before turning back to resume their tasks at hand . . . It’s a carnival and a house of horrors, claustrophobic, life, maybe art, maybe that psychedelia I was talking about.” (Rip It Up, April ‘87).
They toured NZ as support act to Nico before the untimely suicide of Johnny Pierce in August 1986, which forced them to find a new bass player. In June 1987 Grant Fell, formerly of Childrens Hour and NRA, joined them as bass player and soon after they also took on ex-Bird Nest Roys player Rupert Taylor.
Videos
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Play
Headless Chickens - Supertrouper
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Play
Headless Chickens - Donde Esta La Pollo
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Play
Headless Chickens - George
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Headless Chickens - Gaskrankinstation
Top Albums
Shoutbox
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oharris69 wrote:
Nov. 28 at Powerstation. Just in time for Thanksgiving! :)
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ManukaBlood wrote:
Yep, reunion tour later this year. Homebake festival in Sydney only confirmed date at this stage, Dec 5 but there will be gigs in NZ and Australia...
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Bloopy wrote:
Chris Matthews has posted on MySpace saying that a Headless Chickens reunion is in the works and more details are coming soon: "Shows in Auckland and Australia in December this year and then more N.Z. shows next year."
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Bloopy wrote:
Magnet :}
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fidgit2 wrote:
<3 headless chickens
Events
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Nov
28
Headless Chickens
Powerstation, Auckland, New Zealand
5 shouts
| 5 attendees - Dec 4 Headless Chickens HiFi Bar and Ballroom, Melbourne, Australia
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Dec
5
Headless Chickens
The Gaelic Club, Sydney, Australia
Add shout
| 2 attendees
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Recent Activity
- Dufus_McFeeley, keblet, makurokurosuke and 1 other person added Headless Chickens to their libraries. Friday evening
- alex_tokai added Headless Chickens to the lineup of Headless Chickens at HiFi Bar and Ballroom. last week
- fergusmcdougall and tonycairns added Headless Chickens to their libraries. last month
- Bloopy tagged Headless Chickens with ‘new zealand’. last month
- fromthesonar, graemegunthorp, samprebble and 6 other people added Headless Chickens to their libraries. last month
- Bloopy uploaded headless chickens 7 to Headless Chickens’s images. last month
- spiderland1, missingleech and missywombat added Headless Chickens to their libraries. last month
- Bloopy added Headless Chickens to the lineup of Headless Chickens at The Gaelic Club. August 2008
- Bloopy linked Headless Chickens to a deleted event. August 2008
- Bloopy added Headless Chickens to the lineup of Cancelled at The Zoo. August 2008
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More Information
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