Christchurch's longest-running lineup, four decades of jangly guitars and quiet melancholy from the heart of the Dunedin sound orbit.
MOODS · jangly · melancholic · wistful · understated · warm · introspective · autumnal · gently melodic · nostalgic · unhurried
BIOGRAPHY
Formed in 1982 in Christchurch, The Bats have kept the same four members, Robert Scott (vocals, guitar), Kaye Woodward (guitar, vocals), Paul Kean (bass) and Malcolm Grant (drums), since their founding. Though based in Christchurch, they're closely associated with the Dunedin sound scene that emerged in the early 1980s.
Their 1987 album Daddy's Highway is widely regarded as their finest work and one of the best New Zealand albums of that decade, while singles like 'Made Up in Blue' earned NME's Single of the Week in the UK. The band toured the US repeatedly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including dates supporting Radiohead, and after a decade-long hiatus returned with a string of albums on Flying Nun, most recently 2025's Corner Coming Up.
WHY THEY'RE COOL
The Bats are a rare case of a band staying fully intact across more than forty years, still recording with the same four founding members who first played together in 1982. Their catalog stretches from the acclaimed Daddy's Highway through to 2025's Corner Coming Up, tracing an unusually consistent evolution of melodic, melancholic guitar pop tied to the Dunedin sound lineage. Critical high points, from NME's early praise to Pitchfork calling 2011's Free All the Monsters possibly their best record ever, show a band still capable of surprising listeners decades into its run.
GEORGE'S PLAYS
First time on the station.
PLAYED ON WOKE1
