BALLON D'ESSAI

An edgy post-punk sound, an extroverted vocalist and confident use of art and image separated Christchurch’s Ballon D’Essai from the garage rock influenced indie core in the southern city in the early to mid-1980s. With influences ranging from PIL to The Fall, to white funk bass and Velvety spider leads, the young twin bass quintet produced two intriguing yet patchy EPs for Flying Nun in 1981 ('This Is The Level Crossing') and 1983 ('Grow Up') and a posthumous tape ('R.I.P.') for Failsafe Records in 1986. Band members were Lindsay Davis (guitar) and Hugh Fitzgerald (bass), who both left after the first EP, and Stephen McIntyre (guitar, bass), Mark Rastrick (vocals), Scott Wilkinson (drums), Matthew Campbell (bass), and Lyndon Fraser (guitar). They rarely played outside of Christchurch. [SOURCE: AUDIOCULTURE]