The Clean

The most legendary of New Zealand groups, almost all of the noteworthy Dunedin bands centred around the Flying Nun label trace their histories and influence back to The Clean.

Formed in 1977 in the first months of the local Punk uprising, the band consisted of the Kilgour brothers, Hamish and David on drums and guitar respectively, and a variety of friends prepared to face a potentially hostile audience. One of the occasional appearances of seminal Dunedin punk band the Enemy gave the Clean an opportunity to play their debut during May 1978. A move to Auckland's bigger audiences and more frequent work brought its usual difficulties. Not everyone wanted to make the move, and the lack of a suitable bass player temporarily brought The Clean to an end.

Dunedin's Robert Scott replaced Peter Gutteridge on bass in May 1980, creating the line-up which recorded the group's first single. Peter had left to form The Chills with Martin Phillipps. "Tally-Ho" wasn't the first single on the new Flying Nun label, but close to it. Costing just $60 to record in an 8-track home studio, "Tally-Ho" provided Flying Nun with its first chart success, and saw the first appearance on vinyl for the Chills' Martin Phillipps, playing organ.

In mid-1981 the Clean almost took the Auckland final of the Battle of the Bands, losing out to the Instigators. While in Auckland, with Toy Love's Chris Knox and the Enemy's sound man Doug Hood the group recorded its five song 'Boodle, Boodle Boodle' EP, this time in a hired hall. The EP entered New Zealand's national charts in December 1981 at number 5 and remained for six months. The seven track 'Great Sounds Great, Good Sounds Good, So-so Sounds So-so, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten' EP released in May 1982 did nearly as well, so it was a surprise to find the Clean choose this highpoint in their success to disband. They had their reasons. As a band, the Clean was always critical of the 'star' syndrome.

Hamish and David Kilgour began working at home with the four track on what became their next project with Peter Gutteridge, the Great Unwashed. Robert Scott picked up a guitar and formed The Bats with his Christchurch flatmates.

An impromptu one-off gig in London in 1989 led to a new live EP, 'In-A-Live' and then to a brief, casual reformation of The Clean. They polished off a quick world tour and in London recorded 'Vehicle', an album of all new tunes. Then Robert went back to The Bats' ongoing career, Hamish left the Clean and his own group Bailter Space behind him to stay in New York with his new wife and a new band called the Mad Scene, while David followed his latest group Stephen with an acclaimed solo debut album called 'Here Come The Cars', released in 1992.

The three came together again in Dunedin, March 1994. After two practices, they had written half a new album and two weeks later 'Modern Rock' was recorded, at a community hall in Hoopers Inlet. In 1996 came 'Unknown Country', recorded and mixed in two sessions when Hamish Kilgour returned home to New Zealand from his New York home. The album credits the three Clean members with playing everything, while a number of friends were invited in to contribute extra keyboards, mandolin and strings.

The Clean story is on-again off-again purely by design. It suits The Clean's creative desires and keeps them clear of the machinery that threatened to interfere with that creative process from the moment the group threatened to get awfully popular awfully quickly. In January 2001 David Kilgour was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to music.