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Superjesus took a long time to become an overnight sensation. Their second album proved even harder to deliver. The original pivot of the band was guitarist and songwriter, Chris Tennent. He'd grown up in a musical family in Adelaide, dropped out of school at 15 to play guitar, and spent the next eight or nine years playing in various bands. He become disillusioned with trying to make his impression in rock and was teaching guitar. That's when he made the acquaintance of bass guitarist Stuart Rudd. Tennent and Rudd had spent a year playing guitar together in Tennent's lounge-room when Rudd hooked up with the latest band being fronted by singer Sarah McLeod. McLeod had never intended to play in a band. Her music only extended as far as cousin having taught her to play a few chords so she could play along to her favourite songs. Then McLeod and three friends went on holiday to Bali where her friends forced an unwilling Sarah to get up on stage with a Balinese band. Bitten by the bug of singing in front of a crowd, as soon as she returned to Adelaide Sarah formed her first band. When her latest group needed a guitarist Stuart Rudd recommended his friend Tennent. He agreed to join temporarily. They also auditioned for a drummer and found Paul Berryman. Chris Tennent kept the band rehearsing for the next 18 months without any live performances, determined to get it right before that first show finally came. For that first gig they used the name Tennent and Rudd had used for their lounge-room sessions, Hell's Kitchen. By the end of 1995 they had become Superjesus. Tennent came up with the name as a joke, reacting to what seemed to be the two most popular words in band names at the time, "super" and "jesus". Legend has it that it was the group's name which initially attracted the Warner Brothers Records executive to the demo tape which resulted in Superjesus being signed to a record contract. By then competition for their signature was pretty fierce. McLeod had proved herself to be an energetic and charismatic performer, backed up with songs that showed a lot of thought and time had gone into them. Tennent and McLeod had also entered into a personal as well as a profession relationship, but kept the personal side secret from everyone, including the rest of the band. The first album was recorded in Atlanta with local producer Matt Serletic. Chris Tennent and Sarah McLeod were under considerable pressure to come up with new material. Tennent spent days back in that loungeroom writing songs which he recorded, complete with all the guitar parts, onto a tape he handed on to Sarah. McLeod then spent a considerable time familiarising herself with the songs. She was still writing lyrics on the plane bound for Atlanta. On the eve of the album's release the personal side of Tennent and McLeod's relationship ended. The 'Sumo' album did everything the band could have hoped, a national Number One position, and ARIA awards, including Best Rock album. However, all the time, the band was tearing itself apart. Chris Tennent had always only intended to stay temporarily, not to tour, maybe to contribute the songs from outside. The situation with Sarah didn't help. Chris was always leaving, and finally did. There were loose plans about songs for a second album. In July 1999 Sarah decided not to wait any longer. There wouldn't be any new songs from Chris Tennent and something had to happen if Superjesus was going to continue. She suggested what was left of the band hire a beach house in a coastal town and try to start writing songs. Four songs later they realised there could be life without Chris Tennent. They found another guitarist, Tim Henwood, formerly with Plasticine. McLeod worked on her guitar technique and focussed on the songwriting. In October 2000, Superjesus's second album 'Jet Age' entered the national charts in the Top 10. When guitarist Tim Henwood left mid-2001the remaining three members of the band seriously contemplated giving it away. Away from the music business at her home on the central coast on New South Wales singer Sarah McLeod found the desire to keep the band going, emerging with a new batch of songs McLeod took over lead guitar on the band's new-look album 'Rock Music'. The departed Henwood formed his own group, the Androids.
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