Stellar "Mix" 1999

With their string of massive radio hits, conspicuous flame-haired singer and major label backing, Stellar exploded into national consciousness seemingly overnight. But like the maxim says, overnight success takes a long time to achieve, and Stellar were no exception...

...The roots of the band lay in mid-to-late-80s Christchurch, where drummer Andrew Maclaren was introduced to Boh Runga as a potential vocalist for his band Amez Amez. Maclaren was initially reticent to include her in the band because, he says, “she was too good!” However, the pair hit it off and subsequently started writing music together. By 1992 Runga and Maclaren, stymied by the lack of opportunities in their home city, decided to head to the epicentre of the music industry in Auckland. This pre-Stellar line-up of Maclaren, Runga and Shanks composed the song ‘Ride’ for the short film Headlong (Simon Raby’s directorial debut: he has since featured as a 2nd unit director and/ or cinematographer on such films as Lord Of The Rings, District 9 and Elysium). Headlong’s score was written by Joel Haines, who contributed guitar to the ‘Ride’ single as the three-piece had yet to enlist a permanent lead guitarist. This would come (briefly) in the shape of Simon McCormack. McCormack had previously been in Coelacanth, Justin Maclaren (the eldest of the three Maclaren brothers, the other being Simon Maclaren of Love’s Ugly Children)'s band. McCormack would later design the Magic Line album cover and attendant singles.
North Shore boy Kurt Shanks was next to join the line-up. Newly formed rock three-piece Splitter, with Shanks on bass, performed their first gig at Mikey Havoc’s rock bar du jour, Squid in O’Connell St, on April 21, 1995. “The show is gonna start at a decent hour. First band plays at 10.30 sharp,” proclaims the poster. The main act for the night was Boh’s little sister, the relatively unknown Bic Runga whose band included Maclaren on drums. The hook-up was likely to have come from Wayne Bell, who was flatting with Maclaren and Boh Runga at the time, as well being a friend of Splitter singer/ guitarist Andrew Thorne. Both Bell and Thorne would play on Bic’s solo album Drive, and be part of her touring band after its release. Having watched Splitter perform, Maclaren approached Shanks to jam with him and Boh.Towards the end of 1995 the three-piece line-up finally christened themselves Stellar after the word was plucked out of a dictionary. “It sounded bigger than ourselves and otherworldly so it was perfect,” says Runga, although in the early days it would often be mistaken for being the name of the lead singer. There is some debate over where and when the first Stellar gig took place, although The Club (Queen St) around October 1995 with all-female group Mary and Chris van de Geer’s band Second Child also on the bill is the most likely contender.
Stellar performed frequently throughout 1996 and 1997, with a quick succession of guitarists passing through the band Riqi Harawira (Dead Flowers) followed McCormack and he contributed lead guitar to a new recording, ‘Happy Gun’, recorded at The Lab with the studio’s house engineer Chris van de Geer. Harawira also features in the video for the song. He was followed by Derek Solomon from art/ rock/ noise band Canis (who released two albums, the first, A Good Solid Flesh Crime, engineered by van de Geer)...to be continued... - audioculture

trax:
01 Violent 02 Part of me 03 Every Girl 04 Nerve & Consequences 05 Undone 06 Tenderhook 07 What you do (Bastard) 08 If you lied 09 Slowburn 10 Breather 11 You
…served by Gaius…