Ghost Club "Ghostclubbing" 2001

Amidst the millennial guitar rawk revival, when Detroit was the new Detroit, and groups like The White Stripes and The Datsuns were shooting up the charts and shuffling on your iPod, a cadre of New Zealanders settled in London and wielded a Ghost Club, and the hard rock sound got roundly clocked. A few years earlier, EnZed’s extra-dimensional adventurers The 3Ds had “quietly moved apart”. “I don’t think there was any animosity or bad feeling,” recalls guitarist David Mitchell, “all of a sudden, we were into the big [music] machine and I don't think we had any idea of what was out there.” (NZ Herald, 8 April 2005)
Though their band had broken up, guitarist Mitchell and drummer/ bassist Denise Roughan got together and made the shift to London. As Roughan remembers it, “We wanted a change of scenery, and from what we both knew of London we really loved it and wanted to have a crack at living there. So that was kind of the end of The 3Ds … we ran out of steam, basically.” (Musical Chairs, Radio New Zealand National, 19 November 2011)
Ghost Club bassist/ drummer Jim Abbott recalls their portentous arrival. “Dave accidentally left a bag containing his wah wah and various other effect pedals at Victoria Station. The police were called, rush hour trains were cancelled and the station was evacuated until it was confirmed that the bag didn't contain a bomb. When they got hold of Dave the police asked, “Have you got any idea what you've done?' " (interview with the author, 2015)
trax:
01 Punch (Your Brother) 02 Precious Blood 03 Cool Air 04 Unterwasser Fotos 05 Diver X 06 Break the Law 07 Howl of the Duck 08 Late Lamentable Fire 09 Tote Oma 10 Ghost Club Theme Song 11 Tiny Cuts
…served by Gaius…