…By this point, Taylor had left and another old friend, Anthony Nevison, had returned from his OE to join the band on guitar. They wrote songs for a followup album, including one with a loping bassline and a simple, memorable, keyboard motif.Matthews performed vocals on the song live, but singer Fiona McDonald was asked to sing the chorus at recording sessions late in 1990. Her keening voice, an entirely new sound in the Chickens' arsenal, proved to be the final element of a New Zealand pop classic 'Cruise Control'.
It became the lead single from 1991's Body Blow album, whose conception was quite different to that Stunt Clown. Mushroom Records, which had taken a stake in Flying Nun, offered to bankroll recording time in a Sydney studio, but the band chose instead to work at Incubator, a new inner-city studio set up by Nevison and de facto band members Rex Visible and Angus McNaughton. The album took the band to a new level – the art-trio of yore could now easily fill The Gluepot and tour Australia (where a remix of 'Cruise Control' reached No.26). Nevison's ribald 'Donde Esta La Pollo' went to No.4 in the local charts, two places better than 'Cruise Control'. 'Juice', McDonald's wistful song about watching weekend morning pop shows was twinned with the raucous 'Choppers' and reached No.7… to be continued - Russell Brown
trax:
01 Cruise Control (Eskimos In Egypt Mix) 02 Railway Surfing (Octane Mix) 03 Cruise Control 04 Inside Track
…served by Gaius + Psyclist...
















































