The Bats


The Bats are a glorious anomaly. They have endured for three decades without a line-up change in an industry where bands crash and burn without leaving the practice room.

There are also few acts in the Flying Nun canon that inspire descriptions like sweet, gentle and lovely; but their intelligent, folky/country inflected jangle pop has regularly been framed in these terms – which isn’t to say that they don’t have a darker side.

A montage of early shots of The Bats, Christchurch circa 1983
The Bats - Another Door (2020)
The Bats - The Deep Set (2017)
The Bats, 1984: Malcom Grant, Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward and Paul Kean
Photo credit: Photo by Frank Shepherd
Robert Scott and Malcolm Grant, 1984
The Bats - Loline (2025)
Claudine
Thousands Of Tiny Luminous Spheres, the 2000 Flying Nun compilation
The Bats - No Trace (2017)
Mansfield (2020), a 12-song collection of New Zealand artists interpreting Katherine Mansfield’s poems. Curated by songwriter Charlotte Yates, the compilation includes songs from The Bats, Delaney Davidson, Anna Coddington, Lawrence Arabia and Julia Deans, among others.
1995 Flying Nun publicity shot, taken in Christchurch's Hagley Park
Photo credit: Photo by John McCombe
The Spill The Beans EP cover from 1994
The Bats - The Deep Set CD (2017).
Malcolm Grant, Robert Scott, Paul Kean, Kaye Woodward (holding Rose)
The Bats in November, 1989: Malcolm Grant, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean and Robert Scott
The Bats in a Flying Nun publicity shot from August 1994, used for the release of the 1995 Couchmaster album
The Bats
Photo credit: 95bFM Collection
The Bats - Foothills album cover (2020).
Simpletons
Made Up In Blue
Back cover to The Bats - Foothills (2020).
Block of Wood
Chicken Bird Run (Live performance at the Gluepot in Auckland, New Zealand, 14 September 1990) Bob Sutton Collection
A 1986 tour poster after the return from Europe
North by North
Zippy's Last Tour, February 1985
The Bats, late 1980s, High Street, Auckland. Left to right: Robert Scott, Paul Kan, Kaye Woodward and Malcolm Grant.
Photo credit: 95bFM collection
The Bats - Foothills CD (2020)
The Bats and Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos at The Captain Cook, December 1984
Afternoon in Bed
Members:

Robert Scott - guitar, vocals

Paul Kean - bass

Malcolm Grant - drums

Kaye Woodward - guitar, vocals

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