Suburban Reptiles


The Suburban Reptiles and The Scavengers, both from Auckland, were the first 1970s styled punk bands in New Zealand.

Punk came to New Zealand rather hesitantly. The global explosion which began in the US in the early to mid-1970s and then spread to the UK was completely ignored by the media and record companies in New Zealand; the likes of the Ramones and the nascent scene that surrounded them rated nary a mention in Hot Licks, New Zealand’s pop magazine of the era. When English punk arrived in late 1976 we had no real rock and roll press, as Hot Licks had shut up shop in the middle of the year.

Bones Hillman and Jimmy Joy, Classic Cinema, Queen Street, Auckland, December 3rd, 1977
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Suburban Reptiles, mid-1978: Billy Planet, Jimmy Joy, Zero, Buster Stiggs and Tony Baldock
Photo credit: Simon Grigg collection. Photo by Paul Hartigan
Megaton
Buster Stiggs' handwritten original lyrics to 'Saturday Night Stay At Home'.
Photo credit: Simon Grigg collection
Zero all dressed up for The Rocky Horror Show, September 1978
Suburban Reptiles in the Neil Roberts-directed Eyewitness - punk television special (1978)
The Suburban Reptiles above the Classic Cinema, Queen Street, January 1978. The BBC interview with the Sex Pistols had been turned down by TVNZ.
The crowd at The Suburban Reptiles Radio Hauraki concert in February, 1978
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
The Buster Stiggs designed poster for Saturday Night Stay At Home, using an image from the 1950s. The poster was recreated in the 2014 7-inch reissue of the single.
Buster Stiggs' handwritten original lyrics to 'Saturday Night Stay At Home'.
Photo credit: Simon Grigg collection
Bones Hillman and Jimmy Joy, Suburban Reptiles at Riverhead, 12 February 1978.
Photo credit: Photo by Stephen Penny
The Suburban Reptiles, Queen Street, Auckland, 21 October 1977
Photo credit: Simon Grigg collection
Zero at The State Dance, February 18, 1978.
Photo credit: Photo by Jeremy Templer
The Dominion street poster the morning after Buster Stiggs had thrown a drumstick into the audience at Victoria University in August, 1977. A girl was accidently hit and the papers blew up the story, causing vigilante type operations against both The Suburban Reptiles and The Scavengers, with Johnny Volume being beaten a couple of nights later in the university toilets.
Saturday Night Stay At Home
Labels:

Vertigo

Trivia:

The first pressing of Megaton had the despised Roger Dean designed 'prog' Vertigo label. It had been requested by Simon Grigg to indicate irony.

Buster Stiggs passed away in January 2018, in Perth, W.A. Brian Nicholls died in a traffic accident in Wellington in the 1990s.

Zero, Jimmy and Brian Nicholls were members of the Sideshow Theatre in Sydney in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The band's name was in part inspired by the David Bowie lyric 'he smiles like a reptile'.

Trish Scott's son, Joel Little, would, in the 21st Century co-write and produce the global smash 'Royals' with Lorde.

The guitar used by Billy Planet on the Megaton single was formerly owned by Lou Reed and used on the Rock'n'Roll Animal and Transformer albums. It was loaned to Billy by Johnny Volume.

Members:

Zero - vocals

Jimmy Joy - saxophone, vocals

Billy Planet - guitar, bass

Buster Stiggs - drums, guitar

Bones Hillman - bass

Tony Baldoch - bass, guitar

Shaun Anfrayd - guitar

Johnny Volume - guitar

Sissy Spunk - guitar

Phil Judd - guitar, keyboards

Roland Morris - bass

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