The Cakekitchen


When Graeme Jefferies left New Zealand for London on August 4, 1990, he had no band and no record label, just the master tape of a brilliant album, World Of Sand, that would be rejected 30 times before finding a home at US indie Homestead Records.

It was a subdued end to a busy 1980s spent playing and recording with Nocturnal Projections, This Kind of Punishment, Breathing Cage and The Sombretones. From 1988 on Graeme Jefferies showcased his solo compositions in The Cakekitchen, first as a duo with drummer Robert Key and later adding bass guitarist Rachael King.

Bald Old Bear, 1995 7"
Photo credit: Graeme Jeffries Collection
For So Long
The original generic Cakekitchen poster from 1988. It would be used for the rest of the 1980s by the band, in varying colours.
Photo credit: Graeme Jeffries Collection
The Cakekitchen in the late 1980s: Robert Key, Rachael King, Graeme Jefferies
Live + interview at the Fast Forward II festival in Doornroosje, Nijmegen April 1995
Graeme Jefferies 2018 memoir, Time Flowing Backwards.
The February 2013 album Calm Before The Storm was issued by Graeme Jefferies in Europe and on vinyl by Wellington label Rough Peel
Rachael King, bassist with Cakekitchen, standing at the intersection of Victoria Street and Queen Street, 1989.
Photo credit: Photographer Stuart Page, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 273-PAG041-20
Airships (live at the Sausage Machine, 1991)
Jean-Yves Douet, Graeme Jefferies - 1994
Photo credit: Graeme Jeffries Collection
Atmosphere (Joy Division cover, live in Russia)
Graeme Jefferies with Nocturnal Projections, New Plymouth 1981
Robert Key, Rachael King, Graeme Jefferies
Photo credit: Graeme Jefferies Collection
Graeme Jefferies and Brett Jones
Graeme Jefferies, 2013
Parrot Island
How Can You Be So Blind (Live in Austria)
Dave The Pimp
Greater Windmill St Blues (Live at Kings Arms, Auckland, October 2007)
Graeme Jefferies, Markus Acher - 1995
Photo credit: Graeme Jefferies Collection
The Cakekitchen, May 1988: Robert Key and Graeme Jefferies
The Cakekitchen in Russia
Photo credit: Graeme Jeffries Collection
Even As We Sleep (Live in Stuttgart at the Schocken Club, July 2004. Filmed by Ursula Ellsworth)
Trivia:

The Cakekitchen gained wider recognition in Germany when the song Sonnenallee was included on the soundtrack to the 1999 movie of the same name.

Rachael King is the daughter of New Zealand historian, the late Michael King, and a published fiction writer.

Graeme Jefferies performed in Moscow in 2009 with a set that included Joy Division’s Atmosphere. He also includes New Zealand songs such as The Clean’s Getting Older in his set.

Labels:

Homestead


Flying Nun


Raffmond


Merge Records

Members:

Graeme Jefferies - vocals, keyboards, guitar, viola

Robert Key - drums

Rachael King - bass, effects

Huw Dainow - drums

Keith McLean - bass

Jean-Yves Douet - drums

Marcus Acher - percussion, drums

Andre Richels - drums

Dieter Roseeuw - strings

Herbert Dee - drums

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