Plus 1 Announce Two New Zealand Shows for The Saints ’73-’78, on October 31 and November 1
The Saints ’73 -’78 announce their New Zealand debut this spring, with concerts at The Powerstation in Auckland on 31 October and Meow Nui in Wellington on 1 November, before they head north to the UK and US.
Feel and Plus1 proudly present the band’s New Zealand tour, which follows their hugely successful Australian tour in 2024 where they played to crowds of 12,000 people across 12 shows.
The Saints ’73 -’78 New Zealand dates
Friday October 31st – The Powerstation, Auckland
Saturday November 1st – Meow Nui, Wellington
*The Plus1 24-hour presale begins 9am Tuesday 25th February at plus1.co.nz
Tickets are on general sale at plus1.co.nz from 9am Wednesday 26th February.
Tickets from plus1.co.nz
The Saints ’73 -’78 carry on where the original band left off in 1978, performing the material from their three incendiary albums (I’m) Stranded (1977), Eternally Yours (1978) and Prehistoric Sounds (1978).
The band features founding Saints members, guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Hay, alongside honorary Saints: singer Mark Arm of Seattle rockers Mudhoney, former The Birthday Party / Bad Seeds guitarist Mick Harvey, and bassist Peter Oxley of Australia’s legendary Sunnyboys.
“This wasn’t a tribute to The Saints…it was something else. It was eight guys on stage reaching for magic, devoted to the moment and delivering one of the greatest final furlongs I’ve seen in four decades of watching live music.” Sean Sennett, Time Off
“The towering impressions left by the nights proceedings? That Kuepper is a motherfucker of a guitar-player, his sound just as molten and unrelenting as back in the day.” – UNCUT
“This was no tribute band… no hackneyed cabaret act. This was a band on fire. From the first few bars of opening song, ‘This Perfect Day’, through to the last drops of the chaotic frenzy that is ‘Nights In Venice’, The Saints pummelled our senses with 20 songs of jaw-dropping intensity.” – Backseat Mafia
The tour comes off the back of a recent 4-LP box set of The Saints’ groundbreaking 1977 debut (I’m) Stranded, which features the original album remastered for vinyl for the first time in over 40 years, the previously unreleased 1976 mix of the album, a 5-song live performance from April 1977 at Sydney’s Paddington Town Hall, a full live show from the London’s Hope and Anchor in November 1977 plus all recordings from the 1977 Top 40 charting This Perfect Day and 1-2-3-4 EP sessions.
“…10 tracks of fast and angry rock music that – unlike Ramones and their copyists – used tension and release to heighten the effect of the mid-tempo ‘Story Of Love’ and the shredding feedback jam ‘Nights In Venice’. An essential document this, from one of the era’s fiercest and greatest groups” –Jon Savage (Mojo)
“All of it still sounds nearly as rowdy, feral and cheerfully full of itself as it must have at the time: between Bailey’s eloquent swagger and Kuepper’s furious gravity lay a total confidence in how utterly astonishing The Saints were.’’ – Andrew Mueller (Uncut)
More info about The Saints box set
The Saints: history and legacy
“The Saints first three albums rank among the best records ever made. They have been a part of my life since stumbling upon them in the early 80s. Their influence looms large in Mudhoney world. I am stoked, stunned, and humbled that I get to join in on this Rock ‘n’ Roll Reality Camp with Ed, Ivor, Peter and Mick!”– Mark Arm
In their original guise The Saints existed from 1973-1978. They self-released the legendary ‘(I’m) Stranded’ single in September 1976, and in the process pre-dated releases from the yet-to be-named ‘punk’ scene by Sex Pistols, Damned, Buzzocks, and The Clash.
Following the release of their debut album, also titled (I’m) Stranded, in February 1977, The Saints would move first to Sydney and then in May, to the UK playing their first show at the London Roundhouse with Ramones. Over the next twelve months the band would release their only UK charting record; the exquisite 7” ‘This Perfect Day’, record and release the 1-2-3-4 EP, and record two further albums, the critically acclaimed Eternally Yours and Prehistoric Sounds (both 1978), before calling it quits.
Following their demise, guitarist Ed Kuepper resisted the urge to perform under the banner of The Saints, instead returning to Australia to begin his new group, the equally ground-breaking Laughing Clowns, who would prove a significant influence on the post-punk scene and in particular on Nick Cave and The Birthday Party.
Eventually Kuepper would turn to his own name as a recording artist, producing over 15 solo albums and earning himself numerous ARIA awards at home, as well as Hall of Fame entries for both his solo work and with The Saints.
He would also record movie soundtracks, revert to rock mode via albums with The Aints and The Aints!, enjoy a spell as guitarist with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, co-create the experimental jazz outfit Asteroid Ekosystem, and has just released After the Flood, an album with the brilliant Jim White (drummer for Dirty Three, The Hard Quartet and The Double).
Saints singer Chris Bailey would carry on with The Saints name over the next 40 years, moving more into the folk and r’n’b of his youth, and finding some chart success in Australia during the mid-eighties. Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen even covered the Bailey-penned track ‘(Just Like) Fire Would’ for his 2014 live album High Hopes.
Drummer Ivor Hay would dip in and out of the post-Kuepper line-ups of The Saints and also form his own post-punk outfit Wildlife Documentaries, before dropping out of music altogether for the domestic life – and among other things, wrote the first Instruction Manual for the Fairlight CMI.
On 9.11.2001 Saints founding members Bailey, Kuepper and Hay reformed for their induction into the Australian Music Hall of Fame playing the song ‘(I’m) Stranded’ for the first time in over 30 years.
Moving on to 2007, The Saints would reunite for real, performing at the State Government-backed Pig City concert, headlining to 7000 euphoric Saints fans, which lead to the release of a live album of the same name. Then in 2009, at the behest of Nick Cave and Mick Harvey, The Saints reformed again for the Australian leg of the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festivals. These would be the last shows the original three would perform together.
In 2023 with the announcement of The Saints (I’m) Stranded box set, and following the 2022 death of Chris Bailey, the decision was made to assemble a band who could most represent the songs performed on those first three incendiary albums, and we will be seeing them later this year,
“Of all the places for one of the best bands to come from, it’s Brisbane, Australia. And they were doing it way before anybody else. They were playing live in like, ‘73. They were just an amazing band. Sort of like the Australian version of the Ramones but they didn’t look the part. I remember at the time thinking, those guys need to go to the barber. But that’s how shallow a lot of people were about bands at the time and they didn’t get the recognition they deserved. And I feel it was because of the way they looked. Never was a more punky record made but for some reason, well, for the reasons I’ve just said, they were criminally overlooked. I’d love to have seen them live but never did.” – Jim Reid (The Jesus & Mary Chain)
“The Saints came down from Brisbane (to Melbourne) with a sound that they had worked out entirely on their own, which really sat before the punk thing happened in Britain. They got there first. There was one prevailing emotion that came from those live shows and that was complete contempt, about everything, and that was really unbelievably exciting. They had it all down. We were just flailing around” – Nick Cave
“(I’m) Stranded is one of the hottest walking, incendiary, original rock albums ever recorded. This record is still as relevant to ne now as it was back then” – Henry Rollins
