Palmerston North band The Remarkables – with Chris Heaphy (guitar, vocals), Alan Gregg (keyboards, bass), Paul Westbury (guitar) and Brendan Conlan (drums) – were the lower North Island university city’s response to the national outpouring of guitar based indie rock in the mid-1980s. They placed second in the Massey University 1985 Orientation Battle of the Bands and used winner The Mannequins’ (who’d split up) studio time to record the Waiting For A Wave EP for new indie Meltdown Records, set up by Peter Shepherd in 1985. Performances in Palmerston North, Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington and New Plymouth in November and December 1985 followed. A second single ‘Vegetarian’/‘Skin Condition’ with Zane Greig drumming arrived in 1986 as did contributed songs on Palmerston North compilation Meltdown Town and national student radio collection Weird Culture, Weird Custom. Alan Gregg was later in Dribbling Darts of Love (with Matthew Bannister) and then The Mutton Birds.The Remarkables' music is impossible to get nowadays, so enjoy this lost and forgotten gem.
