Description
The definitive story of The Clean in their own words.
Now, you said it was yesterday, yesterday's another day
Heading round in make believe, I don't know if it's you or If it's me oh,
I don't know, I don't know
Tally ho, tally ho!
In 1978 in Dunedin, New Zealand, the Kilgour brothers, Hamish and David, and their schoolfriend Peter Gutteridge, got together to form a band called The Clean. When Robert Scott joined in 1980, the band found a combination that endured for nearly forty years.
The Clean profoundly changed alternative music: hitting the New Zealand charts for months with a single made for $50, 'Tally Ho!'; helping establish Flying Nun and a music scene independent of the big labels; pioneering a low-fi, do-it-yourself approach to rock music; and touring internationally to influence bands like Pavement and Yo La Tengo.
Raw and immediate, this is the story as told by members of The Clean and their inner circle - fellow musicians such as Chris Knox, Martin Phillipps, Graeme Downes and Ira Kaplan, friends and family, pub promoters and sound engineers, and their good friend, Richard Langston. From teenagers in a Dunedin practice room to New York City on 9/11 - this is the band's history as it unfolds.
Author: Richard Langston
Publisher: Feral House
Published: 04/07/2026
Pages: 374
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.72lbs
Size: 9.90h x 7.00w x 1.10d
ISBN13: 9781627311830
ISBN10: 1627311831
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Music
- Music | Genres & Styles | Punk
- Music | Genres & Styles | Rock
About the Author
Richard Langston is a journalist, poet and television director who has written about the Dunedin music scene since the 1980s. The fanzine he edited from 1984-86, Garage, was issued as the book Pull Down the Shades: Garage Fanzine 1984-1986 (HoZac Books, 2023). He has been friends with the members of The Clean for forty years.