The Mutton Birds were founded in 1991 (on St. Patrick's Day) by Don McGlashan (formerly in the Front Lawn, the Plague and Blam Blam Blam), Ross Burge (formerly in the Dribbling Darts and the Sneaky Feelings), Alan Gregg (also in the Dribbling Darts and the Sneaky Feelings) and David Long.
Anyway, back in 1992 they released their first album (The Mutton Birds) in New Zealand, and their first single, released on their own label, Bag Records. After a successful year, they got the Best Song, Top Group and Best Album at the 1992 NZ Music awards.
They signed up with Virgin in 1994 and they had their first No.1 in NZ with Virgin, The Heater, in 1994. That was also their first release with Virgin.
Also in 1994 they released Anchor Me, which also got to No.1 (I think) in NZ, and when released as their second UK release in 1996, reached the dizzying heights of 143 in the UK charts!! (Thats probably why copies of Anchor Me used to surface all over the place in second hand record shops...(nothing against the band - most popularish singles appear in second hand shops!)), and released their first album in the UK, Nature. They also moved from NZ to the UK in 1995.
In 1997 David Long left the Mutton Birds, to be replaced by Chris Sheehan, but
they continued improve in popularity, with Envy of Angels reaching 33
in the UK album charts.
However, by the end of the
year they had been dropped by Virgin, and so their next two releases, a live
album "Angle of Entry", from a recording of a live acoustic gig in London, and
"Too Hard Basket", containing B-sides and Bastards (i quote!), were released
under their own record label, Gravy Train Records, and only made avaliable on
mail-order from the band itself.
Also, at this point Chris Sheehan expressed a wish to leave the band, and
for the New Zealand dates in early 1998, David Long returned to the band,
although briefly. However, Chris never managed to leave, although has
since released solo albums under the name "Chris Starling".
After a period of inactivity in the shops, they returned again with "Rain,
Speed and Steam", released in feburary 1999, under I think a third self-owned
lable, Shhhh! records. And also at this point, Alan
Gregg left the band, leaving some of the album recorded without Alan, and
Tony Fisher joined to provide backing vocals in several songs, and toured
with the band. (at least in the UK)
The current band has four members:
Don McGlashan: vocals, guitar, euphonium, melodica
Ross Burge: drums, autoharp
Chris Sheehan: guitar, bass
Tony Fisher: bass, vocals, and Ive seen him play three different notes on a keyboard.
Anyway, if you can elaborate and fill in anthing in this page then email me on mr_sneeze@geocities.com. Any input sent tends to be used, and the page is updated reasonably often.
Last update 3 June 1999