The Bats


The Bats are a glorious anomaly. They have endured for three decades without a line-up change in an industry where bands crash and burn without leaving the practice room.

There are also few acts in the Flying Nun canon that inspire descriptions like sweet, gentle and lovely; but their intelligent, folky/country inflected jangle pop has regularly been framed in these terms – which isn’t to say that they don’t have a darker side.

North by North
The Bats, late 1980s, High Street, Auckland. Left to right: Robert Scott, Paul Kan, Kaye Woodward and Malcolm Grant.
Photo credit: 95bFM collection
The Bats in a Flying Nun publicity shot from August 1994, used for the release of the 1995 Couchmaster album
Afternoon in Bed
Paul Kean, Kaye Woodward, Malcolm Grant and Robert Scott in the mid-1980s
The Bats in November, 1989: Malcolm Grant, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean and Robert Scott
Chicken Bird Run (Live performance at the Gluepot in Auckland, New Zealand, 14 September 1990) Bob Sutton Collection
Thousands Of Tiny Luminous Spheres, the 2000 Flying Nun compilation
A 1986 tour poster after the return from Europe
The Bats, 1984: Malcom Grant, Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward and Paul Kean
Photo credit: Photo by Frank Shepherd
Mansfield (2020), a 12-song collection of New Zealand artists interpreting Katherine Mansfield’s poems. Curated by songwriter Charlotte Yates, the compilation includes songs from The Bats, Delaney Davidson, Anna Coddington, Lawrence Arabia and Julia Deans, among others.
The Bats - Beneath the Visor (2020)
The Bats - Foothills CD (2020)
The Bats - The Deep Set CD (2017).
The Bats - a documentary by Betsy Payne, 2019
Block of Wood
The Bats - No Trace (2017)
Malcolm Grant, Robert Scott, Paul Kean, Kaye Woodward (holding Rose)
Robert Scott and Malcolm Grant, 1984
The Bats - The Deep Set (2017)
The Bats - Foothills album cover (2020).
Zippy's Last Tour, February 1985
Claudine
1995 Flying Nun publicity shot, taken in Christchurch's Hagley Park
Photo credit: Photo by John McCombe
Robert Scott, Malcolm Grant, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean
Photo credit: Photo by Alec Bathgate
Simpletons
The Bats - Another Door (2020)
A montage of early shots of The Bats, Christchurch circa 1983
The Spill The Beans EP cover from 1994
The Bats in 2018, Malcolm Grant, Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward and Paul Kean.
Photo credit: Photo by Dallas Henley
Back cover to The Bats - Foothills (2020).
Made Up In Blue
The Bats - Warwick (2020)
The Bats at The Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles
Members:

Robert Scott - guitar, vocals

Paul Kean - bass

Malcolm Grant - drums

Kaye Woodward - guitar, vocals

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