JPSE were bloody brilliant, although capable of being bloody silly too. They started off really well with the release of "Flex" through Failsafe, taken from a live to 2 track recording achieved one afternoon at a sound check. This followed a very low key cassette-only self release 'Cassette In A Can' which featured a number of low-fi recordings of JPSE songs, some to be reworked, and some to never surface again.

The band consisted of: David Yetton - Bass / vocals (Stereo Bus) David Mulchay - Guitars / Vocals (Superette), Jim Lang - Guitars / Vocals, and Gary Sullivan - Drums.

The band went on to record some of their best efforts with the Flex EP for Flying Nun before losing their way on the Silly Love Songs album.

They acquired a keyboardist in the form of Auckland music journalist Russell Bailie and experimented in samples and keyboard textures.

They recorded the confused Size Of Food album which took Flying Nun 2 years to release, severely hampering the bands momentum. The label was at the time trying to expand and negotiate with overseas distribution for it's acts. A necessary but nevertheless harmful event in JPSE's career.
The band kicked out Bailie after a while and then continued on in the original line-up. A series of EPs in their mid career refocussed them and then a satisfactory last album Bleeding Star before the band got completely disillusioned and split.

The band were probably their own worst enemy, and mostly didn't record the songs that made them bloody brilliant live. They were one of the first bands to successfully merge moody melodic guitar pop and samplers well. Songs like the lost "Listen To Your Heart" never made it to release.

Other brilliant tracks got relinquished to B-side status such as the wonderful throb of "Shiver" on the terrible Ray Of Shine single, or "Up In The Sky" from the Breathe EP.
There are reportedly demos of over 30 songs for the Bleeding Star album in existence, and I'm sure many of their great live numbers are contained within, if only I could get a copy.

A band that should have been shooting stars, not bleeding ones.

JOHN PAUL SATRE EXPERIENCE RECORDINGS

"Biding Our Time" - Various Artists (song Flex)

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