Short & Sweet

Rip It Up, Issue 217, 1 September 1995, Page 9

Short & Sweet

“He’s a big, strapping Wairarapa lad, who one day woke up with a stomach ache, but because boys from the Wairarapa ‘don’t feel pain’, he did nothing about it. A week later when he couldn’t walk, he went to the doctor who told him his appendix had burst and he needed emergency surgery.” Cliff Bateman, guitarist with Wellington quartet Short, is describing the medical misfortunes of lead singer Brett Garretty, and the inspiration behind ‘Spastic Colon’, a track on their new sixsong EP Shagpile. Short have led a charmed life since they formed in the summer of 93, as "a Saturday afternoon excuse to drink lots of Broford’s Hooker Ale”. Bateman, Garretty, and bassist Stuart Brown, having spent time together in various practice rooms over several years, recruited drummer Colin Hartshorn (“10 years our junior”), and played their debut gig to a full house at Wellington’s Bar Bodega, supporting the Bilge Festival.

Bar Bodega owner Fraser Mclnnes saw the band play in front of four people the following week, but was suitably impressed, enough to offer to record the band on his label, Beats Bodega. Armed with a rare-as-hen’s-teeth Arts Council grant, Short spent just one day in Marmalade making Shagpile. Cliff: “It was purely financial constraints that we were only in their for a day. Listening back to it now, we wish we’d spent more time on it. It’s a little rough, but that’s okay, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you make a 100 percent record, what do you do next time?” Prior to recording, Short travelled the North Island as guests of Head Like A Hole, and in recent months have supported both Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, and toured round the traps nationwide with Shihad. Stuart: “People are obviously coming to see Shihad, and they’re saying: ‘Who the fuck are they?’ It’s a challenge. You have to win these people over, but we’re getting there.” Short returned to Wellington after the tour to be met by day jobs and University exams, but are hoping their run of good fortune will continue. A long-player is in the works for early next year, and they have their eye on performing at the next round of festivals and big days out. As Cliff says in closing: “We do have a plan.”

JOHN RUSSELL