Formed in Dunedin, New Zealand, the short-lived noise-pop band the Doublehappys started out with singer/guitarist Shayne Carter and bassist Wayne Elsey—both prior members of Bored Games—plus a battered drum machine they called Herbie F*ckface. After receiving an invitation to the Flying Nun label’s 1984 Looney Tour, the pair recruited drummer John Collie and set off, resulting in a captured performance at Auckland’s Windsor Castle that surfaced in 1990 as the album How Much Time Left, Please? Their initial proper release, the Double B-Side EP, arrived in late 1984, with the follow-up EP Cut It Out issued the next year. Tragedy ended the run when Elsey died in a freak train accident while the group was heading back to Auckland for a show, prompting an immediate breakup, though Carter and Collie later regrouped in the excellent Straitjacket Fits. Flying Nun issued the Doublehappys compilation Nerves in 1992.
