Ratcat earned distinction as the earliest Australian alternative band driven by guitars to attain widespread domestic prominence in the early 1990s. Singer/guitarist Simon Day and bassist Victor Levi first formed the garage outfit Danger Mouse, from which Ratcat emerged and steadily built an audience across Sydney through repeated shows within the skate-punk circuit. The Waterfront label issued the group’s self-titled debut mini-LP in December 1987, and the full-length The Nightmare appeared in 1989, prompting a contract with rooArt. On that imprint’s various-artists collection Youngblood II, Ratcat supplied the track “You Get Me By.”
November 1990 brought The Tingles EP, the release that delivered the band’s breakthrough when it ascended to the top of the national charts; the infectious single “Don’t Go Now” matched that position. Blind Love, issued the following July, likewise claimed the number-one spot nationwide. The band subsequently supported INXS on the X tour while mounting headline dates of its own. September 1991 found Ratcat traveling through the U.K., Europe, and the U.S. in the company of Ride, Iggy Pop, Teenage Fanclub, Violent Femmes, and the Wonder Stuff.
Insideout surfaced in 1992 and included a duet pairing Day with Falling Joys’ Suzie Higgie. Two further EPs, Rain and The Smiler, arrived in 1993 before the long-gestating Easy Rider finally reached stores in 1997.
