Skeptics

The New Zealand industrial unit the Skeptics arose in 1979 from the remnants of Palmerston North outfit X-IT, featuring vocalist David D'Ath, guitarist Robin Gauld, bassist Nick Roughan and drummer Don White. Their first recording did not surface until 1982, when the track "Last Orders" appeared on Furtive Records' compilation Three Piece Pack. Signing with Flying Nun in 1983, the group put out the EP Chowder Over Wisconsin and simultaneously launched their own venue, Snailclamps. The cassette-only release Skeptics Said followed in 1984, with the full-length Ponds arriving the next year. After Gauld departed, Bailter Space guitarist John Halvorsen stepped in, and Skeptics III emerged in 1988. While the band recorded its next album, D'Ath received a leukemia diagnosis; despite prolonged treatment he passed away on September 4, 1990, and the finished record Amalgam surfaced two months afterward. The Skeptics disbanded immediately, though the previously unreleased single "Sensible Shoes" was issued in 1991 and a 1992 box set added the new live EP If I Will I Can. Founding members Roughan, White and Gauld later formed the short-lived Hub.