The 3Ds - The Peel Sessions & Triple J Live to Air

The 3Ds - The Peel Sessions & Triple J Live to Air 

Flying Nun Records

The live tracks on this record have been remastered by long-time champion and engineer Tex Houston, taken from the original masters courtesy of the BBC and ABC, and facilitated by the Alexander Turnbull Library.

The3Ds are a Flying Nun supergroup of sorts; made up of members from Look Blue Go Purple, Snapper, Bird Nest Roys, Exploding Budgies and Goblin Mix. Starting off as three ‘D’ members; Denise Roughan, David Saunders and Dominic Stones, they were very quickly joined by a fourth ‘D’ — David Mitchell. Despite the supergroup status, the band didn't originally intend to be anything more than a casual good-time band, hanging around for some drinks and laughs. Regardless of this ethos, The 3Ds very quickly got too good to stay on the sidelines, and eventually the group got picked up by Flying Nun Records.

Fast-forward to 1994; a big year for The 3Ds. Having recently released two full-length albums, ‘Hellzapoppin’ (1992) and ‘The Venus Trail’ (1993), the band left New Zealand’s shores for a tour of Australia — where they performed tracks live-to-air at the ABC’s ‘Triple J’ radio station — then spent three months on the road in both the USA (with Superchunk, Pavement and Guided By Voices) and the UK, where they recorded four songs for a coveted Peel Session on 24 April, 1994, and were widely lauded by the UK music press.

A snapshot in time, this special release features nine different live tracks from the band’s previous releases (Hellzapoppin, The Venus Trail, Fish Tales/Swarthy Songs for Swabs) 

The centre artwork on the front cover of the album is an original David Mitchell drawing, and the inner sleeve features photos, also taken by David. The design layout was administered by Matthias McGregor from Leather Jacket Records and Flying Nun Records, inspired by BBC Peel Sessions albums of the past.