The Superjesus

The Superjesus

The Superjesus is an ARIA award winning rock band from Adelaide, Australia. Their notable Australian hits include "Shut My Eyes", "Down Again" and "Gravity".

History

Lead singer and main song-writer Sarah McLeod formed the band in late 1994 with guitarist Chris Tennent, drummer Paul Berryman and bass player Stuart Rudd. Tennent was McLeod's guitar teacher at the time and a veteran of the Adelaide music scene having played in various bands since the 1980s. The band was originally called Hell's Kitchen before changing their name to The Superjesus on the eve of the 1994 Big Day Out in Adelaide.

Says Paul Berryman of the name: "It was basically just a piss-take on commonly used words in the '90s. Like The Jesus and Mary Chain, "Jesus Built My Hotrod", The Jesus Lizard, Jesus Jones; there's just heaps of Jesus' out there in the music world so we thought we would have that and super was kind of like a '90s catch word."

The group's debut EP, Eight Step Rail, was released in 1996. It spent a couple of months on top of the Australian Independent charts and won two ARIA Awards, in 1997, for Best New Band and also Best Debut Single "Shut My Eyes".

All had not always been well with the band internally and in 1997 Chris Tennent temporarily left. Aaron Tokona from Wellington, New Zealand band Weta filled in, though chose to turn down the band's offer to become a permanent member.

In April 1997, The Superjesus travelled to the USA in order to record their debut album, Sumo, with producer Matt Serletic (Collective Soul) and engineer Jeff Tomei (Smashing Pumpkins, Hole). They released Sumo, through Warner Music in 1998 and its success in Australia led to a US release. The band has released two subsequent albums, Jet Age, in 2001, and Rock Music, in 2003. All albums charted well in Australia with the exception of Rock Music, which suffered from declining public interest in the band. The band never recovered.

Chris Tennent left the Superjesus permanently in 1999 and was replaced by Tim Henwood (who subsequently left in 2002 to concentrate on his work with The Androids and Rogue Traders). Jason Slack has since been playing guitars with the band.

In June 2004, the Superjesus split with Warner Music Australia and indicated they would take time off while individual members pursued other projects. McLeod worked on a solo album of material not suited to the band. Her solo single released in 2005 was entitled "Let's Get Together", while her album, released in the same year, was called Beauty Was a Tiger.

On 27 November 2012, Sarah McLeod announced through radio station MMM in Adelaide & her Facebook page that there would be a one-off reunion show in Adelaide on 1 February 2013. The band then announced in March 2013 that they would be playing the Stone Music Festival with Van Halen and Aerosmith in Sydney in April, before embarking on their first national tour in 10 years (dubbed The Resurrection Tour) in May and June.

In 2015, The Superjesus with lead singer Sarah McLeod embarked on the "She Who Rocks" National Australian Tour with Australian Rock band, the Baby Animals fronted by fellow female vocalist Suze DeMarchi. In June 2015, The Superjesus released their latest single in over a decade entitled, "The Setting Sun". In November 2015, The Superjesus released their second single entitled: "St. Peters Lane" and embarked on "The Setting Sun" National Tour, with plans to release a new album in the coming months.

Discography

Albums

• Sumo (February 1998) (AUS Platinum Certification, over 70 000 copies sold)
• Sumo (US version) (June 1998)
• Sumo II, includes a bonus Enhanced CD of live songs and videos (October 1998)
• Jet Age (October 2000) (Peaked at #32 in ARIA Top 50 Album Charts, 17 Weeks in ARIA Top 50 Album Charts, AUS Gold Certification, over 35 000 copies sold)
• Jet Age re-issue, includes a bonus CD of a "Live Acoustic" performance (October 2001)
• Rock Music (May 2003) - (Peaked #14 in ARIA Top 50 Album Charts, 4 Weeks in ARIA Top 50 Album Charts)
• Rock Music re-issue (February 2004)

EPs and Singles

• Eight Step Rail EP (05/96) - Peaked #47 Australia in Top 50 for 1 week
• "Down Again" (25/08/97) - Peaked #23 Australia in Top 50 for 16 weeks
• "Saturation" (11/97) - Peaked #42 Australia in Top 50 for 2 weeks
• "Now And Then" (04/98) - Peaked #40hul Australia in Top 50 for 3 weeks
• "Ashes" (09/98) #66 Australia
• "Gravity" (11/09/00) - Peaked #35 Australia in Top 50 for 11 weeks
• "Secret Agent Man" (12/02/01) - Peaked #43 Australia in Top 50 for 2 weeks
• "Enough To Know" (20/08/01) - Peaked #42 Australia in Top 50 for 3 weeks
• "Second Sun" (11/02/02) #107 Australia
• "Stick Together" (14/04/03) - Peaked #35 Australia (Charted 27/4/2003 - 18/5/2003 Debuted #44)
• "Over And Out" (07/07/03) - #53 Australia
• "So Lonely" (09/02/04) - Peaked #45 Australia in Top 50 for 2 weeks
• "The Setting Sun" (June 2015) - radio release, first new single in over a decade.
• "St. Peters Lane" (November 2015) - Radio release, second new single.