The Scavengers were one of the first New Zealand punk bands in the late Seventies (along with The Suburban Reptiles), most well known locally for their songs “Mysterex” and “True Love”.
The band was actually formed pre-punk in the mid Seventies by graphic design students at the Auckland Technical Institute and renamed The Scavengers in 1977 when the punk movement started.
They contributed the two tracks mentioned to a compilation album called “AK79”.
At first the only video of “True Love” played by The Scavengers I could find was from an “AK79 Show” in 2008 where the sound quality was so bad I didn’t want to inflict it on you. Meanwhile I just found another, shorter one that is bearable (just!) and gives an idea of the original energy.
In 1979 The Scavengers moved to Melbourne, Australia and again renamed themselves The Marching Girls in 1980.
I was thinking The Scavengers were the punk trio I engaged for a free rock festival at the Massey University Student Orientation in Palmerston North in March 1980, but unless they came back to New Zealand before renaming themselves, I guess it wasn’t them. Have to do some digging to find the answer to that one.
Anyway, here is “Mysterex” from 1978:
In this clip band member at the time Brendan Perry (who now does VERY different things) describes the background to “Mysterex”:
As mentioned, here is “True Love” at “AK79 Revisited” in 2008 (the other video of the same performance says The Scavengers…):
Actually, I will give you the option of watching the other video if you like, which includes two girls jumping on the stage and has better video quality (but don’t say I didn’t warn you about the sound!):
And here is The Scavengers song “True Love” played by the band’s reincarnation Marching Girls some years later, when it was used in the soundtrack of a film called “Dogs In Space”:
Tamed down a bit by this time… think I prefer the Scavengers version.
Paul