The Crocodiles and Fables make belated returns

Review by

Graham Reid

Music writer·New Zealand Listener·

26 Apr, 2026 06:02 PM3 mins to read

Graham Reid is an NZ journalist, author, broadcaster and arts educator. His website, Elsewhere, provides features and reports on music, film, travel and other cultural issues.

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Heydays: Jenny Morris of The Crocodiles. Left, guitarist Fane Flaws. Photos / Murray Cammick

The Complete Crocodiles

by The Crocodiles

When post-punk was being reborn as New Wave, the opening track on The Crocodiles’ 1980 debut album Tears was New Wave Goodbye, agitated and cynical pop that could sit alongside Elvis Costello.

The quirky Crocodiles’ first incarnation in their two-year career was
a creative collision of characters: drummer, actor and mischief-maker Bruno Lawrence; artist, film-maker and guitarist Fane Flaws (like Lawrence, part of the travelling show Blerta and the theatrical Spats); classically trained guitarist Tony Backhouse (Mammal, Wide Mouth Frogs) and pianist Peter Dasent (Spats). Session bassist Mark Hornibrook was alongside singer/bassist Tina Matthews and vocalist Jenny Morris, both former Frogs.

With further songwriting contributions from Arthur Baysting, they pulled together 1960s Beat-era pop, jazz (Dasent on the power poppy Working Girl), sly jibes (It’s the Latest with “here’s another melody we stole from the Beatles”) and 1950s pop (Whatcha Gonna Do).

The Crocodiles album Tears has been reissued on limited edition vinyl; The Complete Crocodiles is a double CD, not available digitally. Photos / Supplied

The Tears album – included in Nick Bollinger’s 100 Essential New Zealand Albums – was an intoxicating nudge-wink mélange of pop styles, and the album’s impressive, key-changing title track went top 20. But thereafter came line-up changes and the lesser album Looking at Ourselves. Among those arriving were drummer Ian Gilroy (later in The Swingers), jazz bassist Jonathan Zwartz and Rikki Morris, their soundman promoted to guitar duties and kick-starting his career singing the standalone single Hello Girl.

Three months after Looking at Ourselves – and winning Best Group and Most Promising Group at the music awards – The Crocodiles (just two original members, Jenny Morris and Backhouse) went to Australia, struggled and broke up for separate careers. Morris delivered big albums (Body and Soul in 1987, Shiver two years later) and became a fixture at Australia’s music awards.

The Complete Crocodiles collects the band’s output plus material by Spats and Wide Mouth Frogs (some crept into The Crocodiles’ catalogue), live songs (Do the Bluebeat), demos, and selections from smart post-Crocodiles offshoots I Am Joes Music, The Umbrellas, Blessed Relief and The Bend (songs co-written by Flaws and Backhouse with poet Sam Hunt).

It’s an expansive 50-song collection but these people deserve it, six of them so influential they have separate entries at Audioculture.

So, it’s New Wave hello again?

Change is a Slow-Moving Beast

By Fables

Jess Bailey of Fables. Photo / Ebony Lamb

Slow moving indeed, it’s been more than seven years since Jess Bailey (Fables) delivered her excellent EP Portraits.

These 12 thoughtful songs address change, damage from love (the hypnotic Eyes Closed), emotional defeat and bitterness (“see you again on the downfall”), concluding with “every time I find the meaning of life … it moves”.

These literate lyrics – which may explain the long hiatus – are couched in gorgeously airy, swooning folk-pop melodies with hints of alt-country (the lovely Sundown with Dave Khan on guitars) and are co-produced by Bailey with Reb Fountain, Khan and Dan Luscombe, an assurance of quality. A moving collection delivered with relaxed self-awareness by someone who can persuasively sing “sundown becomes me” because this frequently feels like the mood of fading light.

The Crocodiles album Tears has been reissued on limited edition vinyl; The Complete Crocodiles is a double CD, not available digitally.

Change is a Slow-Moving Beast is available digitally and on vinyl.

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