Although it’s a very rare occurrence to catch this groundbreaking Australian act performing live, Ratcat remain in the hearts of rock-loving Australians for dragging Australian music culture out of a boring and stagnant pub rock ‘80s phase and bringing pop/punk guitar rock to the masses.
Being at the forefront of an international musical change of direction that saw the boundaries between indie and commercial success smashed to oblivion, Ratcat’s rise to popularity was the result of public demand and not the industry that attempts to control such demand. Completely taken by surprise, Ratcat released the ground-breaking Tingles EP in 1990 (after many independent record releases via the Waterfront Label) which, with no fanfare whatsoever, made a steady climb to the top of the National Top 40 after seven months of release. In fact, it was the highest selling EP of the year.
Soon after Ratcat released the widely acclaimed Blind Love album, which shot straight to #1 on the ARIA Album charts. Amazingly they also scored a duel #1 on the ARIA Singles chart with the track “Don’t Go Nowâ€. History writes that the last band to have done this was INXS back in the ‘80s and, as far as we can recall, the next was to be Savage Garden not so long ago. The difference, of course, was that Ratcat came from a musical background that broke all rules!
Ratcat have performed the odd rare show, with their last unforgettable performance being at Homebake in December 1998.
