Eight Orange Orchard profile picture

Eight Orange Orchard

The kids from band-camp

About Me

Eight Orange Orchard were a Taranaki, New Zealand ska punk band who came together in May 2004 in a bid to enter a New Zealand Music competition. The band ended up winning some awards, and continued to release two EP's, Ska'd For Life and All In A Days' Work.

Achievements

    General Coolness Release of 2 E.P's Released on 3 Compilations Smokefreerockquest Regional Finalists (2 years) Smokefreerockquest National Finalists

Background and History

In 2004 two (young and good looking) high-school students from New Plymouth decided they wanted to enter national high school rock band competition, Smokefreerockquest.

William Sklenars and Steven Gibbs started drawing together other musicians, not really certain what they wanted, they ended up with a 4 piece bogan metal band. Within a few writing jam's Will and Steve quickly decided they wanted to go in a different genre direction.

They were soon to discover and be imprissioned by "Ska, Punk Reggae and Dub". And so it was. In March 2004, William started contacting his fello mexican mafia music playing friends to form a "Ska" Band, Eight Orange Orchard.

Consisting of the normal instruments in a "rock" band, they had: Jacob Randall on drums, William Sklenars on bass guitar, Steven Gibbs on guitar and Rachel Helms as lead vocalist and front woman. They also had a very very very good lookin' and talented horn section too (Raynor Martin on trumpet/cornet, Ashley Boswell on trombone and Jonathan Fagg on Baritone Sax).

In 2005 Ashley Boswell left for University in Christchurch and was later replaced by Matthew Hitchings, a stud muffin from the lake side of Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg .

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/17/2005
Band Website: eightorangeorchard.com
Band Members: Rachel Helms Lead VocalsWilliam Sklenars Bass GuitarSteven Gibbs Electric GuitarJacob Randal DrumsJono Fagg Baritone Sax/BV'sRaynor Martin Trumpet/Cornett/BV'sMatt Hitchings Trumbone
Influences: Reel Big Fish, The WBC, 4 Man Bob, Five Iron Frenzy, Less than Jake, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Streetlight Manifesto, Sublime, The Specials, Buck '0' Nine, Trinity Roots, Fat Freddy's Drop, 10cc, Inner Circle
Sounds Like: The kids from band-camp meets the munter heavy metal bogans. Sometimes we try and play this genre of music known as "third-wave ska"
Record Label: Homie-Gangster Records, Inc. G-Unitarian
Type of Label: None

My Blog

EOO To Reunite for Parachute Music Festival '07

EOO will be playing Parachute Music Festival on the Jan 26-29 weekend of 2007. EOO disbanded after the last parachute music festival at the beginning of 2006, and the members moved on into their own p...
Posted by Eight Orange Orchard on Mon, 21 Aug 2006 11:48:00 PST

Eight Orange Merch Available Online

We've just implemented our online ordering system into our website. You can listen to and order both E.P discs of our band website @ http://www.eightorangeorchard.com/
Posted by Eight Orange Orchard on Wed, 29 Mar 2006 03:29:00 PST

Smokefreerockquest 2005

Ok as some of you may know, Eight Orange did quite a bit better this year in new zealand's youth band competition, smokefreerockquest. Making again the semi-final selection by placing in the top 2 ban...
Posted by Eight Orange Orchard on Tue, 13 Sep 2005 03:40:00 PST

Eight Orange Orchard - 23rd Gig w/ The WBC

Hello there all you Eight Orange Orchard fanatics! Your sleepy little guitar  player has decided to send you out a e-mail through the Eight Orange Orchard  mailing list to tell you what the ...
Posted by Eight Orange Orchard on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST

Gig 2nyte @ the mill - The WBC, EOO, and free stuff

Yo, Eight Orange Orchard are playing with The WBC tonight at the underground. Should be a semi-decent show. Please tell some peoples and stuff cos ugggh... I dont really want to carry all my gear in a...
Posted by Eight Orange Orchard on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST

Eight Orange Orchard finally makes it into space - myspace

This is the first blog posted since our sign up to myspace (about 4 days ago). Any who my (steve's) great friend Courtney (BGP as known to most myspacer's) is the one who introduced me to myspace, whi...
Posted by Eight Orange Orchard on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST