The Nana Squad formed in late 2000. Mav and Jez living together at the infamous 85 Broadway in Palmy. Jez met Slushi through his job at a radio station, Mav had gone to school in Dannevirke with Dougal and BOOM! the Nana Squad was born. The songs weren't a-may-zing, the only survivor from the old days is the 30 second 'King Duck Wart'. But who cared what the songs were like as long as everyone got naked and ran around!
There were a lot of good times, but there were some downers as well. A need for speed lead Dougal and Jez form 'SLEIGHER' and record "10 tip: For filling your stocking with festive self loving", Jez and his friend Liam forming 'Stuntcock Records' to release it. Dougal then left the Nana Squad and asian Andy filled the gap on guitar until the outstanding 8 shows had been played.
It might have been all over at that point, until Jez asked Dougal to write some songs with him and the band quickly recorded the 'Japanglish' split CD with Japan's 'R69'. Alcohol and nudity bridging the cultural divide and keeping the dream alive.
Mav left the band to form 'Frontal Oscars', Dougal rejoined and Jimmy from 'Yokel' took over on Bass. It was at this point the band started to do something very few other 'rural' bands ever did at the time, TOUR. Weekend after weekend, all over the North Island of New Zealand. And when they weren't touring, they were putting on shows in Palmy and inviting bands they met to come and play.
This was a golden age full of some extraordinarily good shows and some amazing bands. The Nana Squad were fortuanate enough to grace the stage with We Dunno, Brubeck, Sommerset, The Rod Johnson Experience, The Offbeats, The WBC, Foamy Ed, The Minimals, Sheriff Lobo, One Bad Weekend, Blake, Dirk Drent, Ritalin, Clown Dog, Cheap For A Reason, Losing Face, The Defamers & many many more.
Jez continued to release album's on Stuntcock Records, frequently including the albums as part of the door charge. His most ambitious and ill-timed effort was the 'Remedial Class' compilation. For it was at this time the band imploded again.
It's pretty hard to sell a CD without a band to front it. So Jez formed 'The Mighty Voltron Nana Squad', who played a mix of Nana Squad songs and covers. The lineup initially included Dougal, but he left for the 3rd time, and Jimmy returned to play guitar. Muffy played bass and Red from 'the Rod Johnson Experience' joined on drums.
The shows were successful despite the seachange in punk rock popularity and the band made the most of the cider in the rider performing frequently with 'The Offbeats' during this time.
The last Nana Squad show in 2004 was the first time the band played as a 5-piece as Dougal once again rejoined the lineup. An amazing naked effort resplendant with South African supermodels, 500 screaming japanese kids and a lake full of clothes. After this however everyone scattered to the 4 winds and without ever officially breaking up, presumably it was all over.
At the start of 2008, as chance would have it, everyone ended up in Wellington. It took some cajoling from Jimmy and Red, but they eventually enticed Jez and Dougal into restarting the band. After a few months kicking out the jams, Jimmy's brother Doug joined on bass, the band officially had 5 members and began to play shows once again.
After 4 years away, the band was reinventing themselves, adding more hip hop and electronic influences to their traditional punk rock sound.
After a trip to Australia in 2009, the band came back one short, as Red decided to take root and stay across the ditch. Long time friend of the band, sexy wee Steph, took over the sticks. Not that the guys knew she could play the drums, that was a total bonus!