1985–1990: Career beginnings and Waterfront Records

Ratcat were formed in 1985 in Sydney by Simon Day on lead guitar and lead vocals, Victor Levi on bass guitar and Trevor Wintle on drums.^[1][2] Both Day and Levi had been members of garage band, Danger Mouse.^[1][2] Ratcat "built-up a strong live following by playing the local haunts of the Sydney skate-punk scene alongside the likes of Massappeal, The Hellmenn, The Hard-ons and Happy Hate Me Nots."

The group signed to Waterfront Records, and released a self-titled extended play in December 1987, which "contained four of the band's self-penned stage favourites plus a cover of "I Think We're Alone Now"."^[1] It was followed by two singles, "I Think I Love You" (August 1988) and "Baby's Got a Gun" (December).

In July 1989, the band released its debut album, This Nightmare.^[1][2] By that time the line-up was Day, John McAteer on bass guitar and Andrew Polin on drums.^[1] According to Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane, the album "contained a treasure-trove of witty, effervescent Day-penned tracks like "Go Go", "True Lust", "Baby's Got a Gun" and "The Killing Joke", plus a cover of UK band The Darling Buds' "If I Said"."^[1] Another single, "Saying Goodbye" was released late in 1989 which was their final release on Waterfront.^[1][2] Amr Zaid replaced McAteer on bass guitar and backing vocals.^[1][2] Alister of Tharunka felt "Saying Goodbye" was "quite refreshing, both in the areas of its mixing and melody, despite decidedly average vocals."^[3]

1990–1998: Blind Love and rooArt records

In February 1990, Ratcat supported English group Buzzcocks and fellow Australian band Falling Joys,^[4] before signing with the rooArt label, distributed by PolyGram.^[1]

On 14 October 1990, the group released a six-track EP entitled, Tingles, which was produced by Nick Mainsbridge (Tall Tales and True, Martha's Vineyard).^[1][2] McFarlane noticed that "almost immediately the frisky "That Ain't Bad" scored mainstream radio support."^[1] That track, combined with their cartoon, tattoo-ish artwork (which featured heavily on their releases and in their videos), saw Tingles reach No. 1 on ARIA Alternative Singles Chart and, in May 1991, the EP was a number-one hit on the ARIA Singles Chart for two weeks.^[1][5] "That Ain't Bad", the lead track, was Day's "simple attempt to mix noisy guitars and the words 'I love you' together in a song without one contradicting the other."^[6] The Canberra Times reviewer opined that it "has had the airplay, but it is not the best track. "Don't Go in the Water", a dire little track, and "Getting Away (From This World)", with its hackneyed but fairly successful insertion of sound from the Challenger shuttle disaster, are both excellent tracks."^[7]

According to an Australian Musician Magazine staff writer, Ratcat were the first alternative band to go mainstream – they provided one of the Top 50 Most Significant Moments in Australian Pop/Rock History.^[6] The band's second album, Blind Love was released in May 1991, and its lead single "Don't Go Now" (April) both reached No. 1 on their respective ARIA charts.^[8] The song was co-written by Day and Robyn St. Clare (of the Hummingbirds). For recording, at Paradise Studios, Day, Polin and Zaid were joined by St. Clare and Margaret Urlich on backing vocals;^[9] they were produced by Mainsbridge, again.^[1][2] Zaid told Charles Miranda of The Canberra Times that their chart success was "really weird it happened so quickly it's sort of difficult for us to understand what has happened. And it does put pressure on us to come up with the goods. We have to look at what we've done [... but not] perform to any sort of dictated standard by what we've achieved."^[10]

The group supported fellow Australian group, INXS, on the latter's Australian tour in April and May 1991 and followed by headlining their own Invasion of the Dinosaur Killers Tour in June.^[1][6] Their next single, "Baby Baby", was released in July and reached No. 21.^[8] In September they started a four-month tour across the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the United States.^[1][11] Polin described how "We were playing to full houses a lot of the way around... Admittedly, in London about a third of the audiences were Australians but we had sold about 17,000 copies of our album over there."^[11]

Upon their return to Australia in December, they released an eight-track live album, Alive.^[1][2][11] Marc Scully replaced Zaid on bass guitar in mid-1992.^[1][2] Their third studio album, Insideout (November 1992) also produced by Mainsbridge, spawned three singles, "Candyman" (May 1992), "Holiday" (October 1992) and "The World (in a Wrapper)" (May 1993).^[1][2] It was recorded between March and May 1992 at Rhinoceros Studios, with Day providing vocals, guitar and bass guitar; and Polin on vocals, drums and percussion.^[12] McFarlane opined that these releases "were unable to repeat the spectacular success of their predecessors but kept Ratcat in the public eye."^[1]

In January 1995, the band released "Rain", which was produced by Tony Cohen, and EP The Smiler in August 1995, and started work on a new album, Easy Rider.^[1][2] The band sporadically played live shows over the next few years and Easy Rider was eventually released in July 1997.^[1]

Ratcat re-emerged in 1998 to play at the Homebake Festival with a new bass guitarist, Nic Dalton (ex-The Plunderers, Sneeze, The Lemonheads, among others). They also collaborated with John Paul Young – who supplied backing vocals – on a cover version of his earlier single, "I Hate the Music" (September 1998).^[1] It was included on the soundtrack for the feature film, Occasional Coarse Language (November 1998).^[1] The band officially disbanded in 1998.^[1]

2002–present: periodic performances

The group played a few shows in 2002, including a spot at the Big Day Out, and, in 2006, were a support act on the Psychedelic Furs Australian tour. They did a further gig at The Jack Daniel's music awards and played, in early June 2006, at the Come Together festival at Luna Park. In 2011, they played a show at The Factory in Marrickville, to mark the 20th anniversary of Blind Love.

A 2010 TV ad for Bonds' brassieres featured a group of women dressed in the branded underwear performing a cover version of Ratcat's "That Ain't Bad" on a street float. An apparently shocked Day made a brief appearance as a passer by, wearing his once signature black and white striped T-shirt and black jeans, reminiscent of the look he sported in early Ratcat videos. He has also appeared with Sydney bands including the Art, and the Glimmer (formerly the Mansons). In 2011 Ratcat were confirmed for Sydney's Homebake festival, subtitled "The Classic Edition".

The band played as part of the A Day on the Green concert series in March 2016, with Hoodoo Gurus, Sunnyboys, Violent Femmes and Died Pretty.^[13]

In October 2023, Ratcat will release All Stripped Back, a re-recording of their greatest hits.^[14]

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Extended plays

Singles

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.