The Dialtones

ROCKHAPPENZ Public Collection

The Dialtones  —  a Christchurch country-folk flavoured rock band established in 1996 .....
Fleur De Lis (Fleur Walden) (Lead Vocals/Guitar), Rob McLean (Guitar), Dean Aldridge (Bass), Vaughan Watson (Bass/Drums), Peter Mitchell (Drums)
Earlier iterations saw Marcus Winstanley on drums (joined 2004) and Cam Walker on drums (joined 2006).

The long-running group had an evolving lineup over the years and featured the delicate and inciteful songs of singer-songwriter Fleur De Lis (Fleur Walden) - it took until 2004 for their debut album was released - a strong selection of songs that date right back to the band's formation .....

Originally the group was a four-piece unit consisting of De Lis (Guitar/Vocals), Rob McLean (Guitar), Vaughan Watson (Bass) and Peter Mitchell (Drums).  Eventually Mitchell moved to Dunedin with Watson switching to drums and Dean Aldridge coming in on bass.  The trio of de Lis, Mitchell and Aldridge had previously played together in The Suspenders.  They produced a number of short-run, extremely lo-fi singles that were played locally, and De Lis has now formed a number of other projects.  The band reconvened in 2004 with new drummer Marcus Winstanley (former of Barnard’s Star and The Undercurrents, along with playing guitar part-time with Minisnap.  In September 2004, the band finally surprised everyone by releasing their debut album, the appropriately titled Better Late on Winstanley's own new start-up label All Plastic Records – a collection of The Dialtones past songs (some dating right back to 1997) featuring the long-running line-up of De Lis, McLean, Aldridge and Watson and recorded by KRKRKRK's David Khan in early 2003.  A new line-up was formed in 2006 when Smith the Alien‘s Cam Walker came in on drums.