Stuart William Rudd (born 8 June 1969) is an Australian songwriter/bass guitar player of rock band,
The Superjesus
The Superjesus are an Australian rock band formed in Adelaide in late 1994. Their debut album, ''Sumo'' (February 1998), peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart, their second album, ''Jet Age'' (October 2000) reached No. 5 and their ...
. The South Australia News reported that last March 3, 2017, Superjesus was inducted into the South Australia Hall of Fame at the Mortlock Library, State Library Building in Adelaide. Stuart Rudd and Sarah McLeod performed live. Australian guitarist John Brewster-Jones also played a solo rendition while the talented Baker Suite led by guitarist, soloist, and songwriter John Baker performed with the string quartet of Julian Ferraretto and The Yearlings.
Early life and family
Stuart Rudd grew up in Adelaide. His father was a drummer in a Scottish pipe band.
The Superjesus
In late 1994 Rudd, together with
Sarah McLeod
Sarah McLeod (born 18 July 1971) is a New Zealand film and television actress. Her most notable role was in the Peter Jackson films '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' and '' The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' ...
(ex-Fallen Down Monster) (lead vocals, guitar),
Paul Berryman
Paul Michael Berryman is an Australian musician who played drums for alternative rockers, the Superjesus (1994–2004, 2013–16), and Faker (2003–08). Nathan Hudson of Faker explained why Berryman had replaced founding drummer Andrew Day, ...
(drums) and Chris Tennent (lead guitar) formed Hell's Kitchen in Adelaide.
Rudd and Tennent had been jamming together for about a year before Rudd tried out for McLeod's latest band.
Hell's Kitchen changed their name to the Superjesus on the eve of the
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of ea ...
in Adelaide on
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port J ...
long-weekend, January 1996.
In August 1996 the band released their debut
EP, ''
Eight Step Rail'',
which reached the
ARIA Singles Chart
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian record chart, music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA beca ...
Top 50 in the following February.
At the
1997 ARIA Music Awards The Superjesus won Best New Talent for ''Eight Step Rail'' and Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Shut My Eyes".
[ARIA Music Awards for the Superjesus:
* Search Results 'Superjesus': Note: The 2016 ARIA site does not list a second win for 1997: Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Shut My Eyes".
* 1997 winners and nominees: Note: The archive copy of the ARIA site lists two wins for 1997, the 2016 copy of the site does not.
* 1998 winners and nominees:
* 2001 winners and nominees:
]
In February 1998 they released their debut album, ''
Sumo
is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a '' rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring ('' dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by ...
'', which peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum by ARIA for shipment of 70,000 copies.
At the
1998 ARIA Music Awards the Superjesus were nominated for
Best Group,
Breakthrough Artist – Album and
Best Cover Art.
The band released their second album, ''
Jet Age
The Jet Age is a period in the history of aviation defined by the advent of aircraft powered by jet turbine engines, and by the social change this brought about.
Jet airliners were able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older pis ...
'', in October 2000, which peaked at No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
''Jet Age'' was nominated at the
2001 ARIA Music Awards, for
Best Rock Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sever ...
and Best Cover Art.
In May 2003 the Superjesus released their third album, ''
Rock Music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and ...
'',
which reached No. 14 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
The first single from the album, "Stick Together", was co-written by Rudd and McLeod and peaked at No. 35 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
In June 2004 the Superjesus split following their 'Rock Music' tour. Rudd explained in a subsequent interview "We were having issues with our management, we were having issues with our record company. Internally within the band we weren't having a break and kept constantly working and working, we hadn't had a break for a long time and it just got to the point where we all thought we'll just take an extended break and see where we go with it, and it ended there.'
He told Pearl Davies "Well it's not that we broke up at all, we just went home after a show, started to do other projects and just never seemed to get back to it. We probably could have put out a statement or something, woops."
Rudd toured as a member of
Nick Barker & the Reptiles before joining, Southpoor, with Justin Garner (vocals, guitar) (ex-
Nick Costa Band, Nick Barker & the Reptiles), Jad Green (drums), and Bill Rankine (guitar, vocals).
On 1 December 2007 Southpoor released its debut album, ''What Doesn't Kill Ya...'', on Mixmaster Records, with Barker and Mick Wordley co-producing. Rudd described his work outside of Superjesus, "I was doing the Nick Barker tour which was great fun! I went over and played some shows with him in Melbourne and also in Adelaide. I also have a band called
outhpoorthat is playing, and inbetween that I helped the Gels in the studio and producing their album as well."
[ Note: the source misspells his band as "Southport".]
The Superjesus reformed for a one-off reunion show in Adelaide on 1 February 2013. McLeod stating that it was Rudd who inspired the decision to reform. Rudd explained, "two or so years ago, Sarah
cLeodand I were having breakfast and we thought about doing something again. We were both really keen on the idea and of course Paul
errymanwas living overseas. In the meantime I did a few acoustic shows with Sarah which were great fun. I let it be known to the other guys on how much fun was had. So yeah, then Paul came back and it all kinda lined up you know, and in time for a 10 year reunion, so why not. At least we’re all back in Australia now and can do something together again. We have no management; we’re independent right now so it’s just the band. We have a publicist organising some stuff but other than that, we’re coordinating all the flights and everything. A big job."
The band, subsequently performed at the Stone Music Festival with
Van Halen
Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
and
Aerosmith in Sydney in April, before embarking on their first national tour in 10 years – The Resurrection Tour – in May and June.
In early 2015 the Superjesus undertook a national tour with the
Baby Animals
Baby Animals is an Australian hard rock band active from October 1989 to 1996 and reformed in 2007. The original line-up was Frank Celenza on drums; Suze DeMarchi on lead vocals and guitar; Dave Leslie on guitar and backing vocals; and Eddie ...
.
In June that year the Superjesus released their first single in over a decade, "The Setting Sun".
In November they released a second single, "St. Peters Lane", written by Rudd and McLeod, with Rudd writing the music in Adelaide and sending it to McLeod in Sydney to add the lyrics.
Following the release of the single the band embarked on another national tour.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudd, Stuart
1969 births
Australian rock bass guitarists
Living people
The Superjesus members
Musicians from Adelaide