Skeptics - Sheen of Gold

It's a cartoon of horror...for us it was like Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades' played on a lot of mushrooms and acid, by a Flying Nun band.

– Shihad frontman Jon Toogood on notorious 1987 Skeptics single 'AFFCO'

David was the most charismatic performer I think I've ever met ... he would do his own tai chi moves, incorporate that into the way he would dance. He had this beautiful elegance in his movement.

– Music fan Bob Sutton on Skeptics frontman David D'Ath

It was never meant to be pro-meat or anti-meat...it was "this is what happens, this is how meat ends up on your table'.

– Skeptics member Don White on the controversy around the music video for 'AFFCO'

We were seen as really really unusual, and probably as a major threat.

– Skeptics founder Robin Gauld on Palmerston North's reaction to the band

With us he had the freedom to be as fruity as he wanted...

– Skeptics member Nick Roughan on the contribution guitarist John Halvorsen made to the band

We’d generally compose stuff, like most people, jamming around. But we’d find pieces that we’d like and try and glue them together. I don’t know if they always worked successfully but we didn’t want to play straight ahead four-on-the-floor rock and roll. That was not an option. And especially at that time too, Robin Gauld was always the enforcer and if anything sounded slightly like anyone else then that was out the door but that did help keep it different.

– Skeptics member Nick Roughan on the band's early compositions, Audioculture, 27 May 2013

Their fans were pretty hardcore...they knew they were hanging out with the best band in the world, to them. They had a loyal following but there wasn't really...I mean Palmerston North just wasn't a place to do that sort of shit, you know.

– Music historian John Dix on the Skeptics' early following in Palmerston North

It's kind of like life's struggle. I think that's what we try to get in each song, is that struggle, because it's the struggle that defines you at the end of the day...it's how you struggle that defines you. And I think our music has always been a bit like that.

– Skeptics guitarist John Halvorsen on what made the band's music distinctive

... they were unique, and there are lots of words thrown around about them: dark, edgy, intense. But they were also a band with a whole lot of melody and subtlety and also a sense of humour, and musically they had a keen intelligence.'

– Director Simon Ogston on the Skeptics, The Otago Daily Times, 10 August 2013