Our epic saga begins in Dunedin, a sleepy coastal University town in the south of New Zealand. "Yellow gorse blooming on the hills, the breeze ruffling the harbour, the varsity exams over, whitebait fritters for tea! And when Dunedin's in such a good mood, why, we can even spare a smile for the metermaids!" Smile indeed, for this is where Smile hides.

It was early in 1997 that drummer Hans Weston, following the break-up of his previous band, advertised to form or join a band. Guitarist Leon Morgan saw Hans' ad pinned up in the Vogel House practice room building. He contacted Hans and, after discovering they had similar musical interests, arranged to meet and have a bit of a jam.

The musical bond was instant. The first songs Leon and Hans wrote together were two gutsy, guitar-based hard rock songs: "It's All in Your Mind" and "Swell" (originally entitled "Surfing in the Water").

The year continued with Leon and Hans writing and rehearsing songs, with Leon taking on vocals. After two months together, the duo set about looking for a bass player, and met up with Campbell Truman. The three got on well together, and not long after this Hans asked that the band be called "Smile", for no other reason than it was simple, easy-to-remember, and also stolen from a band from the late 60's/early 70's.

With six or so songs fully completed ("It's All in Your Mind", "Surfing in the Water" (later "Swell"), "No-One Cares", "Gitface" (later "Circus World"), "Anytime" (unrecorded), and "Farty Breath" (later "Tear", unrecorded)), Smile boldly stepped into the limelight in the relaxed atmosphere of Fuel café. Big-time nerves aside, it was an exciting 40 minutes for both the performers and the audience. Shivers! (Fuel café now has a fully-established music venue called Fusion.)

The rest of the year was spent expanding on this with writing and rehearsing more songs, and playing further gigs at local venues such as Ruby in the Dust, The Crown Hotel, the Dunedin Musicians' Club, and The Loaded Goblin on the campus of the University of Otago.

A small victory came in the form of the Dunedin Battle of the Bands, February 1998. Out of approximately 9 bands, Smile were placed first, awarded NZ$500, and some studio recording time. In the end, the most valuable thing to come out of this event was the live recording made on the night of The Battle that became the hidden track on "Fear of Flying".

The studio recording did not turn out as well as hoped, and work on this first body of songs was shelved for some months. The songs recorded ended up being the demos and templates for a new recording. This would start in November of 1998, and would be recorded with Nigel Jenkins of Graffiti Studio in Dunedin.

The middle of 1998 was quite literally a trudge through the mud for Smile. The band had found themselves entangled in an annual outdoor event for the OUSA tramping club, called the Bush Ball. Fearful of the apparent demands of the Bush Ball, Leon and Hans reluctantly said farewell to Campbell, who had been struggling to keep up with the musical side of things. As a temporary replacement, Chris Edwards was brought in. Chris had been the bass player in Hans' previous band, and with a 50/50 mix of covers and originals the band was feeling more confident.

The Bush Ball was held at Mount Aspiring Hut near the middle of New Zealand's South Island. Too late to pull out, Smile found themselves standing at road's end in the Matukituki Valley, unaware that they had an 11 km journey ahead of them on foot. The obvious choice for Smile was simply to go back home, but half their gear had already been taken to Mount Aspiring Hut, and the transport that had been arranged was forbidden from making another trip. Eager to be reunited with the rest of their instruments, they began the long haul across the valley, late in the afternoon, towards a setting midwinter sun.

The hut was small. The hut was crowded. The hut was dark and sweaty. People were drunk to oblivion. But worst of all, there was no PA - just someone's portable mini system, powered by a gas-engined generator. With the hour of live music approaching, eyes were turned onto Smile, who were by this stage resigned to not performing. However, with a few sloshes of punch, they were convinced by a few of the revellers to make some kind of noise. Smile went through their entire planned sets without vocals of any kind, and thankfully the audience boisterously sang along with the covers. With the gig out of the way, Smile had to get through a night of confined and uncomfortable sleep.

Smile awoke to a cold but bright frosty morning. As it turned out, the journey was only half over - with apparently no room for the band members in the transport, Smile again had to trudge along the valley, toting what they could carry. With an infuriated Hans, and an incapacitated Leon (sore ankle), Chris was the only member to look upon the day lightly, refusing to let the tragedy of it all overwhelm them.

After the five-hour drive back to Dunedin, the misadventure was still not over: they had no idea where their gear was, and no way of contacting the people responsible for it, and after some time searching, they had no choice but to go home. All was resolved, however, when their gear was picked up the following day, relatively intact. Shivers!

With Chris having to return to his university commitments, Smile again found themselves bassistless. Fortunately, through a friend at work, Hans learned of the existence of Sam Ross. He was a guitar player who could also play some pretty good bass, and, as it turned out, Leon already new of Sam and immediately gave him a call. Sam was auditioned by Leon and Hans at Vogel House, and subsequently joined the band. Sam's arrival was followed by the usual run-the-new-guy-through-the-songs routine. Sam yummed up the opportunity, and the band were again fast rolling along the musical highway.

Through Sam's contacts, a covers gig was secured at the Kensington Hotel for November of 1998. The weeks leading up to this were mainly spent playing the occasional gig and writing new material. Meanwhile, with Vogel House being closed down, Smile were cast onto the street with nowhere to practise. The band made do shifting their gear around such places as The Workshop (a very boganesque, dark, empty, yet strangely atmospheric place, with a huge painted skull on the right-hand black concrete wall, I might add), the Musicians' Club and Fold's band room (Sam was good friends with the members of Fold). These were the grounds upon which Smile developed new songs and built up a steady run of cover songs to supplement their set for the Kensington gig.

The Kensington turned out to be a little saga in itself. The band approached playing at the Kensington as they would any normal gig, however, unbeknownst to Smile, the Kensington Hotel was unprepared for the usual Smile cacophony...

With Leon's Marshall stack and Hans's loud Zildjian Z's, Smile launched into their set at the standard Smile volume level. After the first song, Smile were politely but firmly asked to turn things down, and it was clear that they were the wrong band in the wrong place. Determined to continue the night, Smile had to play their own songs as if they were covers, toning down to almost half their normal volume. The locals ended up enjoying the event, but it was clear that it was a definite band-venue mismatch. But! With $300 in their pockets at the end of the evening, Smile were happy with the way things turned out.

At this point, Leon and Hans had decided they would record five or so of their songs, which would become a demo tape and form part of a recording that could be given away at gigs. In the weeks that followed, Sam secured a second and a third night at the Kensington Hotel. Although somewhat tiresome, and not the ideal Smile gigs, these ultimately paid for half of what would become "Fear of Flying".

Hungry for a more professional end-product, Smile called upon home studio guru Nigel Jenkins to oversee this new recording project. The original plan had been to polish the recording that was made earlier in the year, but Smile wasted no time in realising that they could do better, and they started from scratch.

Five songs were initially chosen: "Higher and Higher", "Just Hang In There", "Where Have You Been", "Hit and Miss" (later "A Better Place"), and "Catchy Fish" (later "Gone"). The live instrumental parts for these songs were recorded within a week, and during the following weeks Leon worked hard on these songs, layering many guitar parts, vocals and keyboard. Leon's ability to use studio techniques allowed Smile to develop the songs beyond what they'd originally envisaged. During this time, three Leon-penned instrumentals were also recorded: "The Way Nature Intended", "Blasphemy" and "Ambience".

In these first sessions, guest vocals by Matt and Craig from Fold and local singers Marlice and Karla (friends of Sam and Leon) were recorded. Also contributing on the album was Nigel's brother Barry playing didgeridoo on the final track.

In January, following a two-week break, they decided to record another five songs: "It's All in Your Mind", "Surfing in the Water" (later "Swell"), "Shine On", "Gitface" (later "Circus World"), and "What". The songs were rehearsed thoroughly with Sam at Fold's practice room beforehand, and these additional songs (the oldest of the Smile repertoire) acquired a new energy. With this mindset, Smile re-entered Graffiti, and within two nights they had laid down the last five tracks for what would become "Fear of Flying".

February and March of 1999 were mainly spent mixing and polishing up the recording, adding effects, overdubs, etc. The recording was dragging on into March, and with no end in sight it was decided to wrap things up. It took Leon and Hans only 10 minutes to decide on the song order, and the CD was ready to roll.

The recording done, all that remained was the design of the packaging and artwork. Alan Dove of Eye To Eye Studios provided the band with a selection of slides from which the album cover was chosen. With the help of Hans's dad, Leon and Hans designed the packaging based on the theme of the front cover photo. The first run of the CDs was done on blank white discs with smiley face stickers on them.

The band were very happy with the CD, and although it cost more than they originally intended, they felt it was time and money well-spent. The first official review of the CD would appear in the August/September issue of New Zealand Musician.

During the recording Sam officially joined Fold, and Smile once more were again left without a bassist again for a time. Leon and Hans secured a new practice room in the building opposite their old. However, at $40 a week and with no adequate power, this would only be a temporary solution for somewhere to practise.

Brought into the band at this point was a friend of Sam's called Paddy. He played bass with Smile for about four or five weeks before unfortunately it was realised that there was a clash of styles and they parted company.

Finally, Leon called upon Nick Buchanan, the bass player for his covers band, Tribe. Nick now fulfils bass duties in Smile, as well as backing vocals and harmonies. As Nick and Leon already had a musical relationship, this has been the most comfortable Smile line-up yet.

As of August 1999, the band is still in the beginning stages of promoting the "Fear of Flying" album. Their current plan is to play as many gigs as possible to promote their CD and raise their profile. Look out for Smile playing at Fusion bar at Fuel café, Passion, the Musos' Club, The Loaded Goblin and Arc Café.