The Superjesus

The Superjesus is an ARIA award–winning rock band from Adelaide, Australia. They are best known for their singles "Shut My Eyes", "Secret Agent Man," "Down Again" and "Gravity".

History

Lead singer and main songwriter Sarah McLeod formed the band in late 1994 with guitarist Chris Tennent, drummer Paul Berryman and bass player Stuart Rudd. Tennent was McLeod's guitar teacher at the time and a veteran of the Adelaide music scene, having played in various bands since the 1980s. The band was originally called Hell's Kitchen before changing their name to The Superjesus on the eve of the 1994 Big Day Out in Adelaide.

Says Paul Berryman of the name: "It was basically just a piss-take on commonly used words in the '90s. Like The Jesus and Mary Chain, "Jesus Built My Hotrod", The Jesus Lizard, Jesus Jones; there's just heaps of Jesus' out there in the music world so we thought we would have that and super was kind of like a '90s catch word."

The group's debut EP, Eight Step Rail, was released in 1996. It spent a couple of months on top of the Australian Independent charts and won two ARIA Awards, in 1997, for Best New Band and also Best Debut Single 'Shut My Eyes'.