Nitocris

Nitocris
Origin	Sydney, NSW
Genres	Hard rock
Years active	1992 - 2001
Labels	Phantom
Associated acts	Raprager, Fyreflies, Morgana and the Monstars, Jessamine, Boxing With Ghosts, Doc Neeson
Past members	Morgana Ancone, Jess Finlayson, Sarah Graye, Andrea Stanway, Kira Taylor

Band Members

• Line-Up
  • Morgana Ancone (vocals)
  • Jess Finlayson (guitar, vocals)
  • Sarah Graye (bass)
  • Andrea Stanway (drums)
  • Kira Taylor (guitar)

Band Information

The Sydney all-female band started life as a punchy and exuberant act whose style encompassed a catchy mixture of raw punk energy and flat out heavy metal with songs that relied on hook laden choruses and killer riffs. While their success may have been surpassed by the likes of Skulker and Lash, Nitocris’ achievement as the first widely successful all-female rock band in Australia marks them as a significant entry in the country’s music history. In their final years the band mellowed in their musical approach but the music was still considerably heavy.

Formed when the girls were just 13 in the early 90s, it wasn't until Ancone joined in 1993 did they begin playing live and clever marketing of their age and gender coupled with their obvious musical abilities meant the band was playing major festivals such as the Big Day Out and international supports even before their debut EP was released. Heavy touring and a string of major supports with the likes of Suicidal Tendencies, The Cult and Armoured Angel (with whom they shared management) raised the band's profile beyond that of novelty status and their strong and highly infectious recordings maintained their popularity. The group also played on the disastrous Alternative Nation festival in 1995.

Management hassles and a lack of support for the "Butter" EP caused some downgrading of the band's profile in late 1997 – early 1998, but the gradual re-definition of their musical direction towards a more poppier style and a strong never-say-die attitude began to bring Nitocris back into favour.

The "Darkside" release was originally issued as a single but later considered an EP, receiving considerable airplay and the band did their first full national tour in 1999 with the Turn Up Your Radio tour.

Their long-awaited self-titled second album was released in July 2000 and was a further definition of the band's mellower and more melodic style, gaining them a 2001 ARIA nomination.

Nitocris toured nationally with the Big Day Out in 2001 and were hardly off the road thereafter, headlining their own shows as well as playing with artists as diverse as Deep Purple, The Whitlams and The Screaming Jets. The band planned to start work on a third album release in 2001 but late in the year announced they had split up. In September 2009, Nitocris played a one-off reunion show.

Ancone when on to form Morgana and the Monstars and Finlayson formed the Fyreflyes. Graye played in a number of bands including touring with Doc Neeson's band in Iraq. She is now with Raprager, Morgana Ancone is currently with Boxing With Ghosts and Jess Finlayson's current band is The Mis-Made.

Discography

Albums:

	1994	Screaming Dolorous	Phantom
	2000	Nitocris	Phantom

Singles:

	1995	Haemorrhanging Souls	Phantom
	1998	Darkside	Phantom
	2000	In the Middle	Phantom
	2001	Spouse Killer	Phantom

EPs:

	1994	Ten Stories Down	Phantom
	1995	Epic Voyage	Phantom
	1996	Hyperland	Phantom
	1997	Butter	Phantom

Split:

	1994	Suxiety (split with Purr)	independent

Compilation tracks:

Year	Track Title	Album Title	Label
1994	"Suxiety"	A Fistful of Zen Koans	Zen
1994	"Anger"	Youngblood 4	rooArt
1995	"Haemorrhaging Souls"	Alternative Nation	BMG
1995	"Ten Stories Down"	Eleven	ABC/EMI
1995	"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"	Fusebox	BMG
1995	"W.A.P. Dogs"	Metallurgy	Metallurgy
1996	"Sycophant"	She's a Rebel
1997	"Anxieties Smith"	Thirteen	ABC/EMI
1998	"I Love Rock N Roll"	Rock	Phantom/Chatterbox
2001	"In the Middle"	Indie 2001	Columbia