The Superjesus and Sarah McLeod storm onto national scene after Adelaide launch in 1994 from Hell's Kitchen
Sarah McLeod, lead vocals and guitar of The Superjesus and its national success.
Image courtesy South Australian Music Hall of Fame
The Superjesus stormed onto the national music scene in the 1990s. Formed in Adelaide in 1994, the group’s debut album Sumo (1998) reached No.2 on the ARIA charts, followed by Jet age (2000) at No.5 and Rock music (2003) at No.14. Their singles include “Shut My Eyes” (1996), “Down Again” (1997), “Gravity” (2000) and “Secret Agent Man” (2001).
At the 1997 ARIA wards, they won best new talent for "Eight Step Rail" (debut extended play, 1996) and Breakthrough Artist for “Shut my eyes”.
The Superjesus formed in 1994 as Hell’s Kitchen with Paul Berryman on drums, Sarah McLeod (ex-Fallen Down Monster) on lead vocals and guitar, Stuart Rudd on bass guitar and Chris Tennent on lead guitar.
Tennent left The Superjesus in mid-1999 and the group moved to Melbourne in 1999 where they recruited Tim Henwood (ex-Jen Anderson Band, Supermann, Plasticine, Barker) on guitar. Henwood and McLeod became principal songwriters.
Henwood left in 2001 and formed The Androids (and later joined Rogue Traders). McLeod considered disbanding The Superjesus but took up lead guitar while working on Rock music.
Patch Brown replaced Henwood but, due to stylistic differences during recording, he was replaced in turn by Jason Slack, a Slippery Rock graduate. In 2004, The Superjesus split with Warner Music Australasia as the members pursued other projects.
McLeod worked on a solo album Beauty was a tiger. She then fronted the Sydney-based three-piece band, Screaming Bikini. McLeod had a one-off reunion show with The Superjesus in 2013. The band, with Berryman, Henwood, McLeod and Rudd, played at the Stone Music Festival with Van Halen and Aerosmith in Sydney, before doing their first national tour in 10 years – The Resurrection Tour.
In 2015, The Superjesus made the She Who Rocks Tour with the Baby Animals, fronted by Suze Demarchi. In June, The Superjesus released their first single “The Setting Sun” in over a decade. “St. Peters Lane” followed and did The Setting Sun Tour.
Henwood returned to The Androids and was replaced with former member Jason Slack and in 2016, drummer Paul Berryman departed. Meanwhile, McLeod travelled to New York City to write material for a fourth album. In 2016, the band released their EP Love and Violence through Golden Robot Records, as a leadup to their next album.
