Kiwi kids’ band fleaBITE has the perfect way to get into the Halloween spirit with their song and vid ‘The Skellingtons of Wellington’, which puts a Kiwi twist on this most spooky time of year...
fleaBITE is the latest kids’ project from Robin Nathan, the woman behind Fatcat and Fishface.
Some will remember Robin as one of the fearsomely funny 90s musical comedy trio When the Cat’s Been Spayed. Since then, she’s put her energy into young people’s music.
‘The Skellingtons of Wellington’ is the opening track from fleaBITE’s latest album, 2018’s Bite Me.
The song’s main character was inspired by the “portly” statue of an older Queen Victoria “with a dour expression” that stands at the base of Mt Victoria in Wellington. She’s voiced by operatically-trained singer Janet Roddick.
The song and video conjure a world of ghosts and ghouls stretching from Taranaki to Greymouth with a map showing all the ‘clans’ in New Zealand: the Picton Nose Pickers, Taranaki Terrors, Coromandel Cut Throats, Kaikoura Kannibals and Ghouls of Greymouth.
In the Skellingtons’ world, they all live and compete in “The Stink South” and “Nasty North” Islands.
‘The Skellingtons of Wellington’ was included in the NZ International Film Festival’s Animation for Kids programme.
