opshop was started by invercargill born, christchurch raised, singer/songwriter jason kerrison. he based himself in auckland, writing music while at a residency in a backpacker's bar in downtown auckland.
growing tired of the solo shows, he invited guitarist and old school friend, tim skedden to join him and share the acoustic vibe that the club and its punters had come to enjoy. in the following year, kerrison met up with another old school mate and long time jamming drummer, bobby kennedy (also from christchurch) and invited him to join the very young band. in the following few months, another long-term friend crossed kerrison's path. the band's name was gst, but was soon changed to opshop.
guitarist matt treacy (yet another cantabrian) was also living in auckland and was soon to be a member of this emerging act. so with four members in place, jamming, interacting, along with plenty of nostalgia and catching up on the christchurch days, the opshop bandwagon was now rolling.
it was then that the band recruited a friend of jason's that he had met while studying ethnomusicology at auckland university. english born ian munro became the opshop's bass player.
much of opshop's success is thanks to the zm radio station where during the winter of 2003 opshop were the winners of project nzm a competition designed to help small bands make it big. project nzm helped opshop with the release of their single saturated by giving the song airplay on the zm network.
as the band remained behind closed doors, a demo recording of their work found its way into the hands of adrien de croy and tracy magan, of the newly founded label siren records, who are also the record label of goldenhorse, who liked the band's music.
siren then offered opshop an opportunity to record some of their material at york street studios in a 'live' demo session. the following night, opshop played their first ever gig alongside che-fu and ted clarke at the then leftfield bar on the viaduct in auckland.
in the weeks that followed, siren approached opshop with a deal that would provide both opportunity and artist integrity with the benefits of an independent label, alongside the distribution capabilities of major label capitol/emi.
they became a signed act and they continue to receive a good deal of support from nz on air and new zealand's broadcasting community. opshop finished their first album “you are here” in 2004 and played many large concerts all over the country. their first single “nothing can wait” was recorded by malcolm welsford at york st studios.
the band then went through some drastic changes that proved to be very challenging to deal with. tim skedden unfortunately had to leave the band due to family commitments and tim munro decided to head back home to his native britain.
this left a void that was eventually filled by bobby kennedy's former band mate clinton harris on bass guitar. clint and bobby first teamed up as part christchurchs hornby high school rock band called "outer control". the lead singer of this band was pearl runga (sister to boh runga and bic runga). the "outer control" band was the first ever winner of the new zealand national high school rock quest competition. bobby and clint carried on together on the christchurch music scene in another band called "gorilla biscuit".
jason kerrison, the singer, auditioned for rock star supernova but even though he impressed, he wasn't selected for the finals
with the single 'maybe', they are the first new zealand band to go to the #1 position on itunes new zealand in its history. beating out mika, regina spektor, avril lavigne, beyoncé & shakira, the fray, silverchair, fall out boy, justin timberlake and snow patrol. 'maybe' is the first single off the album 'second hand planet', released in april 2007.
'second hand planet' has now sold over 30,000 copies and the boys are set for great things in europe with shows pencilled for may this year.
