The Expendables were a 1980s band based in Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. Based around singer-songwriter/guitarist Jay Clarkson, the band grew out of her former bands, They Were Expendable and The Playthings, and released a single and album in 1984 on the Flying Nun

Flying Nun Records

Flying Nun Records is an independent record label formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1981 by music-store proprietor Roger Shepherd.-History:The label was formed in the flurry of new punk rock-inspired labels forming in the early 1980s...

 label.

Clarkson was joined in The Expendables by Michael Kime (bass) and Robert Key (drums). Key was replaced by Chris Matthews in 1985, and Anthony Nevison was added as an extra guitarist, though the band did not survive beyond the end of that year. In 1986, Clarkson formed a new band, The Breathing Cage, a band which also included Kime, as well as Graeme Jefferies

Graeme Jefferies

Graeme Jefferies is a musician from New Zealand.In 1981 Graeme and his brother Peter Jefferies formed the post-punk band Nocturnal Projections...

, Maria Chiaroni, and Gary Sullivan.