The Bats are an influential New Zealand rock band formed in 1982 in Christchurch by Paul Kean (bass), Malcolm Grant (drums), Robert Scott (guitar, vocals) and Kaye Woodward (vocals, other instruments). Though primarily a Christchurch band, The Bats have strong links to Dunedin and are usually grouped in with the Dunedin Sound bands that emerged from that southern city in the early 1980s.

The quartet released two EPs (By Night and ...And here is Music for the Fireside) before releasing their first full-length album, Daddy's Highway, in 1987.

The band took a break, with Scott joining his former band The Clean on a reunion tour, while Woodward gave birth. When the band resumed recording, the result was 1990's The Law of Things, which saw the quartet joined on violin by Alastair Galbraith.

Scott is a prolific musician, and The Bats have suffered to some extent from his many musical commitments. As well as The Bats and The Clean, he has also been involved with several other bands, notably The Magick Heads, and for this reason, albums and tours by these bands have been organised largely on a rotation basis. Primarily due to this, the other members aside from Robert Scott are in a side-project band, Minisnap.

1991 saw the band switch labels, to Mammoth Records, and then release the full-length Fear of God. Other albums and an EP have followed: Silverbeet (1993), Spill the Beans (EP, 1994), Couchmaster (1995), and two retrospective compilations, Compiletely Bats (which collected most of the tracks from the band's two early EPs and several singles) and Thousands Of Tiny Luminous Spheres.

The Bats' latest album, At the National Grid, was released in September, 2005 on Little Teddy Records in Germany, Magic Marker in the US and Egg Records in the UK.

- Wikipedia