The second single from NZ alt-folk act Bond Street Bridge album 'The Explorers Club: Antarctica,' the song deals with the stoicism and courage the explorers of Antarctica's Heroic Age showed in the face of almost indescribable adversity. The song's title is taken from the the personal diary of the Rev. Arnold Spencer-Smith, who in 1914 found himself marooned with nine others in Scott's hut on Ross Island when their ship Aurora broke her moorings and was carried away in a storm. Spencer-Smith and his companions were there to lay vital supply depots to support Shackleton's ambitious Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, and the men knew that despite the fact that their essential survival gear had been carried away with their ship, failure to carry out their mission would doom Shackleton's trans-continental party to a slow death by starvation.

So these Antarctic heroes stitched together windproof clothing out of old sails, patched up old sledges left over from Capatin Scott's ill-fated 1912 polar endeavour, and set out on the 1500 kilometer round trip to lay those depots. Nine went out; six men came back. Three were lost to hunger, to frostbite and to madness on the Great Ice Barrier. Meanwhile, Shackleton's own ship the Endurance broke up in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea, on the far side of the continent, so the Trans-Antarctic Expedition never even made landfall. When Spencer-Smith died out there on the Barrier, bleeding from the gums and bent double with scurvy, his comrades read his diary and they saw his personal motto inscribed there on the flyleaf: 'It's all in the game - play on!'

'The Explorers Club: Antarctica is out Oct 11 2013 on Banished From The Universe Records.

Explorers Club: Antarctica Album Launch Tour Oct/Nov 2013:

Thurs Oct 17: Nelson Arts Festival - The Playhouse Cafe and Theatre Restaurant Mapua Show at 8 pm
Tickets from www.nelsonartsfestival.co.nz

Fri Oct 18: Nelson Arts Festival - The Mussell Inn, Takaka with Bat Country, show at 8:30 pm
Tickets from Mussel Inn, 03 525 9241 or haveabeer@musselinn.co.nz

Sat Oct 19: Hokitika Museum, 7pm
Tickets from Hokitika Museum 03 755 6898

Sun Oct 20: Donovans Store - Okarito, with Bat Country, 7:30pm
Tickets at the door

Mon Oct 21: Cinema Paradiso, Wanaka, with Bat Country, 8:30pm
Tickets 03 443 1505, abccinema@xtra.co.nz

Tues Oct 22: Throwdown in the Sound at Blue Duck Cafe And Bar, Milford Sound with Bat Country
Free if you're in Milford Sound

Thurs Oct 24: The Oamaru Opera Housewith THE EASTERN and Barry Saunders
Tickets www.ticketdirect.co.nz

Fri Oct 25: Dunedin, Platos with The Eastern and Barry Saunders
tickets from www.undertheradar.co.nz

Sat Oct 26: 241 Chambers Gallery, Christchurch

Thurs Oct 31: Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum with Great North, 7pm
Tickets 09 373 0800 info@maritimemuseum.co.nz

Fri Nov 8: Museum of Wellington City & Sea with Veronika Meduna, 7pm
Tickets 04 4728 904 museumtours@wmt.org.nz

Sat Nov 9: Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare O Rehua Whanganui
Tickets 06 349 0506

Fri Nov 15: Oamaru Victorian Heritage Celebrations at Oamaru Opera House Festival Explorers Club

Fri Nov 22: MTG Hawke's Bay, 7pm

Sat Nov 23: The Rogue Stage, Rotorua

Fri Nov 15: Oamaru Victorian Heritage Celebrations at Oamaru Opera House Festival Explorers Club

Fri Nov 22: MTG Hawke's Bay, 7pm

Sat Nov 23: The Rogue Stage, Rotorua