The White Tails are a 3 piece heavy rock & blues band from New Plymouth and Waitara. The band originally formed in 2006 starting with Paul Cate (bass guitar, vocals) and Joe Caldwell (guitar, vocals) who had earlier played in cover bands "Magic Axis" and "SweetFire" in Hamilton between 1995 and 1997. New Plymouth drummer Chris Harding (the Boguns, Nefarious, Horror Story) was added and the band started under the working title of "the Urinators" which was later toned down to "the White Tails" in 2007. Their set list consisted of around 80% original songs with a small handful of covers with a blues, punk and hard rock flavour.
The group briefly expanded to a four-piece in 2007 with Jason Olsen (the Full Deal, 91 Battalion) on bass, allowing Paul to sing lead vocals. The four-piece line-up performed at an Easter concert hosted at the New Plymouth Clay Pigeon Shooting Club around the Back Beach area, shortly after reverting to a 3-piece. During the next year the group worked on original material and by the time they disbanded in 2009 had pieced together an 11 track garage album from the highlights of their band practices in Paul's garage on Bayley Road.
In 2010 the group re-formed with Joe Caldwell on guitar and vocals, Jason Olsen re-joining the band on bass and Jed Parker on drums (Jason and Jed had played together in blues/rock covers band "Extractor"). They continued with many of the songs written by Cate and Caldwell, and writing new songs, many of them leaning more in the direction of heavy rock and metal.
The White Tails have played at several private parties, a free concert in Pukearohe titled "ShedStock" and at the historical closing of the White Hart in 2011. They have opened for New Plymouth heavy metal bands "Departure", "Off with Her Head", death metal band "Wrath" and in 2012 Australian punk/alternative band "Cape Tribulation". They perform covers by (and originals in the style of) 70's classic heavy rock bands such as Black Sabbath, Motorhead and AC/DC.
