The Welcome Mat was a four-piece Australian indie rock group which formed in Sydney in 1989, and broke up in January 1997. Throughout the early-to-mid-1990s, their songs "Last of the Great Letdowns", "Cake", "Landspeed", "10,000 People", "Hell Hoping", "Play Me" and "Hey! Illusion" topped the Australian alternative charts, with the videos receiving play on Rage and MTV Australia. The first band ever to play Australia's Big Day Out festival, The Welcome Mat had toured extensively around Australia with the likes of the Hoodoo Gurus, Died Pretty, Buffalo Tom, The Lemonheads, The Wonder Stuff, You Am I, Smudge and Bob Dylan. Biography The Welcome Mat was formed in Sydney, Australia in 1989 by songwriters Wayne Connolly and Cory Messenger. Drummer Peter Bennett and bassist David Moss worked with Connolly at Fairlight digital audio company, and were asked to help work on songs demoed on a Tascam four-track recorder. The guitar-based songs were heavily influenced by New Zealand's Flying Nun Records label, as well as US Indie rock performers R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, Dinosaur Jr, The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom, and UK bands The Smiths, The Stone Roses and The Wonderstuff. Inspired by the unexpected commercial success of their friends The Hummingbirds, Connolly and Messenger approached local promoter Steve Pavlovic, who booked the band's live debut, a mid-week gig at the Lansdowne Hotel in inner-city Chippendale in January 1990. The name The Welcome Mat was chosen at the last minute by Connolly, in the belief that it was reminiscent of the name of another musical influence, The Wedding Present. In 1990 Waterfront Records founder Chris Dunn agreed to distribute a vinyl 7-inch single, "Last of the Great Letdowns", recorded at Sunshine 16-track recording studios in Surry Hills in May 1990. The record appeared on the band's own Plenny O'Hooks label in late 1990. It garnered a small amount of airplay on local community radio stations such as Sydney's 2SER, Melbourne's 3RRR and 3PBS, and Brisbane's 4ZzZ, allowing the band to tour the East Coast of Australia. In 1991 The Welcome Mat released their second single, "Cake", and the E.P. Fairydust (a reference to the "Troggs Tapes"), which featured "10,000 People". Both "Cake" and "10,000 People" received airplay on the newly-national triple j radio network, boosting the band's audience significantly. Around that time, Moss left the group and was replaced by ex-Benedicts member Leo Mullens, adding another songwriter to the line-up. After appearing