Greig Fleming is basically a remedial student of human nature. Originating in New Zealand, he knows counter-cultures inside-out, and created his first while still a small child. Born into the palpitating heart of generation X, he grew up in the '80s watching the NZ / US nuclear ships standoff and the Greenpeace / France nuclear testing battles in the Pacific. He then lived through the end of Communism and the birth of Talentism - two overcooked quests for workers' dignity. The hole in the ozone layer opened directly above him during the 1990s. He has never forgiven the baby boomers for frightening kids pointlessly for decades. As a remedy, comedy and music appealed more than open intergenerational warfare, though they are related.

Greig moved to Europe in 2000, riding the "dotcom backlash", initially to work in textiles. His movement, "Kanbai" - both "86" and "sold out" in Japanese - values 1986 in much the same way that leftier radicals dream of 1968. Kanbai opposes any form of apocalyptic thinking - to which New Romance is manifestly the antidote.