The Porkers

The Porkers story starts in 1985, in the East coast Australian city of Newcastle, 2 rude boys, Pete and Sean decide in a drunken stupor, after the demise of some of their favourite Australian ska bands, that they would start a band. The fact that neither of them could play an instrument didn’t seem like an obstacle, and they set out to find local musicians to back their all-singing, all-dancing show.

2 years later, Sean has lost interest and pursued a career as a lighting technician, and Pete has finally got a competent line-up together and The Pork Hunts were set to play their first show, which was also planned to be their last as most of the musos were on ‘loan’. Some skinhead friends were set to have a house demolishing party at the same time (as their rental property was earmarked for development), so to coincide with the local international surfing event -‘Surf fest’, a party was set on a November Saturday of 1987, in the beach side suburb of Bar Beach, ‘Ska Fest’ was here!

The party went amazingly well, with much drinking and dancing taking place, very few injuries (except for the head-banger who let loose with a bottle of tomato sauce in the kitchen), and a great after party bonfire on the beach with various parts of the house.
The line-up for the first gig was as follows-

Pete Cooper - vocals
Phil ‘Bigfil’ Barnard - sax
Richard ‘Pucko’ Puxty - guitar
Tomi Kefichek - bass
Donny Anarchy - drums

Everyone had such a good time at the party, the Pork Hunts were encouraged to do another gig, and then another, by the fourth gig, Rodney ‘Rocket’ Palmer had taken over the beating of the drums.
Soon the ‘Hunts were playing far and wide with word spreading of their energetic live show. In 1990, it was time for a name change, with the one club in Newcastle that they regularly played at closing its doors out of necessity they became The Porkers.

The road since then has been long and winding, with lots of great and other stupid things happening, and many line-up changes. To make this story short, here in point form is a few of the achievements and great opportunities that have come the Porkers way-

1989 - the only recording released under the Pork Hunts name, a demo of ‘Woman’ is released world-wide by Link records UK on the compilation ‘Ska for ska’s sake’.

1990 - the debut 7» EP -‘Tired of being Pork Hunts’ reaches #6 on the Australian indie charts.

1994 - release of debut album ‘Grunt!’ to rave reviews, Chris Masuak from Radio Birdman records and plays with us. Later that year the album is licence to Moonska records in New York.

1995 - tour Germany and New Zealand.

1996 - tour Australia opening for No Doubt, and Fishbone. Play Homebake festival.

1997 - appear at the Big Day Out and Livid festivals. Porker’s brass section play on Rancid’s demos for ‘Life wont wait’ album. Close alls festival playing after Pennywise on NYE.

1998 - play on the Australian leg of the Vans Warped tour, later that year open for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Rancid. Release second album ‘Hot dog daiquiri’, licensed to Moonska USA.

1999 - invited to play Vans Warped in Australia and accept the invitation to appear at Vans Warped USA, appearing alongside Eminem, Ice T, Blink 182, etc.
Play to a full house at Bostons ‘Middle East club’ with the Slackers and Bim Skala Bim, next night play in NewYork with Laurel Aitken.
Headline the second stage at Homebake festival, just before Silverchair.

2000 -release ‘Time will tell’ album, the single ‘Too big for your boots’ gets play-listed by Triple J radio network.

2001 - The Porkers bring Bad Manners to Australia for the first time for the Heavyweights tour. The tour breaks door and bar records! Next single off ‘Time will tell’ - ‘Waiting for us’ remixed by New Zealand’s Salmonelladub is play-listed on JJJ.

2002 - The Porkers celebrate 15 years!

2003 - we’re still going! The current line-up looks like this-

Pete Cooper - vocals
Phil ‘Bigfil’ Barnard - sax
Rodney ‘Rocket’ Palmer - drums
David ‘Gutsy’ Gale - guitar
Jeremy ‘Dr. J’ Griffiths - trumpet
Lucian ‘Lou’ McGuiness - trombone
Justin Lipscombe - bass

THE PORKERS ROLL OF HONOUR.
We’ve had many members that have made up the Porkers family, here’s a list of past members and guests, what they played and other bands they were or are in.

Donny Anarchy - drums -The Marones, Skazoo, Cash from Chaos.
Tomi Kefichek - Bass - The Marones, Headbin.
Richard ‘Pucko’ Puxty - guitar - The Maroons, Headbin, The Pornskas.
David Kelly - Trumpet, Keyboards - Eskagoes, 8 beat menace.
Robert ‘Tess’ Tickle - Trombone - Eskagoes, 8 beat menace, Loose, Nancy Vandal.
Tony ‘Big T’ Collins - bass - Bouncing Soles, Skazoo.
James Davis - Keyboards - Raiding Party.
Kim Pink - sax - Vegimite Reggae, Fish Fry.
Ian Dunn - guitar - Eskagoes, 8 beat menace, Housequake, Fish Fry.
Lloyd - sax - Housequake
John McIvor - guitar - Boogie Chillin.
Shane Simmonds - sax - Natural Mystics
Paul Woseen - bass - the Screaming Jets.
Chris Masuak - guitar - Radio Birdman
Chris Fegan - guitar - Casulty.
Pedro ‘Prof. Sex Peter’ - sax - Skaos.
Dave Power - guitar - Cranky, The Bored of Education.
Martin McLaughlin - trumpet - Bouncing Soles, Vegimite Reggae.
Ben Coles - sax - Skazoo.
Wayne - trombone - Blowhard.
Nicola - trumpet -Blowhard.
Ben ‘Dutchy’ Holland -bass - Chinchen.
Rob Parkes - Trombone - Ballistic Allshorts, Chinchen.
Fred Feletti - percussion, vocals - Natural Mystics.
Tara Doyle - vocals - The Bored of Education.
The Porkman - beer & moves -Parts unknown.