Beginnings
The first Australian ska band was Adelaide-based band The Jumpers, which formed in 1979. Other early Australian ska bands included: Sydney bands Allniters, The Hangovers and Itchy Feet (led by vocalist Tim Freedman, who went on to form the commercially successful band The Whitlams) and Melbourne bands Strange Tenants and No Nonsense. The Allniters and Strange Tenants were the most high-profile Australian ska bands of this era.
The first Ska bands in Australia, included 'The Letters', formed in Melbourne in 1979, featuring founder member of 'Strange Tennants' John Holmes - and Melbourne band, 'Noisy Neighbours'. Both bands played in most main independent venues in Melbourne, and often together.
In 1987, the Newcastle-based band The Pork Hunts appeared on the scene, soon changing their name to The Porkers. They spent more than 20 years touring and recording many albums, the most recent of which, This is The Porkers, was released in 2007. More recent bands include: Mad Not Madness, Area 7, the Bedlam Beggars, Backy Skank, Los Capitanes, General Pants and the Privates, Sounds Like Chicken, The Prophets of Impending Doom, The Seen, Loin Groin, Skamen, Trojan Horns, Blowhard, Dr. Raju, Addiction 64, Suspect 7, The Lyrical Madmen, Foghorn Leghorn, The Resignators, Rubix Cuba, Dr. Octopus, CatchCry, Rad Rockets Are GO!, The Accelerators, Son of Dad and The My Tys.
The Bedlam Beggars (1994-2002) supported many overseas ska and punk bands that toured down under.
There are regular ska and radio shows on the independent Brisbane radio station 4ZzZ.
Read more about this topic: Australian Ska
Famous quotes containing the word beginnings:
“Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“When the beginnings of self-destruction enter the heart it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)
“[Many artists], even the greatest ones, are not sure of their own existence. So they search for proof, they judge, they condemn. It strengthens them, it is the beginnings of existence. They are alone!”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)