THE PORKERS

The Porkers are a ska punk band from Newcastle, NSW. Formed in 1987 as The Pork Hunts, the band was eventually forced to change its name to the less offensive-sounding Porkers in 1990 after their regular Newcastle venue refused to present them with their old name. Because of this, their first release was the 1990 EP entitled 'Tired of Being Pork Hunts', which reached #6 on the Australian independent charts. In 1994, their debut album 'Grunt!' received rave reviews and entered the American market through Moon Ska Records. The lineup was Pete Cooper (vocals), Phil Barnard (sax), Rodney Palmer (drums), Tony Collins (bass), Richard Puxty (guitar) and Shane Simmonds (keyboards/sax). The album was a mixture of studio and live tracks and included covers of Devo's "Mongoloid" and Radio Birdman's "Aloha Steve and Danno" with guest Chris Masuak playing lead guitar. They followed that album with 'Hot Dog Daquiri' (1998) and 'Time Will Tell' (2000).

The Porkers have toured extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Germany and Japan (a live album 'Live At Nakanoshima' was recorded in Japan and released in 2004). In Australia, they have supported groups such as No Doubt, Fishbone, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Rancid. After 20 years, there have been numerous changes in the Porkers line-up, but two of the original members are still in the band: frontman Pete Cooper and Phil Barnard on saxophone. After a five-year hiatus (2009-2014), The Porkers returned in 2014 with a fresh line-up after being invited to play the Soundwave festival tour by A.J. Maddah. They opened the main stage in every city. In 2018, Pete Cooper suffered a stroke, but shortly thereafter resumed duties on stage with the band. Rodney Palmer died in 2019.

Members

Pete Cooper (vocals), Phil Barnard (sax), Rodney Palmer (drums), Tony Collins (bass), Richard Puxty (guitar), Shane Simmonds (keyboards/sax), David Gale (guitar) Jeremy 'Griffiths (trumpet), Lucian McGuiness (trombone), Justin Lipscombe (bass), Tomi Kefichek (bass)

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Porkers