Friday, March 1, 2024

Ballpark

 
ORIGINS: South-West Sydney, NSW
GENRE: Pop-punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1998-2000
 
MEMBERS:
  • Luke Sunners (Vocals)
  • Dan Wecksler (Guitar)
  • Paul Millar (Guitar)
  • Joel Attenborough (Bass)
  • Andrew Braid (Drums)
RELEASES: 
  • Demo (1998)

  • Every Last Cent (1998) - Download Here.
    • 1. Ballpark
    • 2. Left Alone
    • 3. Over the Edge
    • 4. Rollercoaster
    • 5. 90s Girls
    • 6. Till the End of Time
    • 7. Uppercut
    • 8. Non-Believer
       

  • Self-Titled (1999) - Download Here.
    • 1. Scoreless
    • 2. Dreams
    • 3. Better Half
    • 4. Be On Your Way
    • 5. In the Work of Your Day
    • 6. Concrete Mould
    • 7. Much Too Fast
    • 8. On Fire
    • 9. Stay in the Game
    • 10. For All I Care
SUMMARY: Ballpark came together as teenagers responding to an ad in the Drum Media, with the band forming between the suburbs of Milperra, Hurtsville, and the Northern Beaches. Something clicked and the band played many shows across their three years, becoming regulars at the Iron Duke and winning a slot on a prominent Northern Beaches musical festival. The band broke up after just three years, shortly after the release of their band.
 
SHOWS:  

Joel Attenborough (Bass)

ORAL HISTORY:
"Me and Paul are (and were) best mates and went to high school together. Andrew and Luke were good mates, and had moved to Sydney from Armidale and wanted to start a band. We answered an ad in the Drum Media - they needed a bass player, we needed a drummer. After a few practices, they said 'We were drinking at the pub last night and met this guy and he's coming to jam with us', and this guy turns up with hair like Hellraiser. That was Dan."
Joel Attenborough, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

"It was always going to be a pop-punk thing. We did 'ska' parts because we all loved Millencollin, Gilgamesh, Rancid and NOFX... but we also loved melodic punk shit - Lagwagon, Bodyjar, and all the Fat Wreck Chords / Epitaph stuff. Still do."
Joel Attenborough, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


"The show that stands out the most was a house party we played where the house was going to get demolished. Our band and our boyfriend band, Fewllmany, played in the lounge of this place in Caringbah. It was legit insane... the kind of thing you see in movies. What felt like 200 people packed into a lounge room, people going bananas. It was suburban punk rock in its purest form. A guitar amp for a PA, people drinking and loving life, and not an adult in sight. I think I was 16 or 17 at the time - and the whole thing had me hooked for life."
Joel Attenborough, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"We did a demo at our singer's cousin's house - but I think we only got a song out of it - and it's been lost to time (and we re-recorded it). Our first proper release was the Every Last Cent EP, which we recorded at Zen in Sydney - 'cause, where else where we gonna go? Frenzal, Nancy Vandal, everyone in Sydney who we loved recorded there. It was a rite of passage."
Joel Attenborough, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
"We played some cool shows - won a band comp where we competed against Detox Unit (where we met Checky and Dean and Laura) and Bearded Claim (who featured my current boss and bandmate, Nick, who plays in Irrelevant). The prize was that we got to play at a festival in the Northern Beaches with Bodyjar and Toe to Toe and Nancy Vandal. But when I think of shows back then, I reminisce more about the backyard parties or house shows and shit like that - even though we played the Iron Duke every other week."
Joel Attenborough, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

"It was an age of innocence... and in my nostalgic brain, it was perfect because we didn't know what we were doing, and that was the charm of it"
Joel Attenborough, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Badanga, Irrelevant, Columbia's Pain, Perish the Thought, Taking Sides, Jungle Fever, Punk Rock Hill Billy, Old Music for Old People, Through Being Cool, Padre, Universal Learning, Ebolagoldfish, Silencer 7, Land Speed Record
 
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