Ballpark

 

ORIGINS: South-West Sydney, NSW

GENRE: Pop-punk

YEARS ACTIVE: 1998-2000

 

MEMBERS:

• Luke Sunners (Vocals), also (Vocals, Guitar) in 2000
• 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 album.

 

SHOWS:  

• Sandpit Band Comp, Forest Youth Centre, Frenchs Forest - 11th June, 1999
• Petersham Town Hall, Petersham - 25th June, 1999
  
• Green Square, Zetland - 3rd July, 1999 
• Sandpit '99, Pittwater Rugby Park, Narrabeen - 11th July, 1999
• Green Square, Zetland - 18th July, 1999
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 9th September, 1999
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 11th November, 1999
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 15th December, 1999
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 5th January, 2000
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 23rd January, 2000
• Caringbah Bizzos, Caringbah - 4th February, 2000
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 23rd February, 2000
• Skankheath, Bates Hall, Blackheath - 4th March, 2000
• Downstairs, Maroubra - 10th March, 2000
• Green Square, Zetland - 23rd March, 2000
• The Alex, Leura - 24th March, 2000
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 12th April, 2000
  
• Iron Duke, Alexandria - 29th April, 2000
• Grounded Festival, Museum of Fire, Penrith - 13th May, 2000 [Show was postponed?]
• Blaxland Tavern, Blaxland -  1st June, 2000
• Green Square, Zetland - 3rd June, 2000
  
• Grounded Festival, Museum of Fire, Penrith - 17th June, 2000
• Green Square - 24th June, 2000
• The Alex, Leura - 30th June, 2000
• Downstairs, Maroubra - 15th July, 2000
• Caringbah Bizzos, Caringbah - 28th July, 2000
• Gurwood Street Project Space, Wagga Wagga - 29th July, 2000
  
• Harbour Cruise, Sydney - 11th August, 2000

Joel Attenborough (Bass)

ORAL HISTORY:

LUKE: I was in a band called MunkerPuffin and the bassplayer Kei had gone back to Japan. I had these songs for a TAFE project and designed an album cover, and I called the band 'Ballpark' instead of 'MunkerPuffin' as MunkerPuffin wasn't an appropriate band name for TAFE project. The band was intended as a three piece with Andrew on drums and myself on vocals/guitar but we needed a bassplayer. At this stage Ballpark was just a dream to me, the songs were there and I was writing more songs. Andrew was living down south in Mortdale and I was way up in Mona Vale... the distance between us was too far, so the idea of the band was dying. I started looking in Drum Media for band auditions and one of them was up in the Central Coast. I drove up and it was with Trent Crawford (One Dollar Short, Something With Numbers). We played through some Bodyjar songs and I was fumbling around trying to keep up on the guitar and also sing. It didn't work out so soon after this I placed an ad in Drum Media for a bassplayer for the Ballpark idea. I got a few responses - a few time wasters but then Joel called. I remember him saying something like, "I've been playing with my mate Paul who plays guitar - and not to be talking ourselves up but we're only 16 and we're pretty good". I thought it would be good to meet them because he sounded pretty convincing. So I called Andrew and said: I think we should meet up with these kids and have a jam.

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JOEL: 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. 

Joel Attenborough, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

Andrew and Luke - Armidale boys

LUKE: We met at Paul's parents place and it was cool. He already had a drum kit there and a cool practice room with a black light and posters all over the walls. We did a few cover songs and then we played some of our songs and it all sounded really good. I thought: this is sounding right. I think we all knew that it would be worth continuing. We all agreed to keep on jamming at Paul's parents' house and what great parents and neighbours there were to put up with our racket on Saturdays! Anyway, as the weekends rolled on we got better and I used to leave Paul with cassette tapes of the songs through the week, which he practiced to. He nailed it and I was amazed at how good he and Joel were. We had a band for sure, and an album ready to record in a matter of months. 

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JOEL: 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

LUKE: One weekend, me and Andrew went to a house party with someone Andrew knew. I remember sitting around a table and this is where we met Dan. We must have talked about punk bands and playing music, which lead to us asking if he wanted to come and jam with us. This would mean I'd be free of the guitar and being restricted by it - I was free to then just concentrate on vocals and move about.

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JOEL: 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

LUKE: It felt right. Suddenly we had a five piece. I always remember thinking that what I had envisioned was all happening! Pretty soon after this we recorded our EP Every Last Cent at Zen Studios. Dan was cramming to get the songs down. When we got our first CD in our hands with the cover all done, which I drew up, it was the best feeling ever. I couldn't believe we had our own recording and it was moving. People were getting a hold of it and the name was getting out there.  

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JOEL: We did a demo at Luke'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

LUKE: The next step was - how do we get a gig? How does that even work?! One of our earlier gigs was a house party through Dan's mates in the area and it was in this house that was due to get demolished. I think we got the gig through a band called Few II Many, who also played there that night. It was everything you could ever want as a punk band - people were packed into the living room and jumping about, a few of them were mouthing the words to our songs, and we blasted the vocals through a small guitar amp. It was madness but it was the best! I don't even think I drank that night - I was on such a high from being there and performing with the band.

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JOEL: 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, Few II Many, 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

 

LUKE: After the house party we got a story into the local newspaper in the same area and then got a booking at the Iron Duke Hotel. Even at such a young age, Joel did the bookings for the band. Joel had that go in him. I certainly never booked a show. The band was moving but there wouldn't be a show without someone stepping up to do that part. And that gig at the Iron Duke was packed. The room was full and there were people outside on the street. I had never been to the Iron Duke and Paul and Joel were both underage at the time... I didn't realise the people there were actually there to see us play. It all seemed surreal. In my head I thought, "It's the Iron Duke, it's always like this". And I think that was a big part of the band - things moved really quickly at the start and we didn't really realise what we had because it happened so quickly without the hard parts. We kept playing and worked towards recording our self-titled release. We all worked together. Paul would have chord progressions, sometimes I would bring in songs. Dan had some awesome stuff too. Joel was playing mad runs on the bass and Andrew was getting tighter. We all contributed to that self-titled album and worked together and it shows in the transition between the two releases. The first release was super catchy but very basic in comparison and it showed that we were growing as a band. Even to this day I don't know how the lyrics came to me - everything just seemed to work.

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

 

REVIEW: Last up at the show was the ultra young Ballpark, with their ska tale intro that erupts and spills over into a blaze of glorious thrash. Looking like a comic cartoon cell, they're as active as a can of peppered worms. True show boys, who obviously love what they do. They've a fine promo CD doing the rounds too and tonight it's obvious they've listened to all the right sounds and watched all the right vids as they turn it from thrash to ska in a heartbeat. Lively, seething with energy, and tight harmonies to cap it all off. Polished to razored perfection, they absolutely sizzled, sent the crowd and the judges wild, and left no doubt as to their ability to open Sandpit '99. 

Review of Sandpit Band Comp by Mark Fraser, Drum Media, June 1999

JOEL: 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

LUKE: We played a lot of gigs and entered a band competition to play at a Northern Beaches music festival called Sandpit. We won that comp but if the organisers were wise they would have given the spot to a local band like Disfigured. There was a big stage and all our loyal friends and fans turned up early to see us play but no one really came from the local area to see us. It was a very poor turnout and I feel that the whole festival was boycotted due to a local band not getting that spot. Word of mouth had it that my dad apparently ran the whole competition and that's why we got the spot. Northern Beaches bands were not accepted easily into the Sydney punk scene... and don't you dare think that you are going to come up there and play in the Northern Beaches! Even though I lived in the Northern Beaches, Ballpark was a South-West Sydney band. 

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DAN: We didn't think we were going to win. It was strong competition. It's the biggest show we've done but we're not too nervous yet. The most exciting thing are the sheer numbers of people we'll be playing to and that we get to play at the same festival as Bodyjar and Toe to Toe. 

Dan Wecksler (Guitar), unknown local newspaper, 1999 

Drum Media, 1999

Playing at Sandpit, July 1999

LUKE: It seemed like we played a gig most weekends but there are two particularly wild shows that come to mind when I think back... One was at a Bowling Club and the other was at a backyard house party. The Bowling Club gig was fun and we played with Ebolagoldfish. After the gig while everyone was leaving and walking through the carpark, I got back to my car and someone came at me to stop me from driving - saying that I had hit his girlfriend's car. Dan was in the car with me at the time. I don't remember hitting anyone's car. The guy was pretty angry and I couldn't see him in the dark outside so i said, "Okay then, if I hit a car then let's go under the streetlight and sort it out". I meant this in terms of exchanging driver license details but to this other guy it meant: LET'S FIGHT under the STREETLIGHT! Next thing I remember I was getting dragged out of the car and there were about fifty people gathering around us and making a circle. A loyal friend of the band, Ben, ran in and jumped on the back of this other guy like a monkey, stalling the fight, and Dan said to me, "Get it the car" and we gunned it out of there into an entrance alley head-on towards a police car with its lights flashing. I stopped my car with a skid... two police officers get out and one of them holds a torch in my face, "Get out of the car now! What are you doing driving with your lights off?!" Right at that moment someone lobbed a beer bottle and it smashed behind us in the car park, so I said, "I'm trying to get out of here - someone is trying to kill me!" They looked towards the commition in the carpark and said, "Right, turn your headlights on and go!" I drove away and me and Dan looked at each other, "Faaaaaaaaaaark". 

That wasn't the end of it. There was no escaping this angry guy. Anywhere we would play, this guy knew where to find me. One of the next gigs was a house party where we played in the backyard. One of my mates came up to me and told me that the guy was out the front and wanted me to come out. I bailed straight over the back fence, running through backyards, haha, with dogs going off and trying to bite me. I was being chased by a group through the neighbourhood streets and eventually I hid in someone's carport. All these cars were driving past looking for me and eventually one pulled up and it was some friends - I got in the car and we got out of there. This type of thing went on for a while until eventually it fizzled out. They were mad times. 

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

LUKE: We kept playing gigs and in hindsight it was probably overdone in Sydney. Paul and Joel turned 18 and Paul got a job at a bar. It would mean that if we had gigs on Fridays or Saturdays nights he often couldn't play. As a band, we should have just said, "If Paul can't play, give our spot to another band", but no, I had to decide that we must play and that I would pick up the guitar again. This was a big mistake. We started rehearsing as a band with me singing while fumbling around on the guitar again, trying to play Paul's parts. We played quite a few shows this way when Paul was working and we sucked. It wasn't the same energy. I was stuck to the mic, not moving around, and it was a different band. It became noticeable that the people coming to see us were dropping off. It was all so easy at the beginning but now we were hitting a speed bump - playing too many shows and our live sound had plummeted. I got as sickening feeling - was this the beginning of the end? 

Paranoia set in. I knew Dan and Joel had become more interested in hardcore. Paul was working. And I wasn't really being the best I could be as a person. I wasn't hanging out with the band and after playing I would bail back home. I felt it was dying and we hadn't even given it a chance to release our first proper album. I was doubting myself, thinking I wasn't good enough. This turned into self-sabotage. The band was over it by this point and probably felt unappreciated. I was getting itchy feet - feeling the apparent downfall of the band. All we should have done was wait and give the constant gigs a break. But instead we kept playing gigs. We started playing to less and less people. For some reason I became insistent that the band should start an actual band account... no one was interested in that. I felt I had no say in the band. I felt that if we were going to go somewhere as a band than a bank account was an inevitable thing we should do. I wanted us to get serious as I had a good feeling about the self-titled album. As we waited for that album to drop I continued to insist on establishing a bank band account and I got frustrated that no one agreed with my opinion. And so it brewed. 

It brewed because it made me feel that no one wanted to continue with the band. We had about 600 CDs to sell of the self-titled album. We did our first tour show, where we ventured out to Wagga Wagga to support Fatigue, but it was a shit feeling because everyone was stubborn by then. I think by this point everyone couldn't wait for it to be over, but it was like breaking up with a super hot girlfriend - inside you are like, please nooo, this isn't happening, is it? What have I done? 

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

Practising with Luke on guitar

REVIEW: Ballpark are not doing anything you haven't heard before if you're into the poppier end of the punk spectrum, but they do what they do with an effervescent energy that makes it impossible to frown and diss them for something so trivial as pure originality. The production on the CD is much better than a lot of local punky debut CDs I've heard, the vocals especially stand out as sounding quite nice and clear.... This kind of music on CD is primarily to tantalise you to go see it performed live, which is always enhanced by silly antics like huge stage dives in the middle of guitar solos and lots of running around in circles and generally going batshit. This it does well... I feel like going to see them right now. Screw work, I'm out to have some fun!

Review of Self-Titled album by Craig New, Drum Media, 2000

LUKE: My insistence on starting a band bank account and needing everyone to agree in order to do this was the reason why the band ended. I wish I could say the band ended all cool like Operation Ivy - like we didn't want to go to the next stage anyway and we wanted to remain underground - but it actually ended with me sticking my finger up to Joel at the end of a show in the city. I walked off around the corner and that was it. Easy come, easy go. 

I later pleaded to get the band back together. Embarrassingly admitted that it was all my fault. But I had said and done too many things to piss off Joel and Dan. Andrew and Paul were innocent bystanders in all of this. It was really about a clash between myself and Joel and Dan. A mix of disinterest and feeling unappreciated on both sides. They decided that the last show would be a harbour cruise. I started looking through Drum Media madly and there was an ad in the classifieds. I was so anxious and nervous, madly scrawling with a pen, and then there it was - an absolute miracle in the bottom left corner of the page. An ad for a singer, for Silencer Seven. 

Ad for Silencer Seven in Drum Media, 2000

When I knew Ballpark was definitely finished, I called Todd from Silencer Seven. He knew who I was and he knew Ballpark. We met up and we lived basically down the road from each other. It was hard to let go of the dream of Ballpark, that had come and gone like a flash in the pan. I was devastated because the Ballpark dream had started out as a three piece fantasy band from a TAFE project, and it had come to life with my schoolmate Andrew. But Silencer Seven took me in as their singer and things just carried on and I was rehearsing with Silencer Seven about a week before the final Ballpark harbour cruise show. 

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

Final update on Ballpark's website, June 2000

JOEL: 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

LUKE: There was so much bullshit and resent in the scene back then. I never got involved in any of it and just ignored it. While Ballpark were still together and things were going well for us, there was a lot of online trolling. This is usually when you really know you are on the up and up. I just wanted to keep singing and making punk rock. In the end we didn't really know what we had. It was so fun and we had so much energy but the energy ran flat, the fun faded, and the friendships died. It had been a strong friendship - people had my back and got me out of tricky situations. Another thing I took for granted. I went from coming down to Sydney from Armidale and knowing no one to having a scene behind me. Those Ballpark years were the best time of my life. 

Luke Sunners (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

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, Thrush, Running Thin, Easy Company, MunkerPuffin, RAH the Monster, The Brozzies