Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Kamikaze Harry


 
ORIGINS: Wollongong, NSW
GENRE: Ska-Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1998-2001
 
MEMBERS:
  • Steve Wales - Bass
  • Val Shoukry - Drums
  • Adam Young - Alto Sax
  • Emily Connell - Trumpet, Soprano Sax
  • Melissa Bullcaras - Tenor Sax
  • Tara Luck - Guitar
  • Eamon Leggett - Vocals (1999-2000)
  • Dan - Vocals (1998)
  • Paul - Vocals (2000-2001)
RELEASES: 

  • Life As a Scannerscrag! (2000) 
    • 1. Two For One
    • 2. Kamikaze Harry
    • 3. Sunshine Song
    • 4. Babe
    • 5. The Rappy Song (Instrumental)

  • Show of Force (2000) - Download Here.
    • 1. That Beeping Sound
    • 2. Make It On Your Own
    • 3. The Life You Lead
    • 4. Leave Me Be
    • 5. Babe (Pig in the City)
    • 6. Eamon's Rest
    • 7. Beneath Your Skin
    • 8. Show of Force
    • 9. Noose


  • Bridge (2000)
    • 1. C.O.C.K.R.O.C.K.
    • 2. Blacked Out
    • 3. Nuts
    • 4. Bridge
SUMMARY: Starting as a high school band with a different vocalist (Dan from The Pact, who would go on to front Straightjacket Nation), Kamikaze Harry expanded into an 8 piece ska-punk with their main vocalist Eamon. The band played a show in Melbourne and then primarily gigged around the Wollongong and Sydney scenes, playing 36 shows in total. In mid-2000, Eamon was replaced by another singer, Paul, and the band re-recorded vocals for four songs from their album to create the 'Bridge' EP before finishing up in 2001.
 
SHOWS: 


ORAL HISTORY:
VAL: Steve, Adam and I went to high school together. We struggled to find a guitarist for ages. Adam worked with Tara and then she joined. Originally Dan from Straightjacket Nation and The Pact was our first vocalist as he was in Steve and Adam's year at school. He took off and we then got Eamon - someone knew him through a mutual friend. 
Val Shoukry (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
STEVE: I was playing in a couple of other bands before - Two Right Hands and The Pact. When Two Right Hands ended, myself and the saxophone player Adam formed Kamikaze Harry.
Steve Wales (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
TARA: I joined in 1999, the band was already jamming and had played a couple of shows. Steve, Adam, and Val all went to Keira High together so that's how they got the band started. They had a singer Dan at the time but he left as I was about to join. My first jam with the band was at Wollongong Youth Centre in the jam room there. Then we started jamming at my house. My parents had made me a music room and I had my own drum kit. Super lucky.
Tara Luck (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

EAMON: I was approached by Steve, who'd been in The Pact. It was some point in late '99 and I was asked to try out for Kamikaze Harry. I went around to Tara's house, where her parents had built a little jam room off their garage, and we jammed out on some Operation Ivy songs and an Against All Authority song. The rest of the band gave me a tape of the songs they'd written and I wrote some lyrics and we started practicing... Lyrically, I covered homophobia, issues with small-town street violence and macho behaviour, cops, and working at the checkouts in Coles. The usual ska-punk stuff... Our first show was New Year's Eve 1999. I was waiting for planes to start dropping from the sky once it ticked over to midnight. 
Eamon Leggett (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

MELISSA: My music teacher put me in touch with Adam, who was another one of his students, who was looking for someone to join the brass/woodwind section of the band. I listened to all sorts of stuff back then - jazz/funk, indie rock, pop, punk. I'd just turned 18 and was getting more into electro/house too. 
Melissa Bullcaras (Tenor Sax), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

VAL: Our first show was a house party on New Year's Eve 1999 in Tara's garage. Our second show was with the Allniters at Dapto RSL. Our third show was with the Porkers at Wollongong Unibar. We played a multitude of shows with Unpaid Debt, Community Cervix, Bagster, The Mad Dash, The Last Hemeroids (fuck I love and miss that band), Iron Sausage, and Black Arm Band.  
Val Shoukry (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

EMILY: My saxophone teacher in Wollongong told my sister about Kamikaze Harry and suggested she join. She didn't want to and told me about it, so I joined instead. The band had too many saxophones - three of them! I was on the dorky Kenny G soprano sax - I think Adam was alto and Melissa was tenor. Our drummer Val said I should learn trumpet. My sax teacher had a spare one and I rented it from him. After one week of lessons, I switched and played trumpet instead!
Emily Connell (Trumpet), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
 
TARA: My first show was at the Arthouse in Melbourne. Emily had just joined the band by this point too. My dad drove us down as we were all so young. That first night we stayed at the youth hostel, which we thought was fun, and the second night was the gig. It only cost us $6 each to stay at the Arthouse after this and it was about 40 degrees. Two of our horn section initially couldn't make the gig but at the last minute Adam got the time off work and jumped on the train to meet us there. The gig was awesome, I just remember thinking how I wanted to play live music in a punk band my whole life, haha. We just spent the days hanging out in Melbourne looking in cheap record stores and finding cheap food to eat.
Tara Luck (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
EAMON: Tara's dad drove us down in their 4WD. We had to convince Val's mum to let him come and Adam caught the train down a couple of days later. We stayed in a hostel in North Melbourne for one night and then got a room at the Arthouse. Six of us in a room with a single bed. I think it was in the high thirties that week, so we had some pretty restless nights. We were in town for five or so nights and played one show with Commissioner Gordon. It was kinda ridiculous. The show itself was fun. The turnout was middling... I think it was a mid-week show. Nonetheless, we turned up the energy and leapt about. We rewatched the footage of the show and counted how many times Steve jumped off stage. It was somewhere in the teens by the third or fourth song. We played tight and fast. When we got back to Wollongong, we played a shit tonne of shows. I think Emily was the reason we played so much in Sydney. She was friends with (seemingly) everyone in the hardcore scene.
Eamon Leggett (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

TARA: We started jamming more and booking more shows. We mostly played at Wollongong Youth Centre, Iron Duke, Green Square, Tempe Irish Bar, Bar Broadway, and Wollongong Uni Bar. It was always funny to us when we would get a rider as all of us were underage, except Emily and maybe Eamon. We also played a heap of house parties and Battle of the Bands shows as well. This one Battle of the Bands we entered at Berkeley Sports Centre... we assumed it was going to be all punk-type band like we were used to, but it was more like a talent quest. Kids dancing or playing violin. It was the most nerve-wracking thing, haha - all these parents and grandparents in a seated audience and then we get up! A solo singer ended up winning it. I don't know if we even stuck around 'till the end. We were all too embarrassed and left.
Tara Luck (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MELISSA: A show that stands out in my memory is our gig at the Iron Duke. It was just an iconic venue, so was fun to play there for the first time. We'd played pubs in Wollongong before this but it was our first gig in Sydney so that's why it's probably stuck in my head. I'd only just turned 18 so it all seemed like an adventure.
Melissa Bullcaras, Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


EAMON: We got put on a few shows at the Iron Duke. Mostly mixed-bills of the ska/hardcore/punk variety. We played any shoe we could get. We played a talent show at Berkeley Bowls Club and we went down like a tonne of bricks... We just kept on playing shows. Supported the Porkers, played with the Allniters at Bar Broadway. We played with Good Clean Fun from the states, and Embodiment 12:14, which was possibly one of the worst matchs of bands I've ever come across... The rest of the band was really motivated to make the band a viable thing. Meetings with potential managers were set up. One chap asked us if we'd be willing tot one down our style to appeal to children. We didn't see ourselves as being the next Wiggles.
Eamon Leggett (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

TARA: We recorded at Virtual Records at Lake Heights in 2000 and it was mixed and mastered by a guy named Paz. It was a great experience as it was the first real recording I'd done. I loved being in the studio, which made me interested in leaving school in Year 10 to do audio engineering. I ended up deciding against it and stayed to do my HSC instead. I worked out that I just wanted to play in the bands and not do the sound.
Tara Luck (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

EAMON: We recorded at someone's home studio and the horn section came out sounding like a bad synth. I don't think it was ever released... One day, Emily, Steve, and Val came to my door. They had printed off all these comments from the Kamikaze Harry website saying all I did was yell, and that I was out of the band. 
Eamon Leggett (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

VAL: We recorded the one album but it remained unreleased as Eamon was let go from the band. When Paul joined we released four of the songs from the album with him on vocals.
Val Shoukry (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

TARA: The sound of the band was changing and we heard Paul Demos singing with his band Penaki and we all decided to go with the change and got him as our singer. After a while some members wanted to further change and didn't want horns anymore. That's what led to the band dissolving and Val, Steve, and Paul went on to form Lost in Line with Jay Haydon. I remember being really upset about it because I was trying to keep it all together and didn't want us to stop playing. 
Tara Luck (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: Lost in Line, Steel City Allstars, Two Right Hands, The Pact, Cohen Heart, Riot City, The Optionals, Radio Rejects, Straightjacket Nation, Contour, UV Race, Total Control, The Plague, Zaproxyn, Dystempa, Chunky Devon and the Spew Monkeys



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