Mahatma Propagandhi

ORIGINS: Sydney, NSW

GENRE: Punk, Techno-Punk

YEARS ACTIVE: 1988-1993

 

MEMBERS:

• John Jacobs - Vocals
• Tony Collins (1988-1991)
• Craig Donarski (1988-1991)
• Heather-Grace Jones (1989-1991)
• Carmel Young (1989-1991)
• Paul McKercher (1989-1991) - Guitar, DJ
• Deb Shaw (1989-1991) - Bass
• Sylvia Szabo (1991-1993)
• Pete Strong (1991-1993) - Sampler, Acid Box
• Zippy (1991-1993) - Bass, Vocals 
• Willie (1992) - Guest Vocals 

RELEASES:

• Reignite 1992 - Recorded in 1991, released in 2025. 
• Additional notes on EP here.
• 1. Wave of the Future
• 2. No Justice
• 3. Last Train to Fascism
• 4. Dub Hammer

• 'TRG' (1991) - Live recording, unreleased

SUMMARY: Becoming Mahatma Propagandhi circa 1988, the band consisted of Jacobs, Collins, and Donarski - all of whom worked on a Triple J program at the time called The Works, which was "a live freewheeling mix". The band had previously been known as KGB Stooges and The Media Liberation Front, and solidified as a collective in the late '80s with the addition of Heather-Grace Jones, Carmel Young, Paul McKercher, and Deb Shaw, before dissolving in 1991. 

Shortly after this, John Jacobs joined forces with Pete Strong and Sylvia Szabo (both from Sound Anti-System) after they met at a Gulf War rally in Circular Quay in 1991. They were joined also by Zippy, and the second incarnation of Mahatma Propagandhi emerged and continued on the collective's protest and counter-cultural traditions until 1993. 

Mahatma Propagandhi existed as part of a burgeoning 'techno-punk' movement that had grown in Sydney around venues and movements such as Jellyheads Warehouse and Vibe Tribe.

 

SHOWS: 

• Sandringham Hotel, Newtown - 10th February, 1989
• Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, Newtown - 2nd December, 1990
• Jellignite, Regent St Hotel, Redfern - 20th February, 1992

ORAL HISTORY:

JOHN: Tony suggested to me that we should form a band. I think I came up with the name. Puns and wordplay were all I was good at. I could hardly play guitar at all. Texta and sticky tape on the guitar neck was needed for me to make any tune. It was basically the same personnel as our previous band Din of Inequity but a change of style - I moved onto a sampler and we went from straight-out punk rock protest into cut up media samples. A bit industrial - at the time we were liking Negative Land, Cabaret Voltaire, and Public Enemy. We were all working at Double J as it changed to Triple J and all had gone through community radio before this, so media storytelling was a natural fit. We were active in political community groups for social change so music as protest was the go. Plus it was fun.

John Jacobs (Vocals, Sampling), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

PRESS RELEASE: Mahatma Propagandhi were a noise-beat, dub-punk, and vocal protest unit that erupted out of Sydney's underground in the late 1980s. Emerging from community activism and Radio Ski Row, the band fused punk, dub, and hip hop influences into raw, street-active jams that took on the burning political issues of the time. The group played countless community benefits, street protests and pub gigs.

Press Release, Reignite 1992, 2025

WILLIE: The Palmer Street squat had a collective vegetable buy with the guys from Mahatma Propagandhi - our households shared by buying in bulk. Mahatma Propagandhi were the first band to approach Tutti Parze for gigs and they were the band we (Tutti Parze) played all our first gigs with. When Tutti Parze was booked for Newtown Festival, the organisers realised who were were, panicked, and banned us from playing on the day of the festival. Mahatma Propagandhi gave us their spot on the bill. We changed into suits and ties to look like detectives (except our bassist Spin, who dressed as a farmer) and got on stage as 'Mahatma Propagandhi'. There were a few thousand people at the festival. There was this park less than 20 metres from the cop shop where a series of rapes had happened almost nightly, so we proceeded to harass the cops about it and went straight into our song 'Your Funeral is Our Party'. We went off, the crowd went off, the organisers freaked out and the cops rushed the stage. Our friend Phil Bastard had his old postal van behind the stage - when the cops rushed us all the audience kept them away from us. Stu Magoo and some other punks grabbed the amps, chucked 'em in the van, and we escaped. 

Willie (Guest Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

News article about the Tactical Response Group, The Canberra Times, 20th June, 1990

JOHN: Tony Collins had a song 'TRG' about an 'accidental' police shooting during a raid in Glebe. I pitch-shifted a sample of police sirens to play a tune. 

John Jacobs (Vocals, Sampling), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ZIPPY: John Jacobs was the real driving force behind the band. The band was around for a couple of years - they'd started earlier as KGB Stooges and Din of Inequity with John Jacobs and Tony Collins. I knew John from his show on Radio Skid Row (community radio station in Sydney) and that's how I joined. I only played a few shows with the band - Max's in Petersham, Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, Jellyheads, and Regent Street Hotel in Redfern for a Jellyheads fundraiser called Jellignite. 

Zippy (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JOHN: We played around at punk gigs and community benefits and protests but we were never serious musos, more just activists having fun, so we didn't really do studio recordings.

John Jacobs (Vocals, Sampling), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

WILLIE: Mahatma Propagandhi did record one song called 'Last Train to Fascism', which I sang on. I wrote it a couple of nights earlier with Zippy in Palmer Street, where we both lived. We used a recording of a train on tracks on a tape, which we looped, and that was the percussion track. The lyrics were meant to be a hyperbolic warning... but everything we sang about the fascist oligarchy we could see in the future has already happened, everything the people owned collectively has been privatised. It's pretty sad that for 40-odd years we have been screaming a warning but society was too deaf and too enamoured by the glamour of those we were warning about... to hear us. Look at the world today: we failed. I hope there are now young punks brave or stupid enough to pick up the struggle. 

Willie (Guest Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

PRESS RELEASE: A handful of tracks were recorded but never properly released - until now. An old master cassette was recently unearthed and has been lovingly restored for a 2025 release. The tracks capture the raw energy and uncompromising DIY ethos of Sydney's early techno-punk underground. 

Press Release, Reignite 1992, 2025

JOURNAL ARTICLE: (Mahatma Propagandhi were part) of Sydney's techno-punk emergence, as seen in Jellyheads, Non Bossy Posse, Vibe Tribe, and Ohms Not Bombs... mobile and media savvy exploits of 1990s DIY sound systems and techno terra-ists... activists adopting intimate and tactical media technologies.

Graham St John, 'Making a Noise - Making a Difference: Techno-Punk and Terra-ism', Dance Cult, Vol 1, No.2, 2010

JOHN: The sound system model sat so much more comfortably with our way of working... It had the flexibility to include more active participants in co-creation... bringing the audience into the creative loop... Remix reality. Work with whatever social elements are to hand. Listen or be sensitive to what is going on around you and start jamming with it. Add a little bit of your song to push the good parts of life's melody or rhythm along.

John Jacobs (Vocals, Sampling), Dance Cult Vol.1, No.2 2010

ZIPPY: Jellignite, an event held at Regent Street Hotel in Redfern, was filled with punks and doofers and Oxford Street gay crew and Chippo queer crew. There were punk/industrial DJs as well as electro stuff. Mahatma Propagandhi played and did a set with percussion and a sampler set up all over the dance floor so the crowd could also make music with us. It was fun 'til the outdoor pool collapsed and we all got booted out!

Zippy (Bass), Dance Cult Vol.1, No.2 2010

JOHN: Punk is just where we were at the time, I guess. It was fun and inspiring to be active politically and socially with your friends and meeting new people and ideas. Oh yes, we definitely identified with the punk ethos, DIY, counter-culture, agit prop, street protest, community action, community media, etc.

John Jacobs (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JOURNAL ARTICLE: Non Bossy Posse was formed in the Spring of 1992 by members of Sydney bands Mahatma Propagandhi (electronic/instrumental) and Fred Nihilist (anarcho pop-punk), who were regulars at live gigs in Newtown and Redfern, and were associated with the Jellyheads anarcho-punk collective.

Graham St John, 'Making a Noise - Making a Difference: Techno-Punk and Terra-ism', Dance Cult, Vol 1, No.2, 2010

PRESS RELEASE: By 1993 the techno-rave movement had swept Sydney, and members of Mahatma Propagandhi, along with fellow Jellyheads band Fred Nihilist, merged into Non Bossy Posse. That project carried the fire forward into the mid-’90s and beyond, pushing social and environmental justice messages through acid, techno, and jungle grooves at community-empowering events. Reignite 1992 offers a rare chance to hear one of Sydney’s missing protest-punk links, a snapshot of the moment when punk collided with dub, hip hop, and the first sparks of electronica in the warehouse underground.

Press Release, Reignite 1992, 2025

RELATED BANDS: Sound Anti-System, The Alternators, Din of Inequity, Deviant Kickback, Fred Nihilist, The Lunatic Fringe, Lucas Heights Posse, Non Bossy Posse, Wheelie Bin Sound System, Tutti Parze, The Tribe, Dogs on Heat