Saturday, March 7, 2026

Primary Urge

ORIGINS: Campbelltown, NSW
GENRE: Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1997-2004
 
MEMBERS:
RELEASES:
  • EP (1998)
    • 1. Outta Sight
    • 2. Monster 
    • 3. Meant 2 Be
    • 4. Political Kindergarten
  • Self-Titled (2000)
    • 1. Urge to Attack
    • 2. P.Y.L.
    • 3. Stand Tall
    • 4. Point of View
    • 5. I Suggest
    • 6. Meant 2 Be
    • 7. Holy Wars
  • Compilation song (1998)
    • Unknown
SUMMARY: Campbelltown-based punk band active throughout the late '90s and early '00s. Primary Urge retained the same four members from start to finish, released two EPs, and played regularly across a range of locations. They wound down and stopped playing in the mid-00s. Some members played in other projects after. 
 
SHOWS: 


ORAL HISTORY:
LEX: My earliest memories of music was when I was like 3 and 'You're the Voice' came on the telly. It was an ad announcing Johnny Farnham's new album or an upcoming tour or something. I recall doing the toddler-squat-bop in front of the coffee table, singing (screeching) at the top of my lungs. Around the same time Hoodoo Gurus came out with "What's My Scene' on video hits and that blew me away. I was fascinated with the film clip, how they would just change into these different personas. I used to have this cowboy costume - I'd run off and get changed it into every time the song came on. I was sold. So in a nutshell, it was the idiot box that first got me into music. The first record I got was from my older brother at Christmas, when I was 7 years old. It was Open Up and Say Ahh by Poison. I remember looking at the back of the cover and thinking, 'Gee, these chicks rock!'
Lex (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DANNY: My mum bought me a guitar when I was about 10 and took me to lessons at a music shop at Campbelltown Mall, which I had until about mid-high school. That's when I got into bands like Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Metallica, etc., through my older brother and my friends. I used to jam with a neighbour who played drums and we'd do Nirvana covers.
Danny (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ADAM: I loved music from a young age, mostly what my old man would listen to - Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, etc. As I got older I got into what my generation were listening to; grunge and metal mainly. But when Silverchair debuted with their first single, it was a lightbulb moment. If these guys can start a band and rock out, why can't I? They were two years older. I had an old acoustic guitar at home and I started learning to play. I also had a music teacher at school - he looked like he was in that band on The Footy Show, circa 1994, The Nevilles. He was a big influence on playing and rocking out.
Adam Gallaty (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

LEX: I used to also idolise my brother and sister to an extent. I was the baby and there was quite a massive gap between me and my siblings - 8 years between my sister and I, 10 years between my brother and I, and my two eldest sisters were older again. Anyway, my brother had got himself a flash new stereo system with a CD player. Wow! It was sometime before we used it though as we were still primarily playing records and tapes... CDs were too expensive, about $30 on average! Fast forward again and my brother's misfit mates would hang around and take over our room (yes, it was meant to be our room) and bring all their records over, some were into power/traditional heavy metal (IE. Priest, Maiden, etc.), my brother was into the harder of the hair metal bands (Gunners, Skid Row, Shotgun Messiah, Venom), some were into thrash and speed metal (Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, and more of the European stuff - Kreator, Sabbat, Coroner), and some into death metal (Deicide, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Sepultura, Napalm Death, entombed). I could go on and on and on... wait, I have, haha. One of his mates was a self-proclaimed 'Satanist' but was just a peaceful goth dude who sued to have cups of tea with my parents and talk philosophy with my dad. He'd let me colour in his tours 'cause he was colour blind, and he got me into stuff like The Cure and The Tea Party. he was probably the nicest of my brother's friends, he used to take me to the library and showed me the best fantasy novels and books on the occult. Anyway, my brother and his ragtag group of stoners, car thieves, and unemployed metal heads seemed to inhabit my house, and they got me into heavy metal. 
Lex (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DANNY: It was about Year 8 or Year 9 in high school when we formed the band that we ended up calling Primary Urge. I think we looked through books and magazines for cool words and that's how we found the name. 
Danny (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025


JAMES: We were all high school muso nerds and after a school concert covering a few grunge and Metallica songs we decided to start a punk band! Seemed like a good thing at the time. We all agreed we liked the faster paced songs and had just discovered a lot of the Aussie punk and hardcore of that time and record labels like Epitaph, Fat Wreck Chords, and Burning Heart. We'd practice at Sounds of You Rehearsal Studio in Campbelltown, 6 till 8pm every Wednesday night. Danny came up with the name - it sounded cool so we all agreed on it.
James Cosgrove (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ADAM: It was early spring in 1996 or 1997... these three kids from the same high school were skateboarding around and playing music, mostly metal in other school bands. I played soccer with one of them - James. Josh played on the soccer team too, he later became our future band's number 1 roadie. Anyway, James, Lex, and Danny decided they wanted to start a punk rock band and needed a bass player, so I was recruited into the mix to play bass. I was already playing in another band at the time, Parasympathetic, so we all already had previous experience playing in bands even at 15 and 16 years old. We jammed in the neighbour's garage and four weeks after our first jam we had our first gig, where we entered and won a local band comp at the Fisher's Ghost Festival playing two originals and two covers (a Frenzal Rhomb song and a Grinspoon one).  
Adam Gallaty (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025


DANNY: It was a couple of years of jamming before we played our first show. Being in a band as a teenager was great - hanging around with a lot of friends at gigs and jams, and watching other bands. The first band I saw live was Rage Against The Machine but then I started going to see Frenzal Rhomb - I saw them heaps around this time. There were mad festivals like Soundwave and Big Day Out and I went to heaps of them.
Danny (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JAMES: Our first show was the 1997 Fisher's Ghost Festival in Campbelltown. The festival is pretty big in Campbelltown - it was a big crowd so was probably one of our biggest and funnest gig. This also made it a bit anti-climactic to then play pubs and do the hard yards trying to get our name out there. Most people in the city scene didn't want anything to do with Campbelltown bands, which made things tricky. We had an awesome scene in Campbelltown though, with lots of good bands and some awesome musos as well. We had a venue at Ambervale Youth Centre for our All Ages gigs, which had some big crowds. 
James Cosgrove (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DANNY: I was nervous most times I played but also excited too. The first show at the Fishers Ghost Festival was really fun, I have good memories of that. We played at this festival a couple of times - Fisher was a ghost in the park there or something, haha. 
Danny (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

Local Campbelltown Newspaper, 1997

Local Campbelltown Newspaper, 1999

ADAM: We played one or two pubs but were underage so our parents would have to come with us. Forrest Inn in Bexley was one of the pubs we played but other than that it was mostly All Ages gigs in the beginning, at places like Campbelltown Civic Centre, Ambarvale Youth Centre, and even a trip out to Bathurst Youth Centre.  James and Danny had just got their P plates so were then able to start driving ourselves to shows. Our manager booked the Bathurst show for us and another Campbelltown band called Kamber. The local Bathurst bands were mostly metal and thrash. When we got to Bathurst we walked around and tried recruiting people to come to our show... we met these guys who were also playing a show somewhere else in town that night. Their band was Eskimo Joe!
Adam Gallaty (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DANNY: A lot of bands in our scene jammed at the same rehearsal place in Leumeah called Sounds of You, so that was a good place to hang out. There weren't really a lot of pub gigs in the Campbelltown area - that was always more out Sydney way. In our town we tended to play All Ages shows at Ambervale a lot, which was a fun place. James used to organise some of  these shows and Darren Stapleton started a local label called Wombat Music - he got us a lot of gigs in the early days. He played bass in a mad Campbelltown band called Stinkbug.
Danny (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025


NEWS ARTICLE: Two special gigs are planned for this Friday and Saturday... The Ambarvale Youth Centre will be presenting Fatigue, Invisible Frogs on Acid, Primary urge and an all-girl band with the intriguing name of Sesterfly. A 'Punkoween' harbour cruise is being held on Saturday with Primary Urge, Fugg, Fatigue, and Invisible Frogs on Acid. Primary Urge is a 'melodic skate-punk' band from Campbelltown. The group forged its name into the local music scene by winning The Fisher's Ghost Festival Band Competition. The band has played support for bands such as Cryogenic, Bongo Rhythm, and Kamber. They have played in Bathurst, Sydney, Campbelltown, Wollongong, on Harbour Cruises, and in Youth Rock '98. Their songs relate to the issues, trials and treasures of being young. 
Local Campbelltown Newspaper, 1999

ADAM: All our recordings were done with a guy named Nick in his studio in factory in the Minto industrial area. Nick went on to record jingles for TV and radio.
Adam Gallaty (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JAMES: We recorded an EP in 1998 at Glass House Studios in Minto. Nick was the guy who did it - the studio was on the top floor of a fibreglass factory. We recorded all the songs we had at that point. It was a good experience but we weren't really happy with the final recording. The second time we recorded, in 2000, we chose our best 7 songs and were happy with that one - sold about 300 copies for $4 a CD.
James Cosgrove (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DANNY: Recording was heaps fun but it was pretty hard to do it good if you did it yourself - being in the studio was a good experience. We didn't really do a CD launch - I burned a bunch of them at home with a printed sticker and we'd sell them at gigs or give them away. 
Danny (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ADAM: We played in Canberra a few times with a Canberra band called Lamexcuse. We also headed up to the Central Coast and possibly Newcastle. 
Adam Gallaty (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025


DANNY: We played parties and in Canberra at Youth Centres and pubs. We also played the Wollongong Youth Centre. We couldn't fit all our gear into one car so we'd get some mates and would go in a few cars whenever we were travelling out of town. 
Danny (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

JAMES: From about 2000 till 2002 was our peak, we played with most bands that were getting around at that time. We had a strong following in Canberra and made some great friends down there. There were plenty of good bands in Canberra and the Boardroom was a popular venue we played at. We played with Lamexcuse, who'd hook us up in Canberra, and then we'd bring them up to Sydney. We also connected with some of the older Northern Beaches bands like World War XXIV, Throwdown, and Crankcase, who were awesome to us. 
James Cosgrove (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

LEX: We played a lot of shows, a bunch of random joints at obscure times - like all through the weekdays. I never knew where we were half the time.
Lex (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

ADAM: Around 2002, we spent a lot of time perfecting our last batch of songs for a full length album but we never quite got into the studio again to lay them down on tape. We went on hiatus around 2003 - Danny and I were living in a place together at the time and we had a big argument. We went our own ways for a few years but later got the band back together and played a few shows around 2009, the most notable of which was a benefit gig for a friend who almost died. After that point we were all living too far away from one another to be able to jam. And a lot of time had passed since the days when we were a tight, well-oiled machine!
Adam Gallaty (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

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