Noise Levels is an archival project that aims to collect and preserve Sydney alternative music (with a focus on Western Sydney/Blue Mountains and surrounds) from the late 1980s to 2000s for everyone to revisit and enjoy.
SUMMARY: MunkerPuffin was a high school band based in Armidale. Two of the members went on to play in a range of Sydney punk bands in the '00s.
ORAL HISTORY:
LUKE: Back in the day I was heavily into the Beastie Boys, ever since I was a primary school kid getting a hold of License to Ill in 4th Grade, It was my first cassette tape that I owned. I had to have everything they released. Later when they dropped Check Your Head, the song 'Time for Livin' stood out to me and then later came Ill Communication with the track 'Heart Attack Man', and those tracks really stood out to me over everything else. I would then hear punk tracks on skateboarding videos and my mate gave me a mix tape in high school - it had Frenzal Rhomb's Coughing Up a Storm, and a bunch of Swedish punk bands - Randy's There Is No Way We're Gonna Fit In, Stoned's Music for Morons, and Millencolin's Same Old Tunes. Those four albums are still the best and I still have them on high rotation.
That was it for me - I started picking up the guitar and seriously writing songs and that was basically all I did and I did it relentlessly. Then Recovery was a brand new show at the time on the ABC and Millencolin had a video clip for 'Story of My Life' on there and Bodyjar had 'Glossy Books', then Frenzal with 'Parasite'. I just thought that was too cool and it got me even more into writing songs and dreaming of starting a punk band. Andrew Braid was a drummer and we were both in music class. I mentioned wanting to start a punk band and, despite being a jazz drummer, Andrew was down.
So we started rehearsing. The band formed from jamming on songs at my parents' place. Andrew would bring his drums and Kei was a Japanese exchange student who was staying at his house. He played bass so we formed a three piece.
MunkerPuffin was just a random name off the top of my head. Like Monkey-Bird, or to smoke weed. In some of my lyrics I would add weird words that made no sense but it just sounded good even though they made completely no sense. The singer from Grinspoon does this too all the time. So 'MunkerPuff' is not a real word but you can tell it means to smoke weed.
We recorded and rehearsed in Armidale. We had a 4 track recorder from our high school that we were supposed to use to record our music assignments - instead of that we recorded a bunch of songs! There weren't really any other bands in Armidale - I was into Beastie Boys bigtime and their hardcore punk tracks like 'Time for Livin' were what sent me into punk. Then I got hold of music from the bands Stoned and Randy from a mate and it was over. We had plans to head to Sydney but the band finished when Kei went back to Japan.
Luke Sunners (Vocals, Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
RELATED BANDS: Ballpark, Silencer Seven, Land Speed Record, The Brozzies, RAH the Monster, Ebolagoldfish
Unknown Venue, Northern Beaches - December, 2002 [Last show - did not play]
Logo from Silencer Seven website, 2001
ORAL HISTORY:
TODD: I was in a band called Double Standard, which ad a more metal vibe with some definite punk undertones. I was keen to be in a more dedicated punk band so I started jamming with a few guys from another Northern Beaches band, Disfigured. The band named, 'Silencer Seven', came from a friend of mine on the beaches who was a creative type - it's actually from the Star Wars books; it's an Imperial ship that was a world destroyer.
MARK: Todd started it and he got us (Mark, Dave, Rodney) to play with him. We were having a few jam sessions at his house and then he wanted to start a new band. I was a huge fan of NOFX, Lagwagon, Strung Out, Unwritten Law, and Bad Religion, and that was part of what inspired us.
Mark Olsen (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
TODD: Silencer Seven began with myself, Mark, Dave, and Rodney, but it was just a side hustle for the others. Over a short period these guys opted out and that's when Rick and Mitch came on board and the band started to take shape.
Fitz Cafe, 1998, with Todd on vocals (pic: Ryan McCluskey)
TODD: We did some demo work in my house on an 8-track but we never reproduced it. Those songs actually never transferred to the later version of the band.
RICK: Todd was in the band with three other guys he knew through bodyboarding. They had a recording with 3 or 4 songs. Anyway, the bassplayer missed a few gigs so I got the call... I'd previously played in a band called Double Standard with Todd. When the other two original members of Silencer Seven left we started jamming with Mitch on drums - we knew him because Richie's younger sister went to school with him. We jammed with him at his place in Frenchs Forest. He had his PJs on.
Rick Thomas (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
MITCH: I miss those old flannel PJs.
Mitchell Johnson (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
RICK: Mitch was like 15 or something when we first jammed but he was so fucking good already.
Rick Thomas (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
MITCH: I was 15 when I met the other guys in Silencer Seven. It was the start of my life, really. They were all about 20. Todd had started the band with two other guys - Mark Olsen and Dave Andrews, from another band on the Northern Beaches. They recorded a four track demo with Todd on vocals and played one gig - they didn't last long as that set up. I saw an ad in Drum Media, which said "looking for a drummer and guitarist". I answered the call and Todd gave me the demo to listen to and learn. I was a very naive kid at the time... just kinda getting into punk rock music through some friends at high school, so very innocent, haha. We started rehearsing and then came another guitarist, Dan, who played for a little while and then left.
Mitchell Johnson (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
RICK: Todd started singing in addition to doing guitar and we recorded The Bottom Line with Dan doing the lead guitar. Dan left after The Bottom Line EP and Richie then hit us up to have a jam.
Rick Thomas (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
TODD: We recorded The Bottom Line at Troy Horse in Newtown in 1999. I did all the art for all our releases with use of the photography that people had done for us over the years.
REVIEW: Get out your snowboard... for there is no denying that these guys have a heavy Pennywise influence. From guitar sounds to Strung Out harmonies, this is snow punk at its best... this three piece play hard.
Review of The Bottom Line EP, Kickass Zine, February 2000
MITCH: My drumming style was developing around this time. I had a crush on Wade, the drummer from Unwritten Law, and adopted some of his stuff when drumming. I also loved Bad Religion so I introduced a bit of that too.
Mitchell Johnson (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
RICK: I was definitely influenced by the kings of thrash metal - Cliff Burton and Tom Moraya - but the first time I heard Strung Out I was hooked; they are the greatest. My favourite bands are Slayer, Faith No More, No Fun At All, Strung Out, Cradle of Filth, and Assorted Jelly Beans.
Rick Thomas (Bass), Silencer Seven website, 2001
TODD: We were gigging around Sydney a bit, played a few local parties and maybe a band comp at the Bat and Ball. We didn't play on the Northern Beaches that much. There were so few places to play... we played at Manly Youth Centre a few times, which ewas always hectic. They were always the best gigs on the beaches. They would always sell out. There were a lot of surfers and skaters on the beaches - a lot of punk fans - but so few opportunities to see good bands locally. One of our best gigs there was opening for Bodyjar and The Living End. 'Prisoner of Society' had just been released so The Living End were blowing up. Bodyjar are... just the fucking best, so the place was full before we took the stage. A thousand kids going mental. Great vibes. We had some merch there - shirts and hats, which were like $10. No chance of selling at that price these days with inflation! I worked for a company that made stickers and prints, so we had a heap of that stuff to give away.
MITCH: Another guitarist named Chris Chandler came and left, and so on and so on for a couple of years. It was slow at the start, especially with me being only fifteen. Once I was 18 we played fairly regularly - at least once every 3 or 4 weeks.
Mitchell Johnson (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
TODD: We had a few temporary second guitarists and while looking for someone it came up that Richie, who was the drummer in our previous band, Double Standard, well, he was a great guitarist, and so he joined.
RICHIE: I was in a band (Double Standard) previously with Todd and Rick and I knew Mitch from school - he was in my younger sister's grade. Silencer Seven needed a guitarist and asked me to join after the first EP was recorded.
Richard Martin (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
MITCH: We played some great shows early on. Youth Fest at Dee Why Beach, and a show at Manly Youth Centre in 1998 with The Vandals (they were touring their Hitler Bad, Vandals Good album). We also played at Manly Fishos with Bodyjar and supported Diesel Boy at the Bat and Ball Hotel with One Dollar Short. I was star struck! All my heroes straight from my bedroom stereo and in a pub that I wasn't old enough to play in. I couldn't believ it. I just wanted to brag to all my school friends so badly. My friends didn't believe me at first but then I actually played all the gigs and some of them came along to watch.
Mitchell Johnson (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
TODD: We realised pretty quick that singing was not for me and that's when we met Luke and he joined... it was hard to find good guys based on the Northern Beaches so we were lucky to get such a good group together. We'd write songs together all types of ways - someone could bring a riff and we would build that to a full song. Sometimes someone would have the whole music part done and we just refined it and added lyrics. Or there were times Luke had virtually a whole song ready to go. Everyone contributed in some way to almost every song.
RICK: We started playing gigs around Sydney with Ballpark. Luke left them and joined Silencer Seven, singing on the third release. After that we started writing together and gigging heaps, eventually releasing an album. I remember bands were pissed because we 'stole' Luke from Ballpark.
Rick Thomas (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
MITCH: Eventually we settled with the lineup of Todd and Richie on guitars, Rick on bass, Luke on vocals, and me on the kit.
Mitchell Johnson (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
Newspaper article - pics of Silence 7 at Youthfest, 2000
BIO: Silencer Seven are a punk rock band from Sydney, Australia. They play fast melodic punk in the vein of Bad Religion or Pennywise... with fat guitars, catchy melodies, and raw emotion, Silencer Seven are a must for punk fans.
Band Bio, Silencer Seven Website, 2001
TODD: We recorded A New Day in 2000 just after Luke and Richie joined. This was recorded at Smokin' and Jokin' Studios. Our style didn't change much with this main lineup, we just got a lot more polished with the second guitar and Luke was a great vocalist. So we started to sound more like we had always envisioned. Also, having five people in the band made the influences a little broader and the song-writing more diverse. We had a heap of fun doing A New Day as it was our first time recording as a five-piece. We did a hidden song, a cover of 'Uncle Fucker' from South Park, which was absolutely hilarious to record. We also left an outtake from a vocal part on one of the songs, which is cool.
RICHIE: We recorded A New Day over night sessions - we would work our jobs all day and then go the studio in Artarmon. It took three nights, maybe four. We did a release show after, probably at the Northpoint Tavern.
Richard Martin (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
MITCH: A New Day was recorded at Smokin' and Jokin' Studios in Artarmon. We played mainly Sydney shows, not much state to state stuff really happened. We just played the gig that came our way and wrote to record when we could.
Mitchell Johnson (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
TODD: That weren't that many serious punk bands that were gigging on the beaches at that time. We got on well with some of the other bands we met and played with, but they were mostly from other areas. We played mainly at venues outside the beaches. We'd organise shows however we could! Everyone kind of pitched in - we had people we knew locally that would hook us up, mates in other bands that we would play with.
Film clip for 'Kiddypunk' from A New Day EP (2000)
From the band's website, mid-2001
RICHIE: Shows were always a lot of fun, there was lots of community spirit between all the bands. I remember gigs at the Iron Duke being particularly fun. Crowd numbers were never huge, we played mostly Wednesday and Thursday nights, but we started to see regular faces in the crowd, which was pretty cool. My favourite gig was probably Youth Fest with 28 Days. It was the biggest show I played with the band - big stage, huge sound, and we played really well.
Richard Martin (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
RICHIE: We played a gig at Junee community hall. It was the middle of nowhere and they treated us like rockstars - there was a decked-out green room, lots of beers and snacks. I don't think they got many bands visiting their town. A local band called Bladder Control played the show with us. Shows out of town were always fun - sleeping on random people's floors and stuff.
Richard Martin (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
LUKE: Our worst show was supporting Segression and playing to a room of cross-legged metalheads sitting on the floor - giving us the world's worst vibe.
Luke Sunners, Silence Seven Website, 2001
TODD: In the last few years we got help booking shows from Olivia and Ryan - they had a booking agency and they ran Club Burnout in Penrith.
RICHIE: I was with Silencer Seven pretty much until the end. I recorded The World Won't Change and toured that CD with the band. After that I got booted and then things didn't last much longer. It was good times before all that. There were probably a few missed opportunities and things we should have capitalised but I'm proud of what we all created and I think it still stands up well today.
Richard Martin (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
TOM: I joined just after their last EP was recorded. It was in the period when Bagster's first drummer Derek left. He took a job out of town and kept telling us he would be back soon but then kept extending his stay. So I was looking for another band so I could keep playing shows. Silencer Seven had just had a guitarist leave. I was real young still - needed my mum to drive me to the first rehearsal. I went in to fill the spot and played with them for a few months.
Tom Fisher (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
MITCH: We were all moving on to our own little things and the momentum and excitement that we used to have was dissipating.
Mitchell Johnson (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 202
TODD: The band sort of just tapered out... I was engaged and getting married soon and decided that it was time for me. I told the guys - I think it was after a gig with Seraphs Coal at Penrith. From there I think everyone just sort of decided to let it go. Ironically we had our final gig lined up as a home show on the Northern Beaches and the venue was packed. The band before us was also local, with a good following... The Lyrical Madmen. They had a lot of people crowd surfing and the venue said they needed to stop and when they didn't, that was it, the venue pulled the pin. We never actually got to play our final gig. Bittersweet.
RELATED BANDS: Double Standard, Phunt, Ballpark, Disfigured, Bagster, Last Dig Academy, Gwylo, War Rages Within, We Without, Mana Lion, Fake No More, James Keith, Ape BC, The Kirbys, Unpaid Debt, The Optionals, The Versionaries, This Version, Extramentalist, Sub-Tribe, Modus Fire, Dividers, Psyclops Eyepatch, Vesty Vials, Ess-Em
Film clip for 'Wasted Days' from The World Won't Change EP (2002)
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
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
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