Showing posts with label Steve Wales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Wales. Show all posts

Monday, January 27, 2025

The Pact


ORIGINS: Wollongong, NSW
GENRE: Hardcore
YEARS ACTIVE:1997-1999
 
MEMBERS:
RELEASES: 
 
  • Live Demo '98 (1998)
    • 1. Free Ride
    • 2. Lightswitch
    • 3. Lost
    • 4. Full of Rage
    • 5. Stop and Think
    • 6. 39 Beat Down Crew
    • 7. The Pact

  • It Starts Inside (1999) - Download Here.
    • 1. No Issue
    • 2. Full of Rage
    • 3. Low Act
    • 4. The Difference
    • 5. Through My Eyes
    • 6. Thinking Positive
SUMMARY: Usually stylised as xThe Pactx, this Wollongong-based youth crew hardcore band made their mark on the local Illawarra and Sydney scenes. They recorded an EP before breaking up.
 
SHOWS: 


ORAL HISTORY:
JYOTI: I was a teenager in a small town (Nowra) during the mid-'90s, so it started with indie music / grunge and being disaffected with the 'normal' way of life and wanting more. Through the people I hung out with I was slowly introduced to punk. I remember being at a house party and hearing Minor Threat and was really drawn to them. My brother, Hesh, was in a local pop-punk band, Frontside, with some guys even older than me (he was like, 14). When I was 17 I started dating the guitarist of Frontside (much to my brother's chagrin) who was straight edge and expanded my listening to other DC straight edge bands. I really liked the philosophy of political activism / veganism / no drinking or drugs (the latter of which I had already done a lot of since I was a disaffected teen in a small town).
Jyoti Roy (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
 
DAN: I was 16 years old in high school and obsessed with hardcore. I had a band called Two Right Hands with some friends from school - when we started it we were really into this band called DFL, as well as Bad Religion and Operation Ivy. Then we got into Minor Threat, Teen Idles, and S.O.A. I just kept getting more into straightedge hardcore; I loved the militant aesthetic and message of friendship and loyalty and discipline. I had one LP - the Chain of Strength discography. I'd take it to school in my backpack, I had to fold the corners down to stuff it int here, I took it just to pull it out at lunch time and read the lyrics and look at the photos with the other members of Two Right Hands (they were probably humouring me). I wanted to be in a band and world like that. Youth crew straightedge. Two Right Hands were shuffling members around and we asked Jyoti to sing and we made the new band explicitly straightedge - it was actually named XXXTHE PACTXXX. It was half-serious but also intentionally cheesy and, yes, cringe. 
Dan Stewart (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 

 
ANTHONY: I got into more mainstream punk and hardcore music from the age of 13 or 14, partly from watching bodyboarding videos. It was through friends and live shows when I was 16 that I first got into the local and underground punk and hardcore music. I still love the power, energy and lyrics about meaningful topics and important issues. The Pact was my second band. Four of us were in a previous band together called Two Right Hands. The Pact had an extra guitarist and an extra vocalist. I played drums in Two Right Hands and bass in The Pact.  
Anthony (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
STEVE: The Pact formed when Two Right Hands ended. It was basically the same members with a couple of new additions. Two Right Hands was more of a punk band with saxophone, whereas The Pact was more influenced by Minor Threat and the Newcastle hardcore band Arms Reach.
Steve Wales (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 

JYOTI: I was playing bass in a band called Eightfold and we had a gig (in Thirroul, I think). On the train back to Wollongong, where I lived for uni, I met Dan Stewart, who also lived n Wollongong, and we became friends. The 'Gong was a bigger city than Nowra but still small. Dan and his friends were also straight edge but listening to more 'youth crew' hardcore like Youth of Today, which was a lot more fun than the serious DC emo straight edge bands I liked... and it was really Dan's energy and motivation in wanting to start a Youth Crew band that got things going. He recruited me to do vocals, which sounded fun - any chance to write lyrics and yell them at people!
Jyoti Roy (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
 
JOEL A: The Pact was my first band. I wasn't originally in The Pact - I replaced Anthony who played on the live demo. Before The Pact they were called Two Right Hands, which was an Operation Ivy kinda influenced band. Jyoti and the other Joel joined them to form The Pact. We all met at Wollongong Youth Centre and while kicking around hardcore shows in both Wollongong and Sydney.
Joel Anderson (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

JYOTI: I just love the youth crew style because it's so positive. It's just what we live for. Without my friends I don't know what I'd do, so it hurts when they 'stab you in the back' and I guess when you're singing about it it's a way to let out all your anger. Most of our songs are a way for us to release our anger at things.
Jyoti Roy (Vocals,), Spirit Issue 2, 1998


JYOTI: Our lyrics were inspired by all the fun youth crew topics, like having fun with your friends, being loyal and true to your crew, etc. Nothing super deep! Well I guess there was an aspect of being anti-consumerism and being against the ways that blinded you into being a 'sheep' (drunk and full of meat and destroying the earth). I don't remember our first show but we played many times at different people's houses and at different youth centres around Wollongong, Sydney, and Newcastle. They were pretty much all the same - dancing, a mosh circle, people grabbing the mic to sing along, and big fat Xs drawn on hands (oh, and hoods up!)
Jyoti Roy (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
 
DAN: We played almost every other weekend for a year between Wollongong, Sydney, Newcastle, and Melbourne. Sydney meant everything from Engadine to Hornsby. Mostly All Ages shows as we were in high school. I don't remember most of the shows - most of the bands we played with were not worth remembering. I don't have fond memories of being in high school and aside from Arms Reach and the violent Hornsby hardcore bands, I can't say much. I will say this - Three Found Dead's 'Ghost Car' is the best Sydney hardcore song. I'd also like to emphasise the importance of Newcastle band Arm's Reach - they were our heroes - pretty early on Luke Dolan (of Arm's Reach) made fun of us in his zine because of the aforementioned cheese/cringe factor. It was devastating. I would say outside of the band and a couple of friends from down the coast in Jervis Bay - The Pact was a band you made fun of. Eventually even the Jervis Bay lads started making fun of us too. We manage to unify the scene, which was our stated goal... every court needs a jester.
Dan Stewart (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


REVIEW: The Pact were great... last time they weren't much good but today they seemed tighter and more energetic. Dan tried his best to get the crowd involved and as a result they got heaps of sing-a-longs and a bit of dancing. The Wide Awake cover was really cool, as was the Project X one. They were the best on the night in my opinion.
Review by Luke Logemann of Wollongong show, Counter Attack 2, 1999

REVIEW: The Pact played and got the crowd into a self-induced tizzy - sing-alongs a-plenty.
Review by Maris of  The Barbwire Ball, unknown zine, 1999

JYOTI: I found fun and energy from those "youth crew" bands... At the time, I did not really see the male dominance inherit in this form of hardcore. I just liked the energy of the mosh pit and circle pit and it was a great way for me to express anger and feelings and not play the part of a "good girl"... I, like most women, had experienced a lot of sexual harassment when I was younger - having developed really early - so I was happy for male attention and (seemingly) acceptance as an equal. But there was a lot of internalised sexism at play. There were a few other girls around me at the time who were also straight edge and into the same music, but not in bands.
Jyoti Roy (Vocals), Orstralia Volume 2, 2024 (reproduced with permission from T. Clark)


ANTHONY: We obviously played most in Wollongong. The main venues back then included Wollongong Youth Centre, Bulli PCYC, and house parties. We also played in Sydney - I remember playing at Newtown PCYC. Toe to Toe were the headline. The Pact got a better reception and following than our previous band, Two Right Hands.
Anthony (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

JOEL A: The show that stands out the most was playing with Mid Youth Crisis at Wollongong Youth Centre. We were all huge fans of them from when they were One Inch Punch and were very excited to play with MYC. A short trip to play at The Arthouse also stood out too, it was kinda funny because we stayed at The Arthouse and Jyoti and I were the only members over 18! Frontside, Arms Reach, Mindsnare, Ceasefire, Not For You, Toe to Toe, and FMD were all bands that we loved and we got to play with them at that show.
Joel Anderson (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


DAN: The Wollongong Youth Centre was the hub of everything. They offered a space where bands could practise and charged very little for the room and gear, they put on shows almost every night with local bands and it was really easy to get a show happening. The room sounded great, there was a vast area out front where you could skate, and a wall out back where people could paint. They had a kitchen where they taught kids how to cook, they had computers with internet access and printers so you could make a zine. They put a lot of effort into spaces where bored teenagers could meet up and collaborate on something that wasn't heroin.
Dan Stewart (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025
 
JYOTI: The Wollongong scene was fun and close-knit, but with many different types of punks - from straight edge to gutter punks and everything in between. Lots of us were at Wollongong Uni and lived in share houses so gigs and band practices happened at each other's houses and we put on shows at Wollongong Youth Centre. It was very, very DIY. Probably less than 30 folks total in Wollongong but we were only a train ride away from Sydney and Newcastle, which had big scenes. And then of course Brisbane and Melbourne too. Lots of zines, bands, and community. 
Jyoti Roy (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025  
 

ANTHONY: The Pact wasn't a Christian band but I wouldn't call it an anti-Christian band either. There were some openly Christian bands at that time such as Embodiment 12:14, Ceasefire, and Golgotha Method. There were also some zines devoted to promoting Christianity or that included positive articles. I think one such zine was called Meat and Three Veg. There were some bands that made anti-Christianity a major part of their focus or identity, such as album covers and lyrics to numerous songs. I recall a hardcore punk show in Wollongong on Good Friday one year that had an anti-Christian theme. There were also some bands and zines with the odd song or article against Christianity or the behaviour of Christians. I decided to leave The Pact partly due to working in Sydney and partly because one vocalist wanted to write and a play a song criticising Christianity. I suppose in hindsight we could have arranged something different, EG. If it was only one song, someone else could have played bass for that one song during shows. 
Anthony (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
DAN: The Melbourne trip is memorable because this was how I first met Emily, who later asked me to play with Straightjacket Nation. Twenty years later we are still playing music together. Built to last.
Dan Stewart (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

Pic by Elissa Fletcher.

JYOTI: Some random guy in Wollongong recorded our demo in his house and we recruited as many people as possible to sing the youth crew ensemble backups for the choruses... and then recording multiple tracks so it sounded like we had 100+ in the crew!
Jyoti Roy (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025  

JOEL A: We recorded It Starts Inside in early 1999. It wasn't supposed to be a second demo but we were young and broke, and dubbing cassettes was cheap. We recorded at a uni student's makeshift studio in Wollongong.
Joel Anderson (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 

DAN: We would take the train with heaps of mates from Wollongong for shows. There was always drama on trains from Wollongong - we were hiding in toilets from ticket inspector and I remember several fights and confrontations too (and I'm sure I've forgotten 99 more). We would travel three to four hours by public transport to play and would arrive without guitars or drum sticks and we'd have to borrow everything from older responsible bands who hated us not just because we were scabs and young, but also because we talked shit on them in our zines or lyrics. We would then play for fifteen to twenty minutes to the bemusement or boredom of everyone but the crew who came with us. Then we would go back - another three to four hours; job done.
Dan Stewart (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


JOEL A: My favourite songs were definitely 'Full of Rage' and '39 Beat Down Crew'. The first was fast with two step and breakdowns, and our friends really liked us playing it. '39 Beat Down Crew', on the other hand, just makes me laugh - it was about a bus route in Wollongong and it was written before I joined the band. I liked singing along to it.
Joel Anderson (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
DAN: Much like many other bands that incorporate straight edge slogans and logos into their image, we aren't an all-sXe unit. I think it's comfortable to say the band would encourage the straight edge lifestyle - we all feel the same way about drugs, and our lyrics and personal lifestyles promote abstinence from drugs as a way of life. 
Dan Stewart (Vocals,), Spirit Issue 2, 1998
        
Spirit Issue 2, 1998
                                                                                                          
JOEL A: I think for the most part we were pulled in different directions both in life and musically. Our age ranges were 17 to 20 during that period and a lot changes in that time. For some it was study and uni. Others were into literature and activism or joined other bands. I moved and started putting on shows with my friends in Sydney under ScreamingBloodyMess.com.
Joel Anderson (Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

JYOTI: I honestly don't remember the exact reason why or how the band finished. Growing up... moving on. Oh and I stopped being straight edge at some point!
Jyoti Roy (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2025

DAN: The band finished not with a bang but with a whimper. There was no real excitement after a while, it just ran out of fuel. In between having beef with every second person at shows and finishing high school, the naive idealistic energy that the band ran on got exhausted. It was definitely not something built to last.   
Dan Stewart (Vocals), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
                                                                   
RELATED BANDS: Enkara, Deadhands, Seppuku, Two Right Hands, Kamikaze Harry, Black Arm Band, The Plague, Straightjacket Nation, UV Race, Total Control, G2G, KX Animal, Station Model Violence, Eightfold, Black Arm Band, Things Fall Apart, Eidelweiss Pirates, Aphra Behn, Scum System Kill




 


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Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Kamikaze Harry


 
ORIGINS: Wollongong, NSW
GENRE: Ska-Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1998-2001
 
MEMBERS:
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, Thoughtcrime, Britney, Vengeance is Mine Inc, Things Fall Apart, Cleaned Out, Takedown



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