Known as the UK’s hardest working band, Tewkesbury ska punkers [spunge] have made huge waves over the last few years, all over the
UK. Having been likened to Less Than Jake, Mighty Mighty Bosstones
and Reel Big Fish, and drawing influences of Sublime, Stiff Little
Fingers, The Clash and The Wildhearts, they're sure to be
good.
Forming in mid '94, after building up a local following and with a
few slight line-up changes, they released ‘Kicking Pigeons’ EP
in '98, selling over 5000 copies....they later got Dave Juste as
their manager and went on to play over 600 gigs in just two
years.
Moon Ska Europe released [spunge]'s debut album ‘Pedigree
Chump’ in '99, which was a big success within the UK live circuit.
Their second album ‘Room For Abuse’ was released on Sucka-Punch
Records in '00, complete with a cover of the Bob Marley classic 'No
Woman, No Cry'. This
drew attention from many record labels, and in Feb '02 [spunge]
inked a deal with B-Unique records.
The single to be taken from the new album ‘The Story So Far’,
‘Jump On Demand’, is the ultimate crowd-pleaser – and a huge
success, which even got into the UK mainstream charts, and also
topped the Kerrang! TV chart for two weeks. ‘The
next single ‘Roots’ still managed to get into the UK
chart.
Reading and Leeds festivals beckoned for [spunge] last year, to
which they got a great response from the crowd, filling out the tent
a treat. The album ‘The Story So
Far’ was released
the same day. November/December
2002 saw [Spunge] do a massive UK tour supported by Farse and
Spankboy, (also with an 2 Irish dates supported by Mixtwitch).
Again, they were a huge success, selling out most of the gigs, with
over 15,00 tickets sold.
Despite the huge success of this tour, [spunge] later left B-Unique;
"Another meeting in December between label and band
management had Dave Juste pointing out that the label had let the
band down again, that there had been 5 different product managers in
6 months (including 3 in seven days), that the press representative
had not even contacted the big four magazines to arrange press for
the tour (a fact confirmed by the editors), and that overall the
organisation was a sham. The label agreed. 48 hours later [spunge]
and B-Unique parted company. The band are now writing
new material for the next album and buying back the recordings
already made which B Unique are unable to release
contractually". From moon ska europe...
Alex (Al) Copeland–
vocals
Paul (Wol) Gurney – rhythm guitar
Damon (Des) Robins – lead guitar
Chris (Jarvis) Murphy – bass
Jeremy (Jem) King – drums
Known as the UK’s hardest working band, Tewkesbury ska punkers [spunge] have made huge waves over the last few years, all over the
UK. Having been likened to Less Than Jake, Mighty Mighty Bosstones
and Reel Big Fish, and drawing influences of Sublime, Stiff Little
Fingers, The Clash and The Wildhearts, they're sure to be
good.