Project Mayhem

Thanks to Fleurieu FM in South Australia for spinning our song Miranda's Verandah !

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Shout out to Vox FM - The Voice Of The Illawarra in Wollongong for spinning three songs from our album

Party At Your House
Miranda's Verandah
Hegemonic Pop

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Illawarra Community FM Broadcasters Ltd What's On

L-R Bangers, Benny, Joe, Jes. 2008.

Everything changed when James (Bangers) joined us.

Jes and I spent much of 2004 and 2005 waiting patiently for Joe. He was so good that we couldn't lose him and he was so busy he couldn't commit to us. So, Jes and I kept telling him he was a fill in guitarist, and that we were looking for someone else. This was nonsense. Since we knew he was the right man for the job, we never got around to auditioning anybody else.

On drums had been Peter Bardwell whose brother Andrew had been in the band before him. Peter was a great guy and a solid drummer. He'd asserted his loyalty to us and didn't allow anything that happened with his brother's departure to affect the band. He was there on our first South West tour in 2003 and he plays drums on the 'Pass The Coopers / Pass The Goon' split.

With no shows to play for more than a year, Pete and us wandered off in different directions. The summer of 2004-05 was transcendental for Jes and me. We rented a house opposite the Hydey and filled it with our friends 24 hours a day. We hit the town hard. Everybody fell in love. There was also a negative side. When we emerged 12 months later we were men.

In the midst of all that madness we released an EP by Mickey Flash on our record label Blazing Strumpet Records. A street punk band from Perth Modern SHS, they were drawing hundreds of kids regularly to all ages shows at HQ in Leederville. We took them under our wing, and within months they were playing licensed venues as well. James was their drummer. He was 14 years old.

Project Mayhem was a big influence on Mickey Flash, their vocalist (Jimmy) told me once that he played our cassette on repeat for like a year. We'd been very active in the all ages punk scene right from the start. I remember the house party when we first played 'Beer & W**d'. All the kids were singing along, they knew all the words... but they had never heard the song before.

So, we had the recording in the can already with that song on it, recorded with Peter on drums, and we wanted people to hear it.

One thing led to another, James was there and he was keen to give it a go. He auditioned in our lounge room, and that was it! We launched the split CD at the Hydey (ie, at the pub across the road) and I was terrible, my throat was stripped from 12 months of partying, but somehow Joe enjoyed it enough that he decided to commit. That was a big deal, and everybody knew it.

We did talk about changing Project Mayhem's name because we knew that this was a line in the sand but I'm glad we didn't do that, it would have ruined our momentum after years of work. I don't think we called Pete to talk about it but I remember that he came to see me and that he let me know it was OK, he'd been busy too. Sorry Pete.

In 2006 we knuckled down and wrote 'No Rest For The Wicked'. Most of it was true. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain and now we had the right people.

We never looked back.

-Benny xox

📷 Jake England