[spunge]

ska

spunge are a ska punk band from Tewkesbury, England. The lead singer, Alex Copeland, has commented that the brackets are in the name so that the letters don't fall out. The correct name does not capitalise the 'S', probably for aesthetic reasons. spunge are the only band who has ever officially been given permission by the Marley family to change the lyrics of a Bob Marley song, on their cover of No Woman, No Cry (this can be found on their second album, Room For Abuse). The brackets in the name also make it difficult to type in sources using bbcode. The Story So Far..... Concieved in July 1994 with almost the same line up as today (the only difference being that vocalist Alex used to double up on bass), the band went through a lengthy gestation period (adding bassist Simon Bayliss in 1995 and replacing him with local hardcore man Martin Holt in 1997) before emerging with the 'Kicking Pigeons EP' in 1998. Having sold 5000 copies at pub gigs the [spunge] boys decided that there was enough potential to jack in the day jobs and make the band a full time concern. Having soon gained a manager in Dave Juste of Birmingham's Xposure Rock Cafe (a regular early haunt), [spunge] hit the road, and would eventually notch up well over three hundred gigs in just two years. Less than a year later in 1999, [spunge] released their debut album Pedigree Chump on MoonSka Europe and thus set about introducing the band and their unique brand of ska, dub, punk and comedy to a wider audience. U...