Grunge icons to feature at Gum Ball
Where were you when grunge first hit the airwaves?
It is a question we ask 30 years after Nirvana first blasted our car radios and Eddie Vedder started swinging off stages across the world.
Regardless of your answer, those who enjoyed the short-lived phenomenon will be pleased to find out that Mudhoney, one of the original acts from the Seatle grunge scene, will be featuring at The Gum Ball festival held in Lower Belford this April.
Singer Mark McLaughlin (known as Mark Arm) and guitarist Steve Turner formed Mudhoney in January 1988 after previously playing in Mr. Epp and the Calculations (1978-84) and Green River (1984-87) with Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam fame. They then recruited Bundle of Hiss drummer Dan Peters before welcoming bassist Matt Lukin.
The group released Superfuzz Bigmuff that same year, their first of eleven albums to date.
The lyrics to the album’s hit single “Touch Me I’m Sick” were requested by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum while Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain listed Superfuzz Bigmuff as one of his favourite albums in his journal in 1993.
If there was a Mount Rushmore for the first wave of grunge bands, expect Mudhoney to cling onto the final spot with Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the Screaming Trees.
In 2001, the group welcomed Perth’s Guy Maddison on bass and they are now all set for their first Australian tour in almost a decade.
The popular festival will take place on the last weekend of the school holidays from April 21-23 and will also feature popular bands Party Dozen, the New Christs, Flowertruck, Brisbane’s Full Flower Moon Band and Darren Hanlon.