THEY are one of Newcastle’s longstanding, legendary rock’n’roll bands.
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The Australian Beefweek Show has been rolling out its dirty, punk-infused, rock’n’roll in venues across the Hunter and further afield since 1998.
But now Beefweek, as the band is known for short, has unexpectedly established itself with Brisbane radio audiences after the title track from What’s the Go With F*******? made it into community radio station Triple Z’s top 10 of their top 100 songs of 2016.
The hit single questions behaviour driven by violence, greed and intolerance.
“We seem to have struck a bit of a chord in Brisbane,” guitarist Geoff Mullard said.
“It was a real shock to even get nominated for something like that, it was weird.
“I was thinking it would come in at number 80 or something. Number eight was a bit of a shock.
“We are doing quite well up there.
“To have people up there singing along and dancing and you think: ‘I don’t know that person singing along to my song’, yeah it’s pretty weird.”
Mullard describes Beefweek as: “pretty scummy, dirty kind of rock’n’roll band.”
“There is lots of swearing and songs about drinking and carrying on,” he said.
Beefweek play as many as 20 shows a year and Mullard said it was an easy band to be in.
“The vibe is good, we are all mates before we are in a band,” Mullard said.
“There is not much b***** that goes on. You get to that age where you think, ‘It can’t be too hard or I am just not going to do it.”’
Early Beefweek had a heavier country influence, but the band has “drifted” closer to punk these days, Mullard said.
“It’s a street-punk vibe, there is still a country twinge in some of the songs,” he said.
Song writing is shared mostly between vocalist Chris Greenhalgh, and guitarists Errol Moyle and Mullard.
There are three recordings: The Russian Lunch Affair, recorded in 2000; Everything you say is S***, recorded in 2014, and What’s the go with F*******?
The band will soon head back into the studio with plans for a new recording which they will release by the year’s end.
The line-up has remained pretty steady over the past 10 years after some early changes. Greenhalgh is the only original member. Anthony Frampton is on Bass and Dean Bakota, of Nancy Vandal, recently joined on drums.
Next gig: Lass O’Gowrie Hotel, Wickham, on February 4.
