We have a new album out on March 1st. “Love in Chapan” is a live album/dvd of our Wonkfest 2017 set. It’s seriously punk as fuck, serious Wonk energy. The DVD also includes all our videos and commentaries from me and Pwos and even a Rock commentary. It’s awful.
We would officially like to welcome Spike to the Wonk Family – as he is stepping into Tommy’s shoes as the new Wonk drummer!
Spike is a bloody legend in the drumming world – there’s hardly a band he’s not played for, across loads of genres. He will be an awesome addition to Wonk – and we hope you all welcome him to the family when you come to our shows! He’s a lovely man too – make sure you say hello.
Some bio from his website init…
Spike – Drummer Extrordinair!
Spike could well be described as the British version of Josh Freese with regards to his varied & colourful drumming career to date. Well known for his work with massively influential singer MORRISSEY, with whom he toured & recorded with between 1999 & 2003.
Spike played previously with punk legends THE DAMNED before being poached by the above-mentioned singer. Before this Spike cut his teeth playing for hardcore/dub reggae crossover act WARDANCE, recording two albums & numerous singles & extensively touring Europe & North America in the mid 90’s.
There have been many sessions that Spike has contributed to & many remixes. Some to mention as follows: an album with British rockers SONA FARIQ, THE MOTIVATORS (featuring Alain Whyte & Gary Day of Morrissey) Chinese pop singing superstar Ai Jing & THE T4 PROJECT which features some of the biggest names from the past 20 years of the U.S./U.K. punk scene, including members of BAD RELIGION, PENNYWISE, STRUNG OUT, BUZZCOCKS ,THE SUBHUMANS & PORNO FOR PYROS. The album was released summer 2008.
Gizz Butt, former guitarist of THE PRODIGY & now fronting his own metal band THE MORE I SEE has also had Spike contributing his drumming skills to his bands albums THE UNHOLY FEAST [2008] and the follow up TREAD THE DARKER PATH. This saw the light of day in spring 2010.
There is also plenty of touring both in Europe & America where Spike is an “in demand” player. The summer of 2010 he was stepping in for the mighty KILLING JOKE culminating in their first visit to China headlining the 2nd Inja festival. Time was also spent occupying the drum throne for the legendry NEW YORK DOLLS which once again saw Spike reunited with his old rhythm section brother Gary Day.
September 2010 to November 2011 was spent performing with STEVE IGNORANT (former front man of CRASS) with his live band. The world tour was billed as THE LAST SUPPER. it was to be the one & only time Steve would perform songs by his former band & as such, played sellout shows throughout the UK, across Europe, America & Canada, Australia & New Zealand culminating in the final show at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire. This was also filmed for a live dvd release.
In 2013 & after a four year hiatus Spike is once again going to be performing & touring with CONFLICT with whom he has played since 2006 . There are dates currently being booked for the UK & Europe to keep the band busy until the end of the summer, after which they will return to America & Canada in October for further dates.. their first in 5 years.
On the recording front… DESTROY DC a Band formed By Spike & Gav King of Fields of the Nephilim have just signed a deal with Reverance Records. Their first ep entitled “The Pride of the Asbo Generation” is due for release in March.
In-between all this Spike has taken part in numerous clinics, demonstrating his wide-ranging styles & influences. He also runs his own drum school, recognised as one of the most prestigious schools for aspiring drummers in Cambridgeshire. He has also been the featured artist on the “Pearl Drum Vision” advertisements that have been appearing in all the top drum magazines & will also appear in their forthcoming 108 project video.
And now the journey continues – he’s joined WONK UNIT!
Bonjour naughty seahorses! Ok so guess what, we are looking for a new full-time drummer. You need to be in rehearsing distance of London and available to tour (and be prepared to be broke). I also can’t deal with big drinkers or big drug users (because I’m in recovery so bare that in mind before getting in touch. You’ll get to travel the world, you’ll get to laugh your tits off. You’ll be looked after. You’ll also get paid a bit but best of all you’ll be in a band with Pwosion!!! We start a huge year of touring in March 2019 so plenty of time to learn the 100 odd songs we play. We are an incredibly serious band but we don’t take ourselves as people seriously ya get me. Being in Wonk is genuinely the best thing in the world. Look forward to meeting you! Get in touch.
Alex x
My time with wonk unit has come to an end! Perfectly amicable, and still friends! Going to dedicate my time to other things, like following wonk unit around and heckling them from the front ? But seriously, it’s been brilliant and iv’e had a great time, and wish the band the best of luck in the future! Some things just naturally come to an end I guess! See you at all the punk gigs starting with Jeff Rosenstock this Thursday ? Peace Tommy xx
ATTENTION WONK UNIT FAM!! TERROR CD PRE – ORDER! Gotta get some dosh together real urgent to pay for the last month of mixing, mastering and production of our new album Terror which gets released April 20th.
PRE ORDER the CD now and you’ll get it as soon as it arrives at Plasterer HQ (i reckon at least a week in advance of release date).
This is for CD only (LP coming in June). Paypal £11.50 (uk) £13 (EU mainland) £15 (rest of world) to [email protected] Send friends/fam payment option. Include address and “terror pre order” in Paypal note. Thanks my dudes! Very excited for you to hear the record!
We’ve got so many fantastic new songs we just had to release ANOTHER new album. Alex woke up this morning, and suddenly the name has come to him, like the baby Jesus but no manger.
In a nod to his old band Flying Medallions…. “We Hate Everybody and Everything is Rubbish!”
Of course a new album needs a new tour, so come and join the great bunch of lads who are touring with The Raging Nathans from the good old US of A! Bangers guaranteed!
April 2018 18th – London Black Heart 19th – London Black Heart 20th – Manchester Punk Festival 21st – Cardiff 22nd – Keighley Exchange 23rd – Edinburgh – Bannermans 24th – Inverness 25th – Workington Lounge 41 26th – Sunderland Independent 27th – Nottingham – Maze Sat 28th – Stamford, Mama Liz’s Voodoo Lounge – 7 band and BBQ all dayer 29th – Selby The Venue
We got a new album coming! Christmas in a crackhouse should be ready for April release. The Raging Nathans are our family from over the pond. We’ll be showing them the delights of the UK as they did for us in the USA. Following that we will be heading into mainland Europe with the Murderburgers.
April 18th – London Black Heart 19th – London Black Heart 20th – Manchester Punk Festival 21st – Cardiff 22nd – Keighley Exchange 23rd – Edinburgh – Bannermans 24th – Inverness 25th – Workington Lounge 41 26th – Sunderland Independent 27th – Nottingham – Maze 28th – Stamford – Mama Liz’s 29th – Selby The Venue
In the spirit of the DIY scene, we won’t be announcing the running orders of the gigs until the night of the event. We want to encourage crowds to check out bands they may already love and bands they may be less familiar with. TNS believes in supporting gigs from the start to the finish and checking out new music wherever possible.
Here is an introduction to the bands on the TNS tour:
Faintest Idea are a band who featured on TNSrecords’ very first release, which was a 20 track compilation CD. They have since released three fantastic full length albums. This years ‘Increasing The Minimum Rage’ is probably their best to date. They bring together infectious two-tone ska and politically fuelled street punk and are guaranteed to have you dancing. They are truly establishing themselves as one of the most exciting ska bands around.
Roughneck Riot have built a reputation as one of Europes finest live acts after relentlessly touring for the past few years. With a banjo, a mandolin and an accordion alongside your traditional punk instruments, they have really nailed the folk-punk sound and they will blast out a set list which offers one infectious anthem after another.
Wonk Unit are one of the most exciting bands in punk rock right now. Fresh from touring with Slaves, they are beginning to fill venues across Europe and the USA at their own headline gigs. They offer a truly eclectic sound that borrows from indie, punk and ska and much, much more. Their 2016 ‘Mr Splashy’ album is getting rave reviews from the underground press and more mainstream publications. They also host ‘Wonk Fest’, which is one of the highlights of the punk rock calendar.
Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man play fast… very fast. Bassist, Andy co-runs TNS and like Faintest Idea they featured on the very first compilation and have released three critically acclaimed albums on the label. These including this years Alan Partridge referencing ‘Colossal Velocity’. You can expect human pyramids, walls of death and wheelbarrow walls of death. The possibilities are endless.
We hope you are as excited by this lineup as we are. We truly believe that these are four of the most exciting bands in the UK right now and we hope you can make it out to see some of these dates. We have many more awesome bands on the label and hope that this will be the start of many more TNS tours.
Tickets and info about local supports available from individual venues/promoters. We will post the individual events as soon as we have them.
TNS release bundles will be available at all gigs.
Those lovely chaps the Slaves have released a new single and invited us to join them on the B side, so hot off the new Mr Splashy album, “We are the England” has been released on vinyl.
Slaves are of course the darlings of NME at the moment, so it’s got a mention here. Limited to 1500 copies on Black Vinyl and available in record shops! There’s also a very silly Wonk Unit video for the single.. mostly featuring our great friends Pizza Tramp! Come and see us on tour over November and December – we’ll bring copies of the single with us!
Slaves have released a video for new single ‘Take Control’, the title track from their new album set to be released on September 30.
This track will be released as a limited 7″ with “We Are The England” by Wonk Unit acting as the B Side.
The video is inspired by the old school vibes of VHS tapes and sees Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent riding around on a tandem with a boombox.
We are dropping a ridiculous new video in the morning. TNS rereleased our debut Album Flying the Japanese Flag recently on lovely white vinyl (splatter long gone). The video is for the opening track – Murderers Shoe. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing and it literally came together this afternoon when i was writing the captions. Mark Richards has come up with the goods as always!! Amazing one brother! He’ll be sharing it with everyone at breakfast. Yay! xxx
Yep the mighty Wonk Unit have touched down in the US of A.
WONK ARE IN THE STATES WONK ARE IN THE STATES LA LA LA LA LA LA L AL A!! OI OI WE’RE COMING TO FUCK YOUR EYES WITH OUR HORNINESS!!! YES!!!! FIRST GIG TONIGHT BLIND BOBS IN DAYTON!!! ALREADY EATEN LOADS OF TACO BELL!!!!! JOSH AND BRANDI ARE AMAZING!! WE LOVE THEM ALREADY AND THEY HAVE MADE US PART OF THEIR FAMILY.RIGHT I’M GOING TO HAVE A ROLL ON SOME DODGY “DC STREET PLAZA” .I’LL SURE SHOW THEM KIDS HOW TO SKATE STREET EH!!! HAHAHAHAH XX
SLAVES TOUR 14th Bristol with Slaves 15th Cardif with Slaves 16th Portsmouth with Slaves 18th Norwich with slaves 19th Glasgow with slaves 20th Newcastle with Slaves 21st Manchester with Slaves 23rd Leeds with Slaves 24th Liverpool with Slaves 25th Wolverhampton with Slaves 27th London with Slaves
Wonk Unit are soon to release their first ever full length album on vinyl; “Feel The Wonkness”.
The record, which releases on July 17, is compilation of material from throughout their career. Curated by Alex Wonk, Drunken Sailor Records, and Johanns Face Records (releasing the album digitally), it picks songs from across their catalog.