Pennywise

Pennywise formed in 1988 and consisted of Jim Lindberg as the lead vocalist, along with Fletcher Dragge (guitarist), Byron McMackin (drummer) and Jason Thirsk (bassist). However, Mr Thirsk - described as “the emotional core of Pennywise” by Lindberg - suffered from an alcoholic relapse, and died on July 29th 1996 due to a self-inflicted gun wound, before Randy Bradbury consequently joined the band as the new bass player.

Pennywise have released 11 studio albums since 1991 along with one live album ‘Live @ the Key Club’ in 2000. Whilst the band were signed to Epitaph Records, their first album was named ‘Pennywise’, which promoted the idea of maintaining a positive mental health. Since then, Pennywise’s most successful albums have been ‘From the Ashes’, which charted at 54 on the US Billboard 200 and 4 on the Top Independent Albums list, and ‘Reason to Believe’, which gained rave reviews amongst critics and gained a rank of four out of five on Allmusic. It also featured the single ‘The Western World’ which was downloaded over 400,000 times on Myspace, and maintained a position in the Top 40 Modern Rock Tracks chart for 20 weeks.

The Californian band are renowned for demonstrating political and moral wrong-doings in their music, and have influenced many other well-known bands such as Phinius Gage, 4ft Fingers and Consumed with their hard-hitting rhythms and passionate lyrics. Pennywise have played alongside the likes of The Offspring and Sum 41, and performed at surfing and snowboarding concerts like Winter X, whilst their music has featured in video games such as Burnout 3:Takedown.

Having stamped their authority on the punk-rock scene with such a raw and distinctive sound since the late 1980s, Pennywise continue to inspire a keen following and demand a particular respect from fans and fellow-musicians alike.