Painters & Dockers

Painters and Dockers

“The first mistake about art is to assume it’s serious” – Lester Bangs.

We’re All Going To Nude School. The Boy Who Lost His Jocks On Flinders Street Station. You’re Going Home In The Back Of A Divvy Van. I Like It Both Ways. Die Yuppie Die. I Know Better Queens Than That (“she can suck a golfball through a straw”). Basia. Kill Kill Kill. In My Mind.

Live shows by the Painters and Dockers are a total entertainment experience. A band based in punk rock, power pop, with soulful horns, instant classic songs, flamboyance and showmanship as good as it gets. It’s not a superior air that they bring to the stage – it’s a communal, one-in all-in let’s take this baby to the stars and hang there as long as we can in an orgy of outrageous exuberance. The gig IS the after-party, right from the start, and everyone’s invited.

Do not assume this band is without a message. Do not assume they don’t sound incredible live. Do not assume that your new favourite band won’t be forty years old.

They were only suppose to play once!

Infamous Melbourne punk band The Painters and Dockers formed for the one night in 1983 to help friend Billy Walsh from the Cosmic Psychos' pay off some parking fines.

The band named themselves after the infamous trade union members who drank at the Port Melbourne pub where the benefit was to be held.

Well that night ended in a riot with a pitched battle between police and union members, music lovers running off screaming into the night and the band left with a reputation as an instant punk party.

Some 1500 shows, eleven albums later and tours of North America, Canada, New Zealand and all over Australia under their belt, the band now have an esteemed place in Australian rock history.

Well known songs by the band include DIE YUPPIE DIE, NUDE SCHOOL, KILL KILL KILL, YOU'RE GOING HOME IN THE BACK OF A DIVI VAN, ALL MEN ARE BASTARDS, MOHAWK BABY, I KNOW BETTER QUEENS THAN THAT, NEW WORLD ORDER, THE BOY WHO LOST HIS JOCKS ON FLINDERS STREET STATION and countless more.

Along with many tours of their own The Painters And Dockers have supported the likes of Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Billy Idol, The Cramps, The Gun Club, The Monkees, Midnight Oil, Jonathan Richmond, Divine, Killing Joke, Hoodoo Gurus, Paul Kelly And The Coloured Girls, The Angels, Divinyls and many many more.

The band also gained wide spread media coverage on their ``Rocking The Rails'' documentary tour which saw them play on a classic steam train on suburban railway stations around Melbourne and on “Rocking The Bay'' which saw them play on the back of an ocean going hovercraft on piers around Port Phillip Bay.

Singer Paulie Stewart even appeared on Channel 9’s, ”A Current Affair'', where he faced allegations the band were “Satanists'' by a Queensland Pastor.

A band with a strong social conscious, The Painters And Dockers have been involved in countless benefits and most notably appeared alongside waterside workers on the picket line during the MUA waterfront strike of the 1990s

In 2010 the band were inducted into The Age's “ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME'', and more recently they delivered a blistering set when invited to appear at the iconic Community Cup Football Game.

Get ready to Dock!