Pigbag were a British post-punk band, best known for their instrumentals, active between 1980 and 1983.
Origin and formation
thumb|200px|The Beech House was Pigbag's usual practice space.
Pigbag were formed in Cheltenham in late 1980 by Chris Hamlin, a fashion student at Cheltenham Art College. Hamlin recruited multi-instrumentalist Roger Freeman, an old friend from his hometown of Birmingham, along with Chris Lee on trumpet and James Johnstone, a guitarist, record shop assistant and newcomer to the alto sax, for initial jam sessions which would eventually evolve into Pigbag. The group would jam in parks and various other places, but their usual practice space was Hamlin's flat in Beech House, on the corner of St James's Square and St George's Place in Cheltenham.
After a couple of months they decided to expand the line-up, adding a rhythm section and rehearsing more seriously. They recruited Andrew "Chip" Carpenter on drums and Mark "Miff" Smith on bass, both old school friends of Johnstone's, and former members of their previous band Hardware. It was at these jam sessions that "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" was developed from an idea Chris Hamlin and James Johnson had had before the band was formed. The song would become their signature tune.
When Hamlin heard that Simon Underwood had left The Pop Group he invited him to join the nascent band (to replace Mark Smith who had left by this point), the band then trading under the tentative name Us Corporation. Through a friend who knew Mark Stewart, The Pop Group's vocalist, Hamlin and Johnstone acquired Underwood's address and hitched down to Bristol to convince him, using tape recordings of their jam sessions. To their surprise Underwood agreed, also suggesting his friend Ollie Moore as tenor sax player.
Through Underwood's connections with Dick O'Dell, then manager of The Slits and head of Y Records, they landed their first gig, supporting The Slits at Romeo and Juliet's in Bristol on 21 October 1980. They played a twenty-minute version of what was to become "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" to a positive reception, and the next day O'Dell invited them to record the track for Y Records. At this point they adopted the name Pigbag, in reference to Chris Hamlin's scruffy cloth bag bearing a screen-printed warthog.
Early recordings
The band made their first recordings in 1981 at Berry Street Studios in London. Later that year they released their first single, the instrumental "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag", on Y Records, distributed by Rough Trade, the title being a pun on James Brown's "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag". The track became an underground dance hit. The song, and the remix "Reach Up (Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag)" by Paul Oakenfold under the alias Perfecto Allstarz (which became a UK and Irish Top 10 hit in early 1995), has become a stadium anthem in English football (particularly in the Football League), originally adopted by Queens Park Rangers supporters in 1994 after some of their fans took it on as an anthem at a music venue in Westbourne Park, often played or chanted before a match or at half time, or after the scoring of a goal, and often incorporating the name of a player into the song.
Around this time Hamlin left the band, feeling that he had created an unmanageable group with too many egos to contend with, and that he was "losing control of the band". Soon afterwards he recorded a version of "Swinging on a Star" which was never released.
During September and October 1981, the band toured the US, playing in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Northampton, MA, San Francisco and Berkeley, California. In Canada, the song was used as the theme for The NewMusic, a music newsmagazine show for over 25 years. British gymnast Claudia Fragapane used a remix for her floor music between 2015 and 2016.
Band members
Original line-up
- Simon Underwood – Electric and Acoustic Bass
- James Johnstone – Alto Saxophone and Guitar
- Chris Lee – Trumpet and Steel Drums
- Ollie Moore – Tenor and Baritone Saxophone
- Roger Freeman – Trombone / Keyboards and Percussion
- Andy 'Chip' Carpenter – Drum kit and Percussion
- Chris Hamlin – Clarinet and Percussion
- Mark Smith – Electric Bass
Later additions
- Brian Nevill – Drum Kit / Percussion and soprano saxophone
- Oscar Verden – Trombone and Keyboards
- Angela Jaeger – Vocals
Discography
Albums
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!width="70"|Month
!width="70"|Year
!width="300"|Title
!width="70"|UK Indie Chart Position
!width="70"|UK Albums Chart
| style="text-align:center;"|—
| style="text-align:center;"|—
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!width="70"|Month
!width="70"|Year
!width="300"|Title
!width="70"|UK<br>Indie
!width="70"|UK
|-
|May
|1981
|"Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag"
| style="text-align:center;"|2
| style="text-align:center;"|—
|-
|November
|1981
|"Sunny Day"
| style="text-align:center;"|2
| style="text-align:center;"|53
|-
|February
|1982
|"Getting Up"
| style="text-align:center;"|2
| style="text-align:center;"|61
|-
|March
|1982
|"Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" (re-issue)
| style="text-align:center;"|1
| style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|July
|1982
|"The Big Bean"
| style="text-align:center;"|3
| style="text-align:center;"|40
|-
|April
|1983
|"Hit The 'O' Deck"
| style="text-align:center;"|7
| style="text-align:center;"|—
|-
|June
|2010
|"Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" (2 remixes)
| style="text-align:center;"|—
| style="text-align:center;"|—
|}
Song appearances
- "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" used in The Ongoing History of New Music episode "Alt-Rock's Greatest Instrumentals" from 2003.
- "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" used as intro music to Toronto TV station City TV's "The New Music" from 1980 to c. 1983.