Pork Pie Tribe's History

thus far...

PORK PIE TRIBE was founded in March of 1994. A mere three months later they opened up for Tampa's MagaDog and Washington D.C.'s the Pietasters at the famous Stone Lounge in Tampa, FL. Five months after that they played live on the "Local Show" in the studio of WMNF 88.5 Community Radio. Since then the band has steadily played gigs throughout the State of Florida.

PORK PIE TRIBE has performed at various venues with most Florida Ska Bands including MagaDog (Tampa) and Skif Dank (Daytona Beach) as well as performing with nationally touring Ska Bands such as the Toasters, the Scofflaws, and Skinnerbox N.Y.C.

The 1st Wave, or "old school," of Ska is epitomized by the legnedary Skatalites. The 2nd Wave consisted of the 2-Tone revivalist bands such as the Specials and Madness. Now the 3rd Wave of Ska is here! That means there are many different musical approaches that Ska Bandsare jaking such as jazz, pop, soul, punk, and swing.

PORK PIE TRIBE of course, is one of those bands that is hard to categorize. Their sound ranges from their bluesy anit-racist song "Skin is Just an Eggshell," to their traditional Ska instrumentals "Pie-eyed," and "Flubber." Then they turn around with their Latin influenced tunes "My Dog, Pedro," and "Skankin' Men," the later of which includes the chorus in Spanish. Then just when you think you have their sound figured out, they whip out the Scottish bagpipes and crank up a Celtic Ska tune!

Celtic Ska is not a gimmick for the band though. Pork Pie Tribe member Allen Bell first made cameo appearances on his pipes with the St. Louis, Missouri band the Urge back in 1991. Then again in 1993 with the now defunct Sarasota reggae/ska band Dem Tings. In 1994 Pork Pie Tribe was founded and now has a repertoire of five great Celtic Ska tunes: Skankin in Scotland, Jungles de Alba, and Scotland the Brave (featuring member Bill Storms on the pipes) are all instrumentals featuring the Highland Bagpipes. Uisge Beatha (Whiskey) features the pipes and a chorus sung in Gaelic, the native language of Scotland and Ireland. I Wanna Dance features the pennywhistle and is sung in English, although in a sort of Scottish mouth music style with a dash of punk attitude thrown in.

Why the name Pork Pie Tribe? Although the porkpie hat was invented in England back in the 1700's (it actually is named after a meat dish, the pork pie), it has grown to become a very important symbol of Ska music and its subculture. Certain members of Pork Pie Tribe can always be seen wearing their hats at gigs, not only to profess their belief in the roots of Ska, but because porkpie hats are a smart looking piece of attire.

-Allen Bell, 1997