Tex Perkins

Tex Perkins
Tex Perkins at The People Speak: Foxtel Broadcast Event, Sydney, Australia, in July 2012
Background information
Birth name	Gregory Stephen Perkins
Born	(1964-12-28) 28 December 1964 (age 52) Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Years active	1982–present
Associated acts	Beasts of Bourbon The Cruel Sea Tex, Don and Charlie
Website	texperkins.com.au

Tex Perkins (born Gregory Stephen Perkins on 28 December 1964 in Darwin, Australia) is an Australian singer-songwriter, who is widely known for fronting the popular Australian rock-band The Cruel Sea, but has also performed with the Beasts of Bourbon, Thug, James Baker Experience, The Butcher Shop, Salamander Jim, and Tex, Don and Charlie. He has also released many solo records. In 1997, a portrait of Tex Perkins by artist Bill Leak won the Packing Room award at the Archibald Prize.

Perkins started his musical career in Brisbane cowpunk outfit Tex Deadly and the Dum-Dums, before moving to Sydney in 1982, garnering considerable attention in the Sydney independent music scene and also touring Melbourne, before the departure of guitarist Mark Halstead ended the band.

He later formed Salamander Jim with Kim Salmon from The Scientists and Richard Ploog from The Church. Due to touring commitments for Ploog & Salmon, Perkins formed a different line up with Stu Spasm, Lachlan McLeod and Martin Bland. In 1985 this line-up recorded and released their only record, an EP titled Lorne Greene Shares His Precious Fluids on Red Eye Records.

Perkins and Peter Read formed Thug in Sydney in 1987 when Read's flatmate had a fascination for collecting and amassing electronic equipment. After using some of the gear on initial recordings in Read's home studio, Perkins was eager to take it to the stage. With the help of Lachlan McLeod and others, Thug became one of Sydney's most unusual and confrontational live acts. Thug's live sets would last twenty to twenty-five minutes, featuring dancers, theatrics, bizarre electronic equipment and—at one performance—an entire audience showered in flour. Each Thug gig would end with its members mock brawling amongst themselves; audience members also would participate from time to time. Sometimes it would get out of hand, during one such mock brawl, Perkins required stitches after landing on a broken glass someone had thrown onto the stage. Thug, along with Lubricated Goat and Kim Salmon & The Surrealists spearheaded a very overlooked and underrated era of Australian music in the late 1980s. This output was released on the Red Eye Records offshoot Black Eye Records. Thug's debut 7" single was the legendary "Dad/Thug", an electronic affair which was an assault on the ears. The tracks from the Mechanical Ape / Proud Idiots Parade EP and the Electric Woolly Mammoth album were later released on CD as Everything is beautiful in its own way.