Pigbag were a large band, eight musicians based in Cheltenham. Only Simon Underwood had any previous music career, once being a member of the post punk outfit The Pop Group. They'd been highly influential, but too innovative to ever be commercially successful. In many ways Pigbag drew on a very similar rag bag of sources, combining funk, punk, ska, reggae and afro beat, to them, similar to Rip Rig & Panic, but with a much lighter hearted tone. Papa's Gotta A Brand New Pigbag's played on its James Brown antecedent and was a huge crowd pleaser at gigs and was a shoe in for their first single release in May 1981. Reaching No 3 in the charts, things were looking good. The album that followed in 1982 Dr Heckle & Mr Jive went straight to No 1. But they never seemed to be able to overcome the template that first tune laid down. In 1983 after releasing three albums within one year, the band split, all of them unhappy with the direction their music had taken.
But Papa's Gotta Brand New Pigbag was a highlight of the early eighties post punk boom. And rose to fame around the time the British Ska revival reached its peak. In many ways bands like Madness stole a lot of Pigbag's thunder in the large eccentric band slot , but were able to broaden and develop their style and transcend the ska revival they rose to fame on. Pigbag could never quite work out how to do that. So they became another addition to the long list of one hit wonders.
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