Urban Guerillas

For over three decades Sydney’s very own Urban Guerillas have been a guiding landmark on the Australian music landscape. The group have recently returned to stages around Sydney on a more consistent basis and have been received extremely well by longtime and new fans alike.

Over many years, the band has experienced a few lineup changes but have always had frontman Ken Stewart as their guiding force and have kept the current lineup as it stand since 2000. “I feel privileged to be able to keep a band going and to have people to work with that are like friends and family. It’s great to have that common goal to entertain and have fun at the same time” said Stewart.

Known for the positive social messages and stance taken within their music the Urban Guerillas have provided the soundtrack to some the most historic moments in Australia’s history. “We’ve played some pretty major gigs such as the No War rallies to 60,000 people, at the airport for around 6,000 Ansett workers when it closed. We played the docks when the MUA workers on the docks were being sacked and we’ve played around 10-12 May Days” said Stewart.

Recently the band has experienced a sudden surge in creative energy which has seen them return to the recording studio and complete a new album Stewart described by saying “it sounds really fresh and has even rejuvenated the live sets as well.”

“May Day is an incredibly important day and sadly it isn’t supported by the media at all” said Stewart. The May Day event is centred around the hard work and sacrifice of the blue collar workers and unions alike to ensure the Australian way of life that we all hold so dear is maintained. The weekend is used as a chance for everyone to celebrate and let their hair down after working hard all year.

Ahead of the May Day weekend Stewart described the show by saying “its going to be a bit of Newtown as it used to be in the 80’s and 90’s. The Union Hotel is a great venue as well, it’s as close as you can get to the old venues in their hey-day.”

May 3, Union Hotel Newtown, 576 King St, Newtown, urbanguerillas.com