The Herd
Formed in 2001 by the core members who would go on to found Elefant Traks, The Herd broke onto national radio with an unlikely summer anthem about fish and chips, 'Scallops'.
Their second album, An Elefant Never Forgets, revealed the band's true colours - activist roots turned into songs like '77%' and 'Burn Down the Parliament' - and delivered their first entry into triple j’s Hottest 100.
Third album The Sun Never Sets cemented The Herd as one of the country's loudest anti-war, anti-racist voices, upsetting shock jocks nationwide and welcoming Jane Tyrrell into the fold. Their triple j Like a Version cover of 'I Was Only 19' remains one of the show's most iconic - voted #18 in triple j's 2023 Hottest 100 of Like a Versions, the only song from that decade to make the list.
Summerland, their highest-charting album, delivered their biggest hit, 'The King is Dead', a celebration of the end of John Howard's prime ministership. Follow-up single '2020' won a j Award for Best Video and earned AIR and ARIA nominations. Final LP Future Shade (2011) closed the chapter with the poignant 'Sum of it All'.
The Herd were also the driving force behind Elefant Traks, the label and collective that launched the careers of dozens of artists - Hermitude, Horrorshow, L-FRESH The LION and many more - while solo projects flourished alongside The Herd's own catalogue, from Ozi Batla, Urthboy, Jane Tyrrell and Unkle Ho.
In 2025, The Herd released 'Soul of my Soul', an anti-genocide collaboration, and headlined the finale of Elefant Traks at the Sydney Opera House - a fitting send-off for a label and a band that shaped Australian hip hop for over two decades.
The Herd were ahead of their time - tackling anti-racism, decolonisation and environmentalism before they were mainstream conversations - and always at their best live, powered by an unconventional line-up of rappers, singers, guitars, bass, piano accordion, clarinet, laptops and samplers.
"No one in The Herd controls The Herd" - and there's still no band like them.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 20
