Pollen

Pollen is an Australian group formed in 1995 and now based in Helsinki. The name is used by several different acts, but this entry refers to the Australian band that begins in the mid-1990s and remains active.

Background

The group starts in Australia in 1995 and is credited as a pop punk, punk rock and progressive rock act, with symphonic prog and Canadian also appearing among its descriptive tags. Its membership is listed as Cameron Allen.

Related acts and name overlap

Other groups share the name Pollen, including a pop punk band from Pittsburgh that later moves to Tempe, Arizona. That band features Dan Hargest on vocals, Kevin Scanlon on guitar, Chris Serafini on bass, Mike Bennett on guitar and Bob Hoag on drums, with Hoag as the main songwriter, and it disbands in 2001. Releases associated with that act include Bluette, Crescent, Peach Tree and Chip, plus a split release with Co-Ed.

There is also a separate Pollen project founded in Edinburgh in 1998 by singer and songwriter Lindsay Black, with collaborators from the Edinburgh music scene including Donald Hay, Andy Powers, Ali McInnes, Ady Powers, Heather Macleod, Mary Macmaster, Gus McInnes, Alex Weir, Kris Drever, Jo Peat, Andy Gunn, Si Tomlinson and David Dutton.

Another Pollen appears as a slack rock outfit from Australia active in the mid-1990s, issuing one EP and one album. A further unrelated Pollen is a progressive rock band from Quebec in the 1970s, with Jacques Tom Rivest, Sylvian Coutu, Claude Lemay and Richard Lemoyne in the line-up, while a hardcore punk and d-beat band from Philadelphia also uses the name.