First Europe tour

The recording of the Oink! album was another turning point for the band. Although, the music itself hadn’t changed much, finally having a professional recording saw the band being accepted a lot more into the mainstream. In an interview for MCA Bacon once said, “We never wanted it, we certainly didn’t ask for it and you never really feel comfortable with it. I mean, we spent most of the last decade fighting against the mainstream and now all of a sudden that’s supposed to be cool?” The song Great Escape was apparently written about the conflicts the band felt at this time. Oink! Became a quintessential album in, not just the SA punk scene, but for SA music as a whole with a generation of musicians and bands over wide range of differing backgrounds and genres siting this album as having influenced them in some way or another. However, the landscape of SA broadcasting had changed quite dramatically since the previous release so ironically, this was the first time Hog Hoggidy Hog released an album without any singles that would make the national radio charts. In response to the political changes in national broadcasting, the popularity of campus stations went through a boom phase and because songs from Hog Hoggidy Hog’s Oink! were being played extensively on campus radios across the country, the band benefited from it too. In 2005 they toured Europe for the first time. The tour was documented on the, Hog Hoggidy Hog Tourope 2005 documentary released in 2006. It’s in this documentary that George Bacon can be seen wearing a cast on his foot after breaking some bones kicking over a monitor in frustration at a poorly organised festival in Paarl, Western Cape. By this stage the band had played headlining slots at every major festival in the country. Earlier in 2005, Lee Thompson and Ross McDonald co-produced the debut album of another up and coming Cape Town ska band called Captain Stu . In 2007, they went back to Europe again. The tour must have been quite excessive because trombonist, Ross McDonald, upon landing at Cape Town airport, was taken directly to rehab for alcohol and substance abuse. South Africa had by then reached the radar of international acts wanting to tour somewhere slightly different. Hog Hoggidy Hog got to play with, and also, in conjunction with Punk Safari, helped to organize the SA shows for bands such as Lagwagon , Nofx , Mad Caddies , Frenzal Rhomb and more. The band then go to working on their next studio album. However, Mike Horne announced he would be leaving the band. Horne still continued on to recording on the album, but was in the meantime replaced by Sean DV. Lips recalls his first meeting DV, “We were at a festival and George pointed out the person he was considering to replace Mike on drums. I looked around and there was DV, lying facedown, passed out in the dirt. From that moment, I knew he was our man!”. Whilst working on the new album, the band received some tragic news. On 1 December 2008, Ex-drummer and still close friend, Miss Davie Mybergie had died. He was apparently stabbed outside of a 7 Eleven in his home suburb of Southfield while buying cigarettes, but the rest of the details remain unclear. Although there were witnesses who identified the killer, he still remains at large. Although Mybergie hadn’t been in the band for a few years, the band is said to have remained in contact with him and were deeply affected by his death. Singer George Bacon gave the eulogy at his funeral.