‘An open secret’: Member of Parkway Drive’s inner circle admits sex with child

A touring family member of Parkway Drive, one of Australia’s most successful rock bands, has pleaded guilty to a child sexual offence, prompting young women to denounce the “open secret” of the hardcore music scene, where predatory older men targeted female fans with impunity.

Jed “Chode” Gordon, the brother of band drummer Ben Gordon, last week told Byron Bay Local Court he was guilty of sexual intercourse with a person between the ages of 14 and 16 years old.

Parkway Drive has since condemned the behaviour. In response to questions from this masthead, the band said its members did not know “about the seriousness of this” until last week. They said they “completely support the victim.”

“We didn’t know about the seriousness of this until last week,” Parkway Drive said in a statement, via a spokeswoman.

“Jed always had his issues, just thinking about how he treated people in general and specifically women, but the extent of this 2002 incident is genuinely shocking.

“We weren’t a band then, but we bear moral responsibility for contracting him from 2003, on and off, over the years. There were warning signs that we should have taken more seriously.”

A journalist and anti-sexual abuse campaigner within the NSW hardcore scene has told this masthead that fans hope it will cause a long-overdue reckoning about predatory behaviour in the music business.

Police were told Gordon had texted the girl in 2002 when he was 21 years old and met her in a park, where they had sex. She was 15 at the time.

The sexual contact went on through 2003 when Gordon’s brother, Ben, started Parkway Drive with his friends in Byron Bay. It ceased around the time the girl turned 16 – by that time Gordon was 22.

In 2021, the woman attempted to reconnect with Gordon before going to police in 2023.

He was arrested in July 2025 and pleaded guilty on March 16 to the single count of sexual intercourse with an underage person.

He was released on bail and will face sentencing on May 19.

Gordon’s conviction sent shockwaves through Australia’s tight-knit hardcore music scene because of his prominent supporting role with his brother’s band.

Parkway Drive is one of the most successful Australian bands of the past two decades and Gordon, who goes by the nickname “Chode”, was part of the band’s inner circle for years.

He has held roles managing the band’s tours, lighting and merchandise. No members of Parkway Drive, including Ben Gordon, have been accused of any wrongdoing, and there is no suggestion that they knew of Jed Gordon’s criminal acts.

‘No longer involved’

Parkway Drive said in a statement that Gordon’s last tour with the band was in January 2018. He also filled orders as part of the band’s Australian online merchandise team more recently, the band said.

“We did terminate his contract when we became aware of this incident,” the band said in response to questions.

“He’s no longer involved with Parkway Drive in any capacity.

“He’s closely associated with us and the entire Australian heavy music scene. He’s also Ben’s brother, so there is a family connection.”

The band also acknowledged Byron Bay’s “toxic” culture, not only in music but in other parts of the region. The band said that power imbalances, consent issues, and bullying were everywhere growing up. They said it’s “heartbreaking” and “unacceptable”.

“What we want to say to any victims, both those who are coming forward and those who haven’t, is that we see you and we hear you. We take your pain and trauma seriously,” the band said.

“We’d love to say that we get it. We can’t. But as men in a place of privilege, we need to do better. This Byron Bay hardcore scene of the time was meant to stand for equality, friendship and social justice. It didn’t always live up to those values.”

Despite no longer being associated with Parkway Drive, as news of his plea broke last week, Jed Gordon was described by members of the metal scene as an unofficial sixth band member and a “habitual creep”.

“This has been an open secret for 20 years – everyone knew it,” Rory Banwell, a journalist and anti-abuse campaigner within the hardcore music scene, told this masthead.

“[The band] have failed to mention it’s the drummer’s brother.”

Banwell said she has been inundated over the past week with messages from young women approached by Jed Gordon while they were teenagers at shows and parties, including at the famous home on Parkway Drive at Ewingsdale near Byron Bay, after which the band was named.

“I was the one who got therapy [because] everyone told me it was legal and no one’s business,” one woman said.

Jed Gordon, like others, used his proximity to the bands to approach young fans, Banwell said.

An 18-year-old Banwell was at a Parkway Drive show in Coffs Harbour in 2005 and sustained a concussion.

“I was sitting behind the merch table, essentially out of it, and Jed was saying ‘oh, you should come hang out with me’,” she said.

Banwell was with another male friend who led her away, she said.

Jed Gordon also acted as a tour planner for other metal and hardcore bands around Australia.

Safe space for ‘misfits’

The hardcore music scene was supposed to be a safe space for “misfits”, Banwell said, but it was also a place that put predators in the same room as vulnerable young people at all-ages shows.

“In Byron Bay, there was a [youth centre] where most of the shows were placed,” she said.

“It was very about the elite Byron Bay hardcore people and people who were underage, able to go to shows and have access to bands who weren’t huge, but big in the scene.

“If you said you were friends [with Parkway Drive], you were the coolest person at the party.

“But there was so much accessibility to creeps. It’s been an open secret Jed was a creep.”

Another person, in a message sent to Banwell and passed on to this masthead with the sender’s consent, said Jed Gordon had “creeped on my friend” at a show in Newcastle a decade ago.

Banwell’s posts, including aggregated comments from other fans, have been shared widely around social media over the weekend, particularly from Byron Bay, where Parkway Drive was founded.

“I think it’s where a lot of shame has come from for victims, they don’t want to be ostracised in their community,” Banwell said.

“Byron, being this elite community in Australia, celebrities live there… they’ve been willing to look past it because they’re so proud of what [Parkway Drive] has done. But Jed is attached to them – whether they like it or not.”

Hope for a reckoning

Banwell said many women who grew up in the scene had hoped a reckoning would follow the conviction of paedophile promoter John Raymond Zimmerman more than a decade ago.

Zimmerman, in 2011, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after abusing 55 girls, many of whom were fans of bands he promoted, including The Getaway Plan.

All but two were aged between 12 and 15, the eldest was 17.

Zimmerman elicited sexualised photographs of the girls and groomed them online for sexual abuse.

He used his proximity to the bands he promoted to bribe one victim with tickets.

Three years after Zimmerman’s conviction, Banwell launched a viral photographic project, Still Not Asking For It, which she hoped would help push back against the normalisation of sexual and domestic offending.

“Me and my friends have all been like, ‘Oh my god, is this finally happening?’ … I think there would be a lot of scared older men right now,” Banwell said.

“It’s a weird time because sometimes they’re people we know getting outed. It’s really difficult.”

Some of the posts circulating online also highlighted a now-defunct website, which this masthead has chosen not to identify.

The forum included a “trade forum” where hardcore music fans could swap “scene nudes” along with shirts and merchandise.

Anyone needing support can contact National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732); Lifeline 131 114; Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

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