I knew I was going to enjoy my first Rebellion, I didn’t know just how much I would love it. A four-day festival, over 300 bands (not including the outside/ unofficial events and gigs) and 10,000 punks, all heading to Blackpool for what I’m told is the world’s biggest punk festival. It is, and it was non-stop, brilliant fun. For the record, I managed three days (as planned), 25 bands (not as many as planned) and must’ve spoke to hundreds of folk over the whole weekend, including quite a few bands. This was one of the best events I've ever been to.
It was also a chance to catch up with some pals from all over the country (and beyond) and since Mrs Gig-Antics and me weren’t having our annual ‘Big BBQ’, that we usually do in the first weekend in August, Captain C, Peni Punk Sam, Gig-Antics Ma (among others) persuaded me that I had to be there (didn’t take much persuading to be honest). So, with regular travel gig-buddy Slash Vaseline out of the country, I travelled with Peni Punk Sam who was like a kid at Christmas the whole journey down, especially as her favourites The Ramonas were one of the first on and didn’t want to miss them. A fairly quiet train journey by usual Gig-Antics standards and lightened up by the train managers over-sharing announcements between stops (nice to be updated why we’re late and what the plans are to get going, but definitely too much information Lynne). The closer we got to Blackpool the more the train filled with punks of all allegiances (I don’t think I saw two of the same t-shirt out of hundreds all weekend. Except Stiff Little Fingers. Hundreds of them) and by the time we got there, I felt like the least punk person in town. We’d been tipped off that getting entry wristbands had taken a while in the past, so we headed straight to the Winter Gardens to collect ours and glad it took hardly any time at all. The set up was top notch – over the weekend bouncing between venues and bars under the one roof, I started to get Las Vegas casino vibes - every time you think you were getting near an exit there was another band coming on somewhere or you’d bump into another bunch of pals or there would be something else punk-related that would distract you and keep you in situ. As it was my first Rebellion, I didn’t even think that there would be ‘fringe’ events with bars and clubs putting on other shows and gigs, let alone go to any of them. As I said, a very impressive set up and next year I’ll definitely be exploring a bit more outside as well.
Other than the bands I wanted to see, those I saw but hadn’t expected to or new discovered, the main highlight of day one was catching up with so many pals from all over and meeting loads of new folk – including Dover rockers The Melbies, who we got chatting with in a bar between bands and had played the RIS (Rebellion Introducing Stage) early on – hello Dan and Charlotte! Come gig in Edinburgh, it's not that far, honest! Also, between bands later on in the night, I got chatting with a father-son pair Stu and Nathan. Stu’s t-shirt print caught my attention ("I wouldn't change a thing") and Nathan’s passion for indie band The Reytons kept us chatting for ages about up-and-coming bands – punk or otherwise. As well as other random chit-chats, more time was spent blethering and laughing with the usual good gig-buddies from scattered corners of the land - the south-coast all the way to frozen north and everywhere in between (in particular Andy & Carol, Ricardo & Claire, Maria the Swedish Cockney, Mega-Gigger Stephen, as well as close-to-home buds Cap'n C and Maw) - and I’m also blaming; the anticipation & excitement/ joy at seeing pals, in fact generally everything at Rebellion being new and shiny to me (ok, maybe the beer and lack of meal-planning too), for the reasons I missed one of my main pre-event planning “want-to-see’s” Sham 69. Rookie error, but I have seen them before so it’s not all bad.
I usually only have one or two bands to write about in each these blogs, but as I saw more than half a dozen per day, I’m going to be a bit lighter on the detail than I normally would (otherwise you’ll be drifting off by the end of this). So, with less detail than usual for each band and set, here goes….
The Ramonas (Empress Ballroom)
More than just a cover band, The Ramonas have their own material as well. Peni Punk Sam’s a good pal of the band (she even temporarily ditched a wedding she was at to go see them play when they were on in the same venue once) and it was mission-critical for her that we get in for their set early afternoon (also told me that when singer Lisa has her shades on its Cloey Ramone and covers, shades off and its original material). Unsurprisingly we bumped into a pal before the set started and compared notes of bands we were planning to see (there was a lot of this over the next three days and I’m glad as I saw a few unexpected great bands that way). The Ramonas set was tight, full of energy (as expected) and Sam’s verdict was “another outstanding gig from my fave gals, I’m just gutted they didn’t have an acoustic set too! The fact they had the Ballroom bouncing at 3.40 on a Thursday afternoon slot is proof of how fantastic they were!”. I wouldn’t disagree – I’ve seen them three or four times before and this was as good as any of those.
Irving Welsh & John King Interview (Literature Stage)
A change of pace for the second slot with a trip to the Literature stage to hear Irvine Welsh and John King in discussion. Good to hear some of their punk era exploits as well as their writing process / inspirations and generally entertaining anecdotes (especially Irvine’s Lou Reed and Iggy Pop stories about getting their songs approved for use in Trainspotting, and his punk efforts, eventually dropping the music and focusing more on writing ‘the premise was anyone can play in a band, but the assumption is you would improve…I didn’t’). Top highlight of the weekend #1 as I’ve been a fan of his writing since his debut Trainspotting came out in the early 90’s, was having a brief chat with Irvine in passing afterwards when he spotted my Scorpio Leisure t-shirt (his pal Russell’s band). Legend.
Club Brat (RIS In Pavilion)
First pleasant surprise of the weekend was Club Brat, who I saw come on stage at the Introducing stage as I was exploring the Winter Gardens. They’ve been going for a couple of years and released their first single in May last year, but their performance was anything but newcomers. Their set was slick, their sound was raw but very together. Maybe because it was one of the first few sets I saw, it seemed as a bit heavier than punk (it’s a broad church of sub-genres at Rebellion I now realise) with flashes of Dinosaur Jr screaming guitars (Nirvana even) as they sped through a fast-paced set. Well-polished stage presence and posturing (rightly so) shows their confidence in what they do in front of an audience and some very good songs. Looking forward to hearing them release more of these tracks but check out Nuisance and Handsome which they’ve already released.
Handsome Dick Manitoba (Empress Ballroom)
We headed back into the Empress to meet up with my old amigo Captain Craig (bass playing band mate from our Kids in The Kitchen days and flatmate in The Purple Hoose) and Maw, the Godmother of all things Gig-Antics. We found Cap’n enjoying Handsome Dick Manitoba and as good as they were, for me they were more on the rock n roll side things than punk (a broad church remember). Hands up, I hadn’t heard of him before this point and since looking up his back catalogue I could write a whole piece on this New York rocker longer than this weekend’s blogs on his career alone. His in-between songs chat was good – too good (or long) for some band mates who guitar-equivalent slow clapped him with the intro to Sweet Home Alabama to get him moving on. Their last song ‘cos we’ve only got five minutes left’ proved not to be their last song and a bit of chaos or confusion as the bass player came back on to sing as well as play
the actual last song, which got Dick back out to finish the set. As I said, hadn’t heard of him before but have now and I’ll add him to my gig alerts for future shows. Tidal Wave baby, not New Wave, DM once told a reporter. Spot on.
The Godfathers (Opera House) / UK Subs (Empress Ballroom)
After a longer than planned break in the bar and long overdue catch-up with some of the gang, we had arranged to meet back up with a lot of folk for The Godfathers and as good as it was to hear a band come on stage to the theme tune of The Sweeney but as it was so hot in there, we didn’t last long moving back to the main milling about area to work out plan B. As Peni Punk Sam’s ‘must see’ #2 were The Bar Stool Preachers, we decided not to take any chances in missing them and head into the Ballroom before it got too crowded. We came in part-way through the UK Subs set so we caught part of both (which I’ve since found out through Setlistfm that both bands played around 20 songs each). Both bands were more of what I expected to hear here this weekend, 70’s and 80’s mainstay punk and for some of our crowd Charlie Harper has a god-like status.
Barstool Preachers (Empress Ballroom)
In-between sets and finding then losing folk again (the Empress Ballroom capacity is 3000 and it couldn’t have been far off that), Peni Punk Sam headed down to the front and I went wandering round the crowd. Having seen the Barstool Preachers earlier in the year I knew what to expect and again, they delivered. It’s a bit of an open goal when people travel from all over to see bands at something like this but that didn’t keep the BSP’s from putting on a top performance. Energetic, engaging, an engine driving the crowd on more and more I’m surprised they weren’t headlining, but with a 10.00 to 11.00pm slot that was headline enough for some (me included). It had been a full on 100mph non-stop day of a new experience, so I bowed out at that point even though Sham 69 were one of my main “must-see’s” I saw some sort of sense and headed for some food and bed – just as well because day two was going to be even longer. A lot longer…
@irvine.welsh
@club.brat
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