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Review: 'RUTS D.C/ D.O.A/ AGITATORS, THE/ AGNOSTIC FRONT'
'Blackpool, Rebellion Festival, 10 Aug 2014(Day 4)'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'

Our Rating:
We've reached the final day OF Rebellion and it feels like we've been running a musical marathon. We had a nice walk down a very windy promenade to the Winter Gardens and made it in time for the opening act of the Pavilion stage, CHECKPOINT who are a young pop-punk band from Dublin with a female drummer. They were a great fun start to the day and got everyone singing when they closed with a great version of Sham 69's Borstal Breakout.

We then went to the Arena stage for 16 Guns who are certainly not that young but played a set of angry shouty Oi punk with a good version of Johnny B Goode and they brought on the Lost Cherees to help them out on Please Don't Touch. This latter was very much executed in the style of the Motorhead and Girlschool version and was the best thing they did.

Then it was out to the Casbah stage where the nice member of staff not only brought out some chairs for us to sit on but also brought us a table to put our drinks on while we watched EPIC PROBLEM from the back. They are an angry and angsty poppy punk band from Manchester with some decent songs.

We then made the mistake of going into the Empress Ballroom for COUNTERPUNCH who were easily the worst band of the weekend. They were wrong on every level and the fact that the huge Ballroom had less than 60 people in it when we arrived and we could easily find room on the rail was hint enough.

But it was nothing to how wrong they are, looking like a bunch of Log Cabin Republicans who decided to form a punk band and decided that having three vocalists trying to harmonize while impersonating Geddy Lee was a good idea. It wasn't. That and the prog-punk mess they were playing which seemed to steal rhythms from Sum 41 but without any of the catchy aspects. No one seemed to stay in the Ballroom for more than 3 songs and we were no exception to this, fleeing for our ears' sakes after 3 awful, awful songs.

We decided to cleanse our ears in the Pavilion with LOCAL RESIDENT FAILURE who turned out to be a young Australian poppy punk band who seem influenced by the likes of Green Day and have a set of good fun songs as you'd expect about drinking and having a good time, as well as some stuff about social problems as suggested by the band's name. Good fun and worth seeing.

Back to the Empress Ballroom for IMPLANTS. The best bit about them was the band's backdrop and symbol of a skateboard pentagram with a goats head on the board. I keep confusing them with the Transplants but they are not that good. Apparently, Implants are some sort of Southern California supergroup but when the singer said what bands they had all played in I'd never heard of any of them. They play modern poppy speedy skate punk and are totally forgettable apart from that symbol.

Then it was time for one of the real highlights: a chance to see HAGAR THE WOMB again, something I haven't done since sometime in the 1980's at a free festival of some sort. The Pavilion was packed for them and rightly so. It was great to see a band that are fronted by what are surely these days a couple of "cougars" happily shouting at us and opening up with Idolization all about expert Liggers. Considering I normally only ever see Mitch the bass player ligging at gigs it seemed spot on.

Next up was a perfect anarcho punk tune about, well, Showing Off during which Karen proved that shouting and pogoing like a slightly mad woman is effortless and required. In between song banter between the band was jokey and good fun; they might even have found One Bright Spark to make sure Ruth and Karen both had lyric crib sheets for the show. Ah the pains of growing old and forgetting the words.

Stephanie's ever spunky guitar playing led them into Perfect Life as they seemed to rampage through the song in a way that made them sound like a cross between Shampoo and Bikini Kill while obviously having influenced both those bands and the entire Riot Grrrl movement.

They then played the 3 tracks off of the band's new single. I love that Life of Lies was introduced as "Life Of Pies" which is in the spirit that they bring to the stage, with loads of fun. You Never Learn and Distant War saw them get serious...well as serious as a band whose guitarist Paul is wearing a Tony the Tiger onesie can be. Still, Karen was having fun in her Musicians Are Scum t-shirt and we were all hoping that the Distant Wars would all end soon.

Don't ask how but Song Of Deep Hate actually sounded pretty joyous as the Pogoing continued and Karen and Ruth did their best tag team vocals. They then closed the set with a romp through Dressed To Kill before realising they had time for one more and played What's your Flag to finish an excellent set which put a huge grin on the faces of many of the people there.

After that it was time for a dinner break and we popped out to Pizza Express that was (inevitably) full of punks on Pizza and a whole lot cleaner than Bella Pasta the night before.

We then went back into the Empress Ballroom for AGNOSTIC FRONT and a set of old school New York Hardcore that to be honest got a bit tiresome in places. They got the place going for NYPD Fuck You, however, and also during a good version of Blitzkreig Bop.

We then took a look at THE AGITATORS in The Arena. They opened with a cool version of Miserlou but as soon as they started singing it went downhill as they sounded rather tired trying to be Hardcore punk but failing. We left and went back to the Empress Ballroom for the rest of ROY ELLIS MR.SYMARIP & THE MOONSTOMPERS featuring Roddy Radiation and immediately regretted missing the start of what was undoubtedly the set of the day.

Yes they are an old school skinhead reggae big band with backing singers and Mr Roy Ellis in a bright orange suit. They were magnificent, too, getting the entire Ballroom dancing especially on a long version of the classic Skinhead Girl that went down an absolute storm. It's great to see Roy Ellis is back singing once more. I want to see this band again soon, they are not to be missed if you get the chance. Yes they Stole Sunday, it totally belonged to them!!

Next up in the Ballroom and in stark contrast was D.O.A. the legendary Canadian Hardcore band that I haven't seen since '86 or was it 87? Either way they played under a sign that stated They Come In Peace and played a brilliant greatest hits set that featured a great version of Edwin Starr's War that got everyone singing along. They also had a good sized pit for Police Brutality. This was a great show in the band's continuing farewell tour that if they continue to sound this good should just carry on indefinitelY.

We then went back to the Pavilion for GLEN MATLOCK & THE PHILISTINES who currently feature Slim Jim Phantom on drums and Earl Slick on guitar playing some old school rock and roll. They did a cool version of Blank Generation and a slowed down and very rockabilly take on God Save The Queen before a rather hammed up version of John I'm Only Dancing that was closer to the Ziggy-era version rather than the versions Earl played on with Bowie in the late 70's.

Elsewhere, Dead End Street was almost a shuffle and pretty pedestrian. Rock This Town had Slim Jim singing and drumming and got the place going for the finale of Pretty Vacant that had the entire room singing along to it.

Then it was time for the final band of Rebellion on the Pavilion stage. RUTS DC who opened with H Eyes: as poignant a song about the dangers of heroin addiction as you could wish for. Damn they sounded great and obviously it was dedicated to Malcolm Owen who lost his battle with heroin many years ago now. Mighty Soldier went down well as you'd expect. SUS still sounds mighty and its message seems strangely current even if the police now use different terms.

They did a great tune, I think called Don't Want You that morphed into a deep version of Police & Thieves. It was dark dubby and dangerous to know. Jah Wars got everyone skanking along to it before everyone sang along to Staring At The Rude Boys before they did a nice slow version of West One(Shine On Me). Then as you'd expect the place went mad for Babylon's Burning and In A Rut to make sure everyone left happy and with a smile on our faces at the end of a quite brilliant festival.

Did we really have to leave? Sadly we did and I had to buy an NOFX sweatshirt on the way out as no other sweatshirts were available and due to the storm outside I needed something to keep warm as we battled back along the promenade through sea foam that covered the road and practically had to run down the road to our B&B as the wind wouldn't let us walk.

I'd like to finish by thanking everyone who made this incredible festival possible, all the staff at the Winter Gardens and of course all the bands who turned up and played.
  author: simonovitch

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RUTS D.C/ D.O.A/ AGITATORS, THE/ AGNOSTIC FRONT - Blackpool, Rebellion Festival, 10 Aug 2014(Day 4)
D.O.A
RUTS D.C/ D.O.A/ AGITATORS, THE/ AGNOSTIC FRONT - Blackpool, Rebellion Festival, 10 Aug 2014(Day 4)
THE AGITATORS