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Review: 'REBELLION FESTIVAL 2016 (DAY ONE)'
'Blackpool, Winter Gardens, 4th August 2016'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'

Our Rating:
Day one. Bands included in this review are: Geoffrey Oi!cott, Brassick, Vox Populi, Viki Vortex and The Cum Shots, The Dwarves, Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs, Peter & The Test Tube Babies, Lost Cherees, The Vibrators, The Members, The Pukes.

This year is Rebellion's 20th anniversary festival and of course the 40 years of Punk celebrations also contrived to convince us that this a festival we really wanted to go to. So having left home at 8.30 am to make sure we could have breakfast on our way to catch our train we made good time and were up in Blackpool and checked into our normal hotel room and ready to get to the Winter Gardens in good time for the first band we wanted to see. This was Geoffrey Oi!cott who were on at 2.45 and even if I would have liked to see the Cundeez who were on before them it wasn't to be.

Having got our wristbands and programmes we found our way to the Tower Street Arena which is the festival's one year only open air stage and appears to have a similar capacity to the Empress Ballroom as it's sort of a dual main stage.

Geoffrey Oi!cott had started playing their normal brand of Cricket Oi and we heard the great sounds of Psycho before enjoying a typical set that included a great version of Dawn Of The Dickie Birds and a good sing-along to Welcome To Yorkshire with the band's normal piss-taking and great riffs as well as some darting action on Glory Glory Gary Thompson before they closed with Give Me Some Head. Thankfully this year none of the balls they whacked into the crowd hit us, but most were thrown back at the band.

We headed back inside to the Pavilion stage to catch the end of Brassick's set and grab the first cider of the weekend. What we heard of Brassick sounded as angry as ever and they play issues-based midlands punk. We must try to see them play somewhere other than at Rebellion.

Then it was down to the Arena for some Serbian punk from Vox Populi who are always well worth checking out. This year's set was no exception. They opened with their hardcore punk reworking of Satta Massa Ganna which certainly woke us all up. The female bassist slammed the whole set and they had a good mix between English and Serbian songs.

We then wandered back to the Pavilion for Viki Vortex and the Cumshots who were the first band of the weekend to fall into the punk category of bands with names of a sexual nature. We saw quite a few bands akin to this over the weekend. Still, as normal With Viki Vortex and her boys they play pretty upbeat almost day-glo punk with a slight cartoon edge. Best song of the set was Plastic Fantastic which got loads of us bouncing along.

We then went into the magnificent Empress Ballroom for the first legendary band of the weekend, The Dwarves. The bands current line-up that sees a certain Mr Nick Oliveri joining He Who Cannot Be Named and Blag Dhalia and friends to bring it to us in as sleazy a fashion as possible.

He Who Cannot Be Named still plays naked with a Mexican wrestling hood on!! This apparently helped them play some of the fastest hardcore punk tunes of the weekend. They were in good form and really got the place going. You Gotta Burn was a rampage. Get High instigated a huge sing along and damn didn't we all want to get high with them. Dominator closed the set I think and left us wanting more. They still sound great and it was good to get the naked guitarist thing out of the way early on.

We then went and found the Opera House which is a stage that hasn't been in use on our previous visits and damn if it isn't another huge room capable of holding a good couple of thousand in some very well worn seats and it has a huge stage too.

We took our seats to see Hobo Jones and The Junkyard Dogs who are the festival's premier skiffle punk band who all dress like the hobos they obviously are in normal life. It must have taken them months to get to Blackpool on the open road. They played a long but very fine version of Rock Island Line as well as a cool version of Whiskey In The Jar even if they spent spent too long introducing the songs. It was enjoyable to sing along to Geldof Is a Moron and the closing Ooh Ah Just A Little Bit raised a few smiles for sure.

It was time to go back outside to the Tower Street arena for Peter & The Test Tube Babies who were playing all the Shits and more (so to speak) as they went Up Yer Bum in good time to get Banned From the Pubs once more. As one of the original Cartoon punk bands they know how to get us all going and smiling at the same time.

It was back inside to the Pavilion next for a run of 3 bands with sexual references in their names. Oo-er, missus! First up were Lost Cherees, an angry as fuck anarcho-punk band fronted by two women on a mission to pummel our brains. However, they also managed to pull out a great cover of Common People by Pulp which had the whole room singing along to it. I also really liked the way they re-worked Bend Me Shake Me into a song about domestic abuse!!

Next on were The Vibrators who I somehow got confused with The Varukers who were playing on a different stage a bit later. It should have been a giveaway seeing Darrell Bath on guitar, but I've seen him playing in so many bands over the years I almost expect him to appear onstage with any number of bands here.

Whatever, The Vibrators played all the hits you'd want to hear and some new songs too. Highlights included Automatic Lover and Have Love Will Travel and when they got Knox to come on for a couple of songs including London Girls and a new song that I think is called Hot Shot it certainly took them to a whole different level.

They were followed by The Members who sounded pretty damn good from the start with a good version of Soho A-Go-Go. Obviously these days we got a fine version of Offshore Banking Business and a nifty Living In A Bedsit as well as the obligatory cover of the only Larry Wallis tune anyone seems to cover - yes, they joined the long line of bands who play Police Car live and yes they made a good job of it too. They got everyone singing along to the Sound Of The Suburbs too and were well worth catching live in weather that was hot enough for no repeats of the Cardigan horror show the last time I saw JC Carroll playing.

We then finished our first day off with The Pukes in The Opera house. Finally, they are on a stage big enough for all of them to have a little bit of room to blast us with some Ukulele punk madness. The set included decent covers of Because You're Young and Fight Song as well as the old Exploited classic Sex And Violence. They proved a great finale to day one and all that was left to do was to go and eat fresh donuts on the way back to the hotel.
  author: simonovitch

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