It's that time of year again for one of the best organised festivals anywhere the 4 day musical rampage that is Rebellion in Blackpool. Back for its 22 year and with over 300 bands playing the festivals 7 stages there is more than enough to keep even the most ardent gig hound occupied which is how I managed to see 51 bands over the weekend.
We had an easier journey up this year as you can now get direct trains from London to Blackpool once again and having checked into the same B & B and the same room we always stay in we walked down the beach and got into the Winter Gardens in time for the second band of the day on the new Club Casbah stage that amazingly was in a huge room I've not seen before in the Winter Gardens that looked like it easily held a couple of thousand people with all black walls and a huge high ceiling it had a real nightclub feel to it.
So the first band we saw were The Poly-Esters who had come all the way from Blackpool to play for us, yes we found an actual local band. They are a Riot Grrl grungey trio who were rather bass heavy and in our faces. As well as some very angry and pissed off originals they did a good cover of Nirvana's Territorial Pissing that got lots of people going. They were a good start to the festival for us and helped the first pint of the weekend go down nicely.
We stayed in the Club Casbah for System Of Hate who claim they play Aphotic punk and having checked in the dictionary I'll say that's fair enough as they are 4 very pissed off Yorkshiremen from the Darkest bowels of Barnsley who play angry street punk railing against every issue they can. For me the two songs that stood out most were Sanatoria that is deeply angry and the bands theme tune System of Hate that they closed the set with.
I then got to see one of the bands I missed at Camden Rocks earlier in the year The Soap Girls who are two French Sisters and a bloke on drums. They play scantily clad in see through outfits with great head dresses and the drummer is topless but they use the furore this creates to question why people would be offended at scantily clad humans rather than the war machine and evil government policies while sounding like a post millennial Poison Girls. The best song of the set for me was My Development and one of the other songs that stuck with me was In The Name Of God. They certainly not only made many of the audience look and drool but also made everyone think as well, very cool.
Then it was time for us to wander through the Winter Gardens to the Arena stage for the first time this year to see Vomit the original 77 punk band from Congleton who play some very angry almost power-pop punk with the bands current 5 piece line-up. They get the room going with Breakaway and everyone was having a good time with some good banter between songs before they closed with Piss Off Reg and yes I do believe the legend himself was in the room.
We went back to the Club Casbah stage for Svetlanas who we missed last year and then got told by more than one friend they were the best band all weekend, so I had to see what the fuss was about this Russian band out of Moscow who are currently based in Milan. Well damn what a band fronted by Olga simply one of the angriest female front women ever she comes across like Afonso from The Parkinsons on even dodgier drugs, she's a whirlwind of pain and anger and spite.
They play anti Putin hard core, Control was super intense with Olga pulling some incredible faces and banging her fists into her head this was demented and brilliant at the same time. By the time Olga told us all to Put Your Middle Fingers Up no one in the room was going to disobey her before they played what seemed to be one of the bands anthems. A total tour de force and a band that has to be seen live, a real highlight of the festival.
We then wandered back to the Arena for No Thrills who play pop punk with and almost 90's squat party feel to it often super speedy and with lots of issues within the songs I particularly liked My Life and also the fact they got everyone singing along even if you didn't know the songs by the second chorus you'd be joining in. They made everyone in the room smile and this version of the bands set was slightly grungier than the second set we caught later in the festival in the bands other guise as Cheap Thrills.
It was then time for a sit down so we went into the Opera house for the first time this Rebellion to see Pog who I had confused with Pok but never mind. Pog are a 5 piece band with Violin, acoustic guitar and Keyboards from Brighton, which meant they were a total change of musical direction as they sounded a bit like the Levellers trying to go Anti-folk punk they were also the first band of the weekend to play a ballad Kings & Queens that went down surprisingly well. They were out of place but well worth catching.
After that diversion it was back to The Arena in time for Riot Squad the 80's hard core aggro punks who are still as angry as fuck after all these years and with good reason. The bands theme tune went down a storm as did most of the set that had a decent mosh pit going and they closed with a brilliant cover of Wire's 12xu played at a proper fearsome pace.
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We stayed in The Arena for Glaswegian legends Fire Exit a band I ought to have some records by having now seen them 6 or 7 times. Fronted as ever by Gerry Atrick who knows how to get everyone going to the bands original 77 sound high spot of the set for me was We're Going Crazy that had some call and response and in the middle section broke into Changes before they got us all going crazy. Oh and the anger and Bile Gerry throws at us on Burn The Churches is great sounding as righteous as ever as he spits religion is the biggest cause of war at us. Yes I nowadays do remember seeing them previously unlike in some of my other reviews.
We then nipped straight over to The Pavilion for the first time this Rebellion for Cyanide Pills at least a couple of whom were doubling as festival stage crew the rest of the time. As ever they played great urgent power pop punk that flies by in a blur and like good speed freaks they Can't Get It Up while banging on about Johnny Thunders living in Leeds that of course leads to a Police Stop where they make the startling confession that ends the set that they have indeed Fallen In Love With A Suicide Bomber. They were totally frenetic and watching them felt like getting a shot of energy to help us through to the end of the first day.
We doubled back to The Arena for me to give East End Badoes another gander and while I didn't introduce myself to the drummer as he requested, after my last none too friendly review of this bunch of Quentins off the crisp. This time round they did the east end proud. Good to hear some proper East London aggro Oi that you could of got decked to in Custom House back in the day when it was a lot rougher than now. It helped that Rebellion has great well mixed sound compared to the dreadful toilet I saw them in last time.
Highlight of the set was London Boy that was a tribute to the lads that went and signed up in 1914 while under age. Oh and of course Poplar Boys went down like a pint of Watney Red Barrel in the Seamen's rest yes they were positively second rate!! I jest but really happy to hear a proper sounding set from them.
We then wandered back to the Club Casbah for some of The Queers doing there mile a minute American Pop punk like the Ramones it was mile a minute but while some of the lyrics were funny they didn't hold our attention so we only stayed for about half a dozen songs.
We got into almost Acoustic bar just as He Who Couldn't Be Named was finishing and not in the way that men in wrestling mask and Dwarves pants ought too. He then spent some time posing in his pants and mask as well we mustn't know who he is. I wonder if after all these years he is a little tired of the pretence.
Still it wasn't long before JC Carroll from The Members solo set started. JC opened with a nice wry Apathy In The UK that slipped easily into Anarchy In The UK and a bit of Johnny bashing. He was soon punning away before playing the obvious punk anthem Delilah and making sure we all know what this huge hit is about. Offshore Banking Business was a bit of a sing along and I loved his take on Sam Hall.
Having spotted A Newtown Neurotic trailed by Atilla The Stockbroker JC chose to sing Living With Unemployment by the former of course he did his own hits Sound Of The Suburbs was a full on sing along and Chelsea Nightclub wasn't far behind before he finished with another legendary punk tune yes Henry VII I Am damn near brought the house down great fun and sorry The Members set clashed later in the weekend.
We should have called it quits for the night but couldn't help ourselves and had to see just one more band so went back to The Arena and caught a few songs of Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs whose act is almost identical to every other time we've seen them. I'm a Believer works as skiffle and they are entertaining and Should I Stay Or Should I go was good fun we smirked along to Trouble the old Shampoo hit but took Whiskey in The Jar as our cue to go off in search of Doughnuts only to end up with a portion of chips instead as we were knackered and it was only the end of the first day.
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