Review:
'Rebellion Festival Blackpool Winter Gardens Day 2'
'Angelic Upstarts, UK Subs, Ruts DC, Subhumans,'
- Album: 'Argy Bargy, Penetration, Gimp Fist,'
- Label: 'Snivelling Shits, Angry Agenda, Audible Joes'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '3.8.19.'
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Our Rating:
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Day 2 began in traditional fashion with a fry up and a walk down the beach before our annual go on the Big Wheel and a 99 to make sure we looked properly messy before we ever got to the Winter Gardens to keep on remembering the late great Kathy rocker and all the hard work she put into making Rebellion the incredible festival it is #fuckcancer.
We arrived early enough to start our day in the Pavilion with Oirish punks Audible Joes who are a young very angry Anarcho punk band from Cork who edge towards the Hardcore end of things, the best song of the set was the one about Refusing to do as your told.
Then we went to Club Casbah for the welcome return to the fray of Angry Agenda who are back fighting fit or is that fighting fat and Nick looked in decent health and voice after his recent travails. Which is why opening with We Shall Prevail seemed both poignant and apt and no they are not a band normally known for being delicate or poignant and soon enough Here Comes Trouble was getting the crowd worked up and singing along. Sadly far more of us are living in Breadline Britain than when I first heard them sing this classic song and the idea of getting a little Confrontational seems rather current. It was almost like being on the terraces back in the day for Boot Boy Till I die, even if back then I'd be running from the skins not singing along with a bunch of them. They closed by making us all Raise A Glass for Kathy Rocker and Micky Fitz a great rousing set closer.
We then went and took a seat in The Opera House for Snivelling Shits to play something like the bands 6th ever gig in the 42 years since the bands non career began as almost an in joke by a bunch of ne'er-do-well music journalists. The current iteration contains a couple of originals in Peter Makowski and Dave Fudger as well as Moyni and Tom Crossley from The Phobics and PR Guru James Sherry on the drums to bring the stream of sulphate music and lyrics to some sort of life once more. It was nicely shambolic with Peter wandering all over the place on Only 13 was he trying to sound like he was still a 13 year old guitarist. Crossroads sounded wonderfully almost there as they were still waiting for Benny to show up. Tom just about got all the lyrics to Bring Me The Head Of Yukio Mishima out while the guitars went off and the drums threatened to collapse. Then in a truly fitting moment my Biro ran out while trying to put down that they were playing the monumental I Wanna Be Your Biro. Of course we all went a bit mad for I Can't Come that was a wonderfully shambolic end to the remarkable sight of The Snivelling Shits actually playing live even if main man Giovanni Dadomo has been gone since 1997.
After that it was time to see a truly tight band in the Empress Ballroom as it was time for Gimp Fist's annual set of Terrace chant Oi street punk with a heart full of pride and a social conscience that was evident as usual on War On The Streets that seems ever more on point sadly, They were playing lots of songs off the bands new album Blood including the title song that sounded great. A Country Divided has never been truer than it currently is and this version near raised the roof with the singalong we all had. Yes our Hearts Were Full Of Pride and the grins they had while singing it were magical. They were one of several bands this weekend to sing about Pressure and the closing Here I Stand For the Common Man was a really great sing along they never disappoint at Rebellion always worth seeing.
We stayed in the Empress Ballroom for Penetration that was the first of three sets I saw over the weekend by Pauline Murray who has gone Blond for Rebellion. They opened with a great version of Nostalgia. Danger Signs sounded like it was written for now not 40 years ago, although Pauline still sounds just the same and Robert Blamires bass lines still fire them along as they Come Into The Open while Pauline asks us if we are Guilty of A Crime as they mix new songs in with the classics.
Movement and Free Money both sounded brilliant while it's time for the Silent Community to make a real racket and make sure that Don't Dictate sounds as great as it does while we try to get rid of the idiots who want to dictate to us. Beat Goes On seems rather apt when you see how long most of the bands on the bill have been around and this new song sounded great and they closed with a good blast through Shout Above The Noise which I hope Pauline will continue to do.
Then it was time to go to Club Casbah for Argy Bargy to lead a good singalong fist pumping romp about how our politicians are all telling us a Pack Of Lies that may well mean there's Gonna Be A Riot that most of us seemed up for. They made sure we knew that for them life revolved around Drink, Drugs and Football Thugs that sounded very late 70's early 80's aggro Oi! Of course, by the time they left us we all needed One More Drink the perfect set closer.
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We then went back to the Empress Ballroom for The Subhumans to try to set the world right once more as only Dick Lucas and his band of musical warriors can while having ago at Businessmen and some of the other bands who have been subsumed by The Punk Machine to become far too corporate and not DIY enough for Dick. Still the real righteous anger was for the oppressors of the 99% of us. No matter how angry the lyrics are to Pigs and the rest of the songs the music is still filled with joy and got everyone going so they could close with a storming Religious Wars, as ever a highlight of the weekend.
Still in the Empress Ballroom next on were Ruts DC who seem to get better every year and this was a storming set whether they are singing about West One Shine On Me and how songs like Sus are sadly still topical they got everybody skanking along as Music Must Destroy the idiots running the world and we must stop Jah Wars even while we needed something to Kill The Pain, I'd suggest more of Ruffy's peerless drumming myself unless your under Psychic Attack at which point you'll need Segs Bass rumblings to help you out too. As ever Staring At The Rude Boys sounded monumental as it led into Babylons Burning and the still classic In A Rut that had a verse of Smells Like Teen Spirit thrown into it before they closed with Human Punk that left us all needing some more Ruts DC.
Next up in the Empress Ballroom was UK Subs annual hoedown that opened with a coruscating run through CID before Charlie harked back to the bad old days when he Lived In A Car or was that because he was always on tour. Tomorrows Girls was a proper sing along and Charlie looked like he was still having a blast. Coup D'etat sounded super angry as it should do with Alvin Gibbs really propelling things along with his bass as Steve Straughn's guitar seemed to strafe us. Charlie was sad that Young Criminals seems such a current song still and it still bites hard. Stranglehold was nice and angry as was the Emotional Blackmail he suffered from, but the whole ballroom went nuts for Warhead that was followed by a great version of Riot Squad to close the set. They got an encore that closed with an ok version of Endangered Species a song I always prefer by Michael Monroe sorry Charlie.
We then went back to Club Casbah to finish our day with the Angelic Upstarts who played as a lean and mean 4 piece this year and opened with the battle cry that is Tories Tories Tories Out Out Out that went perfectly with Mensi's boxfresh Corbyn t-shirt. Still all the years hasn't dimmed the anger of Too Many Voices suffering from what Mr Politician does to us all. Out Of Control sounded totally controlled as we all sang along to it and Anti Nazi went down a storm. Mensi told us how sad he was that he still needs to be singing about Kids On The Streets. Machine Gun Kelly was pretty angry and the crowd really got going on Teenage Warning before Mensi insisted I'm an Upstart once more of course he is and powerful one at that as he warned us all about Police Oppression that is still far too prevalent before they closed with the as ever anthemic Who Killed Liddle Towers yes we all screamed Police killed Liddle. A great way for us to end day two of Rebellion just in time to go and get a special deal on some doughnuts on the way back to our B & B.
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author: simonovitch
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