It's just under 10 years since I first saw Fire Exit and The Phobics playing together at the 12 Bar club and I promise this review will be less rude than the one for that gig, even if it's possible that Fire Exit are playing almost the same set as they did 10 years ago.
This was the first time I've been for an evening out in Harrow On The Hill or Harrow since the very early 80's when I would have seen Harrow fc playing against Leytonstone and Ilford, so it seemed appropriate to go to this gig on this years non-league day. The Trinity Bar is a classic gig room above a dodgy pub that appears to be run by a lot of the team behind the 12 Bar Club, in a room that sounds fantastic in sharp contrast to the attempt to re-animate the 12 bar club at Phibbers in Highbury.
We arrived while opening act Emergency Bitter were already playing, they are a 5 piece Oi Punk band with good social issues lyrics. The first song we heard in full was the bands rousing anthem Fuck The BNP that left us in no doubt as to what they think of racist right wing scum.
Just to ram the point home they then tore into Hate Me on which singer Ferret made sure we knew it's okay to hate them, as long as we have a good reason to do so, like they've stolen our beer, run off with our girlfriends, sold us dodgy drugs or whatever, just don't hate them or anyone else because they have the wrong colour skin or come from the wrong postcode, country or religion.
They closed with the bands anthem and credo Cider Football Punk Rock that are the things they live for, well I was drinking beer but the Fab girlfriend was with them with the cider too. I'd like to see a full set at some point as they are good fun.
Next on were The Phobics who from the sound of this set seem to have spent some time rehearsing since we last saw them opening for The Primevals back in February. They opened with Lipstick that was fast and relatively slick once they had persuaded Moyni that he could turn his bass down to 9 instead of 11 as they weren't playing a stadium, it was still at gut punch levels and sounded damn good. My Best Friend Has Died had a tear stained edge to it as Tom told us he had nothing left to say.
Gentrification was pretty much why this gig was in Harrow On The Hill rather than the west end, as always this hits at the targets that make large parts of London unaffordable, set against good speedy guitars, Jeff played a super nifty solo. Die Slowly is solid advice that the band take seriously as Moyni's bass rumbled through it.
As usual Don't Lay Your Flowers On My Grave was dedicated to Johnny Thunders as Charlie's drums led into this sad reflection on how people often only start shouting about someone once they've already died. Hang Ten fought back nicely to keep the Soup Dragons at bay, while sounding super adrenal and together.
Down And Out In Deptford took us all to the mean streets of south east London once more for this tale of being on your uppers once more. Brand New Jaguar was them dreaming of blowing an album advance on a new motor, or just getting the chance to drive around in a nice pristine set of wheels.
Tom made sure to tell everyone that Give It A Go was meant for everyone here tonight, yes go on have a go, join a band start a rock club, record label or just write about the scene, but go do something, don't be a boring drone. They made it sound like fun and tonight there were no daggers on stage thankfully. I Can Tell flew by us as they were all in sync. Moyni gave us a few words of wisdom before Path Of Love kept things amped up and Jeff seemed happy pulling poses as he took his solo.
Before Nearly Man I got namechecked by Tom as he turned a setlist into a paper plane that nosedived off the stage as he promised me the setlist that this review is using, shockingly I got all but two of the song titles right in my notes, miracles do happen. We all know a few of the Nearly Men this is aimed at, they then closed the set by revving up the jam jar ready to screech those wheels as they Burnt Rubber tearing back down the Harrow Road this was one of the tightest sets I've seen The Phobics play.
Next on were The London Sewage Company who had us wondering even before they played a note if guitarist Mark Maxwell is still known as Long Haired Mark as he was always referred to in the days when he was one of the DJ's at Big Bobs Gone Strange and other late 90's haunts of ours, that and the surprise of seeing Noel from Menace behind the drum kit rather than out front. They are fronted by Barnet Mark who used to book all the bands at the 12 bar club.
They opened with the very ramshackle I'm In Trouble of the sort where no ones quite in time yet, your trying to figure what key your meant to be in, but your going for it just the same. Bridget The Midget saw things start to tighten up and sound pretty decent for a loose garage punk band.
Barnet introduced Toy Shop by telling us it's about Barnet High street and growing up there, as they sang about the disappearance of toy shops, well yes Barnet high street is more about the charity shops these days sadly.
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Kreuzburg was speedy good fun about going on the rampage in Germany before they started hallucinating and seeing Palm Trees In Peckham, by this point they were sounding together and everyone was having a good time.
I think it was at this point that Barnet made clear they are Super Marionation punks and not cartoon Punks with Standby For Action a song about Marina and the other women taking over. They then paid tribute to the much missed 12 bar club with the bands anthem to the club 12 Bar Night.
Of course they have a song about Thunderbirds although no one was moving like they had strings pulling them along. Memories Of Slade made clear they still love Noddy and the boys, I can't argue with that as I review all the re-issues. Your not better Than me was a great call for equality of all sorts.
Night Of A Thousand Beards re-works the Willie Nile classic Night Of A Thousand Guitars that I first heard played live at the 12 bar club, where else, this seems to be about being somewhere that everyone has a beard. I think they closed with Las Vegas Girl either way it was a super catchy song about how said girl loves your frisbee that left us smiling.
Soon enough it was time for Glasgow punk survivors Fire Exit to play the bands current well worn set, they have now been together for 45 years, something singer Gerry Attrick is rightly proud of, he's joined by George, John and Iain.
As normal they opened with Let The Show Begin that's every bit as alcohol sodden as it ought to be, Trust was dedicated to the major labels ripping bands off and flew by. Changing is the bands anthem to staying the same and doing exactly what you want to do. As long as were Alive they will continue playing gigs drinking booze taking drugs and having a good time, as will most of us in the audience.
They took us back to 1979 for Talkin Bout Myself a great anthem for going out and having a good time. Timewall had Gerry asking are you coming with me over and over. We're going Crazy is a proper drunken Saturday night drinking and drugging anthem and sounded great as Fire exit were super tight throughout the set. Townlife is seemingly about being happier in a town, than being out in the middle of nowhere. That theme was kept up on Death Boredom that makes sure you don't die of boredom in some dead-end version of life, go out and live your best most out there life you can.
Everyone held up there glasses as Gerry instructed for We're Gonn'a Drink All Weekend a song that was a brilliant drunken brawl in celebration to getting bladdered once more. Totally Worn Out is what happens when you've been drinking all weekend of course, its not a come down tune, more just catching your breath ready to keep going for it tune.
United & Strong is a rallying cry for all the punks and rockers and music fans and cool people to come together to fight the oppressive governments and bully's trying to stop us from having a good time. Religion Is The Biggest Cause Of War had its usual intro blaming all the different religions for starting endless pointless wars, it makes it's point with some good fiery guitars and rat tat tat rimshots.
Daughter Of Sin is about someone you shouldn't listen too, they then did there re-working of the old Hank Locklin classic Fraulein that is faster than it originally was. The next cover was Del Shannon's Runaway that they always play live and this was done with a cheeky grin. First Time was sung as they started checking how much time they had left, well enough for two more tunes the first of which summed up the ethos of this Shake Some Acton night and the Punk scene in general We're All Together trying to have a good time and look out for each other. They closed the night with Wheelchair Outta Control that made it sound like they were racing and careening down the hill out of Harrow at top speed it was a good way to end a proper old school Saturday night at a rock club.
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