In a weekend full of huge gigs in London this was the one unmissable one for me, a great line-up and amazingly Iggy Pop playing his biggest London headline show at the age of 76 with a top-notch supporting cast making Crystal Palace the place to be on Saturday.
We joined the long line to get in while opening act The Lambrini Girls were playing, getting in just as they finished. We soon realized the two major faults at the venue, the toilets were right at the back, as was the bar, the bar had no real choice. Still we were there for the music.
First band of the day for us were Buzzcocks whose current line-up features Steve Diggle with Chris Remington, Danny Farrant and Mani Perazzoli. They opened with What Do I Get that had the immediate effect of getting everyone singing along with them, as Steve Diggle did his best to hit all the notes Pete Shelley did. Senses Out Of Control kept the pace up and sounded damn good.
Steve Diggle then said hi, as with most of what he said between songs he seemed a touch incoherent, yet all his vocals were clear as can be, as they went into Fast Cars and were racing away sounding a lot tighter than the last time I saw them at Rebellion a few years ago.
People Are Strange Machines is one of those songs that makes more and more sense as time goes by, it had a ferocious edge to it. I Don't Mind could be aimed at the people who object to Steve carrying on as Buzzcocks only original member, if they sound this tight, I Don't Mind either. Sick City Sometimes was dedicated to both Manchester and Crystal Palace as the sleaze of the wrong part of town was evoked.
Why Can't I Touch It was the moment for them to go a bit dubby before everyone went nuts for Orgasm Addict that was a mass sing along. Promises kept the pace up as Steve looked out at the now blue skies as he introduced Manchester Rain almost like he hoped the rain came down on us all, thankfully it didn't.
Ever Fallen In Love got the biggest cheer and sing along of the set, still sounding brilliant all these decades later before they closed with a taut version of Harmony In My Head this was a good crowd pleasing greatest hits set.
We bumped into a few friends while going to the bar and back aa the crowd was stuffed with enough musicians to put on a large festival. In between bands Rusty Egan was spinning tunes like he was back at Helden in the 80's.
Next on were Stiff Little Fingers whose current line-up that's been in place since 2006 is Jake Burns, Ali McMordie, Ian McCullan and Steve Grantley.
They opened with the vitriolic call to arms that is Tin Soldiers that set out where these Belfast Punk legends have always come from, wanting a better more peaceful homeland than the one they grew up in. Nobody's Hero kept us firmly in the era of the troubles and was super tight as SLF were throughout.
Jake Burns told us that the last time he was at a gig in Crystal Palace Park was to see Bob Marley as he introduced there cover of Bunny Wailers Roots, Radics, Rockers, Reggae that allowed them to do some Irish skanking. Just Fade Away had a good bit of bile in it as the tight rock and roll got everyone going.
Jake made sure to tell us how lucky we all were to still be here as he dedicated Doesn't Make It Alright to the late great Terry Hall who wrote it, this cover was affectionate and got a massive sing along going to it. Barb Wire Love took us back to the days of Belfast as a divided city where love across the barricades was a dangerous thing.
At The Edge still sounds great even if it's many decades since this lot were truly At The Edge of youth. Wasted Life hinted at all the damage drugs and a rock and roll lifestyle can do to you. Gotta Getaway is what the Stiff Little Fingers originally did by becoming a band who could get out of all the strife back home touring the more peaceful parts of the world, this still has the feel of a rallying cry.
Suspect Device is one of those phrases that was common in the 70's when anything that had wires poking out of it could be mistaken for a bomb, this still sounds explosive, before they closed with a brilliant sing along to Alternative Ulster a song that has long since come true thankfully.
After some more tunes from Rusty Ego it was time for Generation Sex to play the bands 9th show ever as a sloppy punk supergroup fronted by Billy Idol with Steve Jones, Tony James and Paul Cook playing the songs they played in Generation X and The Sex Pistols in the grand tradition of such groups, who usually play in dive bars to a couple of hundred fans at most, they are under rehearsed at times seeming to barely know songs they have been playing for over 40 years.
They open the set with a grungy take on Pretty Vacant that lacks some bite in the vocals, as Steve Jones looks like he's trying to figure out the chords in places. Ready Steady Go has more life to it as Tony James started to throw his best bass poses and Paul Cook shone as the one musician who knew the material he was as tight as it comes all show.
Billy welcomed us all before an improbable version of Wild Youth that doesn't really sound right being sung by a rocking codger. Bodies was the moment that the crowd really went nuts, while not as tight as it should be was pretty damn good. Black Leather though was the sets true highpoint, the one song that they all seemed to lock into sync on. After Black Leather Kiss Me Deadly sounded a bit flat in places, Steve Jones seemed to be having trouble locating the tune no matter how much Billy snarled at him.
Dancing With Myself got just about everyone I could see dancing along with it going down a storm. Silly Thing wasn't as good as hearing Paul Cook playing it with The Professionals. The simplicity of King Rocker worked in the bands favor, and it worked well enough.
No matter how huge a cheer it got the version of God Save The Queen was rough and ready as it comes, Billy just didn't have the level of conviction needed to nail it, while Jonesy looked like he didn't want to play it at all.
Your Generation has lyrics that now seem quite funny as railing against the elder generation when you're in your teens and twenties is fine but doing now in your 60's when you're the old farts is pretty funny. They closed with a wonderful sing along to My Way that started nice and slow and built up with everyone singing along as the band hammed it up for everything they could, knowing they'd pulled off one more swindle walking away with a nice payday for a sloppy day's work.
Things then changed up several gears as it was time for Debbie Harry's 78th birthday performance, making her the second artist whose 78th birthday show I've attended, the other one being Sunnyland Slim at Blues Etc in Chicago playing alternating sets with Dr John. Debbie is in far better shape than Sunnyland was, but they are both legendary performances.
The current line-up of Blondie is Debbie Harry, Clem Burke, Leigh Foxx, Tommy Kessler, Matt Katz-Bohen, Glen Matlock they opened with a brilliant version of One Way Or Another with Debbie sounding magnificent. If the whole field didn't sing along to that they certainly did to Hanging On The Telephone.
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Between songs part of the crowd were singing Happy Birthday To Debbie as she strutted about for Sunday Girl that seemed a perfect Saturday night tune, Debbie mimed holding a phone up as the graphics on the screen behind showed all sorts of Phone scenes for Call Me as the result of the wait for that call we got to the awkward question that is Will Anything Happen? Well you'll get a life long career and the love of an adoring audience, this sounded great and may have been one of the songs to feature some keytar.
Atomic was a huge rush working brilliantly as it led onto a stunning version of Rapture complete with lots of rap breakdowns and Debbie acting out some of the lyrics this was a long version that just seemed to get better as it went. They then covered The Paragons immortal classic The Tide Is High that's a perfect summer anthem.
That was followed by Debbie giving a shout out to South London's Blood Orange and Dev Hynes before covering The Long Ride that was a good left turn as although I don't know the original this really worked.
Debbie then explained how much of an influence Iggy had been on her when she started out, she also has two musicians who have also played in Iggy's band in Glen Matlock and Clem Burke, as an intro into Detroit 442 this was as heavy rocking as they got, Debbie really wailed out the lyrics. It was back to the pure pop for Maria that had plenty of religious imagery behind it.
Heart of Glass saw Debbie playing up to the lyrics by donning a Mirrored poncho style top and mimicking a good few of the lyrics this was just brilliant. X Offender had a cool punky edge to it before they closed with a wondrous version of Dreaming that ended a pretty much perfect set, as they took a bow a large part of the audience sang Happy Birthday again.
Something odd happened while waiting for Iggy to come on, as Rusty Ego stopped playing records over 20 minutes before Iggy came on, meaning it felt a bit flat as we waited for Iggy's entrance with his current band that features Sarah Lipstate on lead guitar, Leron Thomas on Trumpet and was it Tibo Brandalise on drums, Kenny Ruby on synths, Florian Pellisier and Gregoire Fauque and I'm not sure who was on trombone.
The set opened atmospherically with Sarah Lipstate playing Rune one of the tunes she put out as Novellar almost solo part strummed and part bowed on her guitar and eventually it led into Five Foot One from New Values that sounded stunning with the brass section and synths really adding to it, that and the fact of singing a brilliantly politically incorrect lyrics as Iggy told us "I wish life could be Swedish magazines." Iggy was of course topless showing all the ravages of his 76 years in close detail on the big screen by the side of the stage.
TV Eye rumbled into life with some great strafed guitar from Sarah Lipstate it sounded as brilliant as it always does live. Modern Day Rip-Off was the first song off of Iggy's latest album Every Loser and played like this with a completely different band to the one on the album, it had a fuller sound it was full of bile for how wrong so many things are in this modern age, among things that weren't a Modern Day Rip Off was the ticket price for this great day out.
Raw Power had a great rumbling bass, urgent guitars and some magical trumpet and Trombone as Iggy still showed his immense reserves of raw power are still firing him up as he strolled around the stage.
Gimme Danger was all low-slung pulsating power with Iggy's deep croon keeping an air of menace to it.
The Passenger sounded suitably doom laden with the synths really sounding close to the parts David Bowie played when he toured in Iggy's band. Lust For Life saw Iggy dancing and moving as much as he can, which is still more than many far younger singers as the whole field sang along.
They then slowed things down a good bit for a cool quite jazzy version of Endless Sea that worked brilliantly with the brass section. As they ramped things up as Iggy took us all on a Death Trip that is dark nasty and full of bile still.
Iggy then told us about how on his first trip to London about 50 years ago he had trouble getting in through customs at Heathrow, how he needed to get away from America at that point, as he introduced one of the songs he wrote and recorded back then in London, the still vengeful I'm Sick of You poor old Betsey will never be forgiven, this was played good and slow with a few builds. Iggy then started to pose like a dog by way of intro to a full-on assault on I Wanna Be Your Dog full of swagger and sexual energy as Iggy ended up rolling around on the stage howling the vocals. They then closed with Search & Destroy that was played super hard as the decimation at the heart of the lyrics were spat out at us before Iggy thanked us all and waved goodbye.
It went without question that they would be back for an encore that opened with a super slow dark brooding take on Mass Production that made full use of the synths and Sarah Lipstate's brilliant guitar playing. Iggy then told us we all needed to go Nightclubbing in this case to a club that has some great jazz punk funk.
Then it was time for Iggy to get Down On The Street this was louche with some very cool backing vocals. I'm loose gave Iggy free reign to go as far down the stage as he could, sadly no climbing the speaker stacks these days before he closed the show with a super frenetic version of Frenzy the lead song on Every Loser, this sounded far better live with this band than with the band on the album it had an incredible energy for the closing song of yet another brilliant Iggy Pop show.
If anyone can name the 5 iggy albums I've listened too while writing this review I will find consolation prize for you, the only clue being not one features a song played in this set!
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