Review:
'Rebellion Festival 2025 Day Four'
'At The Winter Gardens Blackpool'
- Album: 'Bad Manners, The Wall, T.S.O.L. D.O.A. Menace,'
- Label: 'Nightingales, Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions,'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '10.8.25.Guitar Gangsters,Clobber,Crapsons, Blagged'- Catalogue No: 'The Derellas, Public Serpents, Cowz,Bruise Control'
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Our Rating:
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Rebellion Festival is my favorite weekend of the year every year we go, this year was no exception, with massive thanks due to Darren and Jennie Russell Smith and the team that put on the festival, all the staff at the Winter Gardens and security team who help make sure this event runs almost like clockwork and trouble free, along with all the bands who play and everyone who turns up to have a great time listening to great music. This year my review is dedicated to anyone from overseas who either had tickets or was meant to play in any of the bands, who were refused entry to the UK and were unable to make it to Blackpool. During this year's festival I managed to see 53 bands and apologize to any of the others that I wanted to see and didn't make it, along with any guess work on song titles and band members.
On Day four we saw Blagged, Crapsons, Clobber, Guitar Gangsters, Bruise Control, Cowz, Public Serpents, The Derellas, Static Kills, Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions, Nightingales, Menace, D.O.A., T.S.O.L., The Wall and Bad Manners.
The final day and we started it by having our traditional ride on the big wheel on our way to the Winter Gardens by the time we got in, we decided to start the day with Blagged who were already under way, playing on the Loud Women presents take over of the Introducing stage in The Pavilion partially or was it wholly curated by Cassie Fox. My only issue with this Manchester based four piece is that 3 of the four women were men, still the one actual woman was singing about being Ready To Go On and they had a good pop punk edge, I think it was before We Don't that the singer announced that as she's Spanish she finds it difficult to pronounce the name of the band she performs in, which was both rather funny and sweet at the same time, We Don't was a good list song of all the things they don't agree with. They closed with Make A Move that had some great moves being thrown on stage and in the mosh pit they had going.
We then popped down into the Empress Ballroom for Crapsons the trio from Birkenhead who opened with Fuck Off Again that was an odd way to greet a busy venue, but really they were pissed off at being asked to work another minimum wage job. They welcomed the new footie season on The Greatest Game You've Ever Seen which for me would probably be seeing my beloved Orient getting stuffed 3-7 by Chelsea way back when, we were all over them and got spanked. Checking In To A & E was dedicated to I think the bassist who had a recent mishap or two. They celebrated their virginity on Clotheslined By A Nun while praising the Virgin Mary and not the band of that name. The first real highlight of the set though was Ian Brown Is The Resurrection being played at 300 mph as they pointed out what a knob he can be in about 45 seconds. RIP is one of the bands' live favorites and went down a storm, once they had established that almost no punks are called Gary anymore. The splenetic guitars went off on Elephant In The Room and they bounced all over the place with the Beer Fear they thought half the audience was suffering from. We then got an exclusive when they introduced You Received The Wrong Album In The Post for anyone who preordered the bands latest magnum opus and received some dance music dreck instead, they promised this would be the only time they played this song before they closed with You Don't Know When You're Gonna die that allowed them to pay respects to several of the recently fallen while continuing to have a blast like we all had.
We then went over to the Club Casbah for Clobber the aggro punks from a London council estate, who harangued the audience with speedy thrash punk like the Bully boys they sang about, while calling out northerners for being pussies. It wasn't clear what Tottenham Court Road was about, I hope it was the great beer flood rather than the current road scheme, the singer had a similar energy to Frank Carter in the early days of Gallows, it was properly confrontational while they moaned the Worlds Gone Metal, before imploring that we should all be someone. The singer then transformed into a total southern Softie as he asked for his girlfriend to come on stage, produced a ring and got down on one knee to propose to her, this shattered the bands hard as nails image, but was one of the most gob smacking moments of this year's Rebellion, thankfully she behaved like the man from Delmonte and they could complete the bands set without any tears of sorrow. He celebrated by singing a duet with his fiance on Hard Times a soppy love ballad originally by soft soul sensations the Cro-Mags, They closed this great brutal fun set with Council Estate Of Mind for anyone who grew up on one.
We then popped over to the Opera House to see Guitar Gangsters again, who told us it was Such A Shame before they threw a Party At The Rex and were sounding super tight while making clear United We Stand Divided We Fall, they looked round the room and asked if there were any Misfits around, well they insisted we all should be and that Fortune Favors The Brave that had a spry guitar solo and was good fun, When The Razor Cuts sounded like it could have been about old school footie violence, before they told us all to Shut Up And Get Me A Drink that went down a storm like it always does live, before they closed with Undefeated that was a good ending to a great tight set.
We went back into the Empress Ballroom to catch part of Bruise Controls set of modern poppy punk that had far better graphics than music, Nothing To Say saw the singer running around all over the place, the bands theme tune Bruise Control was totally forgettable and the backdrop of Terminator 2 was far more interesting than the songs they sang, they then made a horrendous faux pas and said they were going to play Taxman by that awful boy band The Beatles, we fled as quickly as we could to avoid hearing it.
We ended up back in The Pavilion for most of Cowz set they are a three piece from Brighton, who broke all the punk rules, by being a modern pop band with a live drummer and everything else played on pre prepared backing tracks on a lap-top, I'm A Dancer was great fun with the twin vocalists harmonizing well together. Not sure if it was Tasha or Saga who told us that we Shouldn't Date Horrible Men but the song listed a good few reasons why certain men are to be avoided, it was during this song that one of them hit the pedal onstage to make the Autotune kick in, what what what the first band I've heard use Autotune at Rebellion, how punk was that!! They were also surprised to be at a Punk festival and celebrated by singing about cannibalism and Eating Elon Musk who I guess would taste awful. I Love Archie was covered in auto tune and was also properly catchy before they closed with Psychos all about the mad people you meet on the wrong parts of the internet. They were a refreshing change of musical pace.
We then went to the Club Casbah for the rest of Public Serpents Set who this year were a slimmed down 5 piece and missing the bands trumpet goddess sadly, You Won't Die was bile ridden and angry as it gets, Rape Of The USA had a bit of a skank to the raging hatred of the idiots running the asylum, Are You Ready To Stop had chant along vocals and diseased guitars before they closed by getting everyone dancing to One Step Beyond, this wasn't as good as last years late night show in the Arena.
We went back to the opera House for The Derellas who wanted to Gimme Gimme Your Love like it was a full on glam rock stomp, Timmy Derella made clear he would Fake It Till You Make It, Jez Miller and Luca Comencini's guitars meshed and worked a treat on Welcome To The Freakshow, like it always does Pressure Is Gonna Get You went by in a blur, the wry lyrics of Just Because I Smile Doesn't Mean I Like You worked perfectly with Timmy's bassline holding it all together, while Luca got glammier on guitar. You'd better not tell Debs that Timmy had a Landslide Of Love from I think the bands latest album. They went back to the classics for Hi Rise Superstars that had loads of us singing along to it. New song Empire Vultures had a good go at the idiots claiming to run the world. Shot Feelings was all sad and heartbroken before they closed with a monumental version of Richard Gotteherer's immortal classic Night Time that twisted through a verse or two of Iggy's I'm Bored before coming back to the sing along chorus to end a great super tight set.
We then had a quick chillout in the Old Vic where Static Kills were playing acoustic covers staying for Uncle Joe and a cool version of Garageland that proved everything Sean Egan wrote about the song in The Only Band That Matters to be totally wrong.
It was then time to go to Club Casbah for what was claimed is going to be the last ever show by Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions rumor's as to why they are ending, include Spunk is going for a vasectomy and will be unable to be a volcano afterwards, they opened with Death Or Glory that got a bit lost in the cavernous room, once the sound guy had his act together Sellotape sounded magnificent and the first proper singalong was Crossfire that was of course Spunks favorite game, he was swigging from a bottle before finding someone to buy him more booze on Hanging Round The Shops, pretty much the entire Casbah yelled along to Knobhead and I can't Stop Thinking About You, could we decide which TV God Spunk was enthralled by, not sure we could, DNA Failure was bittersweet and had some down tuned grungy guitars grinding away at us, before they took us back to the good old days of World of Sport for Giant Haystacks and then Spunk invited onstage everyone he could round up, to close the bands career with a choral version of XR3 that sped across the stage doing wheel spins, the betting has opened on how many years it will be before they reunite.
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We then took a seat upstairs in the opera House for Nightingales to do what they always do, that mix of super cool post punk alternative noise, deep vocals from Robert Lloyd and wonderfully obtuse lyrics, the current line-up has a very cool violinist, Robert made clear we are All In This Together, the songs seemed to run into each other and they barely stopped, Fliss Kitson shifted time signatures on drums, While Robert stalked the stage Promises that the would Let The Good Times Roll were well received, they got a big cheer for Roberts Kazoo solo before he had a right go at all the Parasites after which he praised the Peoples Poet and took aim at the evils of Empire this was great dark slightly disturbed music in tune with our times.
We stayed in the opera House for Menace to play the bands annual set, while welcoming Pete Bradshaw back to the fold after his heart op, that thankfully didn't feature in Screw It Up the bands usual opener, Noel was stalking the stage going on about our Insane Society with Dave Jenkins super solid bass holding things down, Noel claimed I Don't Wanna Be Angry Anymore while admitting he can't help himself in our current world. At least they remember to have fun on Last Night and Party Animal even while claiming the audience no longer sniff glue, One Two One Two has Simon Edwards drums hitting those beats perfectly, did they find the man at C & A they were looking for? They re-worked Toots & The Maytals classic into 69-77 What's My Number with some cool alternate lyrics, They still don't wanna be Civilized, they certainly Don't Give A Fuck and as ever closed with GLC and Last Years Youth to leaving us all smiling.
We then made our way to Club Casbah for Canadian legends D.O.A. who opened by covering The Dils Class War with super speedy guitar from Joey Shithead, the soundman tried to make his vocals cut through, that was followed by the bands theme song D.O.A. that went down a storm, Joey made clear that we should all know The Enemy the thrashy guitars seemed to speed up even more, 2 + 2 was the bands ode to numeracy and had some super heavy bass from Maggot, One More went by in a blur, Joey made clear his other job is being a Canadian Politician before World War 3 something he hopes he can help prevent. Already Dead had a mad mosh pit going before Joey talked about phoning up and speaking to Donald Trump as he introduced the bands anthem Fucked Up Donald that went down a storm. I have no idea who Kenny Blister (Brewster) was, but Joey really didn't like him. Smash the State is an odd song for a politician to sing, but Joey is an odd politician, one we can trust. They were Ready To Go that was even speedier than the rest of this 100mph set, I loved how they re-worked Edwin Starr's War if only it had stopped being relevant. Pusher took aim at all the drug problems in the world and they were kind of saying goodbye with Backwards, they kind of got an encore, or still had enough time for the re-worked Disco Sucks that mutated into Racism Sucks it was a great end to the set. Afterwards the bloke who had spilled a bunch of beer over my legs when he got too excited accused me of being Canadian, like he thought only Canadians would show up to see D.O.A. play!!
We then went back to the Empress Ballroom for the rest of T.S.O.L.'s set they were also singing about World War 3 but lacked the bite D.O.A. had, Silent Majority went down well, these days they are apparently a family band which is why Walking In The Rain sounded so pedestrian, Did It Again was decently bitter, It Was A Nightmare flew by in a blur, before they were having a go at the Tough Guy, I must have missed why T.S.O.L. became legendary, this was a little bland while they sang about the Homo Superior, it was almost a relief when they closed with Today I Can Do What I Want they were ok but at a festival like Rebellion Ok is never enough.
We went back to the Opera House for the rest of The Wall's set of gothy post punk, from this 4 piece from Sunderland, Barriers was good and dark for the 4 piece to whip up a storm, that was followed by the brilliant When I'm Dancing I'm Not Fighting With You, Career Fucker had some good twisted lyrics and grinding guitars, Hobby For A Day went down well, they then nearly made me leave, when they covered Day Tripper but they played it so wonderfully askew that thankfully it sounded nothing like the original boy band version. The song about people in Uniform was dark and taut before they closed with a great version of Ghetto.
Then for our final band of Rebellion 2025 we decided to leave on a high by going to Club Casbah for Bad Manners whose 9-piece line-up opened with the bands intro music that went into This Is Ska that got the whole place bouncing along with Buster Bloodvessel who was amazingly wearing a thermal body warmer. My Girl Lollipop got everyone singing along with them, the brass section sounded brilliant as they all ran around onstage. Lorraine was great fun, they all looked like they were having a ball, Buster then told us his knee hurt too much for him to Feel Like Jumping, but the rest of us had better get jumping and we did. Walking In The Sunshine was bright and breezy, before the dark hints at what Sally Brown was really about, stay away from that stuff. We then took a trio to the Court Of Dub whole Buster left the stage for little bit. The first massed sing along was for Can't Take My Eyes Off You it was brilliant fun, Just A Feeling was all lovey dovey and with full on skanking guitar, El Pussycat was a cool take on the Skatalites hit, their version of Guns Of Navarone wasn't quite as huge as Neville Staples version. Ne Ne Na Na Nu Nu had the band almost going all knees up mother brown on stage, Buster was then Flying High, oh so high like he's smoked another bifter, the place went mental for Wooly Bully that was followed by the full on rampage of Special Brew, we then had some call and response of You Fat Bastard before the bands monumental hit Lip Up Fatty that had everyone singing along before they closed with everyone joining in for the Can Can as rebellion 2025 couldn't be over until we all danced the Can Can!! Everyone left The Club Casbah smiling, we stumbled off for one last bag of Donuts and saying good bye to anyone we saw on the way back to our B & B.
On our way home on the Monday while at Blackpool North Station we were given t-shirts by The Effigies one of the bands we missed at Rebellion, that ensured we went and saw the bands London show to thank them for being so nice, that pretty much summed up Rebellion 2025 and we look forward to next year already.
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author: simonovitch
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