Review:
'Rebellion Festival 2025 Day Three'
'At The Winter Gardens Blackpool'
- Album: 'Slaughter & The Dogs,Sloppy Seconds,Neville Staple'
- Label: 'Subhumans, The Mob, Gimp Fist, 999,'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '9.8.25.'- Catalogue No: 'Los Fastidios, Split Dogs, Gypsy Pistoleros'
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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.
Day 3 will feature Gypsy Pistoleros, Split Dogs, Los Fastidios, 999, Gimp Fist, The Mob, Subhumans, Neville Staple From the Specials, Sloppy Seconds and Slaughter & The Dogs
Having dodged all the military recruiters on the promenade on our way to the Winter Gardens, we arrived in time to see the Opera House get transformed into the Church Of The Pistoleros for the Gypsy Pistoleros opening set of the day, they were as glammed up as ever, all with full make up and from the opening Church Of The Pistoleros in great form, with far less moaning than when I last saw them in May. They were soon careening all over the stage on Last Train To Nowhere before they dedicated a song to Joey Ramone while also wondering Whatever Happened To The Old Town a song that fit perfectly with the vibe of Blackpool, that still hasn't gone yuppie. Lee Pistolero was as he always is still In Love With Myself before getting lost with the glammy guitars of Shadow Walker, they sensibly encouraged us all to start a Revolution before closing with a great swaggering sing along to Come On Eileen that at least meant they avoided playing La Vida Loca like they normally do.
Then it was time to go to a packed Empress Ballroom for Split Dogs who last year were on the introducing stage, but having spent most of the year on tour are now more than worthy of the big stage, right from the start Harry had the room transfixed, she shook shimmied and blasted her way through Stay Tuned, Animal was brutal and full on with Suze's bass driving it on, they were more than ready to drive a Monster Truck right through the new barriers on the front, the one thing you could guarantee that no one in the Ballroom would dare to Hate Me as Harry owned the room, Mil took care of the intros and Prison Bitch sounded harder than ever, before the dirty hardcore of Precious Stones ripped through the room, Harry then had her Evil Eye on all of us before paying tribute to her mum on Lafayette and her love of Northern Soul. And What? Was a huge sing along for anyone not in the pit going at it like crazy. We were all Smoked and Choked while they Tear The House down before closing with a monumentally bruising version of Punch Drunk that left us all wanting more from Split Dogs one of the best live bands on the circuit.
We stayed in the ballroom for Los Fastidious to play there traditional ram raid of a set, that opened with a plea for a New generation of ska bands and fans to skank along with them, they got the room bouncing along to Two Tone Town Eliza Dixons smile and dancing were infectious, before Enrico implored us all to Fight The System Not The People that had a great rumbling bass on it, Skabilly Movie sounded like it should have been shot on the front like the video they did last year. They then posed an interesting question to all the carnivores Why Don't You Eat Your Cat? Other than the cat eats the mice and kills the rats so is a good friend to have perhaps. Rude Girl was encouragement to empower as many women as possible, while stopping all the sexism. They took us on a trip to Skanking Town that saw almost everyone dancing along with them. Enrico made clear that as ever they would Take A Stand against racism, sexism and bullying of any kind. The one Italian song in the set Ellos Dicen Mierda was great fun before they closed with the classic Antifa Hooligans and its message to beat all the awful idiots full of pointless hatred.
Next in the Ballroom it was time for the return of 999 to the bands traditional midafternoon spot, they opened with Send Black Flowers To The Bride with Nick Cash throwing all his usual poses while playing, Let's face it went down a storm and Nick made clear we were all part of 999's crew before Feeling Alright With The Crew that was totally driven along by Stuart Meadows pinpoint drumming, both Nick and Arturo Bassick were strafing the audience throughout Shoot. Boys In The Gang had a great Guy Days solo, Nick made clear that I Need You was as much about needing everyone to take part in the scene as it was a love song, they were still hoping to win the Biggest Prize in Sport. No Pity had loads of fury both in the vocals and playing, Nick put his guitar down for Emergency all the better to get everyone singing along with them, Nasty Nasty was vehement in getting its message across before the place went nuts to Homicide before they closed this set with the life affirming I'm Alive that made clear they are still a potent live band.
We went over to Club Casbah for Gimp Fists usual slot they opened with This Is The Place whose vocals got lost in the boomy room, the soundman worked on getting them properly audible in time for This Is My Time to be a proper sing along, They took a long hard look at the wrong sort of person on Where's The Fun In You before asking What Am I Fighting For a great fist pumping take on it, they of course celebrated Skinhead Punk Rock and were super thankful that we all showed up to see them while explaining It's No Fun To Be Young, the biggest sing along of their set was as usual Heart Full Of Pride that could have gone On And On And On but they needed to finish with Here I Stand to make sure we could all have one last sing song with them.
We then needed a sit down upstairs in the Opera House to see The Mob the anarcho punk trio who were letting us know What's Going On with some great low end guitar, Another Day Another Death made some salient points for the times we live in, they warned us about who was Coming For The Kill while bemoaning you might end up with a Job In A Factory if any of them are still left, of course taut post punk is the perfect vehicle to make us all Rise Up against the system that they are certainly fighting on This Is My War, it seems that we no longer have to Wait For The Witch Hunt as its already here and Peter Perrett has already been arrested. I think it was No Doves Fly Here that made clear we never asked for war, just why would you ask for that. They were staring into the Gates Of Hell at the end of a great taut set.
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We then went back to the Empress Ballroom for Dick Lucas and the Subhumans greatest hits set with Dick as normal railing against Injustice of all sorts while stalking the stage and giving us his thoughts on that Big City and what happens there, he made it clear about the dichotomy at the heart of Internal Riot and his never ending argument with himself. He then pointed a finger at Businessmen who run corporations who don't play fairly. Trotsky's drums drove Joe Public into the mosh pit while the Rats were still fleeing. Dick made clear that we needed to avoid anyone claiming we were Too Fat Too Thin or anything else other than who we wanted to be, No was full of venom for the idiots trying to rule us. Every once in a while, Bruce Wakes Up Screaming and Dick has to calm him down but fails, he is already ranting about how the 99% should all pull together, to get the 1% to redistribute enough wealth to feed and clothe and house everyone. Another thing Dick still hates is Apathy we all have a part to play in making a better world. We should all eat organic as made clear on Poison, everyone sang along to Minority while Dick made crystal that Mickey Mouse Is Dead, They were at their most furious on Subvert City as everyone punched the air and sang along with them. Whatever you do be careful with that Peroxide before they closed with Religious Wars a sadly all to relevant song, yet again Subhumans delivered a great set.
We stayed in the totally rammed Empress Ballroom for the triumphant set by Neville Staple From The Specials whose 8 piece band opened with a brilliant version of Gangsters a song that is more on the money than ever sadly, the Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum for certain now, Sugary Staples helped make clear the next song was Nite Club that felt euphoric as did everyone singing and dancing to A Message to You Rudy, That was followed by Sugary singing most of Original Rude Girl, while Neville doesn't run around much these days he still sounds magnificent when he has to Do The Dog with the brass section working double time, Monkey Man went down a storm as they got caught up in the Concrete Jungle once more, before he was re-working the Pioneers classic Long Shot Kick De Bucket again, sadly as Neville pointed out Nothing Ever Changes if only it did, still we all joined in on Guns Of Navarone. The audience then started singing Enjoy Yourself and Neville and the band reluctantly gave in to play the Leslie Sarony classic, that broke down into band intros before they closed with Fire to leave us all wanting more, so much so that most of us were singing Enjoy Yourself while going up the stairs out of the ballroom.
We then took a breather in The Old Vic at the Dinner Ladies Disco that was loads of fun as everyone sang along to a bunch of Punk classics as Pete Bentham encouraged everyone with the energy left to get on the dancefloor.
It was then time for me to get to see Sloppy Seconds for the first time in about 30 years since they played a monumentally sloppy show at The Square in Harlow, this time they were super tight right from the get go on Running From The CIA with the super speedy thrashy guitars going off on You've Got A Great Body, But Your Record Collection Sucks, BA was yelling I Want To Break You like he meant every word while he still wanted a Queen From Outer Space, of course the classic You Can't Kill Joey Ramone went down a treat, The Horror of Party Beach was dedicated to Blackpool for some reason. It's A Lie was super speedy. I Don't Wanna Be A Homosexual was super camp fun, before he told that Bad Surfer to Suck My Dick, they made clear exactly what 15 Mins Or It's Free was all about before praising the Ice Cream Man and closing with what I guessed was called Head it was so cool to see them again and on top form.
The tenth and final band of Saturday for me was Slaughter & The Dogs in the opera House, it's the current line-up who opened with Now I Know sounding like a proper taut Punk band who still had issues with The Bitch this has a sleazier edge to the version Mick Rossi's Gun Street played, What's Wrong Boy was the sort of question you ask someone whose had too much, before they rampaged through White Light White Heat, Run Joey Run kept up the theme of songs about Joey this weekend, Boston Babies got the biggest cheer of the set and a great sing along, they dedicated East Side Of Town to the memory of Ed Banger and it was a cool emotional version before they blasted through Cranked Up Really High like they had all snorted a couple of grams. They sort of went off and got an encore that allowed them to pay tribute to Mott The Hoople and the late great Buffin on The Golden Age Of Rock And Roll that had plenty of glam stomp to it before they closed with Frankie Valli's Your Ready Now that sounded cool. For me I preferred the Gun Street set to the Slaughter one but it was close.
All we had energy left for was to get some donuts and stumble back to our B & B.
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author: simonovitch
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