Review:
'Rebellion Festival 2025 Day Two'
'At The Winter Gardens Blackpool'
- Album: 'The Damned, Jim Jones Allstars, Avengers,'
- Label: 'Swell maps, Mick Rossi, The Outcasts, Battery Acid'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '8.8.25. Knuckleheadz, Twisted Nerve'- Catalogue No: 'Ruts DC, Interrobang, Desperate Measures,Perrybois'
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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 two I review Twisted Nerve, Knuckleheadz, Perrybois, Desperate Measures NZ, Interrobang, Ruts DC, Battery Acid, The Outcasts, Mick Rossi's Gun Street, Swell Maps C21, Avengers, Jim Jones All Stars and The Damned
For the Friday we decided to start the day in the Opera House with Twisted Nerve based mainly on liking the band's name, rather than knowing anything about them, a great decision, from the opening When I'm Alone the bands brand of dark neo gothy post punk sounded great, front man Craig sounded great while looking like he could have been in Classix Nouveaux, Medusa had a dark majesty to it, they made clear they wanted Freaky Nights Forever, Twisted Nervosis was fraught with paranoia and dark implications, They reduced Warhol's dictum to just 5 Minutes Of Fame something this performance was worth far more than, before they closed with the first Velvet underground cover we heard this Rebellion with a great version of White Light White Heat that most of the Opera House sang along too, this was a great first band of the day to have links to The Godfathers.
We then went to the Empress Ballroom for LA Hardcore brawlers Knuckleheadz who were singing about Glory Days when we arrived and it looked like they were ready for a good bundle. They made clear that whatever we all do we should all Fuck McDonalds a sentiment I totally agree with having not been in one since 1985, they were taunting us all and loving every minute of being on a huge stage making clear they were Punk Until The End. They then told us we all needed a Punk Rock Lawyer, possibly on the advice of Paul Zamost from The Effigies whose son is in the band, that got a huge pit going, that featured The Pope going for it big style, the band couldn't believe there eyes that they had the Pope moshing to their brand of aggressive hardcore, the singer wiped a tear from his eye in time for them to blast through Punks Don't Cry there re-working of the Cure classic, by the time they roared through Fuck You I'm Done it was clear they had a busy ballroom totally with them.
We then went to the Pavilion for Indonesian punks Perrybois who were a tight trio in love with sweary songs, Bastard was great fun before they did a great thrashy version of We Are Family and blasted through You Fucking Wankers and then got good and speedy for Goodbye New York, they also had great mohicans that shook throughout Pena Pena Pena before they thanked us and got the message of No Police No Pollution across to us. They didn't like fucking Killers that was sure and closed with what may have been Mega by Runtah that went down a treat.
It was back to the Opera House in time for Desperate Measures NZ to take us back to 1980's New Zealand by opening with Back To The Rat, Eugene really went for it on Sublime Destruction bellowing Out the title track for the bands last album, Mauro Venegas was the next Ex-Godfather onstage and his guitar ripped through The Rich-tual like he was coming for us, while James Sherry's drums were super crisp on Nation Divided. They brought out Kit Swing from Bite Me for backing vocals on Enjoy The Ride, while Phil Roadkill's bass drove 1984 to its dark memories, before they paid tribute to Seven Sisters in London, Scars And Memories had sizzling guitars before they romped through I Wanna Be Your Dog to close a great set.
We were getting comfy upstairs in the Opera House as Danbert Nobacon and Interrobang were getting properly angry about what might happen in 5 seconds and even worse on My Name Is Dunstan Bruce, I still want to call him Danbert especially as he waved his loud hailer at us. The way the synths penetrated everything made clear that Revolution isn't a single act, and they are as angry as ever while claiming We Are Cooking On Gas, Danbert stalked the stage like a man possessed, hectoring us that we shouldn't Pity His Mortality and that we should Stop All The Clocks as time is irrelevant and of course we need To Re-Think Everything and all join the Interrobang party to make sure finally that It's Fabulous and who would argue with that.
We stayed put for Ruts DC's traditional acoustic slot that opened with a short solo from Ruffy before they launched into Something That I Said the normal banter got going before Too Much and the interplay between Leigh and Segs worked perfectly on Kill The Pain, everyone joined in the chorus, Segs wanted some Soft City Lights as he was almost blinded by the Opera House lights, they were soon staring At The Rude Boys once more, before Segs accused us all for being the inspiration for All You Pretty Lunatics, well of course we are. In A Rut was monumental like it always is, he cautioned us not to follow Malcolm down the road to getting H Eyes, before we all shouted along to Babylon's Burning and they left us with a short blast through Society to guarantee we all wanted more Ruts DC.
We popped over to The Pavilion to catch part of Battery Acid's set they are a super young female four piece, who were bouncing around asking What The Hell and then telling us about Bus Fire Vomit that was rather dark tune, the bands theme tune Battery Acid was more pop punk fun, before they got rather angry on Blasphemy and closed by getting us all dancing on Get Down they may well be a band to watch in a couple of years' time.
It was then back to The Opera House for The Outcasts where we'd missed the first song and they were already getting Self Conscious Over You in that introverted Irish way they do. It was time for a choc ice as they ripped through Magnum Force that was nicely bitter. They told us we should all Stay Young like they obviously have, we needed some real mania to make it happen though, they were soon searching for Just Another Teenage Rebel in between taking the piss out of each other. They took us back to the bad times of the "Troubles" for Gangland Warfare before naming the Seven Deadly Sins they enjoy the most and warning us that The Cops Are Coming to break up the party once again before they left us by yelling You're A Disease at us repeatedly, this was a great rambunctious set.
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We hung about in the Opera House for Mick Rossi's Gun Street his four piece splinter group, who started with a greasy instrumental vamp that went into The Bitch that had some deeply bitter lyrics not about Joan Collins, even if Mick was soon singing about his Love Life and ramping up the energy on Stranded before he made clear how much he's enjoyed being a High Roller over the years, it was back to his Slaughter & The Dogs roots for a great version of Situations that was followed by the obvious question When Will We Meet Again. Mick then told us I'm Waiting For the Man was by one of his true heroes who he met many years ago briefly, this had a good swagger to it, He then claimed to have a Rock & Roll Soul and no one in the opera house would argue with that, we all yelled along to Boston Babies, before Mick paid tribute to Walter Lure who he played with in the Opera House as an intro to Born To Lose that was followed by a great version of Get Ready that was similar to how Bruce Foxton used to sing it, a great way to close his set.
I was finding it hard to leave the Opera House so stayed for the current lineup of Swell Maps C21 that Jowe Head has put together, they opened with Morning Star with David Lance Callahan and Jowe Head driving things on guitars. International Rescue had some odd recorder blasts from Chloe Hetherington that were more feedback than anything, The Helicopter Spies had a dark sinister edge to it before Crow Crow saw Jowe making all sorts of bird like movements across the stage, Jowe introduced new song The Warts On Mrs Ogden's Toe which was a well odd song, so fit perfectly, before they took some Real Shocks dedicated to Epic Soundtracks and Nikki Sudden that lee mcFadden sang, they made clear H.A.K. came off of the new C21 album and I think that was when Chloe played stylophone. They did a great version of the band's classic single Let's Build A Car, before they closed with a cool version of Midget Submarines.
It was at this point that my reviewing assistant went off to see Anti Nowhere League play their normal set and I stayed in the Opera House for the return of The Avengers who opened with a great version of Cheap Tragedies, before Penelope Houston was bouncing around in her bondage trousers cautioning us not To Go To Babylon, She made clear that she was actually still a teenager when they wrote Teenage Rebel, I loved hearing Corpus Christi with some really tight guitar lines, Desperation seems as relevant as it ever did sadly, Penelope really got us all singing along to We Are The One. She then introduced The Angel & The Jerk the song she wrote with Billy Joe Armstrong, the lyrics seemed to be far more apposite than we would want them to be, The Avengers are still of course Second To None and Penelope pointed out they had to change the title of Gold Digger as they can't say the original title anymore, times have changed thankfully. They still cover Paint It Black and keep it good and dark with taut histrionics before she had a go at the current American tragedy before the American In Me made clear which side of the argument Avengers are on, they left us with the bands anthem I Believe In Me that still, sounds brilliant.
Next up in the Opera House were The Jim Jones All Stars who tore the roof of the sucker, with possibly the best set of the festival, this 8-piece monster of a band opened with Lose Your Mind and as the twin sax attack hit us on Nice & Slow it was clear they had the Opera House by the nuts, Burning Your House Down had Jim’s full on rock & roll preacher routine in full swing, Do The Grease had a wall of guitars, keyboards rattled away through their version of Parchman Farm. Jim may have dedicated I Want You Anyway I Can to his wife who was playing tambourine and singing backing vocals. Satan’s Got A Hard On For You had the dirty sax parts from Stuart Dace and Tom Rogers wo were moving in unison. Soul trader went by in a blur, Jim took us back to his roots for Shakedown the old Thee Hypnotics classic. They did an immense version of Rock & Roll Hypnosis before closing with I'm A Man this was a truly immense set.
We then went over to the Empress Ballroom to finish the night with our thirteenth band of the day The Damned who came on stage to Barry Adamson's version of The Man With The Golden Arm before launching into a rather flat version of Love Song that was missing a spark or three, Machine Gun Etiquette was better but just made me want to hear Michael Monroe's version. Wait For The Blackout had Dave Vanian's best vampire routine, with Captain Sensible really letting rip on The History of the World, Just Can't Be Happy Today sounded really cool with Rat Scabies drums playing off of Monty's keyboards in cool ways, Eloise seemed a touch subdued, while Fan Club seemed to lack a little bit of drama, Neat Neat Neat however seemed more like cabaret than a serious version of a timeless hit, with a break down into Baby Please Don't Go and much hamming it up to kind of close the set, well the first false ending, they were soon back with Dave asking us to taste the whip on Curtain Call this was the happiest he seemed all set, before they let Rat Scabies have an elongated drum solo the eventually went into a rather laggy version of New Rose for the second alleged ending, the second encore opened with a cool stab at White Rabbit before they finished with a rather long version of Smash It Up that just about left everyone smiling at the end of another great day at Rebellion, we staggered off in search of donuts.
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author: simonovitch
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