This December was not a month I was particularly looking forward to. Normally I would be eagerly awaiting it, for the simple fact of the Pogues’ Christmas tour – a tradition I’ve been keeping going for around ten years now. However this year, for whatever reasons, it was not to be. Thank fuck then for Brighton’s finest crusties The Levellers keeping up my Christmas spirits, with a gig on the 18th playing their brilliant second album ‘Levelling the Land’ in its entirety…I knew immediately I was going to be at this show. After a skate round south London followed by some pub food, I headed down just in time to catch Dreadzone take to the stage. Never having heard them before I didn’t know what to expect, but was happily surprised by a blend of ska, rock and classic dancehall riddims with live instruments; possibly what the Specials would have sounded like if they had formed after the ragga/dancehall explosion of the mid-90s. It must be hard to choose a perfect support act for a band as musically eclectic as the night’s headliners, but this was spot on, definitely a band I would recommend. This was definitely a more relaxed crowd than the usual Pogues wrecking crew, shit down the front was looking fairly relaxed and no-one had yet dropped an entire pint over my head, so I decided to head towards the front for the Levellers set despite being sans glasses case, usually a dangerous game.
Before taking to the stage, the band was preceded by a montage of news articles from the last 15 or 20 years. This seems to be a recent trends with bands of a certain era/political bent (I witnessed the same thing before The Specials a couple of months back) and, whilst no doubt their hearts are in the right place, I can’t help thinking that they are to some extent preaching to the choir? I would imagine that most people at a Leveller’s gig aren’t going to need convincing that Maggie Thatcher wasn’t a very pleasant human being. Still, the crowd were amped anyway, and deafened as the band finally took to the stage and immediately kicked in to ‘One Way’. I won’t go in to track details, as you only have to look at the album to find out, but suffice to say they played everything, along with the B-sides (including ‘Dance Before The Storm’ and their cover of Charlie Daniel’s ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’, high points for me), and had me jumping around like a crack squirrel for all of the faster songs, and a good few of the slower ones as well. Hippy type dancers appeared for the majority of the tracks and the didgeridoos and other obscure instruments were in full effect, almost making you think that you were at a free festival in the 90s – only given lie to by the bouncers constantly sweeping the audience with torches to find those pesky worshippers at the chalice of sensimilla. And to be fair, with their dayglo jackets and penlights, if you squinted you could just pretend they were ravers. It was definitely a fairly sedate affair at the front, but to be honest after a day’s skating that was about what I could handle, so it worked out beautifully. Standouts for me were ‘Liberty Song’, ‘Far From Home’, ‘Riverflow’ and the aforementioned B-sides…but to be honest the whole set was a standout, especially when the band came back and played ‘Carry Me’ and 'Cholera Well' during the encore. There were other encores, but by this point constantly jumping around had turned my head into a paint mixer, which took in cider and gave out drunk – so I can only remember that they finished with ‘Beautiful Day’.
I got on the tube back sweaty and stoked, and cannot stress enough how good this band still are; at least when their sticking to classic albums. Thank you Levellers, for clearing out my Christmas malaise and Pogues-withdrawal!
http://douglastonkindonations.tumblr.com/
As a lot of you who skate may now, one of Leeds finest, Doug Tonkin, past a few weeks ago. Basically Doug was the fucking man, nicest, most stoked dude ever. The website linked above has been set up to donate money to his family to pay for costs that occur in these times, and anything would be appreciated. Raising a glass to a fallen brother
Coverings bands from the UK, Denmark, Sweden and the US, this four way split (released by TNS in the UK) is a snapshot of a thriving worldwide hardcore punk scene, and by fuck it stokes me out to see it. First up is the Mighty Midgets from Denmark, whose metallic hardcore (at times reminiscent of the Bones Brigade) will have batter you awake and have you listening from the start. Tinged by influences of thrash metal, 90s melodic hardcore, and topped off by the occasional NYHC style breakdown, this sounds to me like music should – played by fans - and finishing with a paean to the chronic, what’s not to like? This is followed by the only band whose material I actually knew prior to hearing this album, Manchester hardcore punk wrecking crew Revenge of the Psychotronic Man, with six new tracks about drinking, DIY, drinking, social issues, and nuclear apocalypse (including possible ramifications for drinking). This is proper breakneck speed 80s influenced hardcore that will have you buzzing to jump in the pit with beer in hand, but with a social consciousness that characterises the best bands of the genre.
Fist of the North Star have no intention of slowing things down, musically taking their cues from the Puffball/Zeke/New Bomb Turks school of hardcore rock and roll, but with a twist in the Maiden-esque guitar soloing over their gritty punk…pissed off, but controlled and technical as fuck, I have a feeling they would be mental live. Definitely a band to keep an eye on. Closing the split are Sweden’s Broken Aris. Playing a brand of melodic punk rock that would not sound out of place on an Epitaph compilation from the late 90s, this isn’t something I would normally go for, but there’s no denying that they can play, with their tracks sounding tight as fuck – and ‘I have bought a pair of sneakers they are pink and very gay but I am not’ is one of the best song titles I’ve heard in a long time! This compilation is definitely worth picking up if you want a glimpse into the worldwide hardcore punk scene as it stands today; and of course ya know it’s only the tip of the iceberg, so grab this, listen, then keep hunting out those gems!
After hearing about The Specials doing a 2nd reunion tour (after their first in 2009) I wrote out my Christmas list and Father Christmas delivered 4 tickets to me for the Ally Pally gig. And, lo and behold, 11 months later the time came round to get on our dancing shoes and head to the cavernous Alexandra Palace to see this legendary band for the 2nd time for me and Jono, 3rd for Jon (the bastard) and 1st time for Jason, losing his Specials virginity.
We arrived as the support band were onstage. I don't know who they were, but it doesn't matter because they weren't very good. We lurked at the back near the bar, marvelling at the sheer number of harrington jackets about. I actually felt a bit left out as I've never owned a harrington, but anyway, I digress, this isn't a fucking fashion blog is it?
After the support act had left the stage and we deemed it safe to move closer, we weren't waiting too long till the lights went down and a montage of footage from the 80s was played, showing images of riots and strikes, war, Thatcher, racism, unemployment, a royal wedding...then it cut to the present day with the 'war on terror', London riots, the BNP and EDL, Cameron and Osborne, and another royal wedding. It was a good way of showing that since the Specials first started playing places infinitely smaller and sweatier than the place they were gracing with their presence this evening, very little has changed in Britain. However despite all the 80s-esq shit that's going down, if it means I get to see The Specials again then it's certainly the silver lining on an increasingly all-encompassing dark cloud.
Opening with Gangsters (one of my personal favourite tracks anyway) the whole place just turned into a jumping, skanking mass of people. They played everything from their self-titled LP, including Stupid Marriage which was an unexpected treat. They played everything in a perfect order, after dancing around like a mentalist for 3 or 4 tracks you needed a little rest so would play something slightly slower, then launch into more ska joy. It's hard to pick highlights because it was all so fucking good, but for me Do the Dog, Nite Klub (complete with glitter balls), Monkey Man, Too Much Too Young and Little Bitch were the best for me. Hearing so many people singing along to A Message To You Rudy was also brilliant.
This was as close to a perfect gig that I could have asked for, I never wanted it to end and the sad thing is I might never see them again (unless the call of money is too great to resist). I'm not complaining, it was a sweet gig with awesome people, I felt young compared to the rest of the crowd, I danced and sang more than normal at a gig, it was everything I wanted it to be! We all left with massive grins on our faces, my legs were weary but I didn't care.
Gig of the year? Certainly a top contender for me. 5/5 no frontin!
Thought I'd shove a couple old reviews up, so it looks like we're doing stuff and that...heres one from this years boomtown:
After 23 years of never going to a festival due to generally being poor or slack, I decided this year that it would have to wait another year, mostly due to my bank balance still reeling from being a student. However one slow weekend, after hearing people’s descriptions of it, I decided to check out the line-up for Boomtown Fair online; a couple more days prevaricating and I was £98 poorer, but stoked for four days of bands, beers and general carnage. We joined the lengthy queue on Thursday afternoon with showers threatening, but the dodgy weather was more than made up for by our campsite up on a hill, overlooking the entire festival site - visually somewhere between a post-apocalyptic townscape a la Mad Max, and a depraved circus. It also happened to pick up the sound from the town centre stage perfectly, so even when the partying got too much then sitting by the tents sipping warm cider, smoking and watching from afar was always an option. Thursday night was fairly quiet on the band front, so after spending some time expanding our collective consciousnesses, we decided to let the evening take us where it would. My stand out memory from this particular point in time is seeing two amazing ska bands in the Invisible Circus tent, one of a swing bent, one more leaning more towards hip hop. Not that I’m 100% sure, but looking at the programme, it looks like the first band was the Big Red Ass Band and the second was King Porter Stomp. Whoever they were, they helped me back down to reality and definitely got everyone’s feet moving! After an evening’s exploring and discovering the award winning combination of shrooms, hash brownies and fairground rides, I headed back for a couple hours kip while a hardened few kept going strong.
Friday began again with us lurking hard around the site, working through the hangovers before eventually ending up at the Lion’s Den tent watching the Drop’s smoothly danceable brand of reggae and dub help people forget about the impending rain and get in the mood for another day’s drinking and dancing through a haze of chronic smoke and laid back rhythms. The whole festival site was as much of an attraction as the music itself, with each mocked up street containing a wide array of stalls, DJ stalls hidden behind random facades, alongside a variety of mildly hallucinogenic experiences.
After putting in some time with some tinnies up at our base, we headed down to see Dirty Revolution. Somehow a band that have bypassed my radar until now, they were one of the highlights of my weekend, with a fierce, punky brand of two-tone that quickly filled the Invisible Circus with skanking crowds. Definitely a band worth checking out, if you haven’t already (apparently I’m one of the few who didn’t know). Later the evening found a couple of us bearing witness to the sound mash-up madness of Babyhead, whose blend of ska, hip hop and punk fitted the weekend like a hemp glove. I’m pretty sure that not many of us caught their set, but the crew was rolling deep by the time the Restarts hit the Devil Kicks Dancehall tent with the full throttle ska tinged squat punk that has made them regulars on the punk circuit for so many years. As good as always, long live the Restarts! Later that evening was what for many was the high point of the weekend, the mighty Gogol Bordello headlining the Town Centre stage. I only caught half an hour or so of their set but judging by that, it was as savagely insane as usual. Definitely a band to make a point of seeing live, the entire open area around the main stage was heaving. However by this point, with a couple of brownies riding strong in my veins the crowds were slightly more than I could handle, so I grabbed some like-minded people and headed off to find the Lion’s Den. Unfortunately this proved too much for my addled brain, and after 20 minutes or so everyone else got bored and went elsewhere, while I decided to keep going. I’m glad I did, because it meant that I finally arrived there just as Tippa Irie took to the stage. This was one of the points of the weekend I was definitely looking forward to and he didn’t disappoint, with a set of dancehall classics including ‘The UK’, ‘All The Time the Lyrics A Rhyme’, ‘It’s Good To Have the Feeling You’re the Best’ and ‘Hello Darling’, while the crowd worked hard at breaking the world record for largest hotboxed area. Feeling refreshed and hyped again, I travelled back up to the campsite to grab anyone in sight to go and see Demented Are Go. I truly expected to witness a lot more pyschobilly over the weekend than I actually did – but despite missing much of what was happening over at the Devil Kicks stage, I can’t imagine much of it beat Demented Are Go’s high octane trash punk; in a genre that can often seem like it is continually rehashing itself, it’s a treat to hear a band who sound so genuinely sleazy and nasty. Highlights included ‘Holy Hack Jack’, ‘I Was Born (On a Busted Hymen)’, ‘Blood Beach’, and covers ‘Funnel of Love’ and ‘Be Bop a Lula’. The solo mission could have happily continued at this point, but luckily, as happened frequently over the four days, I stumbled on some crew, and we hit the town to see what was what. Memories from this time are fairly muddled, but I have a feeling that four of us ended up, dressed in suit jackets, dancing to some kind of electronic beat in a faux gentleman’s club; before heading out into the rain and ending up soaking wet, lying in some netting.
Saturday came around, and the last 48 hours were starting to tell. There had been a few MIA’s the previous night, but today would definitely sort out those with true grit. After a brandy coffee and a smoke augmented a breakfast of bagels and vitamin tablets, and an early skank to the Skints’ unique brand of ska punk, I felt the need to sit against a wall and rock gently backwards and forwards to the second half of their set. Thankfully this was as good to mong to as it is to dance like a lunatic to, the Skints are amazing. Faces I knew laughed at me from the crowd, but I knew that they would be there soon enough – so I relaxed with a pint, and by the time NY ska legends The Toasters took to the stage, I was ready to get back in the thick of it. The Toasters have never really been given their rightful place in the pantheon of early 2-tone, possibly due to being across the world from its’ Coventry epicentre, which is a shame as they always put on a cracking live set – everyone who could physically move by that point was dancing with grins on their faces to songs including ‘2 Tone Army’, ‘East Side Beat’, ‘Shocker’, ‘Running Through the World’ and ‘DLTBGYD’ amongst others. After a few minutes to give peoples’ legs some kind of recovery, it was time to abuse them some more to the Inner Terrestrials’ hectic blend of ska, punk and hardcore. Harnessing the weekends energy to its full effect, they fed off the crowd’s hype to build a wall of sound for classics like ‘Off With Their Heads’, ‘Enter the Dragon’, ‘White Nightmare’, ‘Squatters’ Rights’ and ‘Noah’s Farce’, before finishing with their cover of the Tofu Love Frogs ‘Move Along Get Along’, that had me shouting my throat bloody, along with pretty much everyone else there.
By this time most people were ready to chill a bit, so we headed to the Devil Kicks stage to see Jonny One Lung play a storming set of acoustic aggro folk which mixed a few solo tracks, some destined to be on the new Filaments album, and a cover of ‘When Morning Comes’ that had the whole crowd singing along. After some food, along with a chance for our throats to recover, it was time to head to the Invisible Circus to see the Autonomads, who were tight as fuck despite some problems with repeated power cuts. It was disappointing that the power went completely just before their last song, but I was still a happy man after hearing ‘Supermarket Sweep’ live. After an evening chilling, which included catching some of Bad Manners set from up by the tents, we headed down to see Citizen Fish. Even those of us who were seemingly too fucked to move made it down for this one, everyone knew it would be good and the band didn’t disappoint. Playing most of their split with Leftover Crack along with a variety of tracks from their extensive back catalogue, their manic, bass heavy ska punk was just what most people needed to liven themselves up and set up for a heavy Saturday night. However after a point, even Rafven’s furious Balkan influenced instrumental stomp couldn’t fight through the haze, and most of us decided to call it a night fairly early.
Waking up Sunday in slightly less of a mental fog, along with the sun shining over the sight, meant that most of us were ready to get on it again fairly early – so when the first chords of ‘Three Minute Hero’ rang out, we cracked open a few ciders and headed down for an early skank to the Selecter. Its moments like these that make festivals seem utopian, if I woke up every day to see a legendary two tone band the world would feel like a better place without a doubt. A set that included most (possibly all?) of ‘Too Much Pressure’, with some classic ska covers thrown in for good measure, got everyone in the right mood. After some food everyone met up again at the miniramp, to see how well skateboarding would go after 3 days of ruining our ability to balance… turned out the answer was ‘not too well’, so we went to see Dunkelbunt, who I’ll definitely be checking out more from! A combination of hip hop, dancehall, gypsy folk, ska and more creating a twisted circus beat that had me grinning like a simpleton, and that’s before the trombone player started playing two at once! Truly amazing. After sitting in the sun for a while, monging out to the Iration Steppas chilled dub sound system, we decided to sit up by the tents until later that evening when the King Blues were playing. Now it’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen them play, and a lot of well documented changes have happened since then, but I can safely say that they still put on a live show that is hard to beat…at least for the first half hour, before I decided to finish the musical leg of the festival in style by getting red eyed and watching Captain Hotknives, the one person playing who swung me buying a ticket in the end. If you haven’t heard of him yet, your missing out; a folk troubadour from Bradford who tackles issues such as the joys of glue over other drugs, hating babies, being told to shoplift by pigeons (though unfortunately this one didn’t get played tonight), drinking Buckfast, and poor quality muffins. Fully Shot in the Foot approved, and the right artist to round off the weekend. After that, I decided to crash for the last few hours – though waking up to go for a piss at 6 in the morning still stoned as shit, and finding people to watch the sun come up with was a pretty sweet ending to the entire weekend.
A full on savage four days has definitely taken my festival v plates, and roughly at that, possibly in a dark alleyway wearing a crisp packet with an elastic band around it. I’ll definitely be there next year, see you in the cider tent! Jono
After three years of only posting up articles on facebook, we've finally pulled our fingers out and got an almost proper website! Expect the same vague reviews and semi-rants as ever, though maybe on a slightly smaller scale while we work on our first print issue, split with www.scumfuckzine.blogspot.com...read and annoy!
