After the euphoria of Friday, Saturday was always going to be a bit of a comedown and we were in no particular hurry to get to the Winter Gardens. Then, having slept through breakfast we had to stop for lunch on the way too. Still we got to the Casbah stage at the end of Andy T's rather bewildering and bad set but we were there a bit early for ANTI SYSTEM who played a set of class war anarcho-vegan street punk: the type you'd expect from a band called Anti System.
It was then straight over to the Empress Ballroom for the rest of GOLDBLADE'S set as John Robb was as ever giving it his all for the sake of Rock and roll in the most high octane way imaginable. We probably should have seen all of their set.
Still we hung around for 999: everyone's favourite raffle ticket punk band. It was good to see them actually show up at a gig as I've been to at least three shows by them that didn't happen over the years. The current line up contains Arturo from the Lurkers and a guest drummer who also played in The Lurkers later in the day. They did a great version of Homicide and also closed the set with a blistering Emergency but other than that they were no better than pretty good. Still, good to see that Nick Cash is still at it and in good voice too.
Next up were ARGY BARGY to give us some good old fashioned Oi! in the afternoon; some proper Saturday afternoon aggro punk for the Lost Generation they sing about. They went down a treat.
We then went to the Arena and caught the last half of THE RAZORS' set of shouty drum heavy punk. They were so so and they managed to absolutely slaughter Bowie's 'Heroes'.
Next on in the Arena was CRASHED OUT who are celebrating 20 years together and early on did a great punked up version of The Jarrow Song. Burn It down was full of anger and bile and went down well as they mixed the issues-based stuff with the drinking tunes so they finished with the full on sing a long of Come On And Raise Your Glasses. Most of us did! A great set and did anyone work out who in the band hasn't been a member of the Angelic Upstarts at some point.
We then popped back out to the Casbah for CULTURE SHOCK, one of the many bands featuring Dick Lucas from the Subhumans. This one are dog on a rope ska-ish punk with loads of issues with the government and the system. Full of righteous fury but never forgetting to make us dance while ramming the message into our collective minds.
Then it was back to the Arena for THE LURKERS who although they featured 2 members of 999 played and sounded miles better than 999. From a great version of I Don't Need to Tell Her through to a nice and sleazy Rubber Room they were firing on all cylinders. Bo Diddley's Pills got the treatment and even the new songs sounded as good as the classics. They went down a storm and closed with Shadow proving they are still well worth a look.
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Next on were THE BAR STOOL PREACHERS: a hot tip to be the next Rockabilly Ska punk crossover band. They are very young still and do the rebel rocker thing quite well with a cool stand up for your rights stance but I think they need a couple of years hard gigging before they'll be a great live act.
Then it was back out to the Casbah for THE MOB for some west country down tuned working class street punk. They had a great doomy sound and lots of issues with the state of things. They really worked the slow doomy punk sound and stood out as this was the only slow doomy band we saw all weekend and they were great. I didn't catch who the special guest guitarist was for the very long song that seemed to be based on Pere Ubu's the Modern Dance, but either way it was a great sprawling tune.
Then it was back to the Empress Ballroom for the nights headliners BUZZCOCKS who seemed to play their current set and sod anyone like me who really only want to hear stuff from the first two or three albums. Yes Boredom sounded good but the band's sound seemed to get worse as the set went on and the more recent material didn't grab me like the classic singles do.
Sick City Sometimes stood out in the middle of the set but it wasn't till they closed with What Do I Get that the pace really got going. They came back for an encore that opened with a Harmony In My Head that sounded great and of course the place went nuts for Ever Fallen In Love and the closer Orgasm Addict. It was good to see them again for the first time since the 1980's but they weren't one of this year's highlights sadly.
We could have stayed to see either MDC Or Chelsea but decided to go and find some Doughnuts and stroll down the front to our B & B instead. A good day but nowhere near as good as Friday had been.
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