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Review: 'BLACKPOOL REBELLION FESTIVAL (Day 4)'
'Blackpool, Winter Gardens, 9th August 2015'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'

Our Rating:
Yes we made it to the final day of this year's Rebellion and having chilled out for most of the morning we finally felt tired enough to catch the tram down the front to the Winter Gardens. After a bit of shopping at the festival's market place went out to the Casbah in time for ALCOHOL LICKS: the perfect band to come on at Hair of the Dog O'clock they are fronted by a slightly cheeky Double-Mohawked woman and they play good times anti-Fascist psychobilly punk and had a great angry song about Jimmy Savile and his friends as well as doing a great version of Jolene. They were a great start to the day.

Then it was down into the Empress Ballroom for VICTIMS OF CIRCUMSTANCE who from the moment they sound checked with 30 seconds of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' The Impression That I Get had most of us eating out of their hands. They opened their set proper with an instrumental take on Europe's The Final Countdown played in a ska-punk style and then the rest of the set was full on good times Ska punk; good and speedy with an irreverent edge to them. They were very entertaining and well worth catching live.

Next up in the Ballroom were VICE SQUAD whose opening number seemed to be a cover of The Godfathers' Birth School Work Death. Either way Beki and the boys still sounded great like a female fronted Motorhead only cheekier and sleazier. Open Season went down just fine as did Defiant and Beki was in fine voice on Latex Love before she proved once more she's no Ordinary Girl. Punk Police still sounds great as did a storming Rock n Roll Massacre. Of course she's still Sniffing Glue and they finished with the anthemic Stand Strong Stand Proud and they had indeed. Always worth seeing live.

We then popped out to the Casbah for three songs by SICK ON THE BUS whose drunken punk slobber sounds fine after several days of Punk but really didn't stand out. As with last year the pull of better bands elsewhere meant we didn't stay for the full set. Well The Avengers were about to play in the ballroom.

Yes we got back into the Empress Ballroom just as THE AVENGERS started. Damn I finally get to see Penelope Houston's legendary American punk band. I think they opened with Thin White Line and sounded great. They might be singing songs of teen angst but the messages in the lyrics are still pertinent and Teenage Rebel was great. Is there a better song of empowerment than I Believe In Me? Not sure but it was brilliant as was The End Of The World.

They did a good cover of Paint It, Black which considering the Rolling Stones are still banned from the Empress Ballroom was a nice transgressive act of rebellion. We Are the One got everyone singing along to it and it made my day that they sounded so cool.

We then went to the Arena to see HANNAH RICKARD who I've been meaning to see for about a year or so and this was a good chance to do so. Her band play old school rockabilly with a double bass, acoustic guitars and hollow body electric guitar as well as a Sax player; sort of like a cross between Wanda Jackson, Cordell Jackson and Imelda May. They were great fun and a nice change of pace. I'll be making sure to go and see them again in the not too distant future probably at Gypsy Hotel.

It was now time for a sit down upstairs at the back of the Empress Ballroom for SNUFF to play a set of the band's classic squat punk with trombones. They did a great version of Soul Limbo to celebrate the ashes win and also managed to throw in a version of the theme to The Likely Lads for good measure.

It was then back to the Casbah for CITIZEN FISH, the second of Dick Lucas from Subhumans' bands we saw this year, though somehow we missed seeing Subhumans - oops! Either way, Citizen Fish played angry anti-fascist ska punk with just enough of a party edge to keep everyone skanking to the heavy messages in the lyrics. They were great fun and very thoughtful at the same time: a neat trick to pull off.

We got back into the Empress Ballroom just as THE SWEET were closing their set with Fox On The Run and they appeared to have the ballroom going nuts for them at the end of the set and so came back for an encore that opened with a great version of Action before they made everybody's day by playing a great long version of Ballroom Blitz that of course sounds great in a huge ballroom. They sounded far better than I thought they might.

Next on were ROY ELLIS & THE MOONSTOMPERS featuring Roddy Radiation and he came on to Are You Ready? wearing a snazzy red suit and oozing charisma. Roy stole the festival again just like he did last year. This was pure skinhead reggae class, 1234 time to start dancing like you still have bags of energy 4 days in. The whole ballroom were dancing to One way ticket To The Moon and Let's Catch A train and the sounds of 1969 because it was clear The Boss Is back, oh yes he is.

Your Mine skanked like a good 'un and I Was Busted just kept the good times rolling ready for him to fill the stage with Skinhead Girls, for well Skinhead Girl it was magnificent and just left time for Moonstompin' to ram home just how much class he has and how great this band are. Roy Ellis was the boss for sure and this was the best set we saw all weekend! Damn they know how to steal the show.

After Roy Ellis it seemed pointless to see Less Than Jake and so we went and saw THE THREE JOHNS in the Pavilion instead and they also suffered from the Roy Ellis effect as their agit Punk just seemed puny after The Moonstompers; not even classics like AWOL and The Day Industry Decided To Stop could hold our attention and after about 5 songs we called it a night and disappeared in search of Sexy Cheesy fries and a bed to collapse into after seeing 46 bands in 4 days. Urgh!

I have to finish by thanking all the staff at the Winter Gardens and everyone involved in putting on Rebellion: one of the best run festivals it's possible to attend. I'm already looking forward to next year's bash.
  author: simonovitch

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