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Review: 'Rebellion Festival 2018 Day Three'
'Winter Gardens Blackpool'   

-  Album: 'Ruts DC Discharge Citizen Fish UK Subs' -  Label: 'Blyth Power Vice Squad Gimp Fist 999'
-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave' -  Release Date: '4.8.18.'-  Catalogue No: 'Los Fastidious Royal Oi!'

Our Rating:
Having spent a little time on the beach and pier on our way to the Winter Gardens we didn't manage to see any of the real early bands and started our day with the second band on at the Pavilion stage just before 2pm.

Yes we started our day with some proper Glaswegian street punk from Royal Oi! who are a young trio fronted by the pretty angry Ana Trash who sings about being a skinhead and fighting in the streets and how there really will be No Tomorrow and how life is for Rude Boys and Bootboys and while the mile a minute riffs continue they get everyone punching the air to Skinheads Forever just to know this lot are always Battle ready a good way to start the day.

We then went into the Empress Ballroom for some Italian Vegan anti-fascist ska punk from Los Fastidious who soon had everyone singing along and making sure to Stay Strong Stay rude stay rebel while giving a good shout out to keep it Oi they are so much fun while ramming the bands message home and also paying tribute to a fallen member. By the time they finished with a great long version of Antifa Hooligans they had over-run slightly but apart from the stage manager no one cared it was too much fun.

We stayed in the Ballroom for 999's annual set and keepers of the record as the only band to have played all 22 Rebellion festivals (Including its original incarnation as Holidays in the Sun). From the Opening Hit Me it was kind of greatest hits all the way. Good version of Feeling Alright With the Crew and some good banter between Arturo Lurker and Nick Cash between songs and the odd pop at Stuart Meadows on drums. As usual Emergency sounded great and they closed with a good bile filled version of Homicide still sounding dangerous after all these years.

We stayed put for Gimp Fist who were as much fun as usual and it was also the first time we saw Chris Wright play bass this weekend. They opened like normal with fists In The Air and everyone complied. And while the terrace chant chorus' really got going properly on War In The Streets that seems more apposite as time goes on that feeling is magnified on A Country Divided how true is that. I think everyone was singing for Heart Full Of Pride there cover of Perkele's Skinhead classic and as usual On The Beach was dedicated to everyone at Rebellion as it's about the festival and went down the proverbial storm. By the time they closed with For The Working Man they had once again got the whole room going.

We then went to the Club Casbah for Vice Squad's usual appearance and as ever Beki and the boys were in great form as they demonstrated perfectly that they have learnt the lessons contained in If I Knew What I Know Now as Beki took the piss out of the band between songs and certainly before Latex Love as she was ready to rail against the Punk Police as they are of course still the Voice Of The People. They were as normal loads of fun even without Sniffing Glue Paul Rooney's bass sounded totally mighty as they got us all to Stand Strong and Stand Proud with them before they closed with the great Last Rockers to leave us all smiling and wanting more.

We then had a short food break before taking a seat in The Opera House so I could see Blyth Power for the first time since the 1980's at some free festival for soap dodgers, they are not the same band really, same singing drummer in Joseph Porter but surrounded by a much younger band playing a cross between Jangle pop and almost polite dog on a rope folk punk with very involved lyrics and some of the longest songs we heard all weekend. Also from the intro's many of the songs seem to contain in jokes that only work if you know who he's on about. Still it was good to hear A Little Touch Of Harry In the Night live and they did a good Crass cover on Going Down With Alice. Good to have seen them again but I won't be going to the festival they were promoting and boasting that this year it has Toilets and Showers how modern of them.

We then went over to the Club Casbah and caught 3 songs of Wonk Unit and it was really 3 too many for me as I found the bands singer Alex to be totally irritating and the sort of bloke you want the skinheads to beat the crap out of. I'm sorry but Day Job Wanker appears to insult most of the audience and as for Lewisham it was just the final straw and we left to go and wait for the UK Subs.

We got back into the Empress Ballroom for the last song and a bit of The Briefs set and it was all too brief other than what I heard makes me want to go and see them play a full set in London later in the year as they appear to be speedy glam garage punk and lots of fun.

Soon enough a very packed Empress ballroom was more than happy to welcome Charlie Harper and the boys onstage to rip through the bands hits and more Mouth On A Stick seems as pertinent as ever and Left For Dead saw Alvin Gibbs really going for it. Charlie got everyone going on Rockers and Down On The Farm went down a storm like usual he did an ok version of Endangered Species but it was a little bit frazzled.

Still they are still dreaming of The City Of Tomorrow and even well into his 70's Charlie is still singing about how he wants to be Teenage. Of course Warhead was monumental and followed by a super angry Riot Squad and the band as ever had a Stranglehold on all of us as we went for it with them and as ever they left the stage to huge cheers a pity they couldn't do the encore everyone was chanting for.

It was then over to the Arena for Citizen Fish for some high quality Squat ska inflected punk with as ever Dick Lucas raging against the world we live in as he is as ever Working On The Inside and raging against the Human Condition. No matter how angry the lyrics are the band is great fun even while taking the piss out of modern riots on HD Riot and living in a Click based society. They had a very rammed room skanking and dancing too Charity Meltdown and closed with the rallying call that is Wake Up.

We now reach the embarrassing part of the review as I thought we then went and saw The Weirdos only they didn't play the stage we went too which was The Pavilion so we must have seen Antisect as Youtube confirms who were playing very angsty Thrash punk metal with all sorts of messages on the backdrop behind them, very right on and pretty cool Welcome To The New Dark Ages was probably the best song we heard.

We then went back to Club Casbah for Discharge to play the kind of angry nasty hard core punk metal you'd expect Discharge to play, the crowd were loving it and while I'm no fan they really do Hard core well and I loved whatever the song about Head butts was called. Oh and they were every bit as angry and borderline Grebo as you'd want them to be.

We were really in Club Casbah for Ruts DC who came on and stormed through Vox teardrop to open things up as Segs and Dave Ruffy got things going on West One Shine On Me. Mighty Soldier was imperious and brilliant as they were ready to sell Dope for Guns once more and Leigh Heggarty sounded great on Music Must Destroy. Staring At The Rude Boys was just colossal like normal.

Jah Wars had everyone dancing then they dug out the brilliant Formula Eyes that had a few fans around us claiming they didn't know it. Damn I love that song and this was a great version of it. As always In A Rut was a huge great singalong skank along and Babylon's Burning still sounds fresh and brilliant as they then closed with Psychic Attack that sounded pretty primal and left everyone wanting more.

For us this set was unlikely to be topped and so we decided to call it a day and go off in search of freshly cooked Doughnuts to be eaten on the prom while walking back to the B & B at the end of yet another great day at Rebellion.
  author: simonovitch

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