I would like to thank everyone involved in putting on the best festival imaginable, from all the bands, the onstage and backstage crew, all the staff at the Winter Gardens and obviously to Jennie and Darren Russell-Smith for the immense job of promoting and putting together this magical festival. I would also like to apologize to any musicians I spoke to over the weekend whose bands I didn't get to see, as usual far too much happening and a few mega band clashes. As usual apologies for any guess work on the song titles.
On Day 4 we saw Borrowed time, Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions, The Young Ones, The Cundeez, Ruts DC, The Nightingales, The Wasps, Brix Smith, Bob Vylan, Steel Pulse.
We've made it to Sunday and while like everyone else we are a bit tired, it's time to get rocking again so why not start the day in The Pavilion with Borrowed Time the yoga punks, for some meditational sock fights that are flying Under The Radar and over the barriers at us, as usual the singer dedicated Sick & Tired Tie Me Up to his wife and partner as they go a bit S & M. No Bridges In This Town is frantic good fun, The socks are flying all over the place on Stranded as they try to break the Chains, they are good bouncy pop punk fun making sure we all live our lives to the full as we are all living on Borrowed Time as they close by getting all Needy & Emotional.
We then nip down to the Ballroom for Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions annual riot that opened up with This Weekend as Spunk got us all going, talking about Sellotape but the first real sing along was for Hanging Round The Shops as you try to cadge to booze and fags, they get almost romantic on I Can't Stop Thinking About You as they decide to Soldier On the cheeky bonhomie is to the fore as Spunk tells us about a Job Opportunity, once again they have noticed a few folks who've had a DNA Failure yet still managed to breed. They amp things up on Little Red Buggy and by the time they close with XR3 doing wheel spins down the front we've seen another great fun set.
It was then time for another round of Bands to see based on their name this time it was The Young Ones the Dutch Oi boy band who were giving it large in The Pavilion, chanting The Boys Are Here like they are on the terraces at Ajax, the singer was pumping his fist on Always Having Fun while waiting for the weekend to happen, he claimed they Don't Wanna Working Class, the Slade meets The Business ready to rumble attitude was ready to take on that Low Life before they started singing about Football Violence like they grew up in the 70's and knew what it was like. They knew they were on solid ground with Always Here For The Weekend all about drinking and fighting, Proper Little Wanker was good and cheeky as it should be, as they got their boots and braces ready for We'll Have Some Fun and they closed by rumbling through Forever Young.
We then went down into The Casbah for The Cundeez who had some of the worst sound of the weekend sadly, as they opened singing about the Western Isles the guitars weren't loud enough. Geezer was good fun as The Lan Dav (?) seemed to lack a bit of bite, Holy Alley the bands Peat & Diesel cover was the first song to feature the bagpipes that took a while to come through the speakers. CG McGedden was good fun and as ever the shout went up of Kilts On Taps Aff that was the signal for some mad mosh pit action as usual, Oi Oi Cockney Reject was the first song that sounded right, as it went into War On The Terraces. As always Roota was totally mental before they closed by playing an old TV theme only I'm not sure which one.
It was then time for Ruts DC to play their acoustic set in the Opera House that opened with Back Biter the stripped back form worked perfectly, Dangerous Minds is still a spot-on message, Psychic Attack was less full on as they almost went folkie on Too Much.
Ruffy then gave us more memories of playing in Sinead O'Connor's band before Kill The Pain. We got a long slow dubby take on Police And Thieves followed by a rave up through Staring At The Rude Boys, everyone sang along to Babylon's Burning and they closed with a rumbling version of In A Rut that featured a chorus of Gloria as ever they were total class.
We stayed put for The Nightingales Rebellion debut, a band no matter how many times I see them, or how many times I review their albums, I can never name hardly any of the songs correctly, so thanks to Setlist.fm for the help here, as they rumbled into view with Ace Of Hearts and Robert Lloyds deep baritone filled the room, Crafty Fag had some powerhouse drums from Fliss Kitson the bands secret weapon.
Thick & Thin was full of too much joy among the obtuse barrage of lyrics. I rightly noted that I Love CCTV was one of the singles I've reviewed, this version was very bass centric.
Too Posh To Push stabbed at us as Fliss nailed it on the drums, Mutton To Lamb featured a mighty kazoo solo from Robert in between him stalking the stage, Diary of a Bag of Nerves was all jittery, while I Needed Money At The Time made no apologies. The rumbling incongruity of Best Of British kept things good and taut, Did they really want us to Watch Our Posture, as that Real Gone Daddy Robert was lurking and jerking about trying to grab a mag from The Top Shelf before they closed with Dick The Do Gooder they sounded as dark and dystopian as ever.
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We then popped out for something to eat managing to be quick enough to get back into the Opera House to catch a good chunk of The Wasps set of Hope & Anchor style punk, as the 5 piece were singing about good old J J Jenny and having a good rave up as they talked about Evil Men With Evil Minds, Jesse Lynn-Dean was telling us all It Don't Matter To Me while it clearly did, he dedicated she's A Lovely to his mum which was sweet. Lies was as full of bile as it should be, while they all looked far too old to still be having Teenage Dreams, they went back to the Hope & Anchor to close with Can't Wait Till 78 and the best version of I'm Waiting For The Man that I heard at Rebellion this year.
We stayed for Brix Smith who opened with Fast Net that was ok but nothing special, Black Rainbow Sky had some darkened edges but was a touch bland. Brix told us California Smile was about all the fakery of that state, without acknowledging the irony of all the work she's had done, I wish Valley Girl was the classic Zappa tune, sadly it was not. Changing was what this band needed to do into something a lot more exciting than this, she may have given us All Her Luv but it really wasn't enough so while they were giving 2 X 4 a good kicking we exited to go and wait for Bob Vylan to destroy Punk rock.
The Ballroom was filling up to see the return of Bob Vylan it was reasonably full by the time they started with the usual calisthenics work out, as Bobby kicked it on his drums and machines they got Down before taking us on a trip on the Northern Line, Bobby the singer was as chatty as ever in between songs, before they decimated us with I Heard You Want Your Country Back a full on slice of Rap rock punk intensity. CSGB kept the power up as they told us Elvis Is Shit as he don't mean a thing to anyone under 35. We Live Here is the bands monumental anthem that got the whole place going wild. Pulled Pork is not about food but about the hatred they feel for the Police. England's Ending was the most bile we heard thrown at the royal family all weekend and it was long overdue. Pretty Songs are not this bands specialty but they know how to mock them brilliantly, they spoke to a couple of the youngsters down the front by way of introducing Dream Big to encourage everyone to go for it as the crushing riffs and drums got to the heart of everything before they closed with Wicked & Bad or was it Put Your Money in The Bank that asked a good few questions before the left to huge applause.
This left us with just one more band to see, this year's closing act was Steel Pulse the brummie Reggae legends whose 8 piece line-up opened by giving us some Reggae Roots business of the highest order, as they told us tonight they wanted us all to be as one the Punks, Skinheads and Rastas. They got deep and dubby on War and were soon going on about someone who was Worth His Weight in Gold (Rally Round), they were having loads of fun and everyone still standing were skanking along to the militant plea for the end of Police oppression that is Don't Shoot. Babylon Makes The Moves pushed the message home as Here Comes The Rasta Man kept the vibes going while they had a tough message on Stop You Coming Home before they closed with a nice version of Don't Let Go.
They came back for an encore that opened with Handsworth Revolution that bled into Change This Harmony before we got an unlikely acoustic guitar solo from the bands very own ninjaman that led into Life Without Music. David Hinds then asked if there were any Grateful Dead fans at Rebellion a question that got as many boos as it did cheers, I was certainly booing, as I can't stand them, this didn't stop them from playing, what it has to be said was a really cool version of Roll Away The Dew before the closed with a brilliant version of Mr Collie Man to end another brilliant Rebellion Festival that let us stumble back along the front ready to go back to normality.
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