Review:
'Rebellion Festival 2023 Day Three'
'At The Winter Gardens Blackpool'
- Album: 'Ft Frenzy, long Tall Texans, Wasted Youth, Ruts DC'
- Label: 'Pegboy, Bad manners, Milly Manders, Ghost Dance'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '5.8.23.'- Catalogue No: 'Gimp Fist,Los Fastidios,Smoking Gives You Big Tits'
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Our Rating:
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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. Apologies for all the guesswork on song titles.
On Day 3 we saw Erection, Smoking Gives You Big Tits, RumKicks, Los Fastidios, Gimp Fist, Ghost Dance, Milly Manders, Bad Manners, Pegboy, Ruts DC, Wasted Youth, Long Tall Texans, Frenzy.
Thankfully the predicted storms and heavy rain turned out to be light drizzle for our walk to the Winter Gardens, as we reached the point in the festival where we start choosing to see bands for their names if we can't find any bands we already know to see, so the day starts with us going down into The Casbah to see Erection who have come all the way from Regensburg to entertain us, with what turns out to be some rather standard rock & roll, that's just a little bit stiff around the edges, as Julitschka stalks the stage going on about the One Who Wants Me, They had a reasonable anthem in You Hate Men, But I Like Them that should upset some feminists, as will Fuck You upset a few prudes but really they hadn't set the room alight for us, so we decided we had to go find out all about how Smoking Gives You Big Tits.
The moment we saw the name we knew that Smoking Gives You Big Tits Needed investigating, getting into the Arena to hear them belt out He's Not Toadfish Remains had us scratching our heads and wanting to get closer to the front. Helen Taylors introduction and explanation of I Got Ghosted By Barry From Smash Hits 1989 was brilliant and the song itself was sardonic punk madness, that was followed by You're a Bellend with full on call and response bouncy fun. They had us all Bang To Rights enjoying ourselves as they raged through Everything Ends. Porky Pies was dedicated to all the politicians and nailed how lots of us feel about all the deceit.
Guts For Starters was all about dancing like no one you know can see you, you know really let rip. They closed with My Favorite Fact About Maggie that is of course that she's dead, a brilliant ode of hatred for the woman that did so much damage to our country, this was a great fun set and we look forward to them jumping to bigger stages than this.
We then went to The Ballroom to see why everyone wanted selfies with the girls from RumKicks the South Korean pop punk band with the best onstage hair of the festival, the adorable trio opened with a song in Korean before greeting the huge crown and launching into the classic Drinking Every Day as they asked if we were already drinking, well of course we were, as they passed out a bottle of Korean firewater. I Don't Wanna Die was great bouncy fun, after which security ejected one of the Camden Street model punks, who usually spends his days making tourists pay for photos with him, as he complained on the way out as he'd been caught bringing his own booze in, well as the bassist put it Fuck You Very Much and it was back to the fun harmonies of Oi Oi Oi as the ballroom took them to their hearts as they screamed Ola 1234 at us and closed with Punk Rocker that wasn't a Teddy Bears cover they got huge cheers and everyone was smiling by the end of a great set.
We stayed in the Ballroom for Los Fastidios full electric set that opened with what I guess was Los Solecio Punk either way they got the room bouncing with the floor moving so much you had to bounce with them, Where Are You Now was ska punk to skank too, Eliza Dixan joined in the fun from Radio Babylon and Enrico and her danced and sang their hearts out Working For The Two Tone Town as they wished for a proper revolution. They remembered all we have lost on I Don't Want To Say Goodbye. The Last train To Skanking Town was dancefloor chaos and immense fun as they Take A Stand as being Anti-Fascist, anti-racist, anti-homophobic, etc. Stop the war is a message that always needs repeated but shouldn't. as always Antifa Hooligans has a huge pit and great singalong as they get us all jumping Up And Down before as usual they close with Ska Medley having absolutely nailed it again.
We stayed put for Gimp Fists annual sing along, fists in the air Oi riot, that this year began with Common Ground as we're all in this together, they are as ever for the Working Classes, no matter that this wasn't as crunchy as usual, First In Line was still powerful, they had most of the crowd shouting along to Heart Full Of Pride like usual. Was the new song called Back Door it was as anthemic as usual as they delivered the crucial message Boot And Braces Don't Make A Racist that was followed by Too Young To Die, Too Old To Fight that was good and bittersweet as they made sure we all know Life Is What You Make it before one last mass sing song to Here I Stand.
As we were all mashed out and in danger of a Potato OD we nipped out for something to eat, returning in time to catch most of Ghost Dance set in the Opera House, this is the first time I've seen the re-formed Ghost Dance since the bands 80's heyday, last time I saw them at Riverside Studios I had to blag my way in. Ann Marie Hurst sounded fantastic singing Falling Down, amazingly the dark brooding goth of Deeper Blue sounded better than it did back in the day, at least this venue wasn't quite like some of the saunas they used to play in. Jessamine was every bit the live favorite it always was, the guitars meshed brilliantly on Goodbye. Everyone seemed to go nuts for The Last Train, I was trying to remember what the dance moves used to be for Walk In My Shadow as it became clear just how great Ann Marie's voice still sounds. They closed by covering the Skeletal Family classic Promised Land and sounding miles better than Skeletal Family have done the last two or three times I've seen them.
We then popped up to the Spanish Hall to catch a few songs of Milly Manders acoustic duo set, one of these days I will finally see her singing with The Shut Up, She opened with I'm Gonna be Your Baby that was sweet, it was followed with Me Too her new song about the evils of rape that was full of howls of rage for all the abused victims a very powerful song. Once she started singing Walk it seemed almost like a hint even though I would have been happy to hear the rest of the set, it was time to go and see Bad Manners.
The Ballroom was filling up and the 9-piece current line-up opened with the instrumental Echo 4-2 to get us warmed up and started behaving like the ska equivalent to Sha Na Na, as they went into This Is Ska Buster Bloodvessel bounced on stage looking almost the same as he did in the early 80's, back when he looked older than he was. Don't ask why but their version of My Girl Lollipop was the first song of the festival to have me in tears, it sounded brilliant. Lorraine had loads of antics from the band who were running around all over the place, as they Feel Like Jumping and the floor was bouncing for sure as despite the weather outside, they were Walking In The Sunshine and Buster worked the room magnificently.
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Dear old Sally Brown got what was coming for her in a Ska mental way, before the mental mash up of King Ska Fa and Red River Ska got everyone skanking with the hi-jinks on stage. They then had one of the most brilliant and funny sing along of the festival as they demolished, I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You the chorus was an absolute riot. Inner London Violence was thankfully for times gone past as they ramped things up for all the hits, that started with Ne Ne Na Na Nu Nu via a tasty take on Don't Be Angry into the epochal Punk drinking song Special Brew, through the call and response of you fat bastard that was an intro to Lip Up Fatty before they closed with the Punk anthem that is The Can Can this was a storming great set.
After that going to see Pegboy play their first UK show since 1992 was a letdown, Field Of Darkness sounded ok for a pop punk tune, but the only highlight in Not What I Want was the singer falling over and jumping back up like he meant to do it, What To Do was a good question and our answer was go and get a seat to see Ruts DC.
So many people wanted to see Ruts DC in the Opera House they opened both the circle and upper circle, so we went and took a seat in the circle to have a great view of another barnstormer that opened with Face The Sky. Segs then said a few words about Sinead O'Connor before Dave Ruffy gave us a few memories of playing in her band before they played a very emotional version of Kill The Pain. Your Just A was as bitter as ever, West One (Shine On Me) sounded magnificent with some great Leigh Heggarty guitar. For Despondency Segs and Leigh swapped instruments that gave a different feel to things. Mind Control seems to be perfect for the 2020's. Jah Wars was totally imperious; Poison Games had a fraught edge to it and the whole opera House sang along to Staring At The Rude Boys and In A Rut. This Music Must Destroy was fast furious and had a sleazy guitar solo. Babylon's Burning rumbled through the room before they closed by having a total Psychic Attack.
We stayed in the Circle for Wasted Youth and as it had cleared out a bit, due to the biggest clash of the festival, as they were up against The Only Ones and Paranoid Visions, we moved to the front row centre for a perfect view. Ken Scott and Rocco Barker ambled onstage as they opened with a dark gorgeously gloomy version of Maybe We'll Die With Them as of course they make happy music for happy people. Paris France sounded so great in a huge room like this, as the interplay between Rocco and Josef Rozam's guitars reached a peak on Housewife. Things went properly dark on Man Found Dead In Graveyard as the bands romantic side emerged on Jealousy, Ken marveled at being at Rebellion and back for the bands second ever show in Blackpool the last one being in 1982 I think he said. I Wish I Was A Girl was a brilliant sing along with a cool breakdown before they brewed up a storm by concluding with Survivors Pts 1 & 2 as we found out all About Charlie and Harry and what they got up to a great set.
We wandered over to the Pavilion and caught half of the last song of Icons Of Filth's set, I would have like to see some more, as they sounded great. But we were here so I could see The Long Tall Texans for the first time since the 80's and they were in great Psychobilly form, opening with Doesn't Bother Me that had loads of great double bass action from Mark Carew. They got deeply political on Indians before Mark told us about His Girlfriend that was so frenetic he lost a tooth! That may be why You Don't Want Me was next as they never stopped moving and grooving as I Hate Myself made them listen to Border Radio and they made sure as we all rocked our socks off, they were Always Hanging Round.
Well let's make No Mistake it was time to Get Back Wet Back and have a total Party For Lenny this was flying along like 9 Years in two minutes as they Break Away long enough for the bands theme song Long Tall Texan before they closed with the psychobilly rallying call of White Powder to end a brilliant whirlwind of a set.
We stayed were we were for the 40th Anniversary performance by Frenzy the legendary Psychobilly's who I know I've seen a few times over the decades, led as ever by Steve Whitehouse on Double bass and vocals, they opened with a frantic Robot Riot as they moved all over the place through Don't Wanna Be Round Here No More they got everyone shaking to Johnny Rocket and had some great Double bass action on Misdemeanour. As we were at the seaside, they had to take us on the Ghost Train. Hero flew by at an incredible speed as I See Red was full of bile and ready for a rumble. Cry Or Die was as sensitive as they got before they closed with a grand rumbling Do The Bird that had everyone singing and a full on wrecking pit that was a perfect end to day three. Finally we found our dough nuts on the way back to the hotel.
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author: simonovitch
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