Review:
'Rebellion Festival 2026 Day Four'
'At The Winter Gardens Blackpool'
- Album: 'With Ruts DC, UK Decay, Gina Birch & The'
- Label: 'Unreasonables, The Members, Breakup Haircut, MC16'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '9.8.26.'- Catalogue No: 'Culture Shock, Mona Freaka, Convict Class etc.'
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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 Jennie and Darren Russell-Smith for the immense job of promoting and putting together this brilliant 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. This year Rebellion was celebrating both its own 30th birthday and the 50th Birthday of the Punk explosion of 1976 and they did so in style with extra events in the Run Up to the Festival proper that meant by the time we got to Blackpool on the Thursday we had already missed Adam & The Ants, Neville Staple and Spike from The Quireboys and many others.
This review contains Ruts DC, UK Decay, Gina Birch & The New Unreasonables, The Members, Breakup Haircut, MC16, Culture Shock, Mona Freaka, Convict Class, Choking Susan, The Bolokos, Los Fastidios, Mika Bomb.
We wandered down the prom as the tide was in, before spending a little time in the arcades on our way to the Winter Gardens for the final day of the 30th Anniversary Rebellion festival that for us opened in the Empress Ballroom with highly tipped, reformed Japanese punk 5 piece Mika Bomb, who all had on spangly dark glasses and great outfits as they launched into what I guess was Just Like they had the energy of being somewhere between the Ramones and Shonen Knife, singing about themselves on Mika Bomb with some proper sassy guitars and attitude, They introduced Super Honda as being about there favorite Japanese Motorbike it certainly revved things up, Don't Tear Me Down had a good message at its core, in trying to stop sexist men from treating them the wrong way. Boomeranka has some great twisting guitar and hard drumming. Garage Super Stars is certainly what they want to be and sound like they have achieved that dream, this was bouncy fun. Contact Tokyo kept the energy up with some high kicks from Mika. They gave their best Girl gang attitude on Super Sexy Razor Happy Girls before closing with the most enjoyable Heart Attack you'll ever hear, how in the hell had I not seen Mika Bomb first time round.
We then went up to the Spanish Room for Los Fastidios acoustic rampage, they were already well under way and the room was bouncing for Musical War with Enrico and Elisa both having huge grins on their faces at the reception this set was getting, Antifa Hooligans was a huge sing along with a packed room before they thanked everyone and closed with This Is The End and they had to say goodbye they left to a huge cheer and a very happy audience.
We stayed in the Spanish Room for The Bolokos acoustic set the trio from Guadelupe opened with Going To the Show this was sparsely acoustic with a grin on its face and a great cardboard box drumkit. Poisoned Land looked at bad practices that ruin lives, no matter how dark the lyrics they sounded happy and upbeat to be playing to a full room. Tropical Rude Boy made plain how out of place they are being Punks on Guadelupe and they must travel to find an appreciative audience. The heaviest bassline was on This Morning This Evening that really punched through, they introduced the next song as Little Boat in English although they sang it in their native Creole, they encouraged us all to drink some White Rum with them, it may have been a bit early for that. Before they closed with the band's theme song We Are The Bolokos that had bags of charm, I wish I had also seen the band's electric set.
We then went over to the Arena for Choking Susans set, it was great they didn't clash with anyone I wanted to see more this year, the Detroit punk 5 piece opened with a song about not Wasting Her Time and not sure any of us would have argued with Colleen, especially when she screams at us that she loves us so much we make her sick!! The band are riffing like the demented Detroit rockers they are, no one really believe Colleen when she says I'm Alone but she is making the most of the stage and contorting, while she wails the vocals and claiming she needs a Wind-Up Toy while making a little fun of the new boy on guitar. They get serious on Angry Abortion that crushed with the pain it causes, brief liaisons are tackled on The Ho You Don't Know and all that entails. Colleen deals with body shaming issues on Phobia that is about someone with Anorexia and what pushed them into that path. Not Me Or You is full of pain and passion and coruscating riffage. They nailed their version of I Wanna Be Your Dog very much in the Destroy All Monsters style, with a break down into I'm Loose that also sees Coleen bend over backwards in true Ig fashion. Too Much Drugs is self-explanatory and they sniff and shoot their way through it, before closing with Cold And Lonely and the room was the opposite of both those things, because we all love proper Detroit punk.
We stayed in the Arena for the Bogan punk of Warrnambool's finest punks Convict Class who opened with old School Punk and soon had the packed room punching the air with them, with Sten Gun telling us why he needed some Anger Management classes and how tough it was being Auzzie and underclass, Sten Gun then claimed they had financed this tour by selling themselves on the bands Only Fans page, where you can watch vids of them doing various sex acts, I'm guessing Shane and Benno raised the most dosh, from those that like Bogan stud action. They got a bit more serious on Down On The Docks and the hard scrabble existence it depicts, War made clear how they had no time for anyone who is pro War. We Are The Enemy takes aim at the authorities that treat the working classes like the enemy and what Convict Class want to do to them. Wank Song seemed to be the biggest crowd pleaser, no idea what that says about us all. Have You Been Told Today has a serious message with it and they finished this brash oi! set with Convict Class to make sure they left us wanting more.
We then went to the Pavilion for the Loud Women take over, where the extremely young and provocatively dressed Mona Freaka were getting properly teenangsty on Hello It's Me, I'm Sorry with Gemma Holsteins guitar playing standing out, Roxy Bolle introduced the next song as This Songs Not About You it was bordering on the Camden Lurch meets shambling sound, but with a New York twist or two, they were rightly overjoyed to be playing Rebellion on the band's first UK tour, before launching into American Actress that has some blistering guitar from Gemma and they ended on the suitably messy New You, New Me that tackled body shaming issues and guitar solos just the right side of feedback blow outs, making them a band to watch.
It was then over to the Casbah for one of the few bands that have the right sound for that room's acoustics. Culture Shocks echo laden dub punk worked brilliantly, Dick started Rap ranting at us on Total Insecurity and that heavy dub rhythms used the boomy nature of the room to great effect, Countdown got loads of people dancing and enjoying the conundrum of party music with a serious message. Dick told us before Penny For The Guy to make sure we speak to homeless people and treat them with kindness. Dick was feeling like he was under Relentless Pressure that skanked like a bastard with some great punky guitar. 4 Minutes was about what you do when you hear the Nuclear warning siren go off, Sadly in the last few years this has become far more relevant than it once was. They then took us all to Civilization Street a place none of our politicians seem to know about, where we can all get along together and have a good life. Dick then claimed his discount at the bar before 10% Off that had some proper full priced basslines and echo laden drums. Dick admitted asking us all to Vent less in the current times was a hopeless task, but he was going to do it anyway, with his custom never ending ranting energy, before he made it clear that if You Say No then No is what it should mean. They got us all Sky High with a very dubby edge to it, before closing with Circles that saw a few fans running around in Circles in celebration at seeing Culture Shock again.
We then went back to The Arena for the last half of MC16's set promoting the bands excellent second album We're Gonna Need A Milkman, that's out at the end of the month, the first song we heard in full was Sleeping In Cardboard that was dedicated to any ex-servicemen who've hit hard times due to PTSD, they had a good hard post punk sound, Shoot Em Up had another stark message and a meaty riff at its heart. The song Carson introduced as Nee Naw wasn't in love with the police but had huge drums from Duffy helping to nail the message. Before Negativity Of Assholes kept the angst levels high and Quinn's basslines taut and edgy, before they closed with a song I guessed Carson introduced as Antique that was a good way to end a taut set.
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We went back to The Pavilion for Breakup Haircut's the pop punk 4 piece opened with Good For You and had a jangle punk edge, just the right side of messy, Up For The Stars was bouncy and energetic with a cheeky glint in its eye. Spite is something we are all full of these days and this allows them to vent for all the wrong they see. I think the next song was Marie Kondo it was certainly bouncy and well organized. The bands song for the summer Hot Day sweltered and got everyone even hotter and sweatier before they asked Are You The Monster well I hope not. The bands brilliant Biker Punk anther Mum, I Wanna Be A Greaser went down a storm, sounding like a female Eddie & The Hot Rods. I Don't Want To Be Your Friend makes very clear why you are being ghosted again, you idiot. Before they closed with what I think was Out Of the Way (No I Don't Want To Get On The Night Bus) an anthem for troubling late night drunken journeys home, the traumas that can unfold sadly, even if this song isn't remotely downbeat.
By this point in the festival we needed to sit down for the rest of the day and thankfully the line-up in the Opera House made that a good decision. The Members were about to play songs from At The Chelsea Nightclub they opened with Electricity that had a good dub edge to this instrumental, with new boy Chris Musto's drums good and bass heavy, JC Carroll was then having daydreams about Sally again and what he's like to do with her, Soho A Go Go got a huge roar of approval and sounded immense with Nigel Bennet's guitar getting properly edgy. Don’t Push is always a good clear message even if a touch redundant at a punk festival with mosh pits. Frustrated Bagshot is one of the songs they don't normally play but this tale of voyeurism sounded good and punchy. JC told us that it took him a year to convince the late great Nicky Tesco to attempt to play Sound Of The Suburbs as it was too tricky for him, well they stormed through it with Chris nailing the drum part and the entire Opera House singing along it was magnificent. With JC watching the clock they went into Chelsea Nightclub that always make me think of the couple of times I went to the Main Squeeze on the Kings Road in the 80's. they then had time to finish with Love In A Lift in praise of a real brief encounter and the joy it gave them, this set left me wanting to hear them play the album in full.
Next in the opera House was Gina Birch & The New Unreasonables who had an all-new line-up for this show, but played a similar set to when Gina opened for The Au Pairs earlier in the year, they opened with I Am Rage that featured a much younger Gina screaming endlessly on the backdrop, while she made clear just what gets her goat. After swapping instruments they played I Will Never Wear Stilettos mainly because she couldn't run in them, if trouble came around the corner, they were just about tight enough, before the rage filled screed of Are You A Feminist, how dare you even think any sane women or man wouldn't be a Feminist grr, her in between song instrument changing schtick was always funny while she claimed to be Too Hot To Handle which considering the Opera House was only about a third full was quite the claim, she really should have headlined the Pavilion Loud Women Takeover, still she was always up for Causing Trouble again, still feisty at 70 and thank god she is. Happiness is something she knows we all had while at Rebellion, before they finished with I Thought I Would Live Forever her treatise on the perils of ageing and how many friends we have all lost, this was a cool set, but I have to say I preferred the original Unreasonables.
The penultimate band in the Opera House were UK Decay with the legendary bands current 6 piece line up, whose dark post punk malaise opened with We Are Expecting Death like they were willing the apocalypse to arrive, the tension mounted in Society with a thunderous bassline and soul tinged backing vocals, Heavy Metal Jews walks a careful line between Anti Zionism and Anti Semitism while questioning the sanity of the current Israeli regimes murderous policies, in the same way many conflicted Jews like me often do, Strut was introduced like they expected us all to Strut with them, in this sit down venue. Jerusalem Over (The White Cliffs Of Dover) had a certain nostalgic edge over doom laden guitars, Rising From The Dead was certainly spooky enough for us to believe Abo and his band spend lots of time in cemeteries. Sexual got a good cheer for one of the band's older songs and the tension and friction they whipped up. Mayday Malady poses a good few questions, I hope they didn't get treated as dismissively as the questions I asked on the last Mayday march I turned up too. For My Country asks a good few questions about misplaced patriotism from within the post punk malaise of guitars and crisp forceful drumming. They closed with a Night Of Celebration that seemed apt towards the end of another brilliant Rebellion weekend.
Finally it was time for Ruts DC to be this year's final band for us, they opened with Counterculture sounding mighty good, even while complaining about feedback onstage and unclear monitors, They still had us with Sus that had a good dubby edge to Leigh Heggarty's choppy guitar and Segs mighty bass. Too Much was a great rumble which Dave Ruffy's drums seemed to open up, Mighty Soldier was as imperious as ever going down a storm, West One (Shine On Me) sounded like the classic hit it really is, Segs told us they rarely play Demolition Dancing and it sounded pretty crisp until about halfway through Segs took his bass off and walked off the stage, Leigh and Dave stopped playing and looked offstage, they apologized for the break and left us waiting for about 5 minutes before they returned after Segs had a funny turn, he'd taken his jacket off to help keep him cool and they resumed with Born Innocent played at a slower pace while Segs found his feet again. Jah War was slow dubby and very heavy in all the right ways, Bound In Blood is what this band certainly are after almost 50 years together, Segs asked for help to Kill The Pain and just seeing him carry on despite not feeling great was quite emotional. Wear The Crown was another of the deep cuts in the set, it had a good punky edge to it, The place went mental to Staring At The Rude Boys with everyone singing along in time for another Psychic Attack with some proper psyche guitar from Leigh, In A Rut was immense and they closed the festival with a brilliant version of Babylon's Burning complete with thanks to all the staff and everyone involved in making Rebellion happen, a great way to end what turned into a courageous set. It was good on Monday to see Segs get off the train in Euston and looking tired but like he had recovered from his little wobble.
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author: simonovitch
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