Review:
'Rebellion Festival 2026 Day One'
'At The Winter Gardens Blackpool'
- Album: 'With Buzzcocks, Bow Wow Wow, Slaughter & The Dogs,'
- Label: 'Kombi Killers, UK Subs, Courettes,'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
- Release Date: '6.8.26.'- Catalogue No: 'Splogenessabounds Slackrr, Subalternos, Aftrshocks'
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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 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 Thursday we had already missed Adam & The Ants, Neville Staple and Spike from The Quireboys and many others.
This review features Buzzcocks, Bow Wow Wow, Slaughter And The Dogs, Kombi Killers, U.K. Subs, Courettes, Splodgelessabounds, Slackrr, Subalternos and Aftrshocks.
By the time we got into the Winter Gardens on Thursday afternoon we'd already missed Hagar The Womb and Menace in the Opera House so settled to start the weekend seeing a new band in the Pavilion where Aftrshocks, who are a very young hardcore trio from Dundee, who seemed to be having some technical issues were just about holding it together on the three songs we heard, they closed with Get Loud that was a perfect message at the start of Rebellion, hopefully I'll get to see a full set from them soon.
We then went into the Casbah for Brazilian hardcore Oi of Subalternos who thanked us all for showing up during We Celebrate before the songs got political, they were fighting the enemies and had ended up with No Teeth while the notoriously boomy Casbah sound worked quite well with the bands theme song We Are Subalternos that got most of the crowd joining in with them, they have the spirit of our times right on Never Stop Fighting and the raging intense Protest The Streets, after more thanks for being able to return to Rebellion they closed with Em Maio Ao Caos that was nicely bitter and a great set ender.
We stayed in the Casbah for Slackrr who are one of the hardest working young bands around, who opened with, Yeah, Well All My Friends Think You Suck that sounded rather raw in the big boomy room, Like Scotty always does he told us all to look after our mental health and the mental health of those around us before Holding On, Cait was grinning from ear to ear for most of the set while pounding out the bassline on Better Days well things have to get better right, Over & Over had some gritty guitar along with some good punch in the air bits. Scotty encouraged everyone to buy the band's latest single The Summer before they blasted through it at a 100MPH. Having thanked us all for showing up All I Know was good fun pop punk and they closed by Playing With Fire that was very upbeat and bouncy.
It was then time to go down into The Arena for the annual appearance of Splodgenessabounds who are the only band to have played every Rebellion and Holidays In the Sun festival, only on arriving it seemed it was actually Splodglessabounds because sadly Max Splodge had a fall the night before and wasn't able to perform, so they had super sub Gerry Attrick from Fire Exit singing I Fell In Love With a Female Plumber From Harlesden NW10 when we arrived, with the band sounding as rough and ready like always, Tough Shit Wilson sounded great with a Scots burr, The usual piss taking was going on before Answers On A Postcard before they brought up another singer for You've Been Splodged who hammed it up brilliantly, the guitars raged through What's That Funny Noise with lots of vocal asides and everyone having a laugh, they were giving it the Whole Hog with or without Max and of course closed with a grand singalong Two Pints Of Lager & A Packet Of Crisps Please, here's hoping Max makes a full recovery well ahead of next year.
We went over to The Empress Ballroom to catch The Fabulous Courettes bringing their normal high octane Danish Brazilian garage punk, opening with The Boy I Love Flavia was running all over the place and attacking her guitar, Trash Can Honey was a blur with Martins drums a wall of beats, I Want You Like A Cigarette had a great upbeat addictive energy, they were certainly Tough Like That getting us all going Boom! Dynamite! That has some explosive guitar. The bands dance craze Hop The Twig went down well along with the message we all need to Keep On Dancing, which we all intended to do all weekend long. Last Chance To Shake had some great shimmying from Flavia and then for the closing Time Is Ticking Flavia became the first musician of the weekend to Crowd surf while taking a guitar solo to make sure everyone was smiling as they left the stage.
We stayed in the Empress Ballroom for the first legend of the weekend The U.K. Subs who came on late after some massive issues with the lighting rig, that took a good while to sort out, but eventually Charlie and the boys came on, opening with a brisk Emotional Blackmail with Alvin sounding fierce. Police State had more bile than usual, Born & Die A Rocker was a huge singalong, Little Bit Of Action is what we all needed before Charlie took us Down On The Farm once more with its childhood memories. Charlie warned us to keep clear of New York State Police and all the bad vibes they give off. Stefan's drums led the way on Time & Matter before Charlie was Twisted over you again, Party In Paris was loads of fun like it needs to be, Tomorrows Girls was rather raw before everyone sang along to Warhead that had a good few extra rounds to it. We always need watch out for the Riot Squad who were threatening to have a Stranglehold on us once again. Charlie then pled Guilty again and it was time to warn us about the CIA once again. They closed with I Live In A Car and got the normal adoration so they came back and encored with Endangered Species that was one last mass singalong a Charlie another brilliant UK Subs set.
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It was then time to go to the Arena to See Auzzie Punks Kombi Killers for the second time on the bands current UK Tour, they blasted into Damage like they were on a mission, guitars raging while they asked Have You Heard the News yep the Kombi Killers are back in town and tearing up a packed Arena. They did the sales pitch before the title song of the new album Rats In Disguise let Steve D and Alans guitars riff away. Rise And Fall had the toughest bass attack from Adam. They are in rage with the Punk Police so all those Rebellion FB Group sour pusses better watch out, Don't Start having a pop at them because they are Ready To Attack with brutal speedy riffs while thinking we are all Doomed, Doomed they tell us, of course we're doomed if all we need to make us happy is to Raise Your Flag at how much tighter they are at the end of their tour.
By this point we needed a sit down so were glad Slaughter And The Dogs were in the Opera House, they are launching the current line-ups new album White Heat I'd heard my review copy a couple of times before Rebellion. They walked on to Apache before kicking off with Twist & Turn good and crunchy, Mick Rossi then claimed I'm Bad something the ex-singer would agree with, while they nailed I'm Too Much off White Heat, Howard sang What's Wrong Boy that had a good bitter edge. Life's A Bitch went down well and Howard sounded like he was about to Run To The Joker before deciding it was still Hell In New York, before the cackled into White Light White Heat very much in Bowies arrangement rather than Lou Reeds. Most of the Opera House sang along to Boston Babies. Mick then told us the next song was a new one, not on the album I think, called Run that had the classic SATD sound. They then brought out Gene Loves Jezebel guitarist James Stevenson to join them for Cranked Up Really High that was a total blast, before finishing with a ramshackle careen through the Golden Age of Punk Rock.
We moved up to the balcony for Bow Wow Wow who totally delivered the most bad-tempered set of the festival, Annabelle endeared herself to no one in between songs, ranting away about hating playing in England, then don't! No matter how good it was to hear Sexy Eiffel Tower played so close to Blackpool Tower, C30 C60 C90 Go still sounds great and the current line-up got it just right. Aphrodisiac maybe what Annabelle needs, certainly some happy pills, no matter how much she danced about during Baby I'm Yours it still seemed like a threat she's coming round to moan and nag. Rather than inviting you to join the Mile High club with her to that rumbling Burundi style beat. Louis Quatorze was the best thing in the set, despite Go Wild In The Country being the biggest sing along at the end of a pretty good musically, pretty petty and pissy in between songs set.
We then finished our first day in the Opera House for the current line-up of The Buzzcocks who opened with What Do I Get that was perfect to get everyone singing along and let Steve Diggle get on with blasting out the riffs, I Don't Mind was a bit of a blur and the bitter irony shone through Everybody's Happy Nowadays a song that seems pointed at the nay sayers who think Steve shouldn't have carried on, People Are Strange Machines seemed to have even faster guitars, they almost never paused with Senses Out Of Control speeding like crazy. Why Can't I Touch it seemed a good question with that ballsy bassline and hard attack, it was odd seeing someone as old as Diggle claiming I'm Sixteen Again like he's fooling anyone. So how many Viagra's does it take him to be an Orgasm Addict these days a few I'd guess, but it sounded great. He then accused us of all being talk and Promises still sounding vital, Blackpool Rain sounded a bit hopeful in the middle of a drought, A Different Kind Of Tension would have been most welcome especially for any hecklers, before everyone sang ever Fallen In Love With Somebody You Shouldn't Have Fallen In Love With like when we first heard it. They then played a very long version of Harmony In Your Head with some band intros and thanks before closing with Stay Forever Strong that had a good message to end a really good set, that I preferred to the last time I saw them play Rebellion. Which was why it was strange when it all kicked off at the end with some idiot raging they should quit and it was the wrong line up, he should have gone seen the Stranglers then. We staggered back to our B & B via the chippy very happy to be back in the Winter gardens once more at Rebellion.
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author: simonovitch
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