G.B.H – ‘City Baby Attacked By Rats/City Baby’s Revenge'(Captain Oi/Cherry Red Records)

G.B.H – ‘City Baby Attacked By Rats/City Baby’s Revenge'(Captain Oi/Cherry Red Records)

Forever on tour, GBH has a very decent back catalogue and from their more recent offerings a second wind. Whenever I catch them at festivals they are always impressive and tight as a gnats chuff and it’s usually the classics that go down really well and remind me how good they are. From the second wave of UK punks they are still going strong along with the Exploited and Discharge and with a slew of bonus material these pair of classics get the Cherry Red reissue on CD.

50 track 2 CD digipak coupling of the first two albums as well as a bonus of the ‘Leather Bristles Studs And Acne’ 12” (which hit No.8 in the Indie Chart plus the Indie Top 5 singles) ‘Sick Boy’ and ‘No Survivors’ and if you need them a Booklet contains lyrics to all the songs plus pictures of all related singles. The second disc is 1983’s ‘City Babys Revenge’ LP which reached No.6 in the Indie Chart. Includes the ‘Give Me Fire’ single which reached No.69 in the National Chart and No.2 in the Indie Chart. Three of the original four members are still in the band to this very day, regularly playing across the globe at major Punk festivals and showing the same enthusiasm that they had back in the early days.

Their influence is far and wide-reaching and crossing genres with the likes of Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax all having paid homage to the band’s early recordings for Clay Records (the ones on this release), often declaring that G.B.H. are the true forefathers for the whole Thrash Metal scene alongside Motorhead and the like.

If anything these albums have stood the test of time due to their uncompromising delivery and brutal relentless attack. They never got the respect far and wide for the playing either songs like ‘Sick Boy’ would easily sit nicely on that debut Metallica album. If you are a young un and looking fo the big boys of the second wave then this set is perfect. They took what the Subs were doing and sped it up a few turns of the dial and raced off into the distance with a sound that never gets old. Sing a long and knock into people whilst staggering round to some of the best 82 had to offer. To be fair RSD has released GBH but it would be awesome to have brand new copies of these albums with the associated bonus material within. until that day the CD will do just fine, Buy It!

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Rebellion Festival – Celebrating 25 Years since Holidays In The Sun…

Rebellion Festival – Celebrating 25 Years since Holidays In The Sun…

REBELLION FESTIVAL AND BLACKPOOL WINTER GARDENS PRESENT:

 

HITS 25 – Celebrating 25 Years since Holidays In The Sun…

 

TICKETS FOR SATURDAY 7th AUGUST 2021 ON SALE NOW!

Despite Rebellion Festival being postponed again this year due to the ongoing restrictions with the Covid pandemic, one point that became clear to the dedicated organisers early on was that, festival or no festival, punks from all over the country were still going to head to Blackpool. Previously due to take place August 5th – 8th at the famous Winter Gardens, one of the things that makes Rebellion Festival different to many other music festivals is the undeniable fact that the audience, bands, promoters and everyone involved are all one big family. Long established as the world’s largest punk festival, the fact that so many regular attendees were still prepared to come to Blackpool and support the city that has always welcomed them, and spend time with their extended punk family, without the festival even being on, meant that if it was possible to host at least some kind of gig for the people heading down, Rebellion would.

So, when news came that covid restrictions were going to be lifted on July 19th, Team Rebellion went into overdrive and have successfully pulled together in record time ‘Hits 25 – Celebrating 25 years since Holidays In The Sun’, the event from which Rebellion Festival was originally born.

To be held in the Empress Ballroom and an acoustic stage in the Pavilion on Saturday August 7th, Cock Sparrer, Cockney Rejects, UK Subs, GBH, The Barstool Preachers, Dirt Box Disco, Maid Of Ace, Gimp Fist, Fire Exit, Death Trails, Mille Manders and the Shutup are all confirmed to perform, whilst the acoustic stage in the Pavilion will see TV Smith, Atilla The Stockbroker, Carol Hodge and more provide a more relaxed soundtrack.

It’s testament to the goodwill that the bands and audience have for the festival and with thanks to the Winter Gardens and Blackpool Council that they’ve been able to bring together such a strong line-up in such short time, for the incredible value of only £21.50 on the door, or online in advance with booking fee.

Rebellion Festival tickets have nothing to do with this gig. Rebellion 2020 and 2021 tickets remain rolled over to 2022. It’s only a one stage main gig, so capacity is limited and therefore there obviously won’t be as many tickets available as usual.

The Winter Gardens, however, will have FREE ENTRY for Thursday / Friday and Sunday, giving everyone a place to meet up and hang out on those days.

Tickets are available from: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/1F005AE5C06D6E89

HITS25 is an All-Ages show with under 14s getting in free of charge. Everyone under 18 needs to be accompanied by an adult at all times.

Rebellion Festival 2022 is already well underway, and the promoters are rebooking many of the headline bands from the cancelled 2020/21 events and have also booked three bands that were not due to play either of those years. English rock legends The Stranglers and first-wave Los Angeles punks The Dickies are now confirmed to return to the festival in 2022 and are joined by Brighton folk-rock maestros The Levellers, who play the festival for the very first time.  The Levellers are still one of the most popular independent bands in the UK, and headlined Glastonbury Festival in 1994, where they performed to a record-breaking crowd of 300,000 people! Their anthemic, uplifting set is sure to be a highlight of Rebellion Festival in 2022.

These join returning and rebooked artists such as Circle Jerks, Bad Religion, The Undertones, Tom Robinson and Stiff Little Fingers, Ruts DC, Sham 69 and many more.

Rebellion Festival in 2022 will also see the welcome return of an outdoor stage, the council have agreed for the festival to have the area of the promenade right in front of Blackpool Tower (Tower Headland, on the ‘comedy carpet’). This is an amazing space for an outdoor stage. A straight walk down from the Winter Gardens. Rebellion can double the capacity with this area and have some fantastic plans to make both sites amazing.

For those who don’t have tickets rolling over from 2020/21, tickets for Rebellion 2022 will be available from August 5th.

Head to www.rebellionfestivals.com for more information.

 

Twitter: @rebellionfest 

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/RebellionPunkMuskFestival

HRH announce two more bands for 2020

HRH announce two more bands for 2020

Two legends from the British punk era – TV Smith and the Bored Teenagers & GBH have been added to HRH Punk 2 Line-up – with only 80 pairs of tickets left – plus this year’s HRH Punk Anarchy in Sheffield video documentary is now on Amazon Worldwide TV!

Heading to Sheffield for 2020 are TV Smith and the Bored Teenagers, featuring the legendary frontman of British punk pioneers The Adverts.  TV Smith has been lauded as one of the leading singer-songwriters to emerge from the punk era, and also fronted bands such as Cheap and TV Smith’s Explorers.

Also added to the already incredible line-up are the hugely influential GBH.  Not only were they front-runners in the punk scene from their inception in 1978, but they have also led the way for metal bands too such as Bathory.  The core of the band remains in-tact with both Colin Abrahall (vocals) and Colin ‘Jock’ Blyth (guitar) being ever-present right up to the current line-up.

Get your tickets Here

As if that wasn’t enough for the HRH Punk faithful – today sees the launch of the video documentary HRH Punk – Anarchy in Sheffield!

HRH are Europe’s leading residential festival promoter, when they were tasked with doing an HRH Punk event, anything and everything could happen – and it did. For lovers of ‘76 punk and beyond, this is the first punk documentary on Amazon – join some punk heroes llve and behind the scenes with nearly 4000 fans who had it all at Anarchy in Sheffield where we hear it, see it and feel it, straight from the horses mouth.
Available now : Here

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Cockroach Clan – Songs About Blunt Knives and Deep Love (Fysisk Format)

Cockroach Clan – Songs About Blunt Knives and Deep Love (Fysisk Format)

One of Norway’s most legendary bands, (that you might be forgiven for never having heard of them, Right? Right) anyway Norway has a good history of knocking out some fantastic bands and a lot of them have been mentioned here on RPM.  Backstreet Girls, Turbonegro, Gluecifer, Good Bad the Zugly, Razorbats, and of course Mayhem.

Well, these punk/hardcore veterans are fronted by Billy Cockroach, one of the first vocalists of Mayhem he performed on the 1987 album “Deathcrush” under the moniker of Messiah and they offer us well-aged vintage punk rock full of cheerful aggression and infectious tunes. throwing in Mayhem is a bit of a red herring because its nothing like Deathcrush this is polished positively glistening in the production stakes compared to that Black Metal demo.

‘Songs about Blunt Knives and Deep Love’, has only taken 22 bloody long years to reach our ears kinda puts Axel to shame with his Chinese Democracy. They’re being heralded as one of Norway’s most legendary bands, it basically consists of new recordings of old hits as well as a handful of new tracks and a cover of Mountain Goat’s “Going to Georgia”. It started out as an idea from producer Hugo Alvarstein (The Good the Bad and the Zugly, Raga Rockers, etc…) Who suggested the band go rehearse their best songs from the 1990s then call him up and he’d take em into his studio and get them recorded and give the songs the justice they deserve. To be fair he’s clearly a man of his word and has recorded one hell of an album..

The band started out as far back as 1994, building a loyal fan base and a reputation of being a riotous live band along the way. Compared to the bands two previous offerings this one is the dog’s bollocks and one that should rightly exalt them to the top table of punk rock.

Having honed the tunes by sharing the stage with acts like The Toy Dolls, Discharge, UK Subs, The Exploited, Cock Sparrer, Anti-Nowhere League, Vice Squad and GBH through the years, now it’s about time they put their hat in the ring with a bunch of songs that justified their boast of being up there with the best of them.

The album begins with a cover, ‘Going To Georgia’ and it drops its music bombs right square in the middle of the speakers with it’s spoken/sung verses holding up rather well over a musical backdrop that just crackles along with a joy and sound of a band just killing it doing something they love for the love. ‘You Have A Bun’ is a breath of fresh air as it has plenty of bounce and whilst the vocals are aggressive (often quite shouty) what did you think he was going to sound like? Ian Gillan? that’s the thing its aggressive as fuck but it sounds content and dare I say it – Happy at the same time, oh and the production is great and really lifts the songs.

‘Fantasyland’ has a little bit of Thin Lizzy in those dueling guitars on the intro.  I did a little momentary gasp on the intro of the piraty ‘Three Wishes’ as I thought we were getting some h ho ho shanty music but worry not me hearties it was only a false intro. Still, it’s quite piraty its the good end of piraty.

‘On An Island’ is just a banger with its head down its one foot in the Motorhead camp and the other, say, Argy Bargy – Imagine that? To be fair the middle part of the album isn’t fucking about and gets stuck in like The Adicts on a good day.  ‘Facts On The Wall’ is Ramones rapid with a dumb yet happy melody and ripping solo this is shaping up to be an excellent record.  ‘Necktie Party’ has a bit of a Crass vibe about it. These boys and these songs would go down a storm at somewhere like Rebellion Festival.

A lot of the pace and tempo of the songs remind me of a Norweigan Sham 69 and none more so that ‘Do It Again’ which is one of the highlights of the record on the breakdown it’s like vintage high jinx Damned who always threw in some cool off the wall melodies in fact there are plenty of influences I am feeling here more than ripping off a band they dance to their own tunes and just let their influences just bleed through..

With twelve songs on offer, I would highly recommend you at least give these cats the benefit of doubt and check em out and once you do that I’m sure you’ll be convinced.  Great album I’m glad has seen the light of day and hope it’s given the band the energy and drive to do it all again except to say next time don’t leave it so fucking long. – Buy it!

 

 

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