SATURDAY

Day three of Rebellion 2022, and just like in previous years Saturday’s bill leans perhaps a little heavier towards the Oi!/streetpunk/skinhead side of punk rock, especially in the Empress Ballroom, and that’s exactly where we start today catching the revolutionary sounds of Italian Oi! outfit Los Fastidios. A few songs in though and we’re distracted by the appearance of our old mate Gaff lead guitarist with Desperate Measures NZ and Rich Ragany & The Digressions. He’s not been to sleep since the Measures closed out the Empress in the early hours and I can’t help but think he’s never left the building following what he describes as “perhaps the band’s best show ever!” I’m ashamed to admit I missed this set, due to my lack of sleep the previous night, but as usual Gaff is cool about it all heading for the nearest bar to keep the celebrations going.

Getting things back on track we make our way to the front of the Empress for what appears to be the final gig from Devon’s finest streetpunks Arch Rivals who really are back in Blackpool for one last round. It’s an emotional affair for sure played out to a crowd who really do not want to see the quartet leave the stage. But after a set packed full of terrace anthems, leave they must, and as ‘The Crowd’ brings things to a close its easy to understand why frontman Mike Brands struggles to hold it together, such is the fantastic send off the lads are afforded by the Empress faithful. Let’s hope they can get back together soon, eh? Oi! Oi! Oi!

Next up, it’s time for some Chaotic Dischord over in Club Casbah. Now, this is the band we all aspired to be back in 1983/84 as we were all as equally as shit as they were musically with one band that my old mate Darrel Sutton put together (long before he was playing with Trigger McPoopshute and System Reset) designed specifically to have people walking out after just 2 or 3 songs. I’m pleased to say that with Chaotic Dischord nothing has changed in that respect and after just 3 songs (during which I’ll admit I’m pissing myself laughing) culminating in ‘Who Killed ET? (I Killed The Fucker!)’ it’s all over for me. Yes, it really is a joke you know….

And with that in mind we briefly pop our heads around the folding doors of the Pavilion to catch some of The Gonads set, Garry Bushell openly taunting the locals with a “Blackpool Boys We Are Here” chant that segues almost perfectly into a song our Woking Oi! correspondent was dying to hear, the legendary ‘I Lost My Love (To A UK Sub)’. Perfect half time entertainment for Charlton Athletic fans everywhere.

The reason we have to leave The Gonads set early is that the anticipated crowd for The Bar Stool Preachers second set of the weekend up in the Almost Acoustic stage in the Spanish Ballroom is probably going to test that venue’s capacity to the maximum. So, getting in early doors we manage to get a prime viewing spot for what has to one of the real highlights of the weekend. Playing with a reduced kit drummer and a keyboardist led on the floor to help get around the stage’s rules of what can be included as “Almost Acoustic”, frontman TJ McFaull plays an instant trump card by ensuring the front rows are only made up of young fans and their families. Admittedly his wise words on the realities of trickledown economics (that proceed the song of the same name) are well over the heads of his band’s latest fan club members, but that doesn’t matter one iota as the pure delight on their faces as they get to dance and sing with the band is a total joy to behold. Thankfully the band’s signature tune does get played today, and as the lads say goodbye to everyone one last time before heading off to tour Europe with The Interrupters, I’ll say it once again. “Watch these boys fly….” 

Something I wish I could do myself as due to the massive crowd up in the Spanish Ballroom I manage to miss over half of Last Resort back in the Empress Ballroom. Still, I get in in time for a new tune called ‘No Man’s Land’ followed closely by the immense ‘Never Get a Job’ before Roi and the lads rattle out the classics ‘King of the Jungle’ and ‘Violence in Our Minds’ from their legendary 1982 debut album. Look, I know they have Lars Frederiksen within their ranks these days but I still can’t help but miss the monstrous Les Paul chug that Beefy used to bring to the Last Resort sound, and I really never thought I’d be writing this…yet again.

It’s at this point in proceedings where stage clashes were always going to shape the rest of our Rebellion Saturday as up next in the Empress is the tribute to Mensi, something I would love to hang around and sing along to, but when we also have IOW skinhead all-stars Grade 2 playing over in the Pavilion at the exact same time, and their third album ‘Graveyard Island’ pretty much helped me through multiple lockdowns, there’s only one place I’m going to be. Having previously witnessed Grade 2 supporting The Interrupters, the band that bursts onto the stage at Rebellion is unrecognisable from the largely static trio that had failed to impress me in Bristol SWX a few years prior. Their tour with Social Distortion has certainly helped the lads with their stagecraft, but it’s the quality of the songs from that aforementioned album that really is the difference this time around.  ‘Tired Of It’, ‘Murder Town’ ‘Bowling Green Lane’ are all delivered with ruthless efficiency and I’ll defy anyone not to be impressed with this mob right now. Grade 2 are another one of the absolute highlights of Rebellion 2022 and along with The Bar Stool Preachers it’s reassuring to know that the future of punk rock (in all its various sub-genres) is safe in these guy’s hands.

Staying put in the Pavilion for the UK debut of Mick Rossi’s Gun St it’s great to see that we are not alone in having enjoyed Slaughter’s return the previous evening and Mick and gang have assembled a very healthy-looking crowd to entertain with songs new and old, plus the odd cover like ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ thrown in for good measure.

With an 8:30 curfew on entry to the RFest stage it’s at this point in proceedings that we leave our Woking Oi! correspondent to pick up on matters in the Empress whilst me and Dom head off to the seafront for some proper goff (double eff copyright Jimbob from Pizzatramp) action in the shape of Peter Hook & The Light and Gary Numan.

I really hadn’t been impressed with the sound at RFest when we caught up with The Undertones just 24 hours earlier, so tonight, we pick a spot nearer the stage and thankfully everything is crystal clear, Peter Hook delivering a wonderfully gloomy set on a glorious summer’s evening with Joy Division’s ‘Dead Souls’ being a particular highlight. As for Gary Numan, tonight is largely the same exceptional arena show that I witnessed on the opening night of the tour in Cardiff University back in April, albeit it’s now honed to perfection with the more recent material still taking precedence over any trip down memory lane, and the fact Numan continually mixed the set up throughout the ‘Intruder’ tour (tonight is the final night) is really why I’m here instead of watching the bands in the Empress.  Playing to within a few seconds of the strict 10:45 curfew the fact that he chooses to encore with ‘The Fall’ from 2011’s ‘Dead Son Rising’ album and not say the likes of ‘We Are Glass’ or ‘Films’ (both of which he had played in Cardiff) shows just how happy and confident Gary is within himself right now, and for me this is easily the set of the weekend. Glorious stuff!

Heading back to the Winter Gardens, it’s the first time this weekend we have to queue to get back in, but as Cock Sparrer have just finished their set in the Empress that’s totally understandable, as this new Conference Centre entrance merges straight in with the traffic from the Empress and as a result could very easily lead to overcrowding. Anyway, a short wait in the cool night air never hurt anyone, and apart from my glasses steaming up when we do pass the Empress that’s thankfully the only inconvenience I experience.

Meeting up with our Woking Oi correspondent in the Arena he’s full of stories about how emotional the Cockney Rejects set was with the band now starting to wind down on touring from this year onwards and how Cock Sparrer once again delivered a killer headline set that has perfectly set up their two fiftieth anniversary shows in London’s Roundhouse in just a few weeks’ time. Which RPM will hopefully be covering too. Bosh!

With The Chisel being one of our must-see bands of the weekend, that’s the reason we are all in the Arena, and having witnessed them deliver an explosive set just a few months earlier in Le Pub in Newport I was half expecting the dancefloor to turn into something resembling an MMA event…BUT…it just never happens. Maybe it’s the fact that where we are standing the sound is so poor that it takes me three songs to actually recognise a song, and then it’s the title track from the band’s stunning debut record ‘Retaliation’, or maybe it’s the fact that it’s chucking out time in the pubs and having been on it most of the day, many (myself included) are just so tired all they really want to do head back to the hotel for some much-needed shut-eye. Who knows? But it’s the latter we choose to do and as such forego the chance to watch Bob Vylan’s upgraded set in the Empress at around 1 am, which turns out for many to be the event of the weekend. Ho hum!

As we walk back to our hotel near Blackpool’s south pier shooting the breeze, it’s the sound issue in the Arena that makes me missing Bad Nerves’ set on Thursday not seem quite so bad, and as Sunday would soon prove this wasn’t to be an isolated incident either.