Various Artists – ‘A Fistful More Of Rock & Roll, Vol 3’ (Screaming Crow Records)

Various Artists – ‘A Fistful More Of Rock & Roll, Vol 3’ (Screaming Crow Records)

A Fistful More of Rock & Roll, Volume 3 contains Twenty Six of the best Rock n Roll bands from all over the world! Originally slated for release in January of this year manufacturing problems and a pandemic pushed it back to July 31, 2020. Although all the bands/songs are sweaty, beer-soaked denim dripping Rock n Roll, Available on CD and gatefold double LP.

Liner notes from Producer Sal Conzonieri of Electric Frankenstein.

A Fistful MORE of Rock & Roll – Volume 3 continues in the same tradition that the original 13 volumes of A Fistful of Rock ‘n’ Roll did from 2000 to 2007. 

It’s the Return of the Return of Rock ‘n’ Roll,Call it what you like Action Rock Punk n Roll does it really matter? It’s Straight down and dirty, Loud n lustful, Action Rock revolution, High Energy Punk Rock ‘n’ Roll yadda yadda yadda.

Action Rock, Punk N Roll, Hard Rock now we’ve established that you can actually call it what you like if its good I’ll give it a spin and if it’s not then no thanks I’ll pass.  This new age of “Action Rock” is churning out records at a rate of Knotts and for the convenience of keeping all these alternative bands under one umbrella, I happen to think its in rude health.  Having covered a lot of these bands over the years I find it warming that they’ve been brought together  thanks to the super hard work of Sal.

Starting in the late 80s and early 90s, a worldwide Rock revival / New Rock Revolution sprang up, from Scandinavia to the USA to Australia to Wales. Spontaneously, around the world, a group of bands developed this new sound, such as Poison Idea, Action Swingers, Bullet Lavolta, Big Chief, The Fluid, Blue Hippos / Otto’s Chemical Lounge, Celebrity Skin, The Kings of Oblivion, Flower Leperds, Fearless Leader, The Lazy Cowgirls, The Donnas, The New Bomb Turks, The Didjits / The Lee Harvey Oswald Band / The Gaza Strippers, Dwarves, Zeke, Supersuckers, The Hookers, Nashville Pussy, Easy Action, Trash Brats, Candy Snatchers, Adam West, The Cherry Valence, Jakkpot, The Upper Crust, Speedealer, B-Movie Rats, The Stitches, The Humpers, Rocket from the Crypt, The Superbees, The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs, Zen Guerilla, The Murder City Devils, The Mud City Manglers / The Cheats, D Generation, Electric Frankenstein, The Black Halos, The Spitfires, Danko Jones, American Ruse, TV Killers, Dumbell, Temporal Sluts, Thee STP,  Aerobitch, The Pleasure Fuckers, Safety Pins, The Nomads, Puffball, The Rockets, The Hives, Gluecifer, The Flaming Sideburns, The Hellacopters, Backyard Babies, Turbonegro, The Onyas, The D4, The Datsuns, The Powder Monkeys, The Panadolls, Mustang, Hoss, Teengenerate, Supersnazz, Jet Boys, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, and so on, that were all featured on the first series of the “A Fistful of Rock ‘n’ Roll” compilations.

Today there is a whole new generation of young bands and (cough, cough) not so young bands delivering the goods and knowing exactly where the action is.  they have built upon what the previous bands started, keeping Punk Rock ‘n’ Roll alive and full of high energy. Thus, a second series is necessary to document this: “A Fistful MORE of Rock & Roll”; No mistakes at all when I say this is one of the loudest compilations and no quarter is given not even an inch.  Side one pairs up Deathtraps with Egyptian Gay Lovers both playing loudly but both offer something quite different from each other. As far as Deathtraps go they’ve just released an excellent album full to the brim of loud rock and roll and a leap in quality from the first which was pretty impressive as it goes.

Flexx Bronco opens up side two with a cool rocker ‘Heart on the Floor’ and again it’s sounding quite different from the Elvis meets Danzig rock of Nevadah and ‘Iggy Dog’ but I have to admit I have a soft spot for the most excellent Drippers record ‘Solitary Speaking’  rumbles along like a freakin’ steam train heading for oblivion.  A quite ferocious cut for sure. Then to follow that with Randy Savages Rockin’ and a rollin’ on their single Guilty of Nuthin’ is an exceptional burst of energy and how can anyone not get behind that guitar solo!

Of the bands I’ve never heard before Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre is one with a bit of a mouthful but fear not Rockers the guitars are slung low and the energy levels are in bloom. Moving away from the Punk n roll attitude of a band like Randy Savages you have The Dirty Denims who pray at the altar of DC and all things ROCK!

There are some bands I’ve not heard anything from in quite a while and to be fair bands like The Cheats are kicking serious backside as is Dog Toffee someone I’ve not hear anything from in a while and they sound excellent as do East Coast Low another new one on me and their solid thump.

It might be an idea to listen to this in healthy chunks so as to not overwork your brain and to give your speakers a chance to recover.  Projeckt Daghouse  are kicking up a hellish racket but they are overshadowed by a band I’ve championed since hearing their debut. Poison Boys have got the lot from the pretty faces going to hell. But trying to pick a favourite side is like being forced to choose between the kids.  But don’t tell anyone but the last record is freakin awesome such is the quality of songs on offer.

It’s fair to say I’m impressed and this is right up there with the best for sheer quality and like I said earlier the amount of hard work that went into making this project a reality and all these cool bands delivering the goods on mass is a real Boon to the scene. An honour and a feather in the caps of those who get featured and being associated with such a quality compilation.  I hope Sals turned his attention to volume 14 and I look forward to hearing who and what is on offer because this is only the beginning of the second wave. Now if only this virus would be kind enough to fuck off and let us get back to live shows maybe we can see some of these bands in the flesh tearing it up around the stages of the world.

Pre-orders and limited edition purple vinyl available exclusively Here

Author: Dom Daley

Chesty Malone & The Slice Em Ups interview Exclusive

Chesty Malone & The Slice Em Ups interview Exclusive
Back in the old days, there were a few bands who responded well to being harrassed by some writers from this side of the pond and some who lurked in the underground punk rock scene consistently knocking out great punk rock and B movie videos. Recently one of those beasts reconnected with RPM and had some new music available so it seems only fair that we threw out a few questions to Anthony about just what Chesty Malone is up to? So here goes a quick chat whilst your waiting for the new album to drop…
Hi Anthony, What have Chesty Malone & The Slice Em Ups been up to lately?
We spent most of the spring and summer of 2019 playing east coast shows in support of our ‘Satanic Brooklyn Scum’ 7” that came out on April fool’s day this year. We played with Dr Chud’s solo band in Delaware, we headlined a record release show at Lucky 13 Saloon in Brooklyn where we had a satanic blessing just before we went on. We also played Philadelphia, PA, and Altoona and State College, PA plus a bunch more I’m currently not remembering hahaha, I think we made it somewhere in Ohio too. We also have a brand new 3 song 7” coming out on Friday the 13th in December, ‘19. It’s called ‘Destroy All Humans’ and it’s gonna be on green, purple and black wax on 1332 Records. We also have upcoming shows in Brooklyn where we’re opening for Poison Idea’s final show along with our first ever shows in Pittsburgh, PA and Baltimore, MD and more!

For those new to the band can you give us a potted overview of who you are and what brought you together?
We formed in 2006 in the very depths of Queens, NY. We (Anthony Van Hoek and Jaqueline Blownaparte) were both heavy in the NYC Punk and hardcore scene and we decided to come together to bring back a more extreme old school feel. Music wasn’t our only influence, lots of B movies, Coors Light and hanging out with cool cats (the animals, not the people) inspired our new brand of sound. We like to express our love of those things and our feelings of disgust with society and people around us. Have you ever wondered what it’d be like if the OG Misfits played a VFW show with Metallica, the Cramps, the Plasmatics, the Stooges, Venom and some Las Vegas Strip club bands from the ‘50s while a Twilight Zone marathon played between bands with a white female Dolemite MCing the whole shabang? Well, wonder no more.
The East coast around the New York area especially has been such a creative centre for great Rock and Roll? what memories have you got of getting into punk rock?
My very 1st punk rock memory is probably when my uncle Allen brought the 1st Ramones record over to our house one summer when I was about 7 years old. That made a huge and indelible impression on me for sure. The east coast is great but we still wanna make it out west one day too!
Who influenced the sound of Chesty Malone?
I mean, life in general hahaha. Walk down the street behind a bunch of inconsiderate a-holes who don’t realize there are other people trying to use the sidewalk and you can get influenced by that for sure. Be a bouncer at a biker bar in New York City where you have to listen to the same country and classic rock tunes every night for years on end and that will inevitably sink into your soul. Ride the subway every day of your miserable life alongside rats, roaches and every form of assorted degenerate the world has to offer and, well you guessed it, huge influence! Sure I could name some bands we like but that’d be a bit boring and you can probably draw some conclusions on your own anyway.

 

You have a new record on the way what are the chances of a long-player? What about live shows?
We are currently writing and rehearsing for a new full-length album, thanks for asking! I’ll even give ya a scoop: it’s gonna be called “Please Chesty Don’t Hurt ‘em” and we’re always playing shows! Comin’ at ya live!
What about 2020 any plans for the band?
Well yeah! We’ve got the ‘Destroy All Humans’ 7” coming out at the end of 2019 so we’ll be shamelessly hawking that hot slab ‘o wax along with ‘Satanic Brooklyn Scum’ and all our other stuff all year. Maybe our 4th album that I mentioned above will come out in 2020. Unless something terrible happens of course. 
On to you personally, What or Who made you pick up the guitar in the first place?  From the scene that you started out in who are still kicking about?  I’ve seen some cool footage of shows from places like Coney Island they always look like a lot of fun and a great community? where has everyone gone or are they still around?
Yeah, it’s more of a WHAT that made me want to play the guitar. I’ve always loved the dirty heavy sound of a loud distorted guitar. Literally from the scene, I started out in, I can only think of the band Slough Feg that’s still around. Look ’em up if ya don’t know.
Your videos always look like a load of fun some great B movie humour going on where do you get your ideas?
Thank ya! I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with video concept ideas and song ideas and artwork concepts etc. I keep a notebook and pen by my bed for these purposes.
There you go, folks, a quick catch up with our Favourite Queens punk rockers check out the videos and go listen to their tunes stream them or pop along to one of the links provided and pick up an old school record – they rock!
The label’s site, where you can order the new record
All photos by Rusty Glessner

Rebellion playlist – RPM style August edition

Rebellion playlist – RPM style August edition

Its August and this week sees us roll with our comprehensive Rebellion Festival round-up so why not run our twent choice cuts from our perspective.  We’d have listed the likes of Zero Zero and Rotten Foxes but they’re not on Spotify so we’ve gone with a solid old and new twenty plus.  Check em out there has to be something for every taste in there. Remember kids don’t just stream go out and watch these bands and buy their merch and music.  It keeps them making the music we love.

 

Rebellion Festival – Blackpool Winter Gardens – 1st August 2019

Rebellion Festival – Blackpool Winter Gardens – 1st August 2019

It’s the first weekend of August and that can mean only one thing for the more discerning music fan as all roads (or as in our case trainlines) lead us to Blackpool for the annual Rebellion Festival. With one of our mates setting an all new record by taking 13 hours to get to the punk rock capital of the world (well for this weekend anyway) me and Dom Daley feel positively smug getting to our hotel for a 2pm check in and on site as planned for the first of the weekend’s rock ‘n’ roll action and the first of many stage clashes to follow.

It’s probably best I get this elephant out of the room right away really as with 7 stages and over 350 bands playing (just in the Winter Gardens never mind the fringe events) it would take  a football team of reviewers to cover everything on offer and with just me and RPM Editor In Chief Dom Daley on duty this weekend you’ll have to forgive us if you are in a band that played and we didn’t get to see you, as even with some of the bands we did want to catch, things like; band interviews overrunning, turning up at the wrong stage and waiting for 20 minutes before you realised it was the wrongs stage (yup that was me) or even something as simple (but essential) as getting something to eat, just got in the way. So, with this in mind, go pour yourself a libation, sit back and relax and sweat along with us as we take you into the heart of the action at Rebellion 2019.

Kicking things off for me this year are The Kingcrows, a band I’ve wanted to check out live ever since I reviewed their ‘Funland’ album for Uber Rock way back in 2015 but I always epically failed to do so.  Today I’m in the Arena early doors to make sure I catch all the sleaze punk anthems from their latest ‘Brute Force and Ignorance’ album, like ‘Saturday Night Rock City’ and ‘City Kids’ and what I along with the very healthy looking mid-afternoon crowd get is a lesson in how to play your music and enjoy every minute of it. If you can imagine Soho Roses playing Oi! with KISS guitars and like the sound of that curious hybrid you do need to go check out The Kingcrows, because they really are impeckable (ouch!)

Hot tailing it over to a packed-out Club Casbah just in time to catch the tail end of Mille Manders and The Shut Up’s set, Millie with her leg in a cast still manages to cut a commanding figure out front and the double sax attack of ‘Obsessive Transgression’ is enough to get me breaking into an impromptu early afternoon skank. Playing ‘Bacchus’ (a song about drinking) at Rebellion is always going to be like pushing at an open door and is an instant crowd favourite. Its when The Shut Ups tackle ‘Pretty Green’ though that they really show their true class making the Jam track sound like one of their own and promptly hitting the ball right out the park.

With a few minutes to spare between bands I quickly stick my head into the Pavilion to catch Time For Action and get it promptly knocked off by the band’s swaggering Manc attitude. Playing tunes from their debut album ‘Turn It Up’ the four piece’s set gives their old school punk influences a Samba trainer up the arse and in the process makes them immediately stand out.

Having been together for almost 4 decades Brazilian hardcore punks Inocentes are legends of the scene and that’s why the Empress Ballroom is very respectably full when I arrive ready to get a good spot for The Bar Stool Preachers. Stuart “Psycho” Pearce is stood next to me too most probably still trying to make amends to Brazilians worldwide for his blatant handball back in 1990. There’s no excuse for the Fergie-time Inocentes seem to magic up at the end of their set though and the time constraints it imposes on the band due to follow them.

Not that it really bothers The Bar Stool Preachers who sauntering onto the stage to ‘The Ecstasy Of Gold’ already look like all-conquering heroes as the house lights reveal a crowd of over 3,000 people packed into the Empress at 5pm on a Thursday (see what I meant about Thursday no longer being the warm-up day in my preview) and with opener ‘One Fool Down’ proceed to take the bloody roof off the place.

‘Trickledown’ follows and T.J. McFaull is (for once) almost lost for words at the crowd response then we are quickly into ‘Warchief’ and the avalanche of crowd surfers begins. It’s during ‘Choose My Friends’ that I notice Cock Sparrer’s Colin McFaull stood side stage and I half hope he’ll appear dressed as Hilda Baker to share the female lead vocal, sadly it’s a no this time and Tom delivers this thrasher solo for once. A new track (which I think is called ‘Late Night Transmission’) follows and this could see the band moving in a much more Clash-like direction with their follow up to ‘Grazie Governo’.

With the Rebellion family celebrating the life of Kathy Rocker along with other lost friends this weekend T.J. dedicates ‘Start New’ to his good friend and then it’s all over in the blink of an eye with a rousing ‘Bar Stool Preacher’. With a US Tour with Bouncing Souls and The Bronx to follow almost immediately after this weekend before the band return to the UK for a ten-date headline tour in September I can but wonder if 2020 will be the year The Bar Stool Preachers get to headline the Empress Ballroom. What do you think?

Looking to cool down after the sauna of the Empress I catch the last song of Dead Objectives playing to a packed out audience on the Introducing Stage before quickly hot footing it back to the Empress once more for New Orleans hardcore punks Pears, yet another band I’d wanted to catch live for some time.  Sadly technical issues with Zach Quinn’s microphone means the band’s normally explosive music is lost in stuttering translation for the first few songs and its only when they break into ‘Mollusks Mouth’ that things truly start to fire on all cylinders. Still with songs as fantastic as the multi-platinum selling (yeah right Zach) ‘Victim to Be’ in the set the earlier sound issues are pretty much soon forgotten.

Taking some time out to grab some much-needed sustenance and to try and cool down I’m quickly back in the sweltering heat of Empress in time for Birkenhead’s very own glam slammers Queen Zee and thankfully I’m not alone in wanting to see them. There’s an almost tribal thump to the glam meets grunge majesty of ‘Lucy Fur’ and the epic ‘Loner’ is where most people will find their entry point. I really don’t want to try and force Queen Zee into some kind of musical pigeonhole as they deserve so much more but ‘Sissy Fists’ which closes things out this evening actually reminds me of Exit_International so I’m sure you’ll agree that’s high praise indeed from RPM Towers. Politically on point with ‘Victim Age’ the band’s choice of backdrop hammers their inclusive message home too and in ‘Fuck The Pain Away’ they have their perfect cover song.  This time last year I witnessed Idles wow an early evening crowd at this very same festival, Queen Zee today give me the exact same buzz. New band of the weekend for me by a long mile.

With Dom promising his old mate Dave Sharp he’d catch him live on the Almost Acoustic stage I tag along hoping to finally cool down with a quiet pint and some Dylan-esque background music, however the place is rammed and hotter than an oven so I leave behind the folk ballads and instead head over to the Club Casbah for some D.I. back in Europe for the first time in over 30 years. Having never been a D.I. fan back in the day but having a few close mates who were and still are I was hoping hearing songs like ‘Chiva’, ‘Pervert Nurse’ and ‘Johnnys Got A Problem’ live might make me an immediate fanboy but even with the crowd going absolutely bananas around me it still all kind of washed over me. That’s not saying the band were poor, far from it, it just didn’t fire me up like The Adolescents (another band I wasn’t a huge fan of back in the day) did just 12 months earlier at this very same festival.

Moving back to the Almost Acoustic stage for the second set of the day from The Bar Stool Preachers I thankfully can’t get into the venue itself as its rammed to the rafters and instead I end up standing (or make that manspreading myself) in front of the only functioning air conditioning unit in the adjoining bar area. Playing a set consisting of tunes largely missing from their earlier Empress set I can but once again marvel at the magic these 6 guys create, and if the call and response during opener ‘All The Broken Hearts’ doesn’t move you to tears then you really are without emotion. Dom finally gets to hear ‘Raced Through Berlin’ live so he’s beaming from ear to ear too as are most of the crowd in fact, who unlike with most of the other shows on the Almost Acoustic stage are all up on their feet and dancing. Rumour has it that the Preachers tried to cheat and sneak a drum kit into their performance tonight, but I reckon they could do this stuff on kazoos and still get people involved, such is their appeal.

Having admitted to you already to not really having liked D.I. back in the day, one band I did love and still do is Portland Oregon heavyweights Poison Idea. Their ‘Feel The Darkness’ LP is one of my all-time favourite hardcore albums so with the prospect of catching one of the last four shows they will ever do on UK soil as part of their ‘The King Is Dead’ tour I found myself letting out an excited little squeal as the band takes to the Casbah stage…but I must admit what follows isn’t exactly what I was expecting. In fact, it takes until ‘Plastic Bomb’ a good 5 or 6 songs in before anything really starts to kick me in the head the way the band did back in the late 80s/early 90s. Working without a set list seems to be the root cause of this and whilst spontaneity can and does work in small clubs here playing to over a 1,000 people it leads to some quite long between song silences which just doesn’t work for me and seems to sap the energy and momentum from the performance.  I want Jerry A in my face and bleeding not pondering over which song to play next and as such even when they do eventually play ‘The Badge’ they’ve kinda lost me already. I love Poison Idea and whilst I enjoyed some of tonight’s set it could and should have been the one I was shouting about loudest but I’m not and that right there is what hurts the most folks.

With Poison Idea playing one of their last UK shows at Rebellion 2019 Fear, over forty years into their punk rock career, are tonight playing their first-ever show on UK soil and Club Casbah is suitably packed out for such an event. Lee Ving might look more like an aged teddy boy these days but he still spits out the 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 mantra like a teenager and tracks like ‘We Destroy The Family’, ‘I Love Livin’ In The City’ and  ‘Fresh Flesh’ all sparkle with the magic of that seminal ‘The Record’ LP. Yes the band can at times have a loose almost falling apart approach to their art, and Lee’s tendency to sing rather than shout the songs makes them something of an acquired taste, but with the hour fast approaching 1am and my eyes starting to feel more than a little heavy they still manage to keep me enthralled something I fear (ouch) the Empress headliners The Descendents would never been able to do. Still each to their own I suppose and what a great way to finish day 1 of Rebellion 2019. See you in just a few hours folks…that is unless you are doing one of the fringe events well into the wee small hours…in which case see you tomorrow night, maybe?

 

Author: Johnny Hayward

Pt 2 sees a brief summary from Darrel Sutton who managed to catch a whole bunch of band John and Dom missed so without further waffle here goes…

It’s been quite a while since I last made the pilgrimage to Rebellion and, despite having to fit in the small matter of performing two sets with my own beat combo, I was gonna make damn sure I’d try and catch as much of the stellar line-up on offer as the heat and stupid amounts of alcohol and schmoozing would allow.

As well as spending far too much time talking utter shite with my RPM amigos I also sloped off and caught quite a few bands with loads of other acquaintances (such is the nature of Rebellion, allowing catch-ups with old friends from all over the place).

A hectic start which takes in the obligatory Millie Manders and Bar Stool Preachers sets gets a serious adrenaline blast from In Evil Hour whose Rise Against tinged set translates perfectly from the club stages they’ve ruled over recent years to a packed Club Casbah. Vocalist Al positively rules the place and it sets the tone nicely for a quick dash into the Arena to catch Wiltshire’s finest sons The Blunders.  The trio has always been a bit different with their quirky acerbic tunes of disdain and disgust and this slot combined with their slot at Boomtown is no less than they deserve and staples like ‘TV Bastard’ and ‘People Get Smaller’ positively rip.  The festival’s pace doesn’t really slow as the temperature shows no intention of dropping and so with the alcohol kicking in a bit of a break, via a pretty tidy few songs from Diablo furs in the Pavilion, sees me return to action in the company of Flipper. The Arena is, luckily from a heat perspective, not too full to see David Yow and Mike Watt complete a legendary line-up for the band, but unless you are a total nostalgic die-hard their open salvos made The Melvins sound like the Ramones, so I slip off for a much more uplifting closing trio of the Bar Stool Preachers acoustic set, Poison Idea and Fear and a dehydrated stroll back to the hotel.

Bungle, Poison Idea & Fear pictures courtesy of Dod Morrison Photography

Rebellion – All Roads Lead to Vegas Of The North – Thursday Preview

Rebellion – All Roads Lead to Vegas Of The North – Thursday Preview

With just four weeks to go to our annual trip to Rebellion Festival at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool we thought it was high time we gave you a flavour of what RPM would be doing over the four days that make up the absolute jewel in the crown of the UK summer festival season. Johnny H kicks things off with his look at the opening day and a line up that combines the old with the new in one huge celebration of everything great about punk rock music.

The opening day at Rebellion was always about meeting up with old mates to share a pint or two, then making some new ones in the process, it was about rummaging through the market to find long sought after gems, popping into the Punk Art Exhibition to see what twisted genius my old mate Colin Creamcrop Scott had been up to, and then perhaps maybe catch the odd band in the middle of all of this.

I’m telling you this so you understand the seismic shift I’ve seen in the last ten years of going to Rebellion. Thursday was kind of like the appetiser, or a quiet introduction if you will, for what effectively was about to follow over the next three day. Now I look at the bill and I wonder how the hell am I going to do any of the above as its just so jam packed full of great bands right from the off that I’m seriously thinking that next year I’m going to have to go up on the Wednesday as that now appears to be the new Thursday!

Anyway, this year thanks to the train taking the strain once again RPM should be on site just in time to catch Millie Manders & The Shutup and/or The Kingcrows. I say and/or because right from the start we have a band clash, something that undoubtably will see me going one way and our Editor In Chief Dom Daley going the other more than once over the course of the weekend.

Regrettably, our eta means we will have already missed System of Hate and The Murderburgers in Club Casbah and our Brazilian pal from last year Supla performing an exclusive acoustic set, but it doesn’t mean you have to too. In fact, go check them all out as from doors open this year this promises to be one hell of an action-packed weekend.

Back for the 5th year running (by my reckoning anyway) I would bet my Kiss Me Quick hat that Rebellion 2019 is going to be all about The Bar Stool Preachers. The Brighton based ska punks very much on the rise right now and promising to preview tracks from their soon to be recorded 3rd album their 5:15 slot (5:15 geddit?) on the Empress Ballroom stage plus headlining the Almost Acoustic stage later in day are going down on my laminated colour coded band planner as must see performances.

Again I’m not exactly sure where there will be time to anything else other than watch bands after this though as in quick succession we have Pears in the Empress, (our old Slugfest mates) The Blunders in the Arena, cricketing nutters Geoffrey Oicott in the Pavilion, with TV Smith and Slice Of Life both in the Opera House all playing within a two hour window. I can’t of course watch whole performance but I’ll try my best to catch at least some of each.

One band I really do not want to miss this year are Birkenhead’s Queen Zee who will be bringing their Eno goes grunge influenced glam rock stylings to the Empress Ballroom for an 8:30 slot promising to take us on a much welcome trip into the unknown ahead of the hardcore onslaught that is to follow. I was at their recent sold out Newport Le Pub gig but had to leave early when it overran and was truly gutted to miss them, and right now they seem to be everywhere, Download, Glastonbury and thankfully for me Rebellion. Queen Zee may be a bit mainstream for some tastes but they certainly a hell of a lot less pop than Masked Intruder who they follow in the ballroom, I just hope I don’t turn out to be a ‘Loner’ in such huge surroundings.

With Dom no doubt fluffing his mullet to Dave Sharp over at the Almost Acoustic stage and Flipper and The Descendents playing in the Empress plus D.I, Poison Idea and Fear all playing over in Club Casbah you’ll forgive me for thinking that I’ve just somehow quantum leapt back into the early ‘80s (I know there’s a Blackpool gag in there folks but I’ll let you make up your own punchline).

Fear playing their first ever UK show will surely be a must-see for many but for me it’s the lure of Poison Idea that will see me making the short dash from The Bar Stool Preachers in Almost Acoustic to Club Casbah for what might very well be their last ever UK show. ‘Plastic Bomb’ anyone? Fuck yeah!

With everything I’ve covered already I’ve rather shamefully not even touched on the new bands all playing on the Introducing Stage on the opening day, but from London ska punks Lead Shot Hazard through to The Outlines from Nottingham the Jonny Wah Wah curated stage promises a packed house and a total of 51 bands across the weekend coming from all across the world to play Rebellion, and who knows one of two familiar faces to RPM might just creep out on stage along the way too.

Right that’s me knackered and I’ve only just written about day one not lived it, time for some shut eye back at the B&B then I’ll up bright and early for some Bingo with Max Splodge before the not to be missed Rat Boy Magic Show, and we are well and truly into Friday.

Want to join us on our Rebellion escapades? You can buy tickets for Rebellion here.

Author: Johnny Hayward

 

Rainy Days & Mondays

Rainy Days & Mondays

Thursday night must witness performances might come in various guises but one we’re excited to see and moving onto the Empress stage is The Barstool Preachers so here’s one they might play…

 

After threatening to turn up and perform Maybe this year is the year that we get to see Poison Idea and just to wet the appetite here’s PI with ‘Calling All Ghosts’

To finish off this Rebellion Thursday preview why not enjoy this rather rare performance from The Alarm Guitarists classic ‘One Step Closer’.  See you down the front

 

Jeff Dahl interview exclusive

Jeff Dahl interview exclusive
Email: rpmonlinetcb@yahoo.com
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