{"id":21420,"date":"2023-03-07T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=21420"},"modified":"2023-03-06T12:18:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T12:18:01","slug":"grade-2-clobber-fatal-blow-split-dogs-newport-the-cab-4th-march-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=21420","title":{"rendered":"Grade 2\/Clobber\/Fatal Blow\/Split Dogs \u2013 Newport, The Cab \u2013 4th<\/sup> March 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Situated just a stone\u2019s throw from the city\u2019s railway station, The Cab is Newport\u2019s newest live music venue. Started as a community project it provides a whole lot more for the locals other than live music though, for example, the venue also acts as a warm hub\/drop in providing hot meals for those needing them, something I loudly applaud them for doing. Tonight though it\u2019s all about the second night of Grade 2\u2019s tour in support of their recently released \u2018Self Titled\u2019 album, and what\u2019s more it\u2019s a sold-out show too.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Playing their second gig of the day it\u2019s Bristol punks Split Dogs who I walk in on mid set (apologies, as I once again struggled to find a nearby parking space so ended up half way across town) and on finding a decent vantage spot in the already steaming hot venue it\u2019s like I\u2019m immediately transported back in time to when TJs was the go-to place in the local area. The atmosphere is friendly, the bar prices are sensible, and perhaps most importantly of all the bands are not about to be fleeced 25% of their merch money at the end of the night. Anyway, I digress (slightly) because Split Dogs are the kind of band that live off their takings on the merch table, and tonight whilst their shirts will set you back just \u00a310, sadly there\u2019s no music to physically buy as what I experience tonight would most certainly have had me parting with my hard earned for a CD or maybe even a piece of vinyl. The mix of gritty female vocals over hard edged old school punk rock reminding me at times of our old US buddies Chesty Malone & The Slice \u2018Em Ups and in \u2018Tear Down The House\u2019 they have a mighty fine anthem in the making. A terrific start to the night.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Next up tonight are local oi!\/streetpunks Fatal Blow, and the established name that they are on the local punk scene they immediately get the crowd moving en masse (in fact I suspect there\u2019s quite a few in here tonight who\u2019ve come to see Fatal Blow first and foremost). Proudly anti-fascist and working class, the likes of \u2018Spirit of 69\u2019 and \u2018Tent City Reality\u2019 are always going to resonate with anyone with a moral backbone and when they are delivered with the gusto of a Welsh Cock Sparrer what\u2019s not to love? Fatal Blow are proudly old school and bloody brilliant at what they do, full stop.<\/p>\n\n\n

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If Fatal Blow are the keepers of the punk rock flame of old, then London combo (and Grade 2 tour support) Clobber are the punk rock inferno of the future. Singer Chris and his bandmates delivering short, sharp, blasts of hardcore punk that immediately see the younger members of the audience busting out their finest dancefloor moves. With The Cab all about community, Clobber are the venue\u2019s natural house band as their songs deal head-on with subjects like toxic masculinity, capitalism, and the importance of society in the modern day, and you really aren\u2019t going to argue with the \u2018Hardcore Hive Mind\u2019 when they are in full flow. Very much for fans of bands like The Chisel or indeed the old-school original lineup of Gallows. I\u2019ll be looking out for what Clobber do next following this run of 17 shows as hopefully they\u2019ll then get to capitalise on the upcoming release of their debut EP via their freshly inked deal with Venn Records (and there I was mentioning early Gallows). \u00a0Come \u2018n\u2019 \u2018ave a go if you think you\u2019re hard enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 marks the tenth anniversary of Grade 2 as a band, with the trio celebrating their special birthday by touring the arse off their recently released \u2018Self Titled\u2019 album (you can read the RPM review HERE<\/a>), a record that will surely feature highly on everyone\u2019s Albums of the Year lists come the year\u2019s end. Sid, Jacob and Jack are not about to rest of their major label laurels though with headline club shows scheduled right across the UK and Ireland, and tonight is their very first time playing in Wales. It\u2019s also the first time I\u2019ve seen Grade 2 play a headline set, so the mix of old and new tunes is an instant recipe for me (along with around another hundred people) to instantly look to lose our voices singing along to the likes of \u2018Brassic\u2019 and \u2018Under The Streelight\u2019 from their awesome new record seamlessly blending with the likes of \u2018Hearts Of Gold\u2019, \u2018Graveyard Island\u2019 and \u2018Bowling Green Lane\u2019 to provide the perfect soundtrack to any discerning punk rocker\u2019s night out. \u00a0I\u2019ll admit that this time around in this extended headline format the band do remind me more than just a little of \u2018\u2026And Out Come The Wolves\u2019 era Rancid than they have when I\u2019ve seen them previously, and their feet are still well and truly planted on the ground. As evidenced when bassist\/singer Sid Ryan mentions towards the end of the night that two dates into their six-week tour he\u2019s already \u201cfeeling it\u201d, he\u2019s immediately put in his place with local scene legend and Drunken Marksman frontman Pig telling him to \u201cquit moaning and get on with it\u201d, Sid quick as a flash, joking in reply, that the job as his tour motivational coach is now Pig\u2019s. Priceless stuff indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As their first live date in Wales, I\u2019m sure their night in The Cab will long be etched into the Grade 2 memory banks, and for all the right reasons too. That\u2019s because Grade 2 are not only a great live band but also a great bunch of lads too, if you get the chance to see them on this tour or their upcoming UK summer shows with Rancid and The Bronx, do not hesitate to snap up the ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clobber and Split Dogs pics by Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Kevin \u201cScottie\u201d Hunt for the use of his Fatal Blow and Grade 2 pics. You can catch Scottie\u2019s excellent \u2018This Ain\u2019t No Disco Radio Show\u2019 every Tuesday from 8 pm to 10 pm on Wolfman Radio by scanning the QR code below or going to http:\/\/www.wolfmanradio.co.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n\n\n

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Situated just a stone\u2019s throw from the city\u2019s railway station, The Cab is Newport\u2019s newest live music venue. Started as a community project it provides a whole lot more for the locals other than live music though, for example, the venue also acts as a warm hub\/drop in providing hot meals for those needing them, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[8151,8152,867,4659,800,8153,8154],"class_list":["post-21420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-clobber","tag-fatal-blow","tag-grade-2","tag-live-music","tag-punk-rock","tag-split-dog","tag-the-cab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21420"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21429,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21420\/revisions\/21429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}