Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Meffs!

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Meffs!

As the sounds of The Prodigy track ‘Spitfire’ rang out across the auditorium and The Meffs took to the stage, the cheers from the crowd hit ear splitting proportions as the entire venue erupted into a frenzy of excitement because tonight the new face of punk was alive, and well and truly kicking as The Meffs were in town!! As Lily welcomed their fans to the show and they launched into their first killer track of the night ‘Stamp It Out’, the first track off their new album ‘This Life’ after which the tour is named, The Meffs were on fire and the sell-out audience were loving it!

If the essence of a great punk song is that it is fast and furious with controversial lyrics that fight against the establishment and an underlying current of anger and revolt, then ‘Stamp It Out’ is it! But The Meffs are so much more than the purveyors of great punk songs, (although there’s no denying that their set is absolutely rammed full of them tonight) The Meffs are true revolutionaries, a band who aren’t afraid to make people feel uncomfortable, in fact they positively welcome it! They are not just the voice of a disenfranchised generation, but the voice of most generations right now! True punk in every sense! Lily and Lewis use the stage as a platform to speak the words that so many people are thinking and feeling. Fearless political antagonists who don’t so much rock the boat, as chuck out the oars and blow it to pieces! One thing’s for sure, if The Meffs were running the country right now, it would be a much better and fairer place!

The high-octane feel-good punk comes thick and fast with tracks such as the stripped back, sped up, fast and furious ‘No Future’! A call to arms, an unapologetic manifesto, proper punk through and through! ‘Deathwish’ on the other hand is uniquely raw and unfiltered, an emotionally charged and catchy as hell anthem with Lewis’s driving drums and Lily’s fierce vocals, another stunner of a track in a phenomenally great set! It’s a song that calls out the keyboard warriors and holds them to account! Catchy as hell with an incendiary message of strength and resistance against the bullying of the internet trolls!

Tim Armstrong of punk royalty Rancid famously said at their 2023 Wembley show that punk is about inclusion and bringing people together. That everyone had a place at one of their gigs regardless of their gender, sexuality, race or beliefs and The Meffs embody this ethos in every sense! Their fans are everything to them, in fact there’s a whole army of them, aptly called The Meffs Army!  And it’s no surprise as a Meffs gig is a place to be yourself, to be accepted without prejudice or judgement, The Meffs and their fans are one big Punk family, so when literally an hour before they were due to go on stage The Meffs were in the pub with their fans, thanking them for coming down, because that’s what family do, no one batted an eyelid! This lot properly look after each other!

One of the most telling things about these punk heroes was that the audience at the gig were a diverse mix of young and old, rocking together with their band, just like it’s meant to be. Proper punk values all the way. And the togetherness was never more evident than when later in the show, Lily jumped into the crowd still playing her guitar, and a hundred hands reached up to catch her and transported her around the venue, their arms outstretched and Lily was in her element!

One of the best tracks of the night was the sobering and uncensored ‘Clowns’ which speaks with brutal honesty about the state of the NHS. Fiercely political and straight to the point, reminding the crowd that ruffling feathers and speaking the truth is what they’re all about! ‘Only Human’ with Lily’s opening guitar was another fiery anthem, like a truth bomb that everyone needs to hear!

There’s a bit of a custom that any Meffs fan will know about and that is The Prodigy cover! The Meffs have played a Prodigy cover pretty much since their first gig and tonight was no exception as we were treated to the incredible, ‘Breathe’! The killer track sounded so great that Keith himself would have been proud!

To be a punk duo is never an easy option, but the dynamic between Lily and Lewis is so effortless and just works. They constantly banter together and with the crowd and it all just feels like one big punk party over at Lily and Lewis’s gaff! And there were some hilarious moments, like when Lily’s girlfriend Ola came onto the stage wearing a Frank Turner mask as he was too busy to make an appearance!

As they played their final track of the night, ‘Broken Britain, Broken Brains’, The Meffs, never a band to conform on any level, shunned the usual posed photo with the fans in the background in favour of inviting them onto stage to join them. As madness ensued much to the shocked faces of the venue security, the stage descended into a glorious mass of pogoing bodies all living their best life! Relishing one of those incredible ‘pinch yourself’ moments that will stay with them forever, clearly putting The Meffs up there in punk folklore as the most down to earth and nicest band on Earth!

The Meffs are the epitome of bona fide punk attitude right down to their very bones. The tracks less sing, more scream of the disillusionment of the current political climate is a way which makes you want to be a better version of you and stand up and join the revolution, and I for one am in!

Setlist:

Stamp It Out
No Future
Deathwish
Breathe (The Prodigy cover)
Only Human
Wasted on Women
Life’s Life
Stand Up, Speak Out
Think Big
Everything’s Gone
Take Control
No Future
What
Clowns
Broken Britain, Broken Brains

To connect to the band visit: https://www.themeffs.com/

Review and photos by Louise Phillips Music Photography

All photos are owned by Louise Phillips Music Photography and cannot be shared without consent