Rebellion Festival – Blackpool August 1st – 4th 2024

Has it really been a year since punk rockers from around the world descended upon this British seaside town for four days of punk rock tomfoolery?

Well yes, and my TotalRock companion Roland Gent (yes, he of the looniest of all tunes) and myself are here to cover it. I do love Rebellion, with the Summer that we have been having in the UK being one of the wettest in a good few years, the fact that Rebellion takes place inside the rather splendid Winter Gardens, a mere pebble throw away from the famous Blackpool Tower is a benefit. Well I say that, it is usually a benefit but this weekend the Sun really has got it’s hat on and it has started on a beautiful sunny day! I am not complaining!!!!

Thursday

My first day starts on a high with a hastily arranged performance from Iconoclasts, the punk rockers from up the road in Liverpool, who reformed after a good many years at last year’s Rebellion. They have stepped in as a late replacement which is a definite bonus as they are ace! Bassist Mandy is all over the stage and is not afraid to look her audience straight in the eye as singer, also named Mandy proves time and again that she has a belter of a voice. The band are going to be playing more shows in the future and should not be missed.

Lydia Lunch is one of these musicians (or poets or activists) interviewed by John Robb of Gold Blade/Membranes fame and it is incredibly entertaining. Yes. Lydia’s language is not for some, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also enjoyed both Roadent (talking of his days in the road crews of The Clash, Sex Pistols, Bob Marley ,Bob Dylan and other artists that don’t have a Bob in their name such as SLF and The Undertones) is followed by the utterly charming Palmolive, drummer in both The Slits and The Raincoats talking about her musical life and a whole lot more! Look out for her autobiography, Palmolive, Fighting Dragons In The Land Of Concrete.

Back to the music and Abdoujaparov , featuring the one and only Fruitbat  of Carter USM fame, are fantastic starting with a track that bears the same name as the band, I won’t type it again as it took me long enough the first time! Tracks like Brixton Flippin Riots and an ode to shoplifting with Everything Is Free (don’t do it kids!!!) Over at the Club Casbah I put on my more hardcore hat , firstly with Strung Out who gave us their adrenalin filled set to a crowd that should have been larger, if it had not been for the Subhumans and others playing at the same time. The Dwarves are in majestic form and it is great to see Nick Oliveri going at his bass full throttle in comparison to the last two occasions I have seen him when it was just him, an acoustic guitar, and a very impressive beard. The Casualties too, sound fantastic but with Sham 69 on at the same time, well…decisions , decisions.

Thursday ends with the awesome HotWax closing The Pavilion. It has been quite a tremendous year so far for this three piece from Hastings who have ventured in to both Europe and  the US touring with the likes of Royal Blood and Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes. One thing that you can bet on is that the next time you see them at Rebellion it could very well be in the Empress Ballroom

 

 

Friday

Once again the second day of Rebellion finds me hanging around the Literary Stage,  where the likes of Peter Coyne (The Godfathers), Pauline Murray (Penetration) and Kirk Brandon (Theatre Of Hate/Spear Of Destiny). They have us aging punk rockers entertained with their battle stories of life on the road, dealing with Record companies and also how this running around and jumping about on stage can play havoc with our bodies as we age. Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello) is a fascinating guy, I had the pleasure of interviewing him for my show and his story of growing up in the Ukraine and getting in to punk rock, (nearly recording with Brian Eno), his family leaving the Ukraine for the US and how he fell in love with hardcore punk bands like Bad Brains, Madball, Fugazi and a host of others. Eugene also talked of a film project he has been involved with that tells the story of Ukrainian music called Scream Of My Blood which has been going down a storm at Film Festivals across the US and has ventured in to Europe (Come on Eugene, let’s have you introduce us to the film at Rebellion next year!!!)

I spend a fair amount of the day at The Opera House beginning with TV Smith Playing The Adverts Songbook and the place is packed. TV Smith is a Rebellion stalwart, performing several stages throughout the weekend. His set comprises of B Sides such as No Time To Be 21 and Your Friend, pleasing the diehards, but we also get the hits like Gary Gillmore’s Eyes and the anthemic Bored Teenagers for people who are seeing him for the first time .

Not only is Toyah not new to this very stage (she played the lead in Calamity Jane) but her Mum who was a dancer performing on this very same stage in 1948! I genuinely have a sharp in take of breath when the singer who curiously shares my 18^th May birthday, tells the crowd that she is 66 years old!!! You wouldn’t know it by the way she glides across the stage covering every inch. New material such as Dance In A Hurricane or Roses In Chains (cowritten with husband Robert Fripp) sit perfectly with older tracks like Rebel Run or It’s A Mystery (Toyah shows her sense of humour saying it is difficult for a singer with a lisp, well that was an unfortunate title for such a big hit!!). There are two covers, which are both pretty good, Echo Beach from Martha And The Muffins (I expected it, I have seen Toyah play it before) but I did not expect Paranoid by Black Sabbath! I reckon those social media posts in the Lockdowns a few years ago have shown that Toyah is worth checking out!

It is The Stranglers who end the Friday of Rebellion with a cracking set (well I couldn’t see all of it as I was running around taking pictures and that). They play the hits and I was very pleased to hear Duchess second song in and let’s be honest, they ooze cool especially Jean -Jacques Burnel (that reminds me, must read his autobiography!) and singer Baz Warne is very entertaining with his stories and banter. I reckon Warne’s other band, The Wingmen would be great for next year’s Rebellion….make it so!

Saturday

The Outcasts are a man down as they arrive on to the Opera House Stage but do well as a three piece and as usual, the Belfast band are great craic as we say back in the Emerald Isle and any band who start their set with a cover of The Stooges classic 1969 are a good thing in my book! It seems to have been a day that various bands playing different stages have had to battle various forms of misfortune over the weekend, The bass player from The Stupids is struggling with a broken toe but they play on with the one and only Charlie Harper from UK Subs looking on, they put in a fine set!

Millie Manders And The Shut Up also have had their share on misfortune, with their van breaking down which has led to them having to cancel their previous night’s performance. I am glad to get to see them though. I had the pleasure of interviewing Millie two years previously at Rebellion and we both ended up in tears (it had been one of the very first gigs since covid had put pay to the plans of so many artists). But what that taught me is the passion that she has for what she does and she puts all that passion in to a top performance today. She is a great storyteller and it seems like older tracks such as I’m Not OK and Shut Your Mouth fit in perfectly with tracks from their record, Wake Up, Shut Up, Work and I especially enjoyed the new track, Fun Sponge!

Benefits are the artists of the day who really do encapsulate some of the feelings that a lot of today’s audience as they play a blistering set. At this point in the day because of the civil unrest that is occurring around Blackpool as there are Right Wing Marches planned only one hundred or so metres away from the Winter Gardens and could any artist have summed up the feelings of so many as the Benefits track, Flag, did at Rebellion? One positive thing that did come out of such a depressing situation was the pictures of punks lining the streets with brooms in hand, clearing up after the seaside town that they have grown to love so much.

The Literary Stage sees two brilliant (but totally different performances) on Saturday. Firstly, we have Roman Jugg who came to my attention as the keyboard player in The Damned. Jugg ended up swapping the keys to becoming the man who replaced Captain Sensible on guitar in a band that he absolutely loved. Jugg is a great songwriter in his own right and regaled us with his tales of being a vital member of one of the great punk bands (which The Damned undoubtably are) when they transformed under the guidance of singer Dave Vanian into a psychedelic / Goth hybrid. This period became possibly the band’s most successful but it did not come without it’s trials and tribulations but Jugg regales us with tales that are laced with humour.

It is to another Welshman that closes my time on the Literacy Stage today and that is Mike Peters from The Alarm. Peters is a wonderful person who has spent a long-time battling cancer. He has been battling leukaemia for several years and in April this year he was informed that his cancer had transformed into High Grade Lymphoma. It is the mark of the man that he was not just able to discuss his battles but will be playing the Opera House tomorrow night and closing the event. Peters’ stories of first walking up Mount Snowden and later climbing mountains in the Himalayas with the equally cool Slim Jim Phantom were at times poignant and at others hilarious! It is not many who can tell stories that include meeting the King Of Nepal, playing alongside Bob Dylan and how he hopes to return to Nepal in 2027. A true legend of a man.

The band which really stole the day in my eyes must be Death Of Guitar Pop who are nothing short of stunning in the Empress Ballroom. Their Ska fuelled set has the whole place skanking and surely coming on to the theme from Only Fools And Horses must give them kudos from the very start. Tracks from new album like Ska Is The Bollocks and You’ll Be Fine Sunshine from latest album In Over Our Heads sit perfectly with older tracks like 69 Candy Street. Shout outs to both Rancid and The Attack (more of them later) showed that even from this Rebellion debut, we have taken this Essex mob to our hearts.  The band will be playing their biggest headline show to date at the Shepherds Bush Empire on 16^th September and if you want a thoroughly enjoyable evening… check them out!

Sunday

The Attack kick things off in the Empress Ballroom and win fans over right from the off with a special backdrop made that features Blackpool’s landmark , the imposing Blackpool Tower.  Tracks like 1,2,3,4 and Sons And Daughters blow away the crowd who have been up for it even at this early junction in the day. Rhoda Dakar from The Bodysnatchers impressed me three times on this final day. Her talk (along with author Daniel Rachel) about 2Tone and the cultural/political significance of Ska was fascinating. She was also a great interview as well (that can be heard on The Diamond Dave Show On Demand cough cough) as her celebration of her 45 years in music show in the Opera House which she will be touring later on in the year.

I first saw Meryl Streek at Rebellion last year and his performance in Club Casbah is wonderful. There are not many performers who put in quite such an intense performance as Meryl Streek as he points out the injustices of the world. The way he breaks that gap between audience and performer is breathtaking and he spends a good part of the set in amongst his audience, looking each member in the eye, daring them not to come along for the ride.

Older songs from his “796” record (from which a lot of this set comes from) sit with newer material from his forthcoming album , Songs For The Deceased perfectly. Paddy, the story of his Uncle have some of the most loving lyrics you will hear in 2024 and perfectly describe a man who Meryl clearly misses and I would have liked to have met! A young lad is pulled from the audience to shine a light directly on Streek and it has the crowd in rapture! Another one of the performances of the weekend! Streek tours the UK (and plays Holland) in November!

Miles Hunt from The Wonder Stuff is thoroughly entertaining at the Acoustic Stage and you can see that he has done many of these acoustic shows over the years. He spins a great yarn while you cannot help but be impressed at his prowess as a songwriter that comes to the fore in this acoustic setting. Miles starts his set dedicating it to Producer (and one time member of The Vibrators) Pat Collier who had produced The Wonder Stuff’s debut, The Eight Legged Groove Machine and Who Wants To Be The Disco King? The tracks sound as fresh and energetic as they did when I first saw them performed live back in 1987! With tales of (nearly) meeting Bob Dylan and a dust off of The Miles Hunt Club track, Everything Is Not OK I have to say that I have started to get excited already about the full band sets from The Wonder Stuff coming in December!

All good things must come to an end and my Rebellion experience ends with one of my favourite bands of all time , and of course fellow Ulstermen Stiff Little Fingers. Jake Burns is a cracking frontman and has us in stitches with his self deprecating wise cracks insisting after making a tiny mistake in one of the songs saying (you would think that after 44 years we might have been able to play that bloody song right!!”) But there is definite reasons why SLF are so important to have headlining this particular Rebellion Festival with a backdrop that states that, Hate Has No Place Here, and in my mind, never has a truer word been spoken and I am proud to be one of the people who stood up against the right wing marches that plagued both Blackpool and other towns and cities in Britian that day. So I repeat….Hate Has No Home Here!!!

 

A selection of pictures by DJ Roland Gent