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Review: 'UK SUBS/ PENETRATION/CRUNCH, THE/RUBELLA BALLET'
'Blackpool, Rebellion Festival, 9th Aug 2014(Day 3)'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'

Our Rating:
On Day 3 of Rebellion we start our day with a good breakfast and a walk along the front as well as getting some cakes from the market behind the Winter Gardens (proper 1970's-style sugar treats) before making our way into the Winter Gardens in time for the end of DOGTOWN REBELS' set in The Arena.

They are quickly followed by SAINTS AND SINNERS who are skinhead street punks from Prague and play a really good set of Ramones-style punk with lots of terrace chant vocals. They live up to the reputation they've built as a good live act and are well worth checking out.

We then go into the Empress Ballroom for GIMP FIST. We know nothing about 'em other than we love the name and an awful lot of people have on Gimp Fist t-shirts. It turns out they are an Anti- Fascist Oi band from Darlington with lots of swearing and songs about the social issues of our day. They are tight and really get the Ballroom going considering it's just after 2 in the afternoon. They also have a great Russian constructivist graphic depicting the band's name on their backdrop.

We then went out to the Casbah stage for CHOKING SUSAN who play a good set of Daisy Chainsaw meets Hole with Karen Finley-esque vocals. The singer also reminds me Texas Terri-style punk with bundles of energy and presence and they finish with a very cool version of The Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog.

We stay at the Casbah for F UK mainly because we have seats up the back and nothing F UK play make us want to move any closer to their crappy shouty hardcore noise. They are almost as bad as the name they have chosen.

We go back to the Arena for CRASHED OUT: a great, tattooed street punk band from Jarrow that I've been meaning to see for a while. They have plenty of energy and are very cool. I really like Geordie Boys and also The Town That Died; good songs about fighting and the state of the region they live in. Worth marching a good few miles to see and frontman Chris Wright has lots of menace to go along with his vocals.

We stayed in the Arena for VINCE RAY & THE BONESHAKERS who stood out by playing rockabilly with a double bass player and also for the fact that Vince used his own Vox amp head rather than the Marshall stacks the festival provided. Vince lived up to his reputation for retro cool and the highlight of the set was a cool version of Raising Hell.

By this point it was time for a dinner break so we left the Winter Gardens and went across the road to Bella Pasta. While eating, we realized that Bella Pasta was far dirtier than anywhere in the Winter Gardens even after 3 days of a punk Festival, which is tribute to the amazing Winter Gardens staff who kept the place clean the entire weekend.

After Dinner we went into the Pavilion for RUBELLA BALLET who I have vague memories of seeing in the mid 80's. They played, as you'd expect, a mainly greatest hits set and Zillah and Sid are the only original members in the band, with Sid switching from drums to Guitar. They play anarcho day-glo cyber-punk with a slight goth edge and the highlights for me were Money talks and a great version of False Promises. They also had great archive footage on the big screens behind them of the 80's version of Rubella Ballet. Cool to see them again.

We then caught the second half of PETER & THE TEST TUBE BABIES' set in the Empress Ballroom. They sounded almost exactly as they did the last time I saw them and it was greatest hits all the way as they are still Keeping Britain Untidy after all these years and will still put a smile on your face.

We stayed in the Empress Ballroom for PENETRATION who I've been trying to see live since they reunited a few years ago and due to a series of mishaps (including being sold a ticket for the wrong date for the show they did at The 100 Club) it's never happened so I am very happy indeed to finally get to see them.

From the opening notes of Future Daze it's obvious I won't be disappointed as they sound great and it's true that Pauline Murray looks and sounds so much more comfortable with a full band than she did solo. Lovers Of Outrage sounds incredible with Pauline stalking the stage and Robert Blamire's majestic bass playing underpinning it all. She Is The Slave still sounds potent and Moving Target really has loads of us singing along. They play a slow intro into their cover of Patti Smith's Free Money before it opens out and really blasts out at us.

Silent Community is anything but and its message still seems vital well over 30 years after it was written as does Don't Dictate: the band's biggest hit. It's a rallying cry in this Ballroom for sure. Danger Signs almost sounds like we should be waving our arms in the air like we don't care but it's not that sort of a festival! So cool to hear Come Into The Open still sounding great, while I think they closed the set with Killed in The Rush. Either way, a great set and I hope I get to see them again before too long as they are still a great live band.

We then rushed over to The Arena to catch most of THE CRUNCH's set we were in time for Right About Now that sounded as cool as ever with Terry Chimes' drums just nailing it. Then Dave Tregunna stepped up to the mike for Russian Roulette that got most of the place singing along before Sulo went back to singing on Yesterday's Boys and Girls and they certainly don't sound like that.

Gangster Radio was really punchy and Fire Again had a great solo from Mick Geggus before they brought Idde Schultz up front from her Keyboards for A Little Bit Of Grace: the closest they come to a ballad but it sounded great as did a storming version of Garageland that of course had the whole room singing and dancinG.

They then closed with Down By The Border sounding just as catchy as ever before realizing they had time for one more and playing Runaway Son at breakneck pace. A very cool set as always by this Punk supergroup.

We then popped out to the Casbah for three songs by SICK ON THE BUS as Chris Furphy the band's drummer has spent ages trying to get us to see them. Well, they are ok: drunken speed punk but Charlie Harper was calling us from the Empress Ballroom and we had to go and catch a good slice of The UK SUBS.

On walking into the ballroom part way through my favourite UK Subs song (Endangered Species) I wish we'd arrived earlier. Still the UK Subs sound immense and even though Charlie Harper is now over 70 he neither looked nor sounded it.

Detox sounded great and Charlie was on about "Getting Ready" and of course it was more than time for a Riot to get us all worked up. They also did a very cool version of C.I.D. that left me wondering why it's only the second or third time I've seen the UK Subs. A great set.

Well we were knackered by this point and after chilling out in the smoking area with some friends we decided that we didn't fancy seeing any of the other bands still to play and so called it a night and went out into the Booze Britain streets of Blackpool to find some Donuts and make our way back to our B&B to collapse and recover with one more day to go.
  author: simonovitch

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UK SUBS/ PENETRATION/CRUNCH, THE/RUBELLA BALLET - Blackpool, Rebellion Festival, 9th Aug 2014(Day 3)
THE CRUNCH
UK SUBS/ PENETRATION/CRUNCH, THE/RUBELLA BALLET - Blackpool, Rebellion Festival, 9th Aug 2014(Day 3)
RUBELLA BALLET