Diamond Dave releases his inner punk down by the sea

Rebellion….Nothing quite like it really. A sensory overload like nothing else in the festival calendar. The sights, the sounds and the smells of this 4 Day Punk Rock Extravaganza has people from all over the world gathering together in this British coastal town, rubbing shoulders with pensioners on their coach trips to the coast or families arguing over the slot machines, in the shadow of the iconic Blackpool Tower.

Thursday

Right Diamond, break yourself in gently now… No punk rock Karaoke or spending all your money on THAT Ramones t-shirt that is only ever so slightly different than the 5 you already have at home! My first trip is to the Literacy Festival, which over the course of the weekend will see the likes of Henry Rollins, John Robb (The Art Of Darkness) or Vive Le Rock editor Eugene Butcher talking about life, their respective music careers and so much more besides. My first trip to this stage sees Dave Robinson telling the story of Stiff Records. A true maverick, Robinson regales us with tales of Van Morrison, The Boomtown Rats, working with The Damned (who have sadly pulled out of this year’s event) and how Malcolm McClaren was a bit of a twat. I wouldn’t want to divulge any of my darkest secrets to Dave as he revealed how The Pogues took great pleasure in throwing six music journalists off HMS Belfast into the Thames or how The Move suffered from genital warts. However he is as passionate about music as anybody at this whole event and as he booked a young Madness to play his wedding…well he is all right with me.

Skinny Lister who are making their Rebellion debut this year are also highly entertaining. Their sea shanty based version of Punk has found it’s perfect audience being only 100 metres from the Irish Sea and when singer Lorna suffers what can only be describes as a wardrobe malfunction (in layman’s terms, she split her keks) she and the rest of her band barely miss a beat! Older material with songs telling tales of shenanigans in San Francisco to the Reeperbahn streets of Hamburg sits perfectly with tracks such as Company At The Bar from new album ‘Shanty Punk’ which is due to be released on 20^th October with a full tour. My advice is to get involved!

Liverpool’s Iconoclasts hit the Pavillion Stage to a packed house and although have barely been on a stage together in 30 years are rocking Rebellion to it’s very core and tracks like Diablo, War and set closer Turn The Key? With Bassist Mandy on the left and guitarist Dibble on the right showing that these women know how to shake this Rebellion crowd to the core and when a song is dedicated to Charlie Harper, he of UK Subs fame who are bowing out this year…well it could have brought a tear to a glass eye. I hope this is not a one off and that these Icons will be playing together again.

The Members In Dub are a revelation with slowed down bass heavy Members tracks Working The Nightshift, Solitary Confinement (dedicated to previously discussed Dave Robinson) and The Sound Of The Suburbs fit in wonderfully with covers like Kraftwerks The Model and Jeffrey Issac’s Nightnurse and it is left to Big Country to finish the night off with some quality celtic twinged rock…Chaa!

Friday

My second day at Rebellion is split between the Literary Stage and some quality late night Punk Rock action in the After Dark Arena. John Robb discusses all things Goth and the inspiration behind his book Goth – The Art Of Darkness, talking about the likes of the Sisters Of Mercy, Sioxsie And The Banshees, The Mission and The Cult. It’s really interesting how some of these artists have never considered themselves part of any particular Goth scene and how most of them had been happily going down their particular black brick road since before the term was even conceived. He also notes how it was not a scene that came from the trendy London streets but Northern Industrial towns and cities. It is a fascinating book and should be on every self respecting Goth’s Christmas list (Do Goths make Christmas Lists? Get a copy for Halloween then!!)

Henry Rollins is performing twice at Rebellion and I caught his interview at the Literacy stage (that brief chat was well over an hour so God knows how long his performance later was!) Rollins is amazing, the man is 62 years old but his energy never fades while he regales us with tales of touring the UK for the first time with Black Flag in December 81 or as a teenager Ian McKay from Fugazi discovering this amazing music together and saving up to buy 7’ singles from the likes of Buzzcocks or The Ramones etc is wonderful to hear. Passion is the word that jumps out at me and it is so infectious. My favourite of his stories is either of how HR from the amazing Bad Brains simply passed the mic over to him and insists he sings a song or two that initially gave him that push to become a singer of his own right. Or is it the story of meeting the teenager in Preston the very morning of this show who can’t really believe that he was lucky enough to meet his heroes just round the corner from his own house… could this young lad be standing on a stage at Rebellion in the future after this chance meeting? Who knows, but I like to think so! Rollins ended his talk informing this eager crowd that he is in the process of creating a new museum in Nashville where he can show the half century’s worth of memorobilia that he has picked up in his time falling in love with music…Get me a ticket as that will be one special place!!

Desperate Measures play no nonsense punk rock and are just what you need when it is approaching midnight. With Vive Le Rock editor Eugene Butcher on vocals, this band that originated in New Zealand  in the 1980’s,  have been given a real lease of life and are on a roll. Set highlights are current single , Back To The Rats and a brand new song which I believe was called 7 Seconds both sounding massive. Butcher dedicates a song to Sinead O’Connor to an emotional cheer and the track 1984 with it’s Killing Joke like drums provided by James Sherry brings the set to an end, making me look forward to the forthcoming album!

Pet Needs are a ball of energy despite having van troubles and are not completely sure how they are going to get home to Colchester after this storming set! The band are extremely pleased to have managed to get through a new song having only fucked it up twice. Tracks like And The Spin Cycle Spun and Tracey Emin’s Bed show that the band have all got this wonderful way of looking at the world, they have released that difficult second album and who knows where upcoming third album will take them!

Chubby And The Gang  finish things off for me and I am surprised to see an almost complete line up change since the last time I saw Them  and the fact that singer Charlie Manning-Walker has grown a rather wonderful moustache! Chubby and the Gang are outrageously good with tracks from 2021 album, The Mutt’s Knuts fit perfectly with newer material. The track End The Day is dedicated to anyone wearing a Motorhead t-shirt (me included) and when Manning- Walker brings out the harmonica for the last tune, I know it is time for bed!

Saturday

New Model Army’s Justin Sullivan is extremely entertaining on both of his appearances at Rebellion. The First is talking to John Robb at the Literacy Stage and he shows how passionate and intelligent he is about the creation of new music. Sullivan explains how he has two cupboards in his house, one for lyrics and the other with musical ideas and the magic happens when he brings these two together. He has written over 250 songs so far in his forty odd years with New Model Army and that creative period seems to show no signs in slowing. New project, Sinfornia which sees New Model Army recorded live with a full orchestra and conducted by renowned Cornilius During sounds amazing and just shows that Sullivan is not resting on his laurels, but experimenting! An album of brand new New Model Army material has recently be recorded and there will be a full tour on it’s release next year.

The Only Ones set really seems to have divided people at Rebellion with die hard fans enjoying it but others feeling bored, but I am just pleased to have seen this band having never seen them before their hiatus. I think the biggest problem the band have is following the likes of Ferocious Dog, Bad Manners and The Slackers who are all energy filled live favourites but do any of them have a song like Another Girl Another Planet in their repertoire….I don’t think so.

The band of the day for me however, must have been Pegboy who lit up the Club Casbah Stage. With tracks from all three of their albums including their classic debut from 1991 , Strong Reaction Pegboy really drive this large crowd ecstatic. There are a few technical issues but this doesn’t stop Pegboy singer Larry Demore who gives up playing guitar to spend the rest of the set in the crowd with a smile on his face and venom in his belly! I do hope to see Pegboy again having missed them playing my hometown of Leeds while I was still at Rebellion on the Sunday…speaking of which!

Sunday

Before Sunday, the final day of Rebellion 2023, I knew that I would not be able to see the final acts on any of the stages as my lift needed to be home for work so no Republica, Meryl Streek, The Dickies or Evil Blizzard for me this year. That did however mean that I did get to see some quality music (and indeed chat) on the Club Casbah, Almost Acoustic, Opera House and Literary Stages.

The day starts off in wonderful form with Zen Baseballbat from Liverpool. I had never heard of the band until I came across them opening the Empress Ballroom, and they put in one of the shows of the weekend. The band play tracks from both records Better Ways To Love & Offend and Rations (their first record from 2021) and tracks like You Won’t Get Paid and Place Like This show their wonderful mix up of 80’s alternative vibe, I can imagine sitting down and watching the band on The Tube or something and 2023 groove laden vibes. I sincerely hope I get to see them again soon.

PIZZATRAMP are from Wales and they are pretty hilarious. For ten pounds I was able to get 4 EP’s with 46 tracks amongst them. The band are all about Short, sharp , humorous shocks and their set sees them taking the piss out of just about everybody (including themselves!). Curiously enough the only time the band don’t seem to taking the piss is when the singer does an a capella version of “Nothing Compares 2 U”, the Prince written song made famous by Sinead O’Connor. Maybe he was up to mischief but I am giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Henry Cluney, the ex Stiff Little Fingers guitarist is entertaining whentelling stories on the Literacy Stage but it is his set on the Acoustic stage that sees him playing SLF classics from all the records he played on. Alternative Ulster, Suspect Device and all the classics. Cluney, although a guitarist, proves himself to be a wonderful front man too. Another artist who showed her passion for what she does on the Literary Stage is Saffron from Republica, who like a musical sponge has managed to gather together all the music she has come into contact with. whether it be punk, dance, rock and created (along with her Republica cohorts ) something really special!

Although I wasn’t able to catch The Dickies close Rebellion at Club Casbah, I did get to see Stan and Leonard from the band at the Literary Stage. With talk of mooning the Buzzcocks, Pearl Jam and why singer Leonard sticks his finger in his ear when he sings! They also talk of their love of the UK (and how the UK loves them) and what it is like to look back on his life and the band’s career with an autobiography. The band are approaching the end of their career but you know what, the world is better with The Dickies and I do still wonder, if Stewart could talk…..what would he say?

Gaye Bykers On Acid frontman Mary Byker exclaims from the stage “Who remembers us from the first time?”  referring to the band’s first run in the mid 80’s to early 90’s and a lot of this Rebellion audience clearly do, with a pretty full Opera House as proof. We hear a range of material from early stuff like Everything’s Groovy and Animal Farm to brand new songs (well to me anyway) and what strikes me is that those older songs do not sound dated at all. GBOA always sounded like they were from the future anyhow, so they are as vibrant and as entertaining a watch as they have ever been. There is a new guitarist in their ranks who really has brought them up a notch, certainly to look at and he throws the shapes with ease. Of course in Mary Byker, GBOA have one of the great frontmen. A fascinating performer whether it be with GBOA, Pigface, Apollo 440, Hyperhead or any other of his musical endevours, he prowls every inch of the stage. And you could have knocked me down with a feather when we had a brief rendition of Toni Basil’s 1981 “Hey Mickey”, but hey…that’s how Gaye Bykers On Acid roll, expect the unexpected!

So see you Rebellion 2024 then? Definitely!!!