Last night we went to The Victoria in Dalston to see Slagheap from Bristol and Nervous Twitch from Leeds.
Nervous Twitch are C86 style with a hint of surf.
Slagheap are my new favourite band! Gav said this gig was the best show we’ve been to this year and I agree. Slagheap sound like The Slits but are better musicians, more funny and more danceable. We bought their LP at the show and played it as soon as we got home. I hope they play in London again soon.
My band Rabies Babies played at the Hand in Hand in Brixton, with Dealing With Damage, Slow Faction, PCF and Dingy Skipper.
Dingy Skipper turned out to be my very old friend Dick Ugly, formerly of Hackney anarcho punkers Ugly Beat, a band who I shared many a bill with back in the 1990s.
I love Dingy Skipper – sort of like if Johnny Cash and Woody Guthrie were Durham miners. This was his first gig, hopefully there will be many more.
I was looking forwards to this gig for ages! I saw Charm Bag last year at the Monster Raving Loony Party in Spain and I have bought a few Smoggers 7″ records during the last year. Laura got a babysitter and we dusted off our dancing shoes and set off for the Fiddler’s Elbow.
The support & main bands were MFC Chicken, but for me the main attraction was The Smoggers. They played solid garage how it should be – full on energy, full on fuzz, full on fun. Plus Ana Smogger is the coolest woman ever!
A very rainy night in Dalston in a tiny basement listening to fantastic sounds.
Support by an excellent vibraphone player who joined a bassist to back Laura during her set.
Saturday began with the Part-Time Pukes workshop – a massive play-a-long to make the biggest band of the festival, joined by Brunk brass band, a load of drummers, uke players and singers. Celebratory pints all round for the Pukes, and after lugging a dozen guitars & ukes back to the van I watched Goldblade rock the massive Empress Ballroom stage. In the afternoon I went for an ice-cream on the beach with Nipper from Hard Skin. We wanted Fabs but couldn’t find any, so we got a Nobbly Bobbly instead.
I came back to the Winter Gardens to catch Coitus – their first appearance at Rebellion.
Coitus suit the Casbar stage. I stayed at the Casbah for most of Saturday night – it was like an 80s/90s squat party line-up. Culture Shock followed by Hard Skin, then I went for mushy peas & chips so I missed Chaos UK, but I got back in time for the Mob, with a tiny look in to the Empress Stage to see how appalling Boomtown Rats were. (They were doing ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’, I didn’t even stay for the whole song). The Mob did one song with the singer out of Zounds, which was quite special to see, it was obvious how much the Mob love Zounds.
MDC were the last band of the night. (my drawing of Mike MDC is above) During their set a guy got on stage and asked his girlfriend to marry him. I couldn’t think of anything worse than being proposed to on stage in front of hundreds of people by a guy that had downed too many pints of shit lager. MDC singer Dave followed the proposal with dedicating the song ‘Dick For Brains’ to the happy couple, and said “I was married once” with a face that said it all. He then proceeded to tell an inappropriate story about going down on a prostitute. I laughed so much. Dave is a star. MDC rocked.
Cheryl’s hen night with the pUKEs & Hard Skin. We drank vodka, played ukuleles, Cheryl got plastered in tacky hen night crap and Hard Skin were the finale of a brilliant night. I drew this one when I got home after the gig, and I’d had a couple of alcoholic beverages so it is a bit rubbish. I like Sean in it though, even though his trousers should have been khaki instead of blue.
Hard Skin, how they look when you’ve had a few.
gigs and pencils 