GIG REVIEW: Cock Sparrer + Cockney Rejects + Crashed Out @ Northumbria University, Newcastle, Saturday 23 November 2024
For a band who were formed 52 years ago when the original members were still at school, Cock Sparrer have had to wait for what most people would regard as success in the music industry.
Their eighth and final studio album Hand On Heart (reviewed here), finally gave them their first UK chart entry this year, scraping in at No 96. And about bloody time too.
Try telling any of the thousands of people they play to every year that they don’t matter though, and you’ll probably get very short shrift indeed.
Cock Sparrer are nothing less than legends in punk and oi! circles, and rightly so. Their heartfelt blend of punked-up pub rock strikes a chord with most who listen to them, especially if they’re from close-knit working class communities like London’s East End, where Sparrer are from.
Remarkably, founding members Colin McFaull, Mick Beaufoy, Steve ‘Burge’ Burgess and Steve Bruce remain in the band, with ‘new boy’ Daryl Smith (who joined in 1992) completing the line-up.
After missing the boat during the original punk explosion and the second wave, they haven’t looked back since reforming for a second time in 1992, and have been staples of the punk scene ever since, filling venues wherever they go.
They’ve never been ones for extensive tours – this is only their 10th show this year – which is why nights like this are extra special.
They were last in Newcastle, at the Boiler Shop, in 2021, and said it might be the last time. Thankfully it wasn’t, and that’s all down to JS Promotions, who’ve been working with the band for a few years, including putting on their legendary 50th anniversary shows at London’s Roundhouse in 2022.
Every Sparrer gig is like a communal gathering. Punters know what they’re going to get, and the band deliver. Every show starts the same; Riot Squad followed by Watch Your Back, and then Working, and that’s the case tonight. Dressed from head to toe in black, they stroll on and launch into 75 minutes of classic street-punk.
That opening trio of songs are all from their classic 1983 album Shock Troops, which remains the bedrock of their set, and the crowd sing every word back at them. Don’t get the idea that it’s just a big old nostalgic knees-up though; that’s only part of Sparrer’s appeal.
This year’s setlists have been freshened up by the release of the aforementiond Hand On Heart back in April, and it’s (almost) title track With My Hand On My Heart is next up, with the crowd singing back every word. Those who haven’t already bought the album probably did tonight, judging by the queues at the merch table before and afterwards.
Another couple of its songs, Mind Your Own Business and Take It On The Chin, also make the cut, along with One By One and Nothing Like You from 2017’s excellent Forever album, which for me is every bit as essential as Shock Troops. And it’s always good to hear Suicide Girls, the standout track of 2007’s under-rated Here We Stand.
It’s the oldies the faithful want to hear, of course, and the boys oblige, wheeling out I Got Your Number, Take ‘Em All and Where Are They Now, before finishing with the old one-two of England Belongs To Me and We’re Coming Back. I really hope they do, as this was another night in the presence of proper punk rock royalty.
Mention needs to be made of the supporting cast tonight, as organisers JS Promotions really excelled themselves. Opening proceedings were local heroes Crashed Out, who were on less than half an hour after doors, and the Jarra lads smashed their short, sharp set out of the park.
Lots of people were still queueing to get in as they blazed through their 35-minute set, wearing shit-eating grins throughout. Opening with the title track of last year’s excellent Against All Odds album (reviewed here), they ploughed through a set which included fan favourites like Raise Ya Glasses, One Of The Boys, Cushy Butterfield, The Town That Died and The Jarrow Song.
Just when you think they’re done there’s a bonus; the Angelic Upstarts songs Police Oppression and I’m An Upstart, which are particularly apt as the Oots have ex-Upstarts man Andy Wilkinson on drums tonight, and it’s a storming end to a set which started well and got better as it went on.
The same is true of tonight’s special guests, the Cockney Rejects, who are enjoying something of an unexpected revival after looking like their race had run its course at the end of last year.
They released a final album, Power Grab (reviewed here) in 2022, and announced a final world tour, lasting until December 2023, intending to only play selected festivals thereafter.
All that changed when singer Jeff ‘Stinky Turner’ Geggus decided he was too young to retire, and put together a new line-up, featuring Olga from The Toy Dolls on guitar, JJ Pearce from The Last Resort on bass and Ray Bussey from The Business on drums.
Any fears that it might feel a little like a tribute act were blown away by well-received sets at Punk On The Peninsula and Rebellion over the summer, and the Rejects confirmed that they’re very much an ongoing proposition, and sounding revitalised and re-energised by the new boys.
They open with first single Flares & Slippers, with Stinky shadow-boxing his way around the stage, and go on to produce a greatest hits set unashamedly harking back to their 1980 heyday.
If Sparrer’s set was about linking past with present, the Rejects’ was all about nostalgia, and I’ll admit I felt 13 again as I sung along to I’m Not A Fool, We Are The Firm, Someone Like You and Join The Rejects.
As an appetiser for the main course which was to follow from their fellow EastEnders, this went down a treat. Long live the Rejects!
