GIG REVIEW: Ferocious Dog + Jonny Robson @ The Grove, Newcastle, Thursday, 20 March 2025
It’s Thursday night and the Hellhounds are in town – but this is a Ferocious Dog gig with a difference.
The folk-punk troubadours from Warsop in Nottinghamshire are regular visitors to these parts, whether it’s for festival slots or their own gigs. But it’s not often they wheel out their unplugged show, as they are on this short Running With Hounds tour.
It sees Ken Bonsall and three of his bandmates seated on stools at the front of the stage, with the drummer and double bass player lurking in the shadows at the back.
If it feels intimate that’s because it is, but if you’re worried that the show might lose some of its usual blood and thunder then never fear: Ferocious Dog are just as good unplugged as they are fully electric.
Kicking off with their traditional opener Haul Away Joe, they power through a 20-song setlist which demonstrates beyond doubt why they’re one of the best live bands in the UK today.
Blending Celtic-rooted folk music with a punk attitude has proved a winning formula for the band over the course of half a dozen studio albums, most recently last year’s Kleptocracy.
Perhaps surprisingly, only four of its songs make tonight’s setlist, the pick of them being the lively jig Iron Mike Malloy, but tonight’s not about promoting an album, it’s more of a celebration for their loyal fans, the Hellhounds, who are here in force, along with a few newbies, as evidenced by a show of hands for who’s seen them before.
Ken’s in good spirits. As usual, he exclaims “we’re not a political band, we just sing political songs”, and asks “Can I be the first person on this stage tonight to say ‘fuck the Tories’. He even jokes ‘oh look, he left the band – that’s what happens’ when multi-instrumentalist Sam Wood pops offstage for a minute.
The talented Wood is the second-longest serving member of Ferocious Dog, having joined in 2021, with everyone else but Bonsall jumping aboard the following year. Bonsall’s been the band’s beating heart for longer than he’d care to remember, and he’s an engaging frontman.
They even managed to overcome the loss of his fellow founding member, violinist Dan Booth, by replacing him with Jamie Burney, an equally talented player.
All the classic tunes that you’d expect at a Ferocious Dog show are present and correct; Pentrich Rising, The Glass, The Hope, Punk Police and Parting Glass to name just a few. They provoke lots of singing and dancing, with Burney even leaving the stage to dance with member of the audience at one point. It feels like a family gathering, because that’s what FD shows are like.
As we approach the end of the set, Paddy On The Railway is dedicated to late Pogues singer Shane MacGowan – a huge influence on Bonsall and the band – and Mairie’s Wedding Part 2 paves the way for the always-stunning closer Slow Motion Suicide, dedicated to any veterans present.
I can guarantee everyone here tonight left the venue with a huge grin on their face, thanks to Ferocious Dog’s feelgood factor.
A word, too, for Jonny Robson, who opened the show. The frontman of County Durham streetpunk trio Gimp Fist is doing a solo turn with just an acoustic guitar for company, and it’s interesting to hear songs like Common Ground and Skinhead Not Bonehead stripped right back.
Even better are seldom-heard numbers like Tonight’s The Night, which is the closest Gimp Fist have ever come to a country tune, and a brand new song, History Repeats, which is a bit different to their usual style. A cover of The Clash’s Janie Jones is an interesting addition, paving the way for the closing one-two of Gimp classics (Marching) On And On and Here I Stand, with all three producing hearty singalongs.
Jonny doesn’t play solo shows very often, as he’s usually on the road with the Gimps, but when he does they’re certainly worth catching, and he was the perfect appetiser for the main course.
