GIG REVIEW: Boilermaker + Monkeys Blood + Jonny Robson @ The Forum Music Centre, Darlington, Friday 20 February 2026
It’s been a couple of years or more since I last saw Darlington oi! band Boilermaker, so where better to catch up with them than their hometown?
Formed in 2016 by former Last Rough Cause members Phil Coates on guitar and Max Turnbull, pictured top, on vocals, the line-up is completed by Steve Addison on bass and Mike Robson from Gimp Fist on drums.
They have three albums to their name, 2018’s debut Shop Floor, 2019’s Kill Or Create and 2021’s Job And Knock, and they’re all powerful slices of traditional-sounding streetpunk with a modern twist.
Their 16-song set included a couple of new ones, Firestorm and Straight Set, which I’d never heard before, so I’m hoping a fourth album is on the way.
Boilermaker’s in your face sound is based around Phil’s distinctive guitarwork, with the rhythm section adding even more heft and Max’s vocals providing the finishing touch.
It’s a hard-as-nails sound which manages to be melodic and catchy as hell at the same time, and it takes just a couple of songs for a mini moshpit to form down the front.
Highlights of their set are many, but my favourites included 81-82 from the first album, Boilermaker and County Lines from the second, and When All’s Said And Done from the most recent.
Best song honours, however, go to There’s A Police Car, a superb slice of working class punk rock which prompts the biggest singalong of the night. I’d forgotten how much I like Boilermaker. There’s not a weak link in the band, as all the members are very good at what they do, and together they’re formidable.
Support tonight came from two acts from very different parts of the punk rock spectrum. The opener was Jonny Robson, frontman of Bishop Auckland streetpunks Gimp Fist, whose brother Mike is Boilermaker’s drummer.
He’s doing a stripped-down acoustic set here, which gives him the chance to wheel out some lesser-aired songs, as well as throwing in a couple of choice covers.
His 40-minute set includes Gimps standards like First In Line, Top Dog and traditional closer Here I Stand, and there’s a new song, Sick & Tired, but it’s his version of The Clash’s (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais which stands out for me.
Next up after Jonny are a new-ish band who are something of a North East punk ‘supergroup’. Monkeys Blood only formed in June 2024, but although the members are all in other bands, they’re set to release their first album next month.
Peesh from LoGoZ/Cherry & Peesh handles guitar and vocals, Denni from The Undaclass/The Unnamed/All Out Attack is on bass, and Iain from Slalom D is on drums, and together they produce a full-on punk-metal cacophony which is quite different to all their other bands.
After their instrumental opener they slam through a 12-song set which includes both sides of debut single Fist/Vex, and ends with Mammoth, a mighty beast of a song which rocks like a bastard. I can’t wait to hear the album.
