GIG REVIEW: Monkeys Blood + Critch + Steve Straughan @ Diego’s Joint, Sunderland, Friday 27 March 2026
There’s a real buzz around Diego’s Joint, a not-for-profit café, bar, and community events space, tonight. It’s not quite full, but the turnout is testament to the good things happening in Sunderland’s music scene right now.
It’s centred around The Bunker, the focal point of the city’s music scene for more than 40 years. Sunderland has always produced good bands; now it’s got the venues too: The Fire Station, The Peacock, Independent, Pop Recs, The Museum Vaults and The Ship Isis to name just a few.
Opening the bill tonight is local lad Steve Straughan, who’s nothing less than a North East punk legend due to his work in a raft of local bands over many years, including Loaded 44 and Hi-Fi Spitfires, and as guitarist for the legendary UK Subs for nine years.
He’s playing a solo acoustic set for the very first time, performing songs from his back catalogue and explaining some of the stories behind them. His 40 minutes fly by, with the picks for me Battlefield Of Dreams, based on his uncle’s wartime experiences, and Last Gang, about falling in love with punk as a teenager.
I believe Steve is planning more of these acoustic sets, and I’d thoroughly recommend catching him if you can. From a punk scene veteran to a band who’ve only been going since May 2025; next up were Critch, a young four-piece from Sunderland who I’m seeing for the first time, but I hope it won’t be the last.
I was hugely impressed by their energy and attitude, as well as their songs, which remind me of a grungier version of another bunch of up and coming Mackems, Dead Wet Things, as well as much-missed Mancs The Blinders.
Critch released their five-track debut EP No Ball Games in November, and it’s full of youthful vim and vigour. It’s been released on CD and vinyl, but sadly I couldn’t see any for sale on their merch table, or I would have bought it.
Critch recently got a new drummer and this was just his second gig; the broad smiles he shared with the rest of the band at various points showed they knew they were nailing it.
They’re not short of confidence either; frontman James Critchlow, who they’re named after, sees a guy in a Serial Bowl Records jacket, and says they’d love to work with the label. Keep doing gigs this good lads and I can’t see it being long before you get a call.
On to the main event then; tonight’s event is the debut album launch for Monkeys Blood, a three-piece punk rock ‘n’ roll band made up of members of three familiar faces from the North East’s punk scene.
Peesh (LoGoZ/Junkster/Cherry & Peesh) is on lead vocals and guitar, Denni (The Undaclass/The Unnamed/All Out Attack) on bass and backing vocals and Iain (Slalom D) on drums.
Influenced by the likes of Motorhead and The Wildhearts, they called themselves “three-piece noise bastids”; they certainly make a glorious racket which hits hard and fast, and leaves you craving more.
They only formed in June 2024, and have just one single, Fist b/w Vex, to their name, but they’re here to launch debut album Anthropoid, whose cover features a red-cloaked chimp sat on a throne (very Planet Of The Apes).
Self-released, it’s 11 slices of foot-to-the-floor punk-metal, played by three fellas who look like they’re loving every minute of this side project, where they can let loose even more than in their other bands.
They kick off with opening track Transparency, which is all big riffs, beefy bassline and pounding drums, which pretty much sums up their sound. Then they proceed to fairly rattle through a 15-song set consisting mostly of Anthropoid, played in order.
It’s all good stuff, but if I had to pick three standout songs I’d say Klowns, Killjoy and set-closer Mammoth, which sounds suitably huge in this 90-cap. venue. Don’t just take my word for it, check it out on Bandcamp HERE then get your hand in your pocket and buy it, on CD or digitally.
Both sides of the single, which aren’t on the album, are in there too, there’s a brand new song, Hostile, and a surprise cover – their take on US pop-rock band The Monkees‘ self-titled 1966 single, suitably adapted to say “we’re too busy gigging, to put anybody down”. Quite.
It’s a thoroughly enjoyable 35 minutes and when the crowd calls for more as they reach the end of their set, they’ve literally got nothing left. “We’ve played everything we’ve got,” says Iain, but after a quick conflab they hammer out latest single Killjoy as an impromptu encore.
It’s been a cracking night, and I was pleased to see all the acts stay to watch each others’ sets, which doesn’t always happen with mixed-age crowds. It’s called respect, and it seems there’s plenty of that in the air tonight.
