GIG REVIEW: HITS 25 – Celebrating 25 Years of Holidays In The Sun, Winter Gardens, Blackpool, Saturday 7 August 2021
Like thousands of others, I was devastated when the organisers of Rebellion Punk Festival announced in May that it was cancelled again this year.
The 2020 event understandably fell victim to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the worldwide crisis making indoor gatherings on such a scale impossible.
In the darkest moments, I began to wonder if we’d ever see its like again, and what sort of live music scene would be left once it emerged from the shadow of coronavirus.
When the UK government confirmed last month that restrictions would be lifted from July 19 – so-called ‘freedom day’ – Team Rebellion kicked into gear.
Mini Rebellion
It became clear lots of punks were heading to Blackpool anyway to see friends they hadn’t seen for 18 months or more, they pulled together a one-day ‘mini Rebellion’.
It should have been Rebellion’s 25th anniversary this year, so they called it HITS 25, in a nod to the festival’s original name, Holidays In The Sun.
Tickets were priced at an amazing £21.50 (plus the usual fees), and limited to 2,500 – about a quarter of the usual Rebellion attendance.
Unsurprisingly, they sold out, with punks from all over Britain desperate to watch live music and see old mates again (continuing international travel restrictions sadly meant this was a UK-only event, and the overseas bands and visitors were certainly notably absent).
Walking up the steps of the Winter Gardens again felt wonderfully cathartic, though I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who did so with a little trepidation.
No masks, no social distancing and far fewer punters and stallholders than usual made it a strange experience. But doubts were soon dispelled as folk began to bump into familiar faces, and make new friends, before the music began.
Rebellion has increasingly championed new bands, as well as celebrating the ‘heritage’ acts around which the original festival was based.
So it was apt that DEATH TRAILS, a band who didn’t even exist when Rebellion was last staged in 2019, were first up on the Empress Ballroom stage.
The first thing that struck you was that the stage was back opposite the bars, instead of being at the bottom of the room, where it’s been for the last few years.
Upstairs seating was reserved for VIPs (bands and their mates), which was a shame, as none of us are getting any younger!
(You could have a sit down while enjoying the performers on the Almost Acoustic stage in the Pavilion, but I’m afraid I missed them all, apart from a few minutes of TV SMITH – one of two survivors from the very first festival – more of the other one later).
Anyhow, back to Death Trails. They might be a new band, but feature a familiar face in Laura Catlow, who played guitar and sang in now-defunct Blackpool band The Polyesters for many years.
She teamed up with Luke (vocals/bass) and Muss (drums) in late 2019, and the trio play melodic punk which veers from ska through to hardcore, and all the way back again, with a healthy slice of grunge in the middle.
Death Trails are so new they haven’t physically released any music yet, but you can check out the two digital singles they’re released so far on their Bandcamp page HERE.
MILLIE MANDERS & THE SHUT UP were next up, and this was a set I was really looking forward to, as their debut album Telling Truths, Breaking Ties (reviewed here) was one of my favourite records of last year.
MMATSU are a cross-genre band who combine elements of punk, ska, pop and post-hardcore, but here their usual five-piece line-up was a man down.
Sax player Dom was so affected financially by the pandemic that he couldn’t afford to join them, so a life-size cardboard cut-out took his place stage right, with his parts played on a backing track.
I’m sure he was here in spirit, and if he was watching the live stream at home he’d have seen his bandmates put on a superb 40-minute set which confirmed them as one of the scene’s brightest up and coming talents.
Their songs tackle topics like break-ups (Your Story), environmental disaster (Panic) and mental health (Not OK), with Millie’s passionate, powerful vocals stealing the show.
A lot of people will have discovered MMATSU at HITS 25. They’re heading out on a UK tour later this year. You really need to try to catch them at your local venue.
The unenviable task of following them fell to FIRE EXIT, a Glasgow band I’m ashamed to say I’d somehow never seen, despite the fact they’ve been going since 1977!
Led by vocalist Gerry Attrick, the five-piece pulled it off with aplomb, leading the audience through big singalongs like We’re Gonna Drink, I Know A Guy Called Charlie Harper and Religion Is The Biggest Cause Of War.
Fire Exit are appearing at North East Calling at Northumbria University in Newcastle on Saturday September 25 (tickets are on sale HERE), and I can’t wait to see them again.
A band I’m much more familiar with were next. GIMP FIST, from Bishop Auckland in County Durham, were the last band I saw in March 2020 prior to lockdown (reviewed here), so it’s fitting they’re one of the first as the world returns to something even resembling normal.
Jonny (guitar/vocals), Mike (drums) and Chris (bass) opened with the classic First In Line, and I’m sure I even saw the normally reserved Chris smile at one point as they enjoyed every second of being on stage again.
They went down a storm as they slammed through Skinhead Not Bonehead, (Marching) On And On, Top Dog, On The Beach, a couple of new songs (Repeat Offender and Machines) from the forthcoming album they wrote during lockdown and a few other tunes I can’t remember as I was too busy singing.
Gimp Fist always deliver, and this was no exception. They finished with traditional closer Here I Stand, with Jonny so moved by the crowd’s singalong that he took a few moments to film a quick clip on his phone.
MAID OF ACE are a band I’ve seen maybe a dozen times since first happening on them at Rebellion back in 2013, and I swear they get better every time I see them.
The four Elliott sisters from Hastings throw up a tremendous punk rock racket, and have just finished a short UK tour (reviewed here). But I don’t think I’ve ever heard them sound heavier than they did here.
They absolutely blazed through a set mixing old songs like Bone Deth and Minimum Wage with newer material like Repent and The Terror, and they’re another band who will have won lots of new fans among the legions watching at home.
Let’s hope they enjoy the rewards by getting a long-overdue main stage slot when Rebellion proper returns next year.
One band who have already made it onto the big stage are DIRT BOX DISCO, another firm favourite who I first saw at Rebellion a few years ago.
The audience had been a little reserved up to now, but they soon triggered the first crowd-surfers of the day. The trickle soon became a wave which would have swamped the famous promenade as the set went on.
Spunk Volcano, Danny Fingerz, Chris Deadbeatz and Maff Fazzo have shrugged off the departure of frontman Weab a couple of years ago like it never happened, and have gone from strength to strength.
They played just one song (Unstoppable) from last year’s sixth album TV Sex Show (reviewed here), concentrating instead on smashing through what was basically a greatest hits set.
Burning, Tragic Roundabout, I Don’t Wanna Go Out With You and My Girlfriend’s Best Friend’s Sister were lapped up by the adoring crowd, before a huge singalong and an even bigger surge towards the barrier greeted the closing My Life Is Shit.
If Rebellion is to survive and thrive as the old bands retire, the festival’s future depends on bands like Gimp Fist, Maid Of Ace and Dirt Box to be the homegrown headliners of the not-too-distant future.
They’re certainly good enough, and have proved they can pull a crowd. That’s also true of the next act up, THE BAR STOOL PREACHERS, who made it to the main stage for the first time in 2019.
The Brighton boys put on a feelgood show of the very highest order, with the energy shown by frontman TJ McFaull and his bandmates proving as contagious as a dose of you-know-what.
Kicking off with 8.6 Days (All The Broken Hearts), with TJ exhorting everyone to “have the best fucking day of our lives”, they played an absolutely top-notch set.
Trickledown, One Fool Down, Looking Lost and When This World Ends were some of the highlights of the set, which finished with a rousing Bar Stool Preacher. Future headliners? Their turn will come.
Into the home straight now, and (with respect to Fire Exit) the first of the big old-school bands, G.B.H. The Brummy boys were formed in 1978, and rose to prominence as part of the UK82 scene.
They’ve never split up, still feature three members of their classic line-up, and have been a staple of punk rock festivals for years. Here they ploughed through a set of old favourites like Freak, Sick Boy and Slit Your Own Throat, with singer Colin hunched over the mic in his own inimitable style.
If G.B.H. are heavyweights, the UK SUBS are led by a man who must be classed as actual punk rock royalty. They appeared at the very first Holidays In The Sun back in 1996, and haven’t missed many since.
Lead singer Charlie Harper, who kept punk’s flame burning during its wilderness years, is somehow still doing the biz at the age of 77(!), and they’ve already signed up for next year’s Rebellion.
I’ve seen them have good days and bad ones; this was one of the former. A big chunk of their set came from 1980’s Brand New Age album, including opener Emotional Blackmail and Warhead, which prompted the biggest singalong of the day so far.
The top of the bill was dominated by London bands, and next up are the COCKNEY REJECTS.
One of the very first Oi! bands, they play harder and faster than ever nowadays, and frontman Jeff Geggus must cover miles as he shadow-boxes his way around the stage.
Theirs is a high-octane set from start (Police Car) to finish (Oi! Oi! Oi!), with many high spots in-between – I’m Not A Fool, The Power And The Glory and War On The Terraces among the standouts. Like ’em or not, the Rejects always bring their A-game.
Onto the headliners then: COCK SPARRER are one of those bands you love or can’t stand. I’m firmly in the first camp, as they’re one of the best headliners I’ve seen at Rebellion, or anywhere else for that matter.
They’re a classic case of missing the boat, as their first album Shock Troops (a nailed-on punk classic) didn’t come out until 1982, by which time punk was onto its third wave and many of the original bands had split up.
Their most recent album, 2017’s Forever, was one of the best of their career, but they only played one song from it, One By One, preferring to wheel out the classics.
It was their first gig since February 2020, so you could forgive a little ring rustiness, but they gave it their all and the crowd responded, singing back every word of Riot Squad, Working, Take ‘Em All, and Where Are They Now?
The show ended in familiar fashion with England Belongs To Me and We’re Coming Back, which the Sparrer certainly are, having already pledged to celebrate their 50th anniversary by playing Rebellion 2022.
Will it be their last? Who knows – probably not even them. But if it is, and some of the other older bands decide to call it a day, HITS 25 showed there’s plenty of headliners-in-the-making, watching, learning and patiently awaiting their turn.
