GIG REVIEW: Booze And Glory, Trillians, Newcastle
Tuesday 16 November 2021
Booze & Glory were formed in London in 2009 by three Poles and a Cockney, and quickly forged a reputation with their catchy, tuneful take on old school British Oi!
Today, only Mark (vocals and guitar) remains from the original band, and the line-up is a multi-national one, with Kahan on lead guitar, Chema on bass and Frank on drums.
This gig was originally meant to be in April 2020, to promote their fifth album, Hurricane, released in 2019, but fell victim to the pandemic.
Long-awaited
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that certainly seemed to be the case as a good-sized crowd flocked to legendary Newcastle rock bar Trillians for this long-awaited date.
And for their ticket price the faithful got not one great band, but three, as support was provided by two top-notch North East streetpunk bands, Zero Tolerance and Gimp Fist.
Zero Tolerance, from County Durham, play hard-hitting political punk, and this was the first time I’d seen them since their excellent debut album Too Young To Die (reviewed here) came out in January.
Their set here was short but sweet, and songs like My God’s Bigger Than Yours, Punk Police, If You Hunt, Too Young To Die and Champagne Charlie Wankers sounded better than ever. They really are a band worth seeing if you’ve never had the pleasure.
Next up were one of my very favouirte bands, Gimp Fist, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, who played a truncated version of the set from their hometown gig at Hunwick WMC three days earlier (reviewed here).
They sounded much better here, thanks to the more powerful sound system, and crowd favourites like The Place Where I Belong, Working Class and First In Line soon saw a small but lively mosh form in front of the stage.
Three of the new songs got an airing, with Ambition again the pick of the bunch – I can’t wait to hear the recorded version. The set flew by, and before we knew it it was time for the closing one-two of War On The Streets and Here I Stand. Despite the shorter set, if anything the boys were even better than at the weekend.
Booze & Glory made their name singing working class anthems about drinking, going to football, and the importance of being part of a community.
Their last couple of albums have seen a bit of a shift away from that, without losing their singalong appeal, but the start of their set was a throwback to when I first saw them at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool back in 2012.
They kicked off with London Skinhead Crew, one of their most popular songs (its video has an astonishing 23 million views on YouTube!), and followed with another fan favourite, Leave The Kids Alone.
Frontman Mark promised the opener would be the only time tonight London was mentioned, and he wouldn’t be talking about football, Brexit or Covid either. Fair do’s, we’re here to enjoy the music.
Booze & Glory have always proclaimed themselves as apolitical, but Mark did say if there were any fascists present they were at the wrong show, and should leave now. Or words to that effect.
Preaching over, B&G proceeded to motor through an hour-long set weighted heavily towards their last couple of albums. From 2017’s Chapter IV we got The Time Is Now, Simple, Carry On, Blood From A Stone, Violence And Fear and the excellent Days, Months, Years.
Hurricane gave us the title track, Ticking Bombs, Never Again, Live It Up, and, bizarrely, their cover of Elton John’s I’m Still Standing. Its inclusion was one of the biggest talking points about the album, but it seemed to go down well enough here, even if more ‘traditional’ skins would no doubt have rather heard Swinging Fuckin’ Hammers!
A three-song encore ended with another old favourite, Only Fools Get Caught, and you were left in no doubt that while Booze & Glory might have taken a step away from their original oi oi oi sound, they still put on one hell of a show.
For every person who thinks they’ve betrayed their skinhead roots, there’ll be another who applauds their progression as a band. I just hope they don’t leave it four years until they come back to Newcastle again.
