WORDS: BEN ADSETT / IMAGES: DORY VALENTINE

Jodie Faster

Looking around The Union, there are a lot of sore heads as Jodie Faster explode into life. This feels like a kill or cure moment because their French hardcore/grindcore crossover is loud, brash and unapologetic. Songs fire from the stage at breakneck speed and it feels like the circle pit is never going to be big enough to satisfy the band. In the gaps between these short, sharp bursts of organised chaos, this is a band who use their words very well, from dedications to lost friends to outpourings of love for their scene, and these moments connect the crowd. This is a band who move round a stage like its second nature, constantly crossing paths without ever getting in each other’s way and this adds a touch of class to a beautiful, infernal racket. By the end, as people catch their breath, the room is back on form and ready for another big day of back to back bands.

PkewPkewPkew

With the room ready, PkewPkewPkew bring the fun. Their drinking pop punk songs sound even better when the sun is out, and soon have fists, fingers and beers held in the air from first to last song. Musically, they are well versed and share the focus throughout the set with a very polite stage presence. Part of the charm is their engaging stage patter, winning any undecided audience members over between each song and creates a huge atmosphere by the end of their breathless set.

Boom Boom Racoon

As Boom Boom Racoon take the stage, it’s hard to tell what an acoustic guitar, bass and a trumpet are going to sound like. To be honest, even after they played it’s hard to tell. Every song in the set offers something completely different from Manouche jazz, crust punk, folk, ska and, beyond the musical combos, are engaging throughout. Lyrically, this is a fiercely political experience with opinions on gender, the prison system and sexuality shared within and between songs. The cleverest thing about Boom Boom Racoon is their ability to write songs packed with serious influences, both musically and lyrically, that will have the most reluctant toes tapping along to their upbeat rhythms.

Bangers

After seven years, the expectant atmosphere in The Union for Bangers is electric. As they hit the stage, there is a moment where a sense of relief is replaced by pure excitement and within what seems like seconds, the last chords are played and the band leave the stage. With a set that rapidly tracks a very strong back catalogue, there’s something for every type of fan, and what better way is there to discover a band than through a greatest hits set within this atmosphere. Who knows what’s next for Bangers but if this is goodbye, it was absolutely wonderful.

ONSIND

Label mates ONSIND have a similar backstory and importance, and throw a “Ten Years Of Thatcher’s Death” party on the same stage. This is a very different band from the two piece acoustic act that started the project off over a decade ago. With one singer unable to sing but fortunately able to still play, they drafted in a replacement and what followed felt like a once in a lifetime set. With a last minute change on vocals, the crowd were enlisted to help out and boy did they help out. In a set that closed with an entire room singing ‘Never Trust a Tory’ at the top of their lungs, it is impossible not to leave inspired (and slightly croaky).

Death By Stereo

There are so many legends on the Manchester Punk Festival line up but were they on the Punk O Rama 6? In the case of Death By Stereo, the answer is yes. With decades behind them, this is a band who know what they are doing with a crowd and they held them in the palm of their hands from start to finish. Conducting the pit and encouraging the ever spinning circle to speed up and slow down at their will; all of this whilst also delivering a punishing set of hardcore with the occasional harmonised break before the crushing rhythms take back over.

Lightyear

If you were looking for a bit of chaos, Lightyear’s set complete with human tombola, venue climbing and endless taking the piss out of each other was the place to be. Somehow coming across as a band who have absolutely no idea what is going on, they still manage to play catchy and mood enhancing ska punk to a very high standard. This is a set that was pure chaos but one of the most purely fun things the weekend had to offer.

And with that – a quick snooze before another heavy day of running around Manchester Punk Festival.

Tickets for next years Manchester Punk Fest are available here.

Click the image below to see our Manchester Punk Festival – Saturday Gallery

The Copyrights, The Restarts, The Spook School, The Baby Seals, Revenge of the Psychotronic Man, Holiday, Hoof, Start at Zero, No Matter, Speedozer, Ducking Punches, Casual Nausea, Tellison, Lucinda Livingstone and Millie Manders will join the likes of Propagandhi, Iron Chic, Lightyear, and more at the Manchester based festival from the 19th to the 21st April 2018. More acts shall be added soon.

The event will take place across various Manchester venues including Gorilla, Rebellion, The Bread Shed, Zombie Shack, Underdog, Font and The Thirsty Scholar. Advance tickets cost £40 and can be purchased here. Keep a tab on their Facebook for future updates.

The Derby ska punks will be playing headline shows in Birmingham and Sheffield in April, as well as headlining Level Up Fest in London in July. These shows coincide with the band’s previously announced appearance at Manchester Punk Festival in April.

The band permanently reformed earlier this year and are apparently writing new material. This will follow up their 2003 second album ‘Chris Gentlemens Hairdresser and Railway Book Shop’.

APRIL 2018
18 BIRMINGHAM The Flapper
19 SHEFFIELD Corporation
20 MANCHESTER Manchester Punk Festival
JULY
20-22 LONDON Level Up Fest, New Cross Inn

Iron Chic, Lightyear, Waterweed, Dead Neck, Captain Trips, Brassick, Apologies, I Have None, Bobby Funk, Wadeye, Crumbs, Eat Defeat, Hot Mass, Goodbye Blue Monday, The Raging Nathans, Enda McCallan, Carl Moorcraft, and Tim Loud will join the likes of Propagandhi, Wonk Unit, The Bennies and more at the Manchester based festival from the 19th to the 21st April 2018. More acts shall be added soon.

The event will take place across various Manchester venues including Gorilla, Rebellion, The Bread Shed, Zombie Shack, Underdog, Font and The Thirsty Scholar. Advance tickets cost £40 and can be purchased here. Keep a tab on their Facebook for future updates.

The film will look at the DIY punk scene of the late 90s and the early 2000s. More info can be found on the band’s Pledge Campaign page for the documentary.

Earlier this year Lightyear announced that they would be permanently reforming. The were originally active from 1997 to 2003, releasing an EP and two albums, 2001’s ‘Call of the Weasel Clan’ and 2003’s ‘Chris Gentlemens Hairdresser and the Railway Book Shop’, on Household Name Records, and were known for their ridiculous live performances. Despite peforming one off reunion shows in 2006, 2007, 2012, and 2015, the band have decided to properly reform and have teased that they’re writing new material.

The band will also be going on a UK tour this month with Unqualified Nurse Band and The Bar Stool Preachers via the following dates.

OCTOBER
19 DERBY Hairy Dog w/ Replica Jesus + Vanilla Pod
20 DERBY Hairy Dog^+ w/ Cotton Weary + The Boom
21 LONDON The Garage^+ w/ Eat the Evidence + Miss Vincent
22 GLASGOW King Tuts*+
23 NEWCASTLE Think Tank*+
24 BRISTOL Thekla*+
25 STAFFORD The Cellar Bar*+
26 SOUTHAMPTON Joiners*+
27 LEAMINGTON SPA Zephyr Lounge*+
28 BRIGHTON The Haunt*+ w/ Summerslam88

^ w/ Fire Apple Red
* w The Bar Stool Preachers
+ w/ Unqualified Nurse Band

The Derby ska punk ensemble were mainly active from 1997 to 2003, releasing an EP and two albums, 2001’s ‘Call of the Weasel Clan’ and 2003’s ‘Chris Gentlemens Hairdresser and the Railway Book Shop’, on Household Name Records, and were known for their ridiculous live performances. Despite peforming one off reunion shows in 2006, 2007, 2012, and 2015, the band have decided to properly reform and have teased that they’re writing new material. You can read the full announcement on Facebook.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3sitK9NTKvc

In addition to this, the band have also announced that they’ll be going on a UK tour this October with Unqualified Nurse Band and The Bar Stool Preachers, the dates of which are listed below.

OCTOBER
20 DERBY Hairy Dog^* w/ Cotton Weary + The Boom
21 LONDON The Garage^*
22 GLASGOW King Tuts
23 NEWCASTLE Think Tank
24 BRISTOL Thekla
25 STAFFORD The Cellar Bar
26 SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
27 LEAMINGTON SPA Zephyr Lounge
28 BRIGHTON The Haunt

^ w/ Fire Apple Red
* w/o The Bar Stool Preachers

THE STEAL stepped up to the plate and proceeded to up the pace by a ridiculous factor. Playing melodic hardcore like Kid Dynamite if they’d been brought up just outside Zone 6, they bounded around the stage spitting out crunchy riffs and thudding beatdowns that all meshed together to create a thrilling live show. Rich Phoenix’s breathless drumming grabbed the crowd by the collective genitalia and refused to let up as proto-anthem after proto-anthem pummelled into the assembled crowd. What made them so exciting to watch was the perfect balance between melody and rhythm, galvanised by enough kinetic energy to tire out the most Ritalin-dependant of children. Blinder (8)

But when the mighty ADEQUATE SEVEN step onto a stage you can hear the gentle noise of the bar being raised. Settling quickly onto the large stage, something that they seem born to get used to, they ripped out a set full of as many old favourites (‘State We’re In’, ‘Gotta Stay Focused’ and a sublime ‘Free The Adequate Seven’) as new gems. ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’ and ‘Head Up High’ sound like they should be reverberating out of every sound system in the land and it appears that they have finally become comfortable mixing old and new without feeling beholden to their past. If anything is obvious while watching this band it’s that whatever they do, you can dance like a crazy loon to it ? if there’s any other way of measuring if music is worthwhile or not, I’m yet to find it (9).

THE KING BLUES are the revelation of the night. A languid mix of deep ska and Itch‘s characteristic rudeboy vocals, they made the whole of the now-massive crowd bob their heads and look around them to see where that weed smell’s coming from. Dropping in a modified version of ‘Guns of Brixton’ is a masterstroke, as it instantly locates them in the tradition of protest music, as songs railing against the BNP and fascism nail home. They’re clearly a band with something to say, and watching them entertain at the same time is a lesson to anyone that thinks that politics and punk shouldn’t be mixed. Maybe sandwiched between Ad7 and Lightyear isn’t the ideal spot for them but even in such adverse surroundings, they triumphed (8)

When you’re disappointed that Chas hasn’t already got his cock out by the time LIGHTYEAR launch into ‘Pack of Dogs’, it’s time to sit back and think about how much this band has been missed. Filling their set with glorious oldies like ‘Kid Dynamite‘ and ‘Oh No, Not Me Arteries’ (and a superbly messy ‘Spotcheck’, of course) and the more upbeat side of ‘Chris Gentleman’s…’ like ‘Data’s Double Chin’ and ‘Nuff Cuts’, the Derby mob showed that they’ve still got the essential mix of blind insanity, humour and simple, pure energy that has made them one of the most adored bands to have ever come out of this country. At times they looked slightly overwhelmed with the constant stream of adulation directed towards them but tonight was always going to be the party at the end of the world. ‘Positive Outlook’ was the mass sing-a-long that everyone craved and no one went home without a huge grin on their face. Yet another final London gig, yet another ache at the thought that we’ll never see another band like Lightyear again.

What a night. What an atmosphere, more to the point. Lightyear bowed out in style with their last show in Derby

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