The last quarter – rebellion day 4

Well it’s done and dusted now and I must say that this years rebellion festival has been my most enjoyable. Today was more a case of what I missed as I got to see my annual Blackpool fc football game.

I first came to the tatty seaside town the membranes sang about as a young teenager. It coincided with my introduction to punk rock. I used to be able to pick up records in my trips over here or even see an odd gig that never would have happened in Dublin in the early 80s. I have great memories of angelic upstarts live in Blackpool bierkeller, or buying zen arcade by husked du or spike milligans tape recorder by the membranes. Blackpool was part of my education growing up and part of that was going to see Blackpool fc. A trip to the sea by premiership side everton was happening so I scored my ticket early for that. Because of it I missed the amazing Goldblade, random hand, sonic boom six, dubtones and the last of the literary events. Seasiders won 2-0 so that was nice to see anyway.

A festival like rebellion is almost like a trip through my musical scrapbook, more so this year with the introduction of the bizzare bizzare at the opera venue. I got to see outcasts and altered images there tonight. Both bands had their 6 month period in my life. The outcasts were the band from the north who played in the magnet. My brothers would come home with stories of trouble and excitement from these gigs. I listened to that first album over and over again. I managed to see them with the clash in the sfx and still have the ticket. Altered images on the other hand had a couple of good singles and were cool because they featured “the actress from Gregory’s girl”. I stayed for most of their set but did draw the line when they covered baby I was born this way. I ran to catch agnostic front belting out heir version of blitzkrieg bop. Chalk and cheese in the two venues. But isn’t that part of the joy of it all. We can celebrate diversity!!

Another band important to me for a while as a kid were stiff little fingers. Again it was stories of their gigs that I was regaled with, stories that always featured trouble somewhere. I used to wonder why would people fight at gigs, are we not all in this together? There was not a sniff of trouble in the 2000 strong crowd singing along “everybody is someone”. That was also a theme of my surprise of the night Neville staples of fun boy three and specials fame. I expected to pop in and catch a couple of good tunes. Instead i couldn’t leave as I was taken in by the infectious dance rhythms. We were all smiling and singing along. “everybody is somebody” for sure.

And then there’s tv smith. Tim was in the adverts but has been blasting his own songs for years. I spent a good year listening to a tape of crossing the red sea with the adverts. We could listen to music in work and this was one album we all agreed on. Tv smith played at least 4 times over the weekend, each time with a different flavour. Tonight was acoustic and mostly his new songs, played with unrelenting energy and passion. If you ever get a chance do check him out.

I’d never come across ginger wildheart before but felt like I’d stumbled on to something special tonight. It was like coming across a members group that was open for anyone to join. Hundreds of punks screaming along to gingers acoustic songs, knowing every word. Amazing.

And that was it!! Rancid were packed out, uk subs were missed for slf and the outcasts, loads more missed out but so many good memories. I can now catch my breath and add this to my wonderful scrap book of punk rock life.

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