2020 - Winter Weekender - Atlanta, GA

Rut
Mar 9, 2020
22 min read

Updated: Mar 10, 2020

Event: Winter Weekender 2020

What: 17 bands over 3 days with vinyl DJ’s between bands every night

When: Fri Feb 28, Sat Feb 29, Sun Mar 1 2020

Venue: The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Ave SE, Atlanta, GA 30316 USA

Cost: 3 day ticket = $93 all-in.

Beer price example. Tallboy PBR can = $3. Normal bar prices.

Summary: great bands, great atmosphere, great venue - highly recommended.

Background - I promised myself that from 2020 onwards I’ll keep a list of all the bands I see. I used to do this back in the day but it fizzled out in the mid-80’s. Wish I’d kept it going. This list has turned into a book-like review for this gig. I think it deserved it.

The Journey there...

7am on a Friday morning. Me and my wife (Lisa) are heading off to Atlanta, GA. It’s 500 miles and we take turns to drive. Why not fly? Well it’s over 70 miles to Indy airport and those ’40 bucks to fly here’ type deals usually end up at $300 (each) by the time you’ve decided that you want to take a bag, have an inside seat, a living pilot and enough fuel to get there. Fuck flying. Easier to drive. You see more as well.

Through Nashville TN, Chattanooga (shit - that is actually a real place!), screwed up timezones and 10 hours later and we are checked into our hotel. Would have been sooner but a couple of prangs in the heavy rush-hour traffic of Atlanta meant a few lanes were closed. There ain’t no real way around it – better to be stuck in traffic than in an accident.

The only half bad thing about this festival was that there were no hotels in easy walking distance of the venue. There was no direct bus/train so it meant getting a cab there and back every day. I say ‘cab’. Nowadays this means Uber/Lyft. I get that real cabbies are pissed off with rideshares. In some cities they study hard to learn the roads and then ‘some idiot with a satnav’ turns up and steals their trade.

2 main reasons they lose trade to them 1/ (and this is the biggie) – you know when your rideshare is going to show up. You can follow it on a map. A lot of smaller Punk gigs aren’t downtown and can often be in a so-called ‘bad’ part of town. You get the phone number of a cab. No answer. You get another one. You try and explain for 5 mins where you are. ‘we’ll have a cab there in 10 mins’. 50 mins later there isn’t a cab so you try again. If you’re lucky one finally turns up. You get to your hotel – the meter says $8. He presses a few random buttons – that’ll be $42 please sir.

This leads onto 2/ - the price. You know what you’re paying upfront for your ride home. Yes – Uber now do a ‘surge price’ for busy times & I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the prices go up & up but at the moment they are pretty cheap.

The area that The Earl is located in is called East Atlanta Village. My vibe on the area was that it’s a bit run down and is being slowly gentrified. I think this happens to a lot of areas that are relatively close to a city downtown. Downtown is saturated so money tries to move into the next nearest neighborhoods. Slowly but surely the traditional residents (and life & soul of the area) get priced out. This could be utter bullshit but that was my take.

Got there in good time so had a few pre-gig beers in some of the many bars that are in the area. Went in one called The Elder Tree. This opens early at the weekend to show English soccer. I’m a Southampton fan and wanted to watch West Ham v Saints at 10am on the Sat. It was on NBCGold (Stream) and they said they would have it on – but for streams their set-up doesn’t have sound. This made the choice easier for the next morning. Went somewhere else.

The gig - Day 1 - Friday

The Earl is a great venue. There is a front bar that anyone can get into and a back bar where the gig was. It holds about 300 and has a low stage with built-in PA and bar at the back. Got talking to a few random people and everyone was friendly and quite a few had also traveled from way out of town (WA, FL, AZ to name a few States that I heard mentioned).

This was great as having never been to Atlanta I didn’t know what to expect. Would there be an edge? Was trouble in the air? Is there a right/left wing war going on? There were quite a lot of old-school Skinheads that were proper units. One huge bloke had on an ‘Oppressed – Antifascist Oi!’ t-shirt – and given the choice of music on the first night – we’d def not stumbled into a dodgy fest and I got no hint of anyone there looking to cause trouble. Anyone of a certain age has been to a gig where you get a crew of knobs who have just turned up to bully/fight & generally try and wreck the gig. Luckily you don’t see that too often nowadays.

The first night started with a DJ playing old Trojan style Ska & Reggae and a bit of Northern Soul. A few people were skanking around but a lot seemed to be using the time to catch up with old friends and generally chill out. I’m way more into Punk but the music fitted the scene well. Great to see the actual vinyl of all these obscure 60/70’s songs. They had proper DJ’s all weekend with a double deck spinning the 45’s. I’d guess the average age of the punters was def nearer to 40 – rather than 20. There were a mix of ages though.

Friday – band 1 of 1 – Symarip (UK – London, England) (though prob from all over the place now)

Back in the early 80’s I bought ‘Skinhead Moonstomp’ by Symarip. Thought it was gonna be an Oi! album and was well disappointed. Just about managed to play it all the way through over the course of a month or so. Not my thing at all. As I’ve aged I can handle stuff like this more and as albums without guitars go – it ain’t that bad.

I think the only original member of the band tonight was Monty Neysmith who did most of the vocals with (as usual for a Ska band) about a million other musicians on stage with him. He put on a good show and the highlight for me was getting to see the much covered ‘Skinhead Girl’ by the actual band who wrote it.

The sound was excellent - indeed the sound was excellent all weekend for every band. It appeared that it was one girl doing the sound desk and sorting out the microphone set-up for every band. She did a great job.

The other thing to mention was the stage security. It was great as well because there wasn’t any. It was a self-policed gig where you were free to get up on stage. There weren’t that many stage invasions but when there were - people were cool. No trying to jump into the drum kit or whatever. Have a quick jump around and sing song and get the fuck off. The way it should be.

This was the only band on the Friday so onto Saturday...

Saturday - pre gig tourism

Had done a bit or research on where to watch the Saints game. By ‘research’ I mean that I just put in ‘soccer bars Atlanta’ into a Google search. Not exactly fuckin difficult is it.

With the Elder Tree ruled out we headed for the Brewhouse Cafe (401 Moreland Ave NE, 30307). This is in an area known as Little Five Points which is a couple of miles north of East Atlanta Village. They had all the games on and one screen with the West Ham v Saints game had sound. As usual in a bar you can’t really hear it that well but it was better than nothing.

Boo. There were no other Saints fans and asking around nobody has hardly ever seen one there. Apparently a couple of years ago some bloke showed up for a couple of games who was from Southampton. There were quite a few West Ham fans there today though.

West Ham went 1-0 up and Saints equalized. No problems in cheering the SFC goal – it’s a bit different in the USA – it’s less tribal and fans of opposing teams (or all sports) generally mix quite well. I hate this at NFL games. There is no away section and it just feels wrong being next to an opposition fan. The plus point is that today we didn’t have a dozen WHU fans asking us out into the car park for cheering against them (in what was a big game as they fight relegation).

West Ham ended up winning 3-1 in what was a really shit game. I normally watch games at home. Every time I’ve been to a bar in the USA to watch a game I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Saints win. I even had the ‘pleasure’ of seeing the 0-9 v Leicester at a bar in Cincinnati. FFS – one day, just one day…

The Business & Cockney Rejects have a lot to answer. So many Oi! fans in the USA support West Ham. I remember Stinky Turner joking about it ‘it’s great when we tour the USA – we make our t-shirts claret & blue and put West Ham Utd on the back with the crossed irons – don’t see many with Millwall on the back do you?’

As shit as the game was, the company was great. Had a great chat with a bloke from Reading who’s lived in Atlanta for years and then got chatting with some mushes who were also in town for the Winter Weekender. Turned out they were in a band called Straight Laced and were playing first that day. They knew their stuff and had some interesting stories. Could have happily drank and chatted with them for a good while longer but didn’t really want to spend the whole day in one pub when I’m in a city I’ve never been to before.

Went over the road to another bar and chilled out watching people trying to flog artwork in a strange little pedestrianized area. It was windy as fuck so their shit kept flying everywhere. No smirking at the back. I grew up in a city so am (was?) used to the general nutters & chancers you come across. A new one on me today though. Some bloke would be stood up reading a book – then laugh – and then start a very random conversation with either himself or an imaginary friend. I first I thought he was pimping jesus but if he was – he wasn’t very good at it cos what he was saying just made no sense. ‘the pineapples fell off the tree because my shoelace was orange – but what newspaper was it?’ kinda thing.

He seemed to be harmless and enjoying himself - although obviously not quite right in the head. But what is ‘right’? Enough bullshit – onto the gig.

The gig - Day 2 - Saturday

First things first. The DJ. Fuckin hell – it was like being at home in the early 80’s spinning my record collection. He had some great stuff – again, all on vinyl.

His name is Phil Rigaud - AKA ‘Phil Templar’ because he plays drums for The Templars. He also drums for Vibram 94 who are playing tomorrow. This pic is him holding up ‘Blast Off’ by The Shapes – couldn’t believe I’m hearing that at a gig in Atlanta. It was great hearing stuff like ‘No hope for the wretched’ by The Dead Wretched filling the room – followed by something like ‘8 pound a week’ by The Squad. A great mix of 77/82/Oi! I think I knew 80/90% of what he played but had to ask a couple of times. Had a bit of a chat – top bloke – great record collection.

Saturday – band 1 of 8 – Straight Laced (USA - Louisville, KY)

As mentioned - we’d had a chat with them earlier on that afternoon. Was pretty sure they were gonna be good and they didn’t disappoint – they played a blinding set. As the day was already a few beers in the opening song sounded like the ‘best song ever’ to someone who is starved of decent live music. Straight Laced by name – straight up tight as fuck Street Punk by sound.

'Street Business' is arguably their anthem with a rip-roaring chorus of Boots! Braces! Jeans! Straight Laces! over the sound of pulsating beat. Great stuff.

They lose a couple of Punk points from me for having a singer/guitarist. I prefer bands where the singer is just the singer. Will let them off though.

Cover: Do Anything You Wanna Do by Eddie & The Hot Rods (1977)

Saturday – band 2 of 8 – The Lucky Ones (Canada - St. Catharines, ON)

Wow – you know you’re in for a great weekend when the first 2 bands are as good as this. I’d heard a few Lucky Ones songs and thought they were good. Live – they were even better. A proper singer and (as most bands had this weekend) great backing vocals for the choruses. Talking of choruses - the classic ‘don’t bore us – get to the chorus’ was dropped in early. Can’t help but sing along to quality lyrics like this:

No one gives a fuck about your 2 minute intro

No one gives a fuck about your wanking solo

No one gives a fuck what you do or say

And no one probably likes your shitty band anyway

‘Monday Night At Carlton Heights’ is right up there in my current fav songs as well. Warning though - hear that opening riff and you'll have it stuck in your head for hours. A tale of woe on a Monday night in a local bar that I’m sure a lot of people can relate to - and another song where they include ‘wankers’ in the lyrics. Didn’t know Canadians used that word so much.

I did some more of that ‘research’ that I mentioned earlier and I’m pretty sure this is the place (Carlton Heights Pub, 595 Carlton St, St. Catharines, ON L2M 4Y2, Canada):

It doesn’t look that bad does it? Surely ‘the service is shitty’, ‘the beer is shite’, ‘the bathroom smells like a fuckin death camp’ & ‘worst jukebox that I’ve ever seen’ can’t be true? I reckon it sounds like a right tourist attraction. Next time I’m in Niagara then fuck going to see some poxy waterfall – I’m heading here.

In case anyone was wondering (yeah, right) then the song St. Paul & Queen by The Lucky Ones is based on this location [Queen St & St Paul St, St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M4, Canada] – about 3 miles up the road from the Carlton Heights. Think I’ve found the new trendy hotspot of Canada. Wonder if they’ve got those wanky woo-woo pedal cart things for hire?

Cover: Take ‘em All by Cock Sparrer (1983)

They finished with this and it’s a safe choice – everyone knows it. The pic below is of ‘big mush from Arizona’ singing along to it.

I chatted to him for a bit and I’m sure he told me his name but at least I remembered where he was from – that’s good enough ain’t it? Anyway – The Lucky Ones were superb.

Saturday – band 3 of 8 – Dog Company (USA - Dallas, TX)

I think the guitarist was brand new hence the muso stuff on the set-list (by the way – I didn’t intend to get a set-list for every band but often they were there after the band had finished. Didn’t make a cunt-move and steal them whilst the band was playing).

It was back to singer/guitarist. Again they were tight and good (especially if they hadn’t practiced much together).

Shame they didn’t play ‘Politicians Anthem’ but you can only play so many songs in a shortish set.

No covers that I knew/remember. That’s not to say that there wasn’t. I hate to admit this – but I don’t know every single song by every single band from the past. OK - if it’s early 80’s UK then not far off – but 90’s USA? Not so much.

Saturday – band 4 of 8 – Adolf & The Piss Artists (AKA APA) (USA - Atlanta, GA)

Many moons ago my mate Gaz Suspect did me a compilation tape that I’m sure included some stuff by APA so always good to see a band on the bill that I sort of knew. They can be quite confusing because they are named after a lyric from the 1977 song ‘For Adolfs' Only’ by The Valves who are from Edinburgh, Scotland – but they are from Atlanta, USA. I guess I assumed they were Scottish originally cos of the name.

Great set. Proper singer with 2 guitars behind him – no idea if it’s all original members or not.

The guitarist on the left is Richard Henderson. He was in at least 3 bands over the weekend. He knows how to slam those strings.

Cover: as mentioned it’s their kind of theme song. For Adolfs’ Only by The Valves (1977). They covered it like a band who um, has covered it a lot.

Adolf was a piss artist – OK. Adolf was a piss artist – OK.

Saturday – band 5 of 8 – Billy Batts & The Made Men (USA - Atlanta, GA)

These were a late addition to the bill. Young (early/mid teens?) 3 piece band who did 2 songs. Were they sons of people in other bands? Dunno. The t-shirts were Ramones, Dickies and The Adicts. You need to do some work on that lads.

Cover: Alternative Ulster by Stiff Little Fingers (1978). They played a spot-on cover of this for their second song.

Saturday – band 6 of 8 – Antagonizers ATL (USA - Atlanta, GA)

They had to add the ATL as some other band was called The Antagonizers. No idea who was first. A bit like Haywire from Weymouth, England – some poncy ‘hard rock’ band from Canada used the name at about the same time. That’s how they got popular – people heard the English Haywire and thought they were good. Or something like that. Whatever.

Anyway – I first saw Antagonizers ATL in 2017 at Rude Fest 2 in St. Louis, MO. Loved ‘em and picked up their excellent ‘Working Class Street Punk’ album. Have since seen them a couple more times and was looking forward to seeing them tonight. As with every band at this festival they didn’t disappoint.

I think they dropped a cover into the set early on cos I’m sure they didn’t play ‘Dead To Us’. Can’t remember for sure and it doesn’t really matter.

Richard Henderson on the guitar is back. You might have changed your t-shirt but that neck tat ain’t gonna wash off! To be fair the t-shirt change would have probably worked for me – good disguise. Talking of playing in multiple bands…

The singer of the Antagonizers (Bohdan Zacharyj) is/was the singer of Vibram 94 and he’d be singing tomorrow for them. He’s a good front man and from what I can tell he helped arrange this festival (and quite a few other gigs around Atlanta). Keep up the good work. Your bands and events are great.

The only thing I didn’t like is that the mush who I think was the bassist is now on keyboards. Key-fuckin-boards? Luckily you couldn’t really hear them – like I said the sound girl was good. She probably thought ‘what’s that shit doing up there’ and did the biz.

Proof above of ‘some piano thing’ being used by the Antagonizers. I spose there could be some positive use for it like um, er – how about if you turned it off – then it would be a good place to sit your beer down.

It was fine but yeah I ain’t a fan of keyboards in bands. Who ya trying to be? Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark or something?

Saturday – band 7 of 8 – Suede Razors (USA - San Francisco, CA)

Wish I’d known these better cos they looked like they’d been playing for years and had a great stage presence. You can only pretend to know the chorus so many times. A clichéd description would be Oi! with a strong hint of so called Punk ‘n’ Roll.

If they’d have been the first band on I think I’d have liked them more. As they’re playing after a lot of other great bands (and a kick-ass DJ) they were just ‘good’ – not ‘fuckin good’.

Saturday – band 8 of 8 – Forced Reality (USA - Waterbury, CT)

Their debut self-titled album came out in 1989. I heard a few people saying they couldn’t wait to see them. As I didn’t know them that well I didn’t have the same level as excitement. I was jealous of people who did as you can’t beat seeing a band play old stuff you know really well – especially if you’ve never seen them before.

To be honest I don’t remember too much about them. I’d been on the piss since 10am and it had been a long day. Fairly standard, classic late 80’s Oi! sound – and yet another band with stage presence and were just good. Didn’t see a shit band all day. Bliss.

Oi! – where’s the set-list? I wanna know what they played! Sorry but here’s a confession. We left before they finished. As Cock Sparrer sang ‘Shattered, worn out, knackered, shagged and tired’ – luckily we didn’t have to get the last train to Dagenham – or anywhere else – cos we would have missed our stop and woken up in fuck knows where.

The gig - Day 3 - Sunday

Sort of planned on being tourists Sunday morning but that didn’t happen. The doors opened at midday today with the first band on at 1pm so didn’t have much time to anything really. Hopefully today will be more of the same. I can’t see it being any different – bring it on.

Sunday – band 1 of 8 – Hanging Judge (USA – Atlanta, GA)

It’s that guy Richard Henderson again. Wonder if he has a nickname? Something more original than ‘Hendo’? This time he is on vocals and does the biz.

I didn’t know the songs but loved the set. I’m rested & awake, a couple of beers guzzled and they hit the spot. Sounded really good. Yet another tight, modern Street Punk band. I could listen to this sort of music all day. Luckily today I’m gonna get the chance to do just that…

Sunday – band 2 of 8 – The Uncouth (USA - Kansas City, MO)

Guess what? Yet another brilliant, tight band with very singalongable songs. Even if you’ve never heard it before I guarantee you’ll end up singing along to ‘Living Wage’.

A singer/guitarist but we’ll let them off. They did it really well.

Looking at this pic I remember now making a bit of a cunt of myself after they finished. I told them that their drummer looked like Greg Lansing (Greg who??? - exactly).

He is the head coach of the Indiana State Sycamores men’s basketball team (that is actually quite a big deal in this neck of the woods). All gig long I was thinking ‘that drummer don’t half remind me of someone’ and then it clicked. Looking at a pic he probably doesn’t look fuck all like him but whatever – I thought it at the time…

Looking at the set-list it says ‘cover’ twice. Can’t remember what they did. It def wasn’t Gudbuy T'Jane by Slade that they did on their first single. Pretty certain one of them was ‘Someone's Gonna Die’ by Blitz (1981) but can’t remember for sure…

Anyway – really enjoyed their set.

Sunday – band 3 of 8 – DDC (Drink & Destroy Crew) (USA - Atlanta, GA) (Renaming to Strike First)

DDC are renaming themselves to Strike First. Not sure why but c’mon – there are already bands called Strike First. When the Haywire’s all had the same name there wasn’t really an easy way to know about other bands with the same name. No excuse nowadays. Here’s to seeing Strike First ATL at next year’s Winter Weekender!

A good lively set with a few up on stage singing along. The singer of the Antagonizers came on for a guest slot.

Sunday – band 4 of 8 – Hardsell (Orig Netherlands – Now USA – Austin, TX)

First saw Hardsell at the ‘Fuck You We Rule OK’ festival in Tulsa last year (as an aside – gutted that is moving to Denver cos the set-up in Tulsa was brilliant – my fav weekend. I’m sure Denver will be good but it’s further away for us and I bet there’s no hotel one block from the venue). Anyway liked them in Tulsa and liked them again today.

Good singer and now Jeff Ellis (AKA ‘the Spurs fan with the Red Mohican’) is in them full time – having left Sniper 66. Didn’t know that but had a good chat with him so now do. He’s got some great tales of life on the road. Yet another band with a great singer and their own songs got a good response – not just the cover. Note that ‘Gonna Die Tonight’ is not ‘Someone's Gonna Die’ by Blitz – it is a Hardsell original.

Cover: Real Enemy by The Business (1982)

Sunday – band 5 of 8 – Vibram 94 (USA - Jersey City, NJ)

This band goes back a bit. I remember first hearing them on the 1994 ‘Oi! It’s Streetpunk’ compilation that Helen Of Oi! put out. They played their song off of there ‘Don’t Really Care’ half way through the set. Tonight was apparently a 25 year reunion so a rare chance to see them.

The singer was/is Bohdan out of Antagonizers – he had a busy weekend. The drummer (as mentioned earlier) is Phil Templar. So yet another top notch set of Street Punk. What more can you say? They gave the punters what they wanted.

Covers: Violence In Our Minds by Last Resort (1982) and Suburban Rebels by The Business (1981).

Sunday – band 6 of 8 – Yellow Stitches (USA - Manchester, NH)

OK OK – ‘the incident’ has to be talked about. Here’s my take on it.

Yellow Stiches came on and really banged out some songs. To me they sounded a bit faster/hardcorey than a lot of previous bands. The crowd quickly got into it and it got lively. Too lively. By that I mean - you had a few people just going nuts. It’s standard for a Punk gig and I’d rather see that than a load of phone zombies at the front but sometimes there’s a time and a place.

I’d moved to the back of the pit to the center. One mush came flying out of the pit and smacked into a sharply dressed older Skin just in front of me. His drink went all over his shirt and you could tell he was pissed off. But he just shrugged to the people he was with. No big deal – it happens kinda thing.

Yes it does happen but I use this as example as why it’s all a bit out of order when you go nuts in this sort of setting. People think they are so hardcore & tough running around and smashing into people who are just watching the band – the sort of people who would be quick to pick someone up if they fell down near them. When you figure anyone on the edge is fair game to just slam full force into - then this is where you are gonna come unstuck. Sooner or later you are gonna smash into the wrong person.

A song or 2 later over to the right of stage it started kicking off – so much so that the band had to stop. I didn’t see clearly what happened but talking to people - some girl got crashed into that pissed off some bloke she was with who then had a go at another bloke and before you knew it blows were being exchanged. No idea if they knew each other and had history. Then someone started swinging a guitar around. It got out of hand quite quickly.

But – here’s the thing. I saw a lot of people rush over to the area. I thought it was gonna be the start of Wild West style brawl but no – most people had gone over to calm it down – not escalate it. The exit doors opened and 20 or 30 people pilled out. The band said ‘fuck it’ and stopped their set.

I went outside and it all seemed pretty calm. There weren’t people walking around with bloodied faces – none that I saw anyway so I figure it got dealt with in a good as way as it could have been. Shortly after I got outside the old bill turned up. I went back in to get out of their way – they might have been looking for an easy nick I didn’t want to be closest to them if they did.

Things calmed down and everyone was pretty much ‘what the fuck’ about it all. I’m sure we’ve all seen a lot worse at gigs over the years but yeah – it was all a bit ‘what the fuck’.

I may have missed sensing a bad vibe but for me the whole weekend was very friendly. It didn’t matter your age, your clothes, your skin color, your sex, your hair, your size, the number of holes on your Dockies – everyone I talked to was a pretty clued up, knowledgeable person who was there for a good time and good music.

So if you hear someone say something like ‘I think I’ll give that Winter Weekender in Atlanta a miss – I’ve heard there’s loads of trouble there’ then tell them that’s bullshit. Utter bullshit.

That’s my take on it anyway. I don’t really know/care what happened for sure – and why. It happened though and sadly it’s probably the thing the weekend will be remembered for. Ho hum.

Sunday – band 7 of 8 – Patriot (USA - Wilmington, NC)

Another band who has been around since the early 90’s. It’s funny – for me that makes me think of them as a modern band. I really need to get with the times. It’s 2020 FFS.

Called 'Patriot' with the name as a USA flag. American crew song with bald eagle imagery everywhere. Gotta be a right-wing band ain’t they? Well they ain’t. Another debate for another day about the choice of name but especially nowadays – do you think they’d be playing here today if they weren’t sound? Course not.

Anyway you can’t help but like a band when the singer is doing his best to look like Buster Bloodvessel. Proper old-timer who gave it as good as he could – but he wasn’t exactly doing Punk aerobics.

After the slightly weird atmosphere following the aborted Yellow Stitches set everyone got back into the groove here. No trouble and back to having a good sing-song to a great band. All’s well again.

Sunday – band 8 of 8 – Red Alert (UK - Sunderland, England)

When I first saw the flyer for this gig having Red Alert on the bill was a big plus (The Crack were originally due to play as well but couldn’t get visas or some shit). Always great to see an old 80’s band that you liked. I don’t think I ever actually saw them in ‘the day’ - they didn't play down South that much. I’ve seen them at Rebellion but that’s cheating.

Not sure on who was in the band but pretty sure it was Cast Iron Smiffy on vocals so that’ll do. It was funny though – he was speaking in his native NE tongue with no real thought that Americans might not understand him. I struggled but got most of it. I think I could have got a job as a translator for most people though.

Don’t think they actually used a set-list but I remember them starting with ‘Take No Prisoners’ and other old classics included ‘They Came In Force’, ‘SPG’, ‘City Invasion’ and an extended dance version of ‘We’ve Got The Power’.

I found them a bit flat to be honest. We’d be treated to so many good bands over the weekend that they didn’t stand out that much at all. They didn’t really soundcheck that much which I’m fine with – but a couple more mins and the sound desk girl would def have had them better. The guitar was way too loud. Prob the worst sound for any band of the weekend. It did get better and compared to some gigs – even the ’bad sound’ was still pretty good.

Cast Iron did an inaudible (to most of the crowd) speech about knowing Nidge & Mackie and playing gigs with Blitz and this was their tribute – then they launched into ‘Razors In The Night’ (Blitz 1982). A bit strange for the main band to do covers half way through their set. But yep – you’ve guessed it – the crowd loved it and it got a better reaction than any of the Red Alert songs. ‘fuckin ell man, praps we should just do Blitz covers’ he said at the end of the song.

Think they ended with ‘In Britain’. I took my first tumble of the weekend during that (I’d been doing good so far) and then they came back on and did another fuckin Blitz cover (New Age (1983)). Of course everyone loved it but leave the old covers for the new bands to drop in.

It was good though. A great way to end a superb weekend.

Pros & Cons of the weekend.

Pros – bands, DJ’s, venue, atmosphere, beer price

Cons – nowhere to stay nearby. The main reason this is a big ‘con’ is that it means you can’t really buy any merch during the day. Of course you can - but then you have to carry it around with you. Or you leave it with someone on a stall and when you get home that night you think ‘fuck, I forgot my stuff’. I often buy some things at the end but by then a lot of the bands have shut up their stalls so there ain’t so much to choose from.

When out front you didn’t know if the next band had started. Between bands it was nice to go out to the front bar/street and chat to people and that. Trouble is you can’t hear the bands. It would be great if someone came out front and announced that the band is about to start. I promised myself that I would see every band – and did. Had to keep going back to check if the next band was on yet though.

Minor stuff. Really enjoyed the whole weekend.

Cheers, Rut.