Clearly burnt out after having too much fun watching "the Fiend"
Clearly burnt out after having too much fun watching "the Fiend"
How much fun can you have with a bunch of 50 year olds who are drunk at 2pm and donned in skin tight jeans that clearly haven’t fit their bloated stomachs for at least 20 years? Apparently, a shit load.
Now to be fair it wasn’t just oldies. There were a lot of teens there sporting some of the gnarliest hair cuts I’ve even seen (do people still say gnarly? I don’t care. It wasn’t the 70’s anymore but that didn’t seem to matter much here.) I’d been in touch with Rebellion about getting a press pass for the event but didn’t hear anything back from them. This really was their loss as I worked my balls off all weekend and shot some great footage. Maybe next year, ya mother fuckers.
Thursday
I arrived around midday on Thursday and was met by a large queue of punkers waiting anxiously to get in, passing the time by drinking booze. The crowd were an eclectic mix of nationalities, Americans, Germans, a few Swedes, the list goes on. A man walked up and down this line of punks trying to hand out leaflets about Jesus. I guess he’d never heard the phrase “target demographic.”
After about an hour of queuing I was in, checking the surroundings and not having a fucking clue where anything was, which was okay, because Thursday didn’t really have a lot I was interested in. The first band I checked out was Angry Agenda, Watford based street punks. Apart from being musically retarded, their singer had that kind of embarrassing drunken uncle look about him, the one who always sings karaoke at parties in front of your mates, but instead of singing Phil Collins he was having a go at punk.
As much as Angry Agenda sucked, they were nothing compared to Newcastle’s The Fiend. With a name that shitty you know it’s gonna be good fun. Their tough guy noisey punk might have impressed the skins but it wasn’t doing shit for me. “This song is about the government and goes like this, FUCK THE GOVERNMENT! FUCK THE GOVERNMENT!” “This song’s about religion, FUCK RELIGION! FUCK RELIGION!” “This song’s about the police,” ….well, you get the picture.
Thankfully it didn’t all suck balls, and I was pleasantly surprised by the band Girlfixer who, I’ll admit, I checked out because I thought the name sounded pretty cool. Female fronted and hard hitting they were the first instance of the entire day where I thought, “Hey! There might actually be some decent bands here!” Their singer had a great stage presence and also a cracking pair of….lungs. Had ya going then, didn’t I?
The real wild card of the day came in the form of Pete Bentham and the Dinner Ladies, a rock and roll act which didn’t really fit in with the rest of the bands I’d seen but kicked mega arse anyway. Catchy, quirky, funny and tight as hell, Bentham and his band were easily the most entertaining I’d seen all day. Though I really don’t get what the fuck the dancing dinner ladies were all about.
After this I headed to the Empress Ballroom, a giant hall which was originally intended for, no surprise, ballroom dancing. They should have kept it for that because even though the majority of the best bands that weekend would be playing in here, the sound team just couldn’t get the acoustics to work for them and this greatly hindered the bands. I watched Old Firm Casuals featuring Lars Fredrikson of Rancid and Bastards fame, they played really well but no one gets a free ride with me so I’d like to point this out to anyone who was pitting during their set. I saw more enthusiastic and violent pits the one time I watched Simple Plan in Manchester. Fifteen year old pop-punkers gave it harder, that’s embarrassing. (NOTE: I do not condone or promote Simple Plan, but if a homeless guy offers you a ticket because you shared your cider with him, you take it.)
The only band I was really looking forward to on the Thursday list was OFF! They did not disappoint, again, the poor sound (though this is meant as no offense to the sound guys, I can’t even imagine how hard it’d be to make that hall work) made it difficult to understand what Keith Morris was saying between songs, but it didn’t matter much, they tore the place apart and left faces melted left, right and centre.
Friday
Friday came and the first band I got to check out was the Creepshow, I was actually just making sure I got a good spot for A Wilhelm Scream but this band played hard and impressed me a lot. Their 2 foot tall (probably) female singer had more balls than any of the men in the bands and she jumped right into the centre of a pit while still strapped up and began guitar soloing her little heart out. I’d never been a fan of music whose genre features the word “billy” at the end, but I’d come a little closer to the dark side thanks to this Canadian four piece.
I have a lot of respect for D.I.Y bands but unfortunately the Restarts didn’t get me off. They had solid moral ethics and this came across in their on stage banter but musically I wasn’t blown away. I don’t want to insult a band as hard working as the Restarts because it’s a rare thing in the music scene these days but it just wasn’t for me.
I’d began to notice something about Rebellion Festival, there was a scary amount of white people, and not just white people, white people with skin heads who looked like thugs. 
Now I know it’s stereotypical for me to think that just because someone has a skin head, wears steel boots and looks like a bruiser that they are inherently racist (the skinheads had originally brought ska and reggae to the U.K but must have lost their cool somewhere along the way) but come on, if you look like a fucking murderer, people are going to start thinking you’re a fucking murderer. It made me a bit tense but as the day went on I saw a few faces of varied skin colour and no one was shooting dirty eyes at them so luckily it didn’t seem like Hitler’s “Pure Aryan Nation” was going to be achieved this weekend.
A Wilhelm Scream finally came on. I was right at the front. I’d seen them play in Manchester on Wednesday and they were definitely in the top three bands I was looking forward to seeing (T.V Smith and the Damned also.) They completely destroyed the place and I was surprised to see a healthy turn out for their set as I’d not noticed many about who looked the AWS sort. The band battled through a few sound problems but made a complete riot out of the Empress and, with debatably the exception of OFF!, were the band that give it the most in the Empress the entire weekend. The most being their all.
Now I imagine people reading this who know me would think I stuck around for the Bouncing Souls. I actually didn’t, because another stage at the festival featured a band I hold very dear to my old school punk heart, The Vibrators. The first time I’d seen them singer Knox wasn’t with them and the band played as a three piece, I actually prefer them like this, and came across as a sort of wrinkled Lawrence Arms, I loved it. They played this way today. They didn’t disappoint this time either playing the tightest I’d ever seen them play being the first band to get some real honest punk motions out of the crowd. Every topless mid life crisis in the audience jumped about like a kid after a bowl of lucky charms and it was truly a beautiful sight to see. Their bassist Pete genuinely thanked their crowd as the set finished, who thanked him for the beers he’d given out at the start, who then thanked them again for thanking him. What a bloody nice bloke.
Next up on the “to do” list was Arturo Lukers “punktry and western band.” Being a big fan of the Lurkers I was intrigued so headed to the Bizarre Bazaar room to check them out. What I hadn’t planned on doing was stepping into the bad acid trip that was Rubella Ballet. It just didn’t make sense. The lights were off and some fat old woman covered in glow in the dark paint was making orgasm noises to a backing band. What the actual fuck is Rubella Ballet?
Arturo came to the stage and kicked out some Johnny Cash style grooves tinged with a punk rock feel and comedy lyrics, songs like “God and Chips” and “Three Legged Ben” instantly became crowd favourites and even the people who had no idea about the punktry and western band, like me, were soon singing to every chorus.
I’d heard good things about Infa Riot, admittedly I’d head good things about them from a pissed up guy who was waiting for them to come on, but none the less, good things had been said. The good things didn’t match the reality, making Infa Riot by far one of the worse bands I’d watched; they weren’t The Fiend bad, but pretty close. Another over the hill four piece consisting of members who’d taken time out of their busy schedules working at TESCO’s or the local butchers to pretend they were still punk to the bone and hard as nails, it was kind of sad really.
Thankfully Infa Riot fucked off and so did we, planning to suck up the set of Drunken Balordi in exchange for a good spot for the Damned. The Balordi bunch never played so instead the time until the Damned was spent sat on the concrete floor on the Olympia in great anticipation for a chance to see the Captain and co. They took to the stage and burnt through a barrage of hits leaving nothing in their wake except a sea of gob smacked punkers covered in sweat. I think I saw one girl crying she was so happy. They played all the greats, mixing old with new and didn’t let up for a second. Definitely worth the years I’d waited to finally see them, and I didn’t hear “The Captain is a wanker” once (though it was probably still said.)
Saturday
Practically all of Saturday was spent at the acoustic stage listening to great artists like Louise Distras, El Morgan, Honest John Plain and Kelly Kemp. The acoustic stage really was the place to be for the most part of Saturday. I was excited to watch El Morgan again as I’d been a fan of hers for about a year now, the only downfall of El’s otherwise incredible set was a fat Irish woman who was sat behind me being very loud, very drunk and very rude. Congratulations, you’re a national stereotype. I hope you choke on a burger, you bitch.
After the acoustic stage had died down I moved across to the Empress to watch the Boys, having just watched one of them do an acoustic set, and they really nailed it. Though no longer boys, the band donned receding hairlines and bloated guts these days; they still kicked it with the energy and enthusiasm as a 14 year old that’s just discovered masturbation. They played a sweet cover of the Ramones “Beat on the Brat” as well as all their hits. The crowd went nuts, me included.
I’d heard good things about the Filaments and Captain Hotknives so checked them out accordingly. Neither hit the spot. I couldn’t stomach another band that used trumpets as stage decorations more than part of the music and I didn’t find Hotknives funny one bit, and I’m a funny bastard. Instead I checked out the Have Nots who played a pretty solid set appealing to the younger demographic of the event with their ska influenced punk rock.
Pennywise were up next at the Empress and to say that they were one of the mostly eagerly anticipated acts for a lot of patrons would be a massive understatement. But here’s where things go wrong, where good reviews go bad, you could say. I’d been a big Pennywise fan when I was younger but even before original singer Jim Lindberg left, I’d kind of lost enthusiasm. I thought I’d watch them anyway as they were a hard hitting band whose opinions, I thought, matched my own. The band themselves played a real good set, the music was tight as hell and everyone went nuts, the atmosphere was almost perfect. The only downfall was the banter, “Alright you fucking mother fucking fuckers, are you fucking ready to get the fucking fuck up?” I’m not eleven anymore and I don’t think swearing as much as possible is cool. “This song is about being different!” Really? You’re probably pushing forty and playing to a crowd of mostly almost thirty year olds who, after this weekend, are going back to their 9 to 5 jobs like the rest of the world and you’re trying to appeal to them on grounds that would grab the heart strings of a high school kid. “This song is about how much high school can suck, but you can get through it!” It did suck and I did get through it, you know what else I did? I got over it. I love Pennywise, but they kind of need to grow up a little, it was all a bit childish and fake, like New Found Glory singing about dating girls in high school even though they probably have daughters of their own there now. Kelly Kemp will hate me if she reads this.
With Pennywise done, sometime to kill, and not wanting to watch a band with a name like “the Grit” I headed to the Olympia to see what the Red Eyes had to offer (yet again, another shit band name.) They took to the stage and looked even more burnt out and pathetic than any other mid-life crisis band of the weekend. They opened their set with a song that, “We love music, music is our life, we’re living our life, because we’re playing the music,” or something like that. Great. Fat fifty years olds playing half arsed punk rock with lyrics that would fit nicely on Sesame Street. I was out of there. I’d take my chances with the Grit.
I wish I was less of a dick, I really shouldn’t judge bands by their names before I watch them. The Grit were awesome. Really good. Another band that was slowly pushing me more towards the “billy” side of punk rock. Grufty, aggressive, full of attitude and gusto, the band’s name actually described the mentality of their music to a tee. With a stand up bass player, who manically climbed a set of speakers with his large instrument (haha) in hand, the Grit were not only fantastic musically, they were also one of the most kick arse bands to watch live involving the crowd in sing-a-alongs and the rest of their on stage antics.
The Grit left, and so did most of the crowd in the Arena. Eddie and the Hot Rods were up next and even though the place had emptied quite a bit in comparison to the previous act, more fool them, the Rods were fucking awesome, energetic, fast, furious and just all around cool as fuck. Eddie looked as if Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger’s love child….of about the same age. I’d heard the Sex Pistols once opened for the Hot Rods and really couldn’t work out why that fucking butter selling hair dresser had got so far while this outfit of pure talent were left at the sidelines. If you don’t like the Rods, you’re a dick, and that’s not opinion, its fact.
Sunday
The weekend was coming to a close and depression was setting in. I didn’t want to leave Rebellion, it’d been the most fun I’d had in a long time and the people and bands were cool as hell. I’d miss being able to see all my favourites in one building. I’d miss A Wilhelm Scream being one hundred percent cool to me and my constant queries. I’d miss hanging out with all the cool people I hardly got to see while living in my cave and hiding from the daylight back home. I’d miss drunken punks who looked like they’d spent their lives lying in a field of smack needles asking me where I was from to such an inquisitive degree I was pretty sure they were gonna turn up for tea someday soon. Hell, I was even gonna miss the Fiend.
But it wasn’t over just yet, there was one more day left and the line up was looking great. Well it was until I noticed who was playing before Glen Matlock.
This is a review, okay? And as much as I’ve joked and made sly comments about some of the bands I’ve attempted to keep some element of professionalism (it’s still a review by me, so admittedly, that isn’t much) but honestly, fuck John Robb and fuck Goldblade. They might as well change their name to “The John Robb ego band even though my hair cut makes my head look like a vagina….band.” The guy had been swanning around the festival all weekend with this air of arrogance and the same crappy suit he wears to every event he somehow blags his chimp looking fuck head into. “John Robb spends more time in crowds then he does on stage,” maybe he should work harder on his shitty band and stop sliming his way into other people’s shows. Fuck that guy, fuck Goldblade and fuck his shitty haircut and God complex. The only thing you’ve done for U.K music is piss a bunch of bands off by bothering them all the time. I bet even his mother hates him, “Mummy, I just played on stage at Rebellion in front of thousands of people and they really loved it!” “Oh, shut up John, you twat. No one likes you.”
With that rant over, it’s back to the review. I watched Glen Matlock and the Philistines and they were great. Even the Sex Pistols covers sounded alright without that fucking hairdresser on the mic. Glen had a real good attitude and the crowd responded to this with aplomb, singing back the lyrics to the bands punk influence rock and roll sound.
As soon as Matlock had finished, it was a quick dash to the Bizarre Bazaar to watch what I’d truly been waiting for. T.V Smith. I’d never
This could easily just be a picture of Ian Critchley's Dad, you'd never know the difference
seen him play acoustic before and even though it was a little disheartening to not see him blast about a stage kicking the crap out of whatever piece of air he could find, the change from distorted guitars to acoustic melodies wasn’t only a nice change, it worked great bringing a whole new love and dynamic to the T.V Smith experience for me. He played an array of songs from the Adverts to the Explorers and brought a weird combination of extreme intensity whilst playing and polite post song gratitude that left the audience of manic Smith fans high as hell off their T.V fix.
I moved back into the Empress to check out the U.K Subs. For years now people had recommended the Subs to me and I’d never checked them out, I don’t know why, I guess other shit just came up, but I was here now and had a free space in my itinerary so the Subs seemed as good a choice as any. They took the stage and instantly I thought one thing, WHY HADN’T ANYONE TOLD ME THEIR SINGER WAS JIMMY SAVILLE?! Jokes aside, the band were great, far surpassing my expectations of a moderate punk band with decent riffs. The audience was clearly in adoration and beer cups, a mix of empty and half full, flew across to room as did an abundance of crowd surfing mohicans while Charlie Harper downed beer after beer mid song.
Thankfully, the Sub didn’t run over as across in the Arena were another band I had been greatly anticipating, the Lurkers. I’ve tried to describe the Lurkers sound to friends who have yet to hear their music and the closest I’ve got to putting in an image they’d understand is, “kinda like Glenn Danzig Misfits, if they were from the U.K, but didn’t dress like trick or treaters and write songs about shitty B-movies” (I’d like to point out now before anyone calls me up on this, I actually love the Misfits, they’re one of my favourite bands and I think a lot of B-movies are pretty cool.) Though the majority of Rebellion patrons had clearly gone to see either Slaughter and the Dogs, the Lurkers still drew a healthy turnout of fans clearly addicted to the Lurkers sound. Arturo was, of course, as hilarious as ever having some of the best on stage banter in punk rock and reminiscing about how the open for Metallica in the states. “It’s good to be playing the little venues again!”
The day was drawing to a close and there was only one more act I wanted to see. Truth be told there was two, but Captain Sensible was on at the same time and I’d already had one viewing of the Captain so instead I vouched for Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. Before the band took the stage Red Alert had been playing on the stage across and were getting pissed by the amount of people NOT paying attention to them. “If you’re waiting for that fake Yankee tosser, you can fuck off!” The bitter truth was, everyone was and were not up for fucking off anywhere.
The band took to the stage followed by a Biafra dressed in bloody medical gear and looking like a wanker. He spent the entire set getting more naked, to the point where I almost thought we’d be seeing little Jello make an appearance, and dancing around like an insane moron. It was great. The band and Biafra played like crazy, chucking a dead Kennedy’s song in after every few of their own. Though the majority of people seemed more interested in the DK songs than the School of Medicines originals they still went crazy the entire way through. Bar some sound issues at the start of the set and Jello’s pre song rants (which raised some good points I guess, but were just a little excessive) the Guantanamo School of Medicine were a strong finisher for one of the greatest musical weekends of my life. “We’ve ran out of time! We’re being kick off stage!” Keep the rants for the spoken word dates next time, Jello.
So Rebellion had ended, it was done. It’d be back to the normality(ish) of my day to day life tomorrow. There’d been highs; there’d been lows, blah blah, and some other parting cliché’s. I’d watched a whole lot of bands, and if you weren’t mentioned in the review then you probably weren’t great, didn’t suck incredibly, I couldn’t think of anything funny to write about you or, most likely, I just didn’t watch you or forgot. Now there was nothing left to do but go home, put a pot of tea on, and wait for the Fiend to come round and kick my fucking head in.
- Charlie Cooper
Low Points
- Scary amounts of thug looking white people
- · The Fiend
- Infa Riot
- Being pretty sure Pipes and Pints sang WHITE POWER on one of their songs (though I think I’m wrong about that)
- Being sober (mostly)
- Being pretty sure that the Olympia is usually a car park
- John Robb not getting hit by one of the bands buses on the way out of the festival (I haven’t heard anything about it anyway)
High Points
- OFF!
- A Wilhelm Scream
- The Vibrators
- The Damned
- Getting to hang out with Sam Barry and Melissa Murphy
- Going outside and walking along the pier
- The Fiend (they were pretty damn funny)
- That hot girl from Munich with an Against Me! shirt
- El Morgan and Kelly Kemp (both watching them and hanging out)
- Jobey’s awesome but totally fucked up art (which you can see some of here)
- The girl who, when asked by John Robb during Goldblade’s set did she believe in the power of rock and roll, said “Do I fuck.”
- T.V Smith and Leigh Heggarty
- Getting a picture with T.V
- T.V Smith wanting me to have some kids so another generation could listen to his music
- Something, something. Look, I just really like T.V Smith, okay?
- Jello Biafra’s bouncing podgy man boobs (is it strange this made it into high points and not low?)
I suppose i can answer what the fuck the dancing dinnerladies were about as i one of them, music when peformed live can be visual, it was just a bit of fun and to try and get the crowd dancing and abit of audience participation
The main point of the dancing Dinner Ladies was that we got three mates in for free!
That’s a fucking top reason. I’d have totally been a dancing dinner lady to get in there.
You’ll have to get in the long queue to be a Dinnerette next year mate!
I’d just like to say that my comment about blagging people in for free was just a joke to lightne the mood. Don’t want to disrespect Rebellion Festival in any way. They do a great festival and I’m totally proud to have been involved with it.
you’re entitled to your opinion, but do you think you’re clever disrespecting hardworking bands? your review is self indulgent and blinkered by preconceived notions. i don’t give a fuck about you and your shitty reviews. i won’t be visiting this site again…….
Don’t lie, John Robb. Your name’s not Will.
Listen mate, I’ll be the first to admit that hardcore punk ain’t really my thing, but even I’ve gotta admit that The Fiend are damn good at what they do.
It’s one thing to give an opinion/review of a band, but to blatantly slag off one of the hardest working bands around in your piss poor attempt at being funny is quite frankly pathetic !
Your whole article smacks of amateurism and the grovelling apology/reply you gave about the “dinnerladies” shows you up to be a two faced prick.
I can tell the type of dickhead you are by the fact that you ain’t EVER seen the UK Subs play, despite them being one of the most well travelled punk bands on the planet over the past 30+ years.
Why don’t you just stick to watching tribute bands and do us all a favour?
You are the type of person that punters just don’t wanna see at gigs
And you are one of those people that those of us with a sense of humour who can appreciate a tongue in cheek joke just want to DIE!!! How dare you come across like this insulting someone else’s opinions, well guess what i’ve just read your opinions and come to the conclusion that you are a collosal dickhead with absolutely no sense of humour or personality. If you don’t like it fuck off back to the UK subs fan club and live your life out in your little 1980′s punk cupboard.
I too get the feeling that this dude has not been to too many punk shows, or perhaps too many punk shows? The reviewer graces us all with a school report of ‘could do better’… I’ve read my fair share of hardcore punk abuse, but I really do find it objectionable, particularly about The Fiend who are very hard working dudes who gave it all 100%. i never tire of hearing folk slag off the system or whatever and quite rightly so. These guys got paid £50 for this gig, which is a fucking insult. So to be slagged off for playing their music in front of a very appreciative audience by this fella is plain unfair and pointless. Dig that groove baby or stick with something you clearly know better…Try U2 might be up your street?
pathetic have you ever played in a band.These bands have been doing this for years as for us THE FIEND IT ALL STARTED WAY BACK IN 1982 ,if you dont like hardcore then why try to review it .WHY USE OUR NAME ON A PICTURE OF A DRUNK PUNK.Why should they give you a free pass when theres thousands of people deserve one before you .Youve done yourself no favours as you may well find out
Obviously the review was done tongue in cheek and anyone who’s paid over £100 to get in is entitled to an opinion.
Anyway this is probably the most publicity that The Fiend have had in the last 30 years.
i agree, but are we not entitled to our opinion and having a go at something hes doing ,By the way to put you right we have released 3 albums on cd 1 on viynal just about to release a new single and done 2 full european tours as well as countless gigs all over the country in the last 4 years so we do work at what we do, voted 9th in the best album category in the big cheese only punk band above us was blitz ,voted 16th best release this year in a huge selling european mag Spark by the way the only punk band to make the top 100 ,So we must be doing something right
we are also big supporters of THE CHILDRENS HEART UNIT FOUNDATION and raised over £700 for that charity on the sat before rebellion
so weve had plenty of publicity
You were beaten by The Blitz? How’d that feel?
I have played in a few bands actually but things only really took off for me in August of 1983 when I joined a California hardcore punk band, we toured relentlessly and were famed for doing 100 shows in 100 days. Even the guy from Public Enemy says we were an influence on him.
Unfortunately the band broke up around 1986 but I kept busy doing spoken word dates and a couple of solo albums and around 1987 when I started a full band under my surname.
This band played hard and toured constantly until it started having troubles and eventually broke up in 2003. In a recent interview I said I “may never do music again.”
Oh, and I’m called Henry Rollins.
well thats somthing to be proud off aint it eh mate mr public enemy there all twats for starters homophobic arse holes and racist fookers! its one of the reasons we got hooded dick heads going around mugging gang rapeing drugs pimping and young kids wanting to grow up being rap cock artists with attitude
Hey man, I fail to see how people completely fail to always miss your compliments and go straight in there full metal jacket accusing you of virtually causing riots in London with your writing.
All in all, seems like a fair and balanced piece of writing to me. Keep it up dude.
fifty year old punks putting on clothes that havnt come out of the wardrobe in 20 years is saying we only get dressed up for gigs ,IF YOU USED TO BE A PUNK YOU NEVER WERE !you wouldent get a punk writer to review a dance act so why get someone whos not connected to the scene to review punk .THE FIEND are from the hardcore scene not everyones cup of tea and all the bands arnt our cup of tea eather but we dont go round slagging all the bands off putting pictures of drunk punks and connecting them with a band ,The writer is an arsehole !!!!
thats all well and good has heard any bands after 1980 those bands you talk about are a tiny fraction of a global punk scene wich is doing very well for its self
Yeah, but you can’t review bands who weren’t there or didn’t see. You’ll notice he talked a lot about OFF!, A Wilhelm Scream and the acoustic stage. He did what you lot were doing – Watching the bands/artists he wanted to. It’s an honest, albeit a little tongue in cheek, review from a festival goer.
To Paul…”you fail to see how people completely fail to always miss your compliments and go straight in there full metal jacket”…….Compliments are all well and good mate, but inevitably it’s the ones that are detrimental to a band really making an effort that are gonna get the reaction.
If you wanted a knee jerk, you got one mate. Not great writing it has to be said, but the old adage of” if you don’t like ‘em, don’t watch ‘em” was never more true.
I fail to see how someone can be so pathetic as to nudge bands by whether or not their name is good. Lucky that bands with “shit” names like Discharge,Adicts,Buzzcocks,Stranglers etc didn’t have you to rely on !
Do us all a favour and fuck off
Personally, I laughed out loud at the review. The festival was a mix of good, bad and downright awful. If bands can’t take a slagging, don’t be in a band. You put yourself up on stage-expect to take the verbal missiles as well as the congratulations. It’s called opinion.
“Making an effort” is all very admirable, but if you’re shit……you’re still shit despite your efforts. I’m 1st generation punk and some of the nuggets walking around Rebellion avoiding the soap were laughable.
That’s what it used to be about,style, substance and humour. Oh, and the music.
Didn’t see The Fiend, so can’t comment, but guys, if you can’t take a ripping in the media, don’t come on line with thinly-veiled threats against the writer. It’s a little bit sad.
I like Goldblade, (panto punk I call ‘em), but the article has it spot-on with the writer’s comments.
Keep it up young man. Annoy them. That way they know they can’t get away with it!
its not the fact he didnt like us its the fact he knows fuck all, were not a skinhead band far from it if he cant tell the differance what chance has anyone got .The uk subs , hadnt even seen them,
what planet has he been living on ,PUNK has survived for generations the way he puts it is we all get dressed up once a year and are all fat pissheads is that you ?.
Why put our name on a picture of someone bent over a table pissed ?
If he didnt like our music fair enough no problem keep it at that dont slag us off for our views on the way we think
the bloke is an arsehole
You put out that photo because it’s funny. It happened at Rebellion. This is a review of Rebellion as a whole. This is not a review of a Fiend show, it’s a review of many other bands too.
whats that photo got to do with the fiend
Nothing! It’s got to do with Rebellion. That’s why it’s there. You were the one saying your name was being linked with a pissed old punk.
clearly burn out after watching the fiend caption .thats what its got to do with us
Dear Joe,
I love you.
For someone to say that punk used to be about they style,substance,humour and oh, the music is quite frankly laughable.
Punk has ALWAYS been about the music !
Good,bad or indifferent, I’m all in favour of people having opinions, but it serves no purpose at all to slag bands off that he knows fuck all about.
On one hand he says he won’t rip into The Restarts cos they are one of the hardest working bands around and on the next, he rips into The Fiend, who I might add, were going long before The Restarts.
The reviewer is such a fan of punk that he hasn’t EVER seen the Subs or the Damned before, so johnny come latelys like him wanna do their homework before expressing an opinion based on ignorance.
Just because The Fiend have been going longer doesn’t mean that they’re as hardworking as any other band. The writer is 23 years old. I think it’s commendable that he knows who The Dammed and The Subs are! Never mind that he fucking loves them!
I read this but I feel no hate. Pennywise were Fun (note capital F). Was great to see you and hang out. More hang outs please.
Hang outs will happen!
well i totally enjoyed the fukin lot the review is laughable through his ignorance of any band beyond the late 70,s who kept it all going underground so these type of festivals could happen today
The guy who wrote it is 23. If you need people to take a music history course before expressing an opinion on something they paid money to see, then you’re unlikely to find anything you want to read.
is that ken barlows son
Yep. Spot on. How’re you doing. You must be…a fucking moron. Nice to meet ya!
now now dont spot your dummy out the lads only making a funny comment
And I was only returning the favor
Fuck me you recognise a funny comment!!! could of fooled me!
i went and listened and watched the fiend on youtube. i don’t know anything about them but i don’t like their music. robby – he is the only one left from the original line up from the looks of it…the “band” is basically him and loads of people who probably end up hating his pointy headed guitar. and the fact he decided to be in a heavy metal band. those wanky licks…wrong to my ears. the wearing of your own band merch…uh oh.
joking aside, why do people bother coming on here like crybabys? “you don’t like my band i’ve been doing it for years we raised money for charity…” boo fucking hoo. jesus, maybe i should like elton john’s music more because he has raised a lot for charity? if you just want to play songs to like minded people then why care what someone twenty years younger than you says?
i have been in bands and been royally slated and just laughed out loud, shrugged my shoulders, and moved on doing my thing because everyone is entitled to an opinion.
go and watch you tube…”this next one’s for the British Government…who preach what you do and how you fucking do it…we believe in like, who gave them the fucking power…this next song’s called ‘who gave the power’” – seems like this kid gave you a pretty accurate review!
my review…shit.
thanks X
he reviewed the lurkers no origional members ,ex fiend member haha
this is the small minded attitude that fucked the punk scene in the first place and it always comes from the first wave punk ,Do all the punk bands need to have a gibson guitar and a marshall amp because the pistols used them .do we then need to preach garage band ethics then as soon as the money comes around charge £50 to get in a gig .The metal scene with its wanky licks unfortunately the metal scene is in a far healthier state than the punk scene ,Maybe its because they can accept all aspects of there music and not critisise a band member because you dont like his guitar
Steve Jones actually uses a Fender Twin Reverb on all of the Pistol’s stuff, live and recorded.
is that shadwell or shagwell
hi robby, just wanna say respect to you and everybody else who defended you and The Fiend regarding that piece of shit review on that website (i don’t wanna mention the name) – the writer, a 23 year old know-it-all cunt, thought he could throw some cheap shots in your direction to make himself sound like some kind of comedic genius literist without any consequences! well, let’s just say he did pro…voke a reaction……..criticism is all well and good if it’s a genuine opinion, but when someone thinks they can take the piss out of a band who are as passionate and hardworking as The Fiend well they have another thing coming! granted not everyone will enjoy your ‘music’, but to be the purposely ridiculed in a pathetic attempt to make his shitty article even partly interesting was shameful on his behalf. See more
For those people connected with the Fiend, the band actually for split up originally for very tragic, and private reasons.
Its true to say that if they had been doing what they are doing now back in the early 80′s, they would have been up there with,and probably above,the likes of Discharge et al.
Yes, Robby is the one remaining member, but it was interesting to read that the Vibrators without Knox don’t get the same sort of derision.
Many punk bands from the early days have a lot of new members, the Subs probably being the biggest culprits, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that bands like them typify the whole punk ethos.
Like I said, its all about the music.
I have a son the same age as this dickhead who has been brought up on punk and he would never stoop to be so disrespectful to any bands making an effort.
I guess its all about how you are raised eh?
Hang your fuckin head in shame !
As for wearing your own band merch, you are obviously not aware of the fact it costs £400 to have a merch table at Rebellion, so what better way to publicise your wares than to get them on show?
I thought it was a great review with humor and opinion. Making music for years doesn’t make you awesome, it means you’re dedicated. That can be a dedication to sucking(Ever heard of Nickelback? Enter Shikari, Simple Plan?) Lots of crappy bands are dedicated.
If you can’t take poor reviews pack it up. Good for you for the charity donations though. Can’t say anything bad about that.
Good writing as usual from the Moon And Back crew. Keep being honest and interesting. Haters gonna hate!
A merch table at Rebellion is FREE. Check you’re facts.
merch table at rebellion for 5 days between £400 and £700 the day you play free fact
yeah, only for shit bands, though……only kidding, don’t get yer knickers in a knot.
cocksparrow .the lurkers.uk subs.the varukas .the restarts ,sick on the bus .all had stalls,are you calling all them shit
£400? no wonder that kid in the pic is slumped over your empty merch table…
Up the punx etc etc… yawn
ok no problem point taken ,just wish he had taken the time to lisen to the band before he wrote a review about us he may of then under stood what was going on were a million miles away from the old punk scene
That’s fair enough man.
Though you’ve got to admit. He was pretty spot on with this gem – “Now there was nothing left to do but go home, put a pot of tea on, and wait for the Fiend to come round and kick my fucking head in.”
whats his address haha may pay him a visit for a cuppa when im down that way
Haha, that’s the way to go about it!
Just seems like he’s trying to impress…wanker.
I fucking love you and I fucking love your opinions and any fucker who doesn’t fuck like them should just fuck off from this fucking site.
I love you fella!
This has gone on way too long and probably gave the moon and back guys more hits than they’ve ever had.
Basically, the scene you have come to love, at your tender age of 23, is a scene built up by thousands of hard working bands over the years, and that includes The Fiend.
The punk scene, over here in the UK anyway, is a friendly scene and most bands are supportive of each other.
Bottom line is that for a young kid, you gotta show a bit of respect and a good start would be to not attach unfunny,derisive commments to photos that have nothing to do with the band in question.
We get a good few thousand hits a month I’ll have you know! That was the biggest insult of them all. I’d be happy to email you the figures if you want.
I know the punk scene is a friendly one. I like to think I’m heavily engrossed in it. I also like to think that we can joke without people blowing stuff out of proportion.
you said people should take the critisism so now whos on the defensive
That’s not criticism though is it? If you said the site was shit, that’d be nothing. Disputing how many people come here isn’t a criticism.
did someone not put up the most publicity the fiend have had in the last 30 years
john robb is a massive bell end.
If only there was a ‘like’ button for comments!
i agree john nobb…oops sry robb..naa i woz right first time….is a poncing parasitic media whore,i pray for the day he meets a slow and painful death
Nice review Charlie, honest opinions which is what a review should be. To those people kicking off saying certain bands work incredibly hard at what they do and should be respected, fair enough. But think about a man with no legs working his heart out to be a football player, hes putting the effort in, but that doesnt mean he will be any good. Keep it up Ian.
honest oppinions and taking the piss are two different things ,the kid is a fucking idiot knows fuck all about the punk scene his attitude towards the punk scen is exactly what i would expect they think all the punk bands sound like the sex pistols .ignorent twat .how can he review a band who started over 30 years ago before he was born and never heard of them ,he deserves all the shit thrown his way ,if he ener wants to get anywhere tell him to do his homework befor trying to be a comedien .PS the fiend rule one of the only bands left with any bollocks
I always thought Henry Rollins would be able to spell & use punctuation.
Must say this made me laugh like a drain. very funny stuff with a kernal of truth, despite some ill-considered political asides and the reviewer clearly being stuck in the distant past. I find Rebellion a bit depressing to be honest. there are a few decent bands and an awful lot of crap. what a shame we can’t see a few more fun bands on this bill. I suppose Madness are too expensive but what about Bad Manners, the Gonads, Case or a score of other good bands that rarely sneak under the Darren Ru$$ell radar?
im one of those 40 something white looking thugs. Have some respect princess. Disrespect skinheads, in your own way. Wouldn’t know a skinhead of you fell over one. 23 wtf would you know. The scene was done before you were born inbecile.
Hmmmm what a poisonous lot of crap from Ian Critchley (aren’t I congratulating myself for not giving the snivelling little shit a press pass – not that i even remember him asking!) With regards to John Robb – he is a really nice guy who supports a lot of new bands by going to their gigs and helping them out. He is also a proffessional at all times and wouldnt dream of writing abusive crap like this on Louder than War (a much better place to read about the current punk scene activities). I dont really care what personal opionion Ian has formed about John, this is not a review of his music or Goldblades’s performance at Rebellion it is just character assasination for the sake of it.
Oh yeah and FUCK YOU Pete Bentham and your pass grabbing Dinner Ladies – Fuck Off and steal passes off someone else in future – your fired!!!!!!!
Admittedly, the John Robb rant isn’t exactly par for the course in a review, but you’ll notice that a lot of people find this tongue in cheek look at the festival quite amusing. This is a comedy piece as much as it is a review and it seems like a lot of people are blowing it way out of proportion.
loved the whole rebellion experiance all the bands were awsome the best punk fest on earth
it was a cheap shot at the whole punk scene the writers nieve to say the least iv looked at your page the only thing worth any time was the rebellion fest and you made a complete hash of that .idiots in stead of trying to defend him you should have went down his throat or even stopped him putting this crap onyour site
son of ken your talking out of your arse
“character assassination?” Hey! When you’re right, you’re right!
I can’t believe you took John Robb’s cock out of your mouth for long enough to write this! And as for poisonous, you’re the one writing abuse about bands that as a press person you surely should be promoting! Just by the way, this bloke has done a better job of advertising your festival than you ever did, as I had never heard of it before reading this blog and now intend to attend next year!
hey any body wanna buy a 5 piss bum kit it comes with 70 ,s styil bin lids great sound,nice 1940,s suite case full of gas masks for those spesh moments,and all wood spoons ya can wack em with for only £1.00 heh heh! thought iwould light up the tone abit heh heh we all gotta rock togther and boff togther! what the punk scene dont need is for there to be a divide beetween old punks and young punks we all stand as 1 for the punxs and for the music me thinks respect is the key here . rebellion sucks dogs cocks the sound was dire on stage aswell as off i know i was on the arena stage it was good to see some of the old boy,s tho but i found rebellion exspirence all toghther worrying i mean bands getting 50,ooo pounds and us bottom bands getting six cans of pissing calsburg thats 1 can each for ur eforts and lucky t get ya bus fare home ha ha what a fookin joke man oh and while were at it a real shit sound hoyed in but iam not bitter heh heh! just wish they hoyed in some bitter.oh and cppl vods the tight cunks oh well hope you come and see us when we play near you ian and give us proper reveiw were all canny lads and try are hardest to do what we can keep the punk scene going under somtimes impossable odds (i.e poor turn outs allover the country at gigs but we are gratefull to evrey fooker that do,s turn up .it be nice to see ppl turning up for small gigs as well as the big shows there,s hundreds of small bands and we dont want them to slip away into the void so surport ya local scene ya bands and ya mams ROCK OUT! pugslum from the fiend .hey i just love to love heh heh!
Good to hear from you man. I completely agree about there needing to be a lack of a divide between young punks and old punks. To be fair, I didn’t think there was one until I read the comments on here.
Supporting the local scene is exactly what we’re about (as well as pulling in a few big names here and there). What people don’t seem to have initially grasped is that this is a tongue in cheek review.
hi there its pug again just saying soz about the comments i made about the rebellion fest iam a bit drunk and got alittle silly whilst writeing so would like to apoligise for mme comments about the fest and iam gratefull for having the opertunity play blackpool and had a blast,yes there where sound issues other than that great and would play anytime in any of the bands iam now and in future so soz if ive pissed anybody off who is involved in setting up rebllion as i know a lot of hard work and efort go,s into putting the event togther from down to organisers to the ppl picking up the rubish ,doormen,who i would say were great,and the folk who rocked like good fellas respect to you all pug x
reet off to go and see a man about a dog
Robby mate, don’t even rise to this bullshit. The people and bands you’ve played with you and The Fiend know who you are and what your band is about. You don’t need to defend yourself or your band, the people that matter know the truth. Rebellion was full of cocks like him this year, its time the proper punks went elsewhere and left these idiots to it, its bands like ours that gig week in week out, lose money all over the place and at times play our hearts out to 5 people but dont care because we do it for the love of what we do. Some of these pricks will never understand this because they are too busy desperately trying to be funny and completely missing the point in the process. Hopefully see you in November, Ruby Cryo-Genics
Oh dear…….didn’t get a free pass so decided just slagging everyone and everything would be fun. Toys out of the pram? Why not go review Take That instead and leave the punk to the punks. It’s not big, funny or clever to slag off bands, many of whom play for nothing and hope merchandise sales cover their costs in order to fuel your pathetic little ego. How about you give Rebellion a miss from now on?
Is there an Eddie in Eddie and the Hot Rods? I thought they dumped him in 1977
A Red Eye here,i would just like to say cheers for taking the time out to catch the start of our set! First of all nothing like great constructive criticism,you just can’t beat it! And as for the personal attack,well “Fat over Fifties”, none of us are quite there yet,but we’re working on it, and i suppose the fat bit to!
I don’t mind if you don’t like our music,but to me,that is what this festival is all about,”THE MUSIC” good or bad, thats your choice.
Slag our music by all means,but to have a go at band members you’ve never met is in my book a tad childish!
So young man(fat or thin?),looks like you’ve got a lot of growing up to do, Kiddo!!
Keep on Rockin’ “Fattish & 40ish!” Cheerz
Red Eyes, top band name – great band. New cd rocks the joint.
So there we have it … a contrast of opinion, from the highs to the lows. We can all go home now and pat our bellys and wear our stylus’s down to the cartridge
Signed: In it for the music
(aged 26)
On the strength of this review, I listened to The Fiend to see what all the fuss was about. They do, indeed, suck balls. I’ve been a !PUNK! since I was 11 and I still consider myself a !!PUNK!! and I’m 43, you know, but I’d never heard of The Fiend until now. So, thanks to Moon & Back I have now discovered a new/old band that I couldn’t care less about. Cheers! And while I’m here, the idea that The Fiend could have been as big as Discharge is ludicrous. Discharge were one of the most intense and unique punk bands of the ’80s, pretty untouchable when it comes to original UK hardcore. Jesus, even The Varukers piss all over The Fiend and they were pretty mediocre.
All joking and jolly japery aside, it’s just a review of a gig on a modest blog site. It’s supposed to be opinionated, unreasonable, passionate, a little bit funny and not very professional, and taken with a pinch of salt. As Shadwell says, if you’re in a band, you suck it up and move on with dignity. All these misspelt tantrums and dodgy ripostes don’t do you any favours! Lots of love.
the fiend the hardest hitting punk band for decades .Take a listen to their new album the brutal truth it kicks ass man fucking great production awsome .
Darren, out of curiousity mate, where did you listen to The Fiend?
There are some admittedly well dodgy sounding vids and stuff uploaded to various sites, but have a listen to their album The Brutal Truth for an idea of how awesome they are.
Maybe then, you’ll see the comparisons with Discharge are well founded.
Blistering, brutal and downright fuckin brilliant
Well, being a 50 year old and a punk since ’77 I found your article very ‘interesting’? Hmmm … well as I say im 50, rounding at the edges .. however what that has to do with the music at Rebellion escapes me? I must say I don’t like the way bands have been slagged off in your article, especially the Fiend and The Red Eyes, any reviewer worth their salt knows that just because ‘you’ don’t like them doesn’t mean everyone else should agree with you, by all means say its not to your taste but don’t slag them off. I know you say it was just meant to be humerous, but i don’t think you wrote it with ‘humerous’ in mind .. especially the bit about John Robb, that was just being nasty. As for not getting a press pass from Rebellion, that I can understand as I also tried to get one as I do websites for two of the bands who were appearing there, I emailed a number of times throughout the year but it was left until about a week before to get a reply to say sorry they had all gone!
Maybe if you review Rebellion next year we could have more about the bands sets and less about how much you hate band ‘a’ and band ‘b’ ??
alright layds,
was having a late night gander on here after spotting new new moon & back on me news feed and came across this little gem.
a bit late on the feedback but incessant insults and sulking from band members who played rebellion is mind-blowing. i think their bondage pants are on a bit too tight… AYOOO!
this shit rules man! how dare you dis the scene mo fockin beetches. i listed to oi everyday when i eat ma breakfast! i get milky milk all down ma face cause i be skankin so hard but i don’t care man cause i be wearin my studded jacket yo………then i get to work at krispy kremes and my boss says ‘clive! WHAT I TELL YOU ABOUT WEARING THAT SHIT TO WORK!’ :”””””’(
I was there this year had an amazing time Pipes and Pints singer actually said good night white pride.
Only downside i though was bands such as capdown and world inferno society complete garbage.
Nevermind still got -
The business in dec
GBH in dec
Peter & the test tube babies in Jan
SLF in March
Infa Riot & Cock Sparrer In June
And of course rebellion next year