Tag Archives: UK82

GBH – Gig Review

Posted on by
1

GBH + Stuntface + Bogans

Saturday 20thJuly 2024

Buckley Tivoli

Well, The Tiv managed to do it again! Another legendary band enticed to play this great venue in Buckley, North Wales. The list of classic bands who’ve played at the Tivoli Venue over the years is, quite frankly, ridiculous. This time, renowned Birmingham punks GBH were our headliners. Trust me when I say, I snapped up a ticket as soon as this show was announced.

Leading the charge this evening were Bogans, from up the road in Wrexham. Sadly I missed them, but have it on good authority that the band were great. I’ve checked out their tunes online and this is true. Shame I didn’t get to see ’em, their hardcore punk with melody would’ve been a fine way to start.

Next up were resurrected Wrexham punk rockers Stuntface – brought back to life with some kind of bizarre voodoo ritual, it would seem. Their super fast merging of classic UK punk (UK Subs, Vice Squad) and US hardcore (Misfits, Cro-Mags) was a rousing, WOAH-OH chorusing, adrenaline soaked set. Great fun and so good to have them back.

GBH playing at the Tiv was a no brainer for me. I’ve owned their records for well over 30 years, but never seen ’em live. And get this: an early bird ticket cost me just £12! Now that is just crazy, and makes very good financial sense to an old miser like me. Thankfully this wasn’t a budget set: GBH ran through a mighty wedge of their back catalogue with all the fire and fury of a band of whippersnappers.

Song after song, it was relentless. I checked my watch and was stunned that they’d only been on stage for half an hour, so intense was the setlist. “Sickboy”, “Momentum”, “Wardogs” and more raced past with barely a break between songs. “City Baby Attacked By Rats” was a much welcomed highlight, before the night ended with GBH covering the Motorhead classic “Bomber”.

The full GBH set was, of course, much longer than half an hour – cram packed with fantastic songs from right across their career, it was extremely good value for money. Twelve quid well spent, but I’d have happily paid a lot more to attend this gig. Simply unmissable.

UK Subs – XXIV/Yellow Leader Album Review

Posted on by
Reply

UK Subs – XXIV/Yellow Leader

Captain Oi/Cherry Red Records

Release date: 27/05/2022 and 08/07/2022

Running time: 38 mins and 52 mins

Review by: Alun Jones

9/10 and 8.5/10

Recap time: regular readers may remember that yours truly recently reviewed the re-issue of “Work in Progress” by punk veterans UK Subs.  You may also recall that that album covered the letter W in the bands ongoing mission to release an album for every letter of the alphabet.  Well, the good news is that Captain Oi/Cherry Red Records are also releasing the next two instalments in the series – that’s the letters X and Y (but you knew that).

Working through chronologically, we have “XXIV” – which the lovely record company peeps have released on drool-worthy double 10” vinyl, one green, one clear.  Yummy.  Our first song is an absolute belter: the full-on turbo romp ‘Implosion 77’.  Hold on tight and buckle up!  There’s plenty more fast’n’nasty thrills on offer too: ‘Speed’ has a merciless UK82 vibe; ‘Monkeys’ has a classic Subs singalong chorus; ‘Garden of Good & Evil’ is another pogo-till-your-pants-fall-off rocker.

There’s some well-placed variety too, with the harmonica adorned political thrust of ‘Coalition Government Blues’; and Bo Diddley swagger of ‘Wreckin’ Ball’ – both showing hints of the bands R’n’B origins (like as in, what R’n’B used to be).  Lyrically there are plenty of targets for Charlie to attack, both politically and socially.  ‘Memento Mori’ finishes the album off with one most aggressive tunes on offer, leaving us with a great album of 14 adrenaline infused songs.

“Yellow Leader” follows in a similar fashion, featuring 18 songs (whereas the original vinyl was cut to just 14 due to running times).  To be released on slinky, divine double 10” vinyl (one red, one turquoise here), it’ll be a feast for the eyes and ears.  Again, the album is crammed with more relentless punk rock shenanigans like ‘Sick Velveteen’, ‘Chemical’ and ‘Heathens’, all of which will have you jumping around the room like a monkey on a lava stream.

As the previous record, there’s plenty of other sounds and ideas here: single ‘Sin City Blues’ has a killer rockabilly feel; and ‘Rebellion Song’ breaks out the acoustic guitar.  The only mis-step is ‘Archaeology’, a strange post -punk/goth style experiment that while not awful, isn’t a total success.  All in all, the quality of music is impressively high and the recordings sound excellent.

And there you go, music lovers: not one, but TWO albums of mighty UK Subs songs, lovingly compiled and curated by those nice folks at Captain Oi/Cherry Red Records.  You lucky people.  Pick ‘em up while you can, nobody is this fortunate twice.    

You can find UK Subs on Facebook and Twitter.

Cherry Red Records have a website. Plus you can find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bandcamp.

This review is a joint presentation from Ever Metal and Platinum Al.