Rebellion roundup

After checking out the Rebellion Festival for a day and 1/2 last year, this year I went all in for the four days. For the uninitiated, the Rebellion Festival has been going on in Blackpool, England since 1996 at the Winter Gardens. The beauty of the festival is that it is entirely indoors with a capacity of 15,000. So no worrying about getting rained on or sunburned and the sound in the different rooms was great. The festival hosts over 300 acts and unlike last year where I only had a few acts that I wanted to see and kind of just roamed around, this year I did my research and had a tentative schedule. I managed to see 39 acts not counting the interviews and pop-ins. There were a few duds (Johnny Moped seemed old and tired and Andy Ellison and Vicious Bishops doing Radio Stars songs was like they hadn't even rehearsed before) but most of the shows were pretty good. I tried to limit myself to acts that weren't American and I hadn't seen before (there were a few exceptions) and were very likely not going to tour the US anytime soon*.

Highlights:
Cyanide Pills very energetic band that channeled early Buzzcocks in both melody and lyrics. They have a song that follows 'Orgasm Addict' to its obvious conclusion - "Can't Get It Up"
Abdoujaparov named after a Kazakh cyclist, Les Carter's (of Carter USM) three-piece really brought the goods. Carter is a great frontman. Wished they had played "There's Nobody Less Rock 'n' Roll Than Me"
Slackrr Pop-punk band that I would've sworn was from California but they're from Leeds. Extremely positive especially on an early Friday morning. Also, one of the few profanity-free shows at the festival.
TV Smith playing Adverts songs solo. Instead of concentrating on "Crossing the Red Sea", he played several songs from "Cast of Thousands" and a few B-sides.
La Inquisición Spanish band that I didn't understand one word. They played in one of the smaller rooms and were bouncing off the walls. I can't stop listening to "Verano"
Toyah kind of a strange entry but she's played the festival before. For a little over and hour she ran and jumped all over the stage. And she is as charming in person as she is on the Robert and Toyah videos. Bonus is that her songs sound much better live, though her renditions of "Paranoid" and "Rebel Yell" are 'interesting'.
Steve Ignorant Band I have never been able to get into Crass but I figure I need to eat my vegetables once in while so I checked out their set. I could feel the rage coming off of their set as Ignorant and keyboardist Carol Hodge traded vocals. Near the end of the set, Ignorant brought out a very young fan to start off "Big A Little A".
Paranoid Visions the best show of the festival. An Irish band that's been around for 40 years (though there was a hefty gap between the 80s and the 2000s). Singers Declan Dachau and Aoife Destruction came out swinging and never let up.
King Kurt they don't perform live much anymore and the crazy hairdos are all gone but the silliness hasn't left or the enthusiasm. A lot of fun.
Lene Lovich Her performance was one of kind. The little yelps, the weird looks and the constant shushing of the crowd; it was all there.
Rites of Hadda Self described as Anarcho pagan gothic psychedelic queer Witchpunk. Pretty close. Another description: sax 'n' drag and rock 'n' roll is more spot on.
The Alarm It really wasn't, just Mike Peters with a backing tracks playing "Declaration" in it's entirety. But with everything that Peters is going through, it was inspiring to see him play with his trademark three microphone stands and belt out those songs.

There was a more good stuff and you see by the lineup how diverse it was.

*of course, when I got back I saw that the March Violets were starting a tour of the US but they weren't coming that close to me.

Was The Pack Kirk Brandon's old band?
King of Kings takes me back.
And was Steve Drewett solo or with band?

Yes, the Pack was his old band. I caught the last part of his interview where he talked about being in Theater of Hate and then Spear of Destiny. A couple of interesting things he said:

[*] when he was in the Pack, he just screamed out the lyrics until his producer said 'why don't you just sing?' He had never thought of doing that until then.
[*] the first Spear of Destiny album contained several songs that were meant for Theater of Hate. Contrary to popular belief, Brandon never started Spear because he wanted to go in a different direction.

I caught the tail end of the Pack show, the place was jammed. They really like Kirk Brandon.

Steve Drewett was solo (acoustic) and with the Newtown Neurotics (he also did an interview session as well). Apparently, the Neurotics performance is going to be one of the last ones. I missed all of it due show conflicts.

Thanks for the detail Heff and lastly, was the Tom Robinson Band actually the Tom Robinson Band or was it Tom Robertson + band?

Aitch - I don't know. That was one of my big conflicts - Sham 69 was playing at the same time (the `77 lineup) and I went to see them. Talking to others, TRB put on a great show.

Danny Kustow, the guitarist for TRB and probably the best known member besides Robinson himself passed in 2019, so he definitely is no longer in the picture. Not sure about any of the rest.

That's a good point, Brad. He was pretty pivotal to their sound. The only time I ever saw him live circa-Hope & Glory, he was backed by his support band, New Zealand outfit The Narcs.