As we entered Sam saw a young lad by the name of Louie Raw on the acoustic stage so he stopped off to listen in and was mightily impressed for one so young.
First on for us was the Terraces in the Arena who certainly woke us up. We met up to watch Captain Hotknives in the Pavilion. He had drawn a large crowd and although I have seen him before he had us all crying by the end of the set (with laughter that is). We then went to see the Adolescents in the Empress who I thought sounded great although there crowd wasn’t as big as I thought it might be.
We then decamped to the acoustic stage to chill for a while and managed to see Mauri Clash City Rocker. As you may guess he predominately played Clash cover but threw in a few other too and was a massive surprise when Colin from Cock Sparrer joined him on stage for Because You’re Young and England Belong’s To Me, aided by an appreciative crowd.
Next was the Nightingales in the Pavilion. I thought they sounded great, playing to a small crowd but if you get a chance check them out, still as relevant as ever.
We then went to see Attila The Stockbroker on the literacy stage, another great set. I could listen to Attila all night with his poems and stories , usually funny, sometimes biting and a superb and touching piece about his mom which reduced the room to silence.
Then it was Lene Lovich in the Pavilion. Another big crowd and to be fair I thought was a really good set and Lene sounded fabulous.
A quick dash to the Olympia to see Face to Face, another band who suffered with poor sound but even that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd.
Then it was back up to the Pavilion to see Peter Hook and The Light. A slow start but a couple of songs in and once you’d gotten accustomed to Hooky singing these songs that were already ingrained in our consciences, you realised you were actually witnessing something pretty special.
It was a difficult decision to leave before then end of the set but I was keen to see Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. I never got to see the Dead Kennedys back in the day but have loosely followed Jello’s career and was mightily impressed with the recent album, from which they played a selection in addition to the crowd pleasing Holiday in Cambodia and Nazi Punks Fuck Off.
Then it was last band of the weekend time, Sham 69. Usually by this time I’ve kind of had enough and just want to go to bed but this year still felt quite lively even though we decided to watch from the balcony, couldn’t get a seat and it felt as hot as the tropics. I thought Sham were a fitting end to the weekend, Jimmy Pursey was on fine form and they ripped through an absolutely blistering set. Overall great weekend, few minor gripes over sound and running out of bottles of real ale, but that didn’t spoil another great coming together of the weird and the wonderful.
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