Tag: UK Subs

Wickerman Festivals 8 and 9

Wickerman 8 was held in 2009 and had a decent bill. The indefatigable Billy Bragg was in residence and was at that point going through his Woody Guthrie phase. There was some folk rock provided by Meersault from Edinburgh and Celtic folk from the Solus Tent headliners Pearl and the Puppets.

The Dickies belted out ‘Banana Splits’ for the umpteenth time, already thirty years old at that stage. Holding the punk flag were the perennial UK Subs, the Sharks and Penetration, Johnny Robb was in town with Goldblade and there were covers from the Counterfeit Clash.

Also playing were Root System, Mr Kil, Drums of Death, Luva, Anna, The Box, Marc Wilson, Kid British and there was glam rock and tartan attire from Glasgow’s Velcro Quartet. There were very retro performances from Candi Staton and Dreadzone. 

Idlewild, as ever, blasted out a solid set and I was impressed by Edinburgh’s We Were Promised Jetpacks as they were a refreshingly noisy bunch in the vein of Twilight Sad.  The Zutons covered the scouse angle and Magic Numbers are always soothing with their close harmonies and Californian vibe.  The headliners after the burning were the Human League who were very good value.  

The band of the weekend was an utterly joyous set in the scooter tent from Bad Manners. I think Buster Bloodvessel is the only remaining original and he is quite frankly nothing short of certifiable! He is now surrounded by younger band mates and the saxophonist was a revelation and the closing ‘Can-Can’ was riotous.

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The inimitable Buster Bloodvessel. Image Credit brightonsource.co.uk.

On the Saturday we always liked to have a communal bet on the horse racing prior to heading off to the festival. There was at one point in time a bookmaker in Kirkcudbright but now no more. In later years we also had enjoyable afternoons in Castle Douglas and Dalbeattie.

The absolute nadir was one year when it seemed we couldn’t even find the winner in a one-horse race and stacked our hopes on a horse called Tony Tie in the last. It didn’t even depart the stalls as it decided to eject its jockey! On the converse side one year we got the first three winners up in a Lucky 15, a fourth winner would have won us thousands, but the three timer was sufficient to cover the entire festival ticket costs for our five strong crew!

Wickerman 9 in 2010 had its share of slightly wonky legends as Tony Christie, Ed Ten Pole Tudor, The Saw Doctors, The Buzzcocks and The Undertones were in residence. Ocean Colour Scene ploughed their usual furrow; however Go Team provided their usual joyous jaunty set. Also on the bill were the nattily titled Earl Grey and the Loose Leaves, Mitchell Musuem, Midnight Lion, Fenech Soler, Lee Mottram, The Banana Sessions, The String Contingent, The Sex Pistols Experience, GoGoBot and Dr Huxtable.

There was a terrific set of post rock from Glasgow’s There Will Be Fireworks and Teenage Fanclub provided a soothing set with much of the material off their recent ‘Shadows’ release. Completing the Glasgow angle were the rock band Sons and Daughters. Tim Burgess and the Charlatans were in town alongside Sunderland’s Futureheads and 808 State played the main stage after the burning.

At one point we were ensconced in the Acoustic Tent, and I turned around and saw Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand fame standing directly behind me. He later hit the stage to perform some acoustic FF tracks and he went down a storm with the audience.

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Alex Kapranos. Image Credit Zimbio.

Gigs from Abroad Part 2 – Bremen

I have been fortunate to have a group of like-minded pals who for around 15 years as a group have had a weekend jaunt to different European cities. I have attended ten of these shindigs and they are a combination of a splash of culture and a large dollop of beer! They have thus far been mainly based in Germany, but we have also visited Holland, Belgium and Portugal.

My first trip was to the scenic city of Cologne with its gothic cathredral where we also visited the old capital of Bonn. My second sojourn was in January 2010 to Bremen in the North west of Germany. On arrival on the Thursday it was a short tram ride from the airport to our hotel opposite the Hauptbahnhof.     

That evening we headed out for a good sally to the bars in the University end of the City and found a terrific bar where they had a rarely sighted posted of Husker Du ‘Metal Circus’ and they also had a band advertised for the following evening, so plans were hatched for a return visit. Bremen also being the home of Becks beer, a brew that I find a bit metallic tasting at home was transformed in its home town environment. There were many variants, Haake Becks being my favourite.

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The rather fine Haake Becks. Image Credit canmusuem.com

It has become a tradition on these trips to partake a train trip on Day 2 to a nearby town and on this occasion, Bremerhaven was chosen, the location being a port city on the North Sea coast. The weather that weekend was biting and to arrive by the waters edge took this to a new glacial level, resulting in being possibly the coldest place I have ever visited. Tony Dewhurst pottered off to the local zoo where he said even the polar bear was trembling!  

We walked around shivering and after spying the rare sight of a C&A next to a Woolworths on the main shopping drag and visiting the submarine museum we went searching for an aperitif. This proved tricky as there was a dearth of bars, but we eventually located one near the station. The mein host was a tad miserable but we stacked the jukebox and had a couple of brews prior to heading back into Bremen.

Whilst heading to the gig that evening, we saw a poster advertising that the indefatigable UK Subs had played in a local venue the night before which we unaware of until that point in time!

I am not altogether sure what it called so it shall be known as The Eisen Bar. It was infinitely busier than the previous night and was packed to the rafters. The headline band were a local group called International Removals who were of the post-punk variety singing in English and produced a thoroughly enjoyable set. A google search informs me they are still in operation which gladdened me to see, and their recent output sounded good.   

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The Eisen Bar with the Husker Du ‘Metal Circus’ poster in the foreground. Image Credit Facebook

A central gathering point in German cities is the main Train station with trains running until very late. It is also a hub for food outlets, and we devoured some unwholesome snacks about 2am.

We were heading back to the hotel when one chap in the crew highlighted that he had seen an indie nighclub called ShagAll on the far side of the square, so we foolishly headed over to investigate. What an absolute gem of a place where the DJ playing a blinder and more Becks were supped, I recall Electric Six’s ‘Gay Bar’ being aired. This quality musical output resulting landing back at the digs at 4.50am!

5.5 hours later I was awoken by my roommate Dave Keane informing me we had to vacate the room by 11am. He was in fact incorrect as it was noon, thereby losing one hour of absolute golden slumber! Outside the hotel Bayern Munich fans were streaming past on their way to their Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen, who are coincidentally but unsurprisingly sponsored by Becks Brewery.

We mulched around town for a bit with stifling hangovers before heading to Paddys Pit, a subterranean Irish bar near the hotel. The reason for this alcoholic masochism was to watch PNE in a FA Cup tie v Chelsea.     

The first pint equated to the hair of a very vicious Rottweiler but worryingly I soon started to come around. We subsequently lost the match 2-0 and had some good-natured banter with locals who were in residence for the Bremen v Munich match immediately following our game.   

From there, we grabbed a taxi to the airport for the short flight back to Liverpool. We had pre-booked a taxi from a firm who turned out to be charlatans as they had not even departed from Preston by the time we had landed. When they eventually arrived, we remain convinced the driver had impaired version as he only very nearly avoided an incident at Switch Island!  

On arrival back in Preston we grabbed a sit-down curry in the Royal Piri Piri restaurant on East View on Deepdale Road, near the old Hollywood Bar and Stephenson Arms, before finally heading home for some desperately needed sleep!