Live Review - Rebellion Festival

Rebellion Festival @ Winter Gardens, Blackpool 03/08/17 - 06/08/17

Where do you find mohawks, Dr Martens and denim all in a Victorian setting? The annual gathering of punks and skinheads at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens obviously! 

Box office, done! Security checks, done- time for some bands! First up on HUSH’s list of bands to watch over Rebellion weekend is PEARS. The New Orleans quartet are assumedly hitting the end of their touring cycle, but there are no signs of fatigue or boredom over what they do, front-man Zach can only be described as Iggy Pop on speed (how is that possible?), he’s a bundle of energy but also with bags of character and humour. What’s incredible about PEARS, is that they are only two albums in and as a band are only three years old, yet they perform with all the confidence of a band thirty years into their career. In what they do and who they are, they are unrivalled.

One of Rebellion’s lesser known secrets is the Almost Acoustic Stage, which sets up camp in one of the Winter Gardens’ many bars. A stage that isn’t reserved for smaller acts, it also features some of the festival’s biggest acts but in a stripped back setting. Having played earlier in the day on the Casbah Stage, Soap Girls went unplugged (half unplugged) for a second set of the day. Soap Girls actually stepped into a minefield full of contention for us with this performance… These women boasted some serious tunes and are undoubtedly talented, yet we had to question if the room was full due to their music or their costumes. (This topic will have to be discussed asap and at length in another post!)

Something that seemed to be a little sparse at Rebellion 2017 was Ska, with one of the few bands throwing out the skanking tunes being The Jellycats. Having seen them support Ska legends Reel Big Fish a few years back, we got exactly what we expected from The Jellycats, a good fun time with a shit tonne of dancing.

The Winter Gardens has some absolutely stunning rooms, truly beautiful architecture, but every festival needs an outdoor stage, and said stage at Rebellion 2017 was the Casbah Stage, which was graced by Teenage Bottlerocket who brought a little bit of the 80’s horror to the stage, not in the way they look, but in the way that they bring the sounds of Misfits, Ramones and The Damned. Playing a set comprising mostly classic Bottlerocket tracks, with a few stolen covers thrown in, this was pretty much Bottlerocket on greatest hits form.

Thursday night is the time for some classic Hardcore Punk bands to hit the Empress Ballroom Stage, with 2017’s Thursday night headliners being Hermosa Beach’s Pennywise and Hardcore godfathers Bad Religion. Both bands are veterans, there isn’t much can be said about either that hasn’t been said before, regimented and professional, both bands rolling back the years, and the crowds loving it!

After a long walk back to our base for the weekend in Blackpool and some much needed sleep, day two at Rebellion started outside with The Kenneths on the Casbah Stage. One of those bands that HUSH has been eager to see for a long while now, having sadly missed them on other festival line-ups, The Kenneths were certainly worth the wait. For every classic Punk band playing Rebellion, there is a band like The Kenneths. Bringing freshness and youth to the stage, they don’t want to be something that has gone before them, but they know where their roots lie. 

The Arena Stage at Rebellion is like the most beautiful basement show you’ll ever go to, purely because you go down into the belly of the Winter Gardens, the similarities end there. Catching the end of Matilda’s Scoundrels, who seemed amazing but we were there to catch all girl quartet Screech Bats, who drew a pretty impressive crowd for two o’clock on a Friday. With a fun modern punk sound, these women owned the stage and grabbed the crowds attention.

Having researched the bands before hitting the festival, we were anticipating this bands set. The Svetlanas are, intense and astounding! Is there anyone else in the world that has done aggressive Anarchist Punk Rock in this way? We think not. Svetlanas front-woman Olga is a ball of Russian aggression and energy, delivering all the power of latest album ‘This Is Moscow Not L.A’ onto the Pavillion Stage, which was pushing capacity, Svetlanas certainly weren’t the hidden gem of the festival, they were the massive rock placed slapbang in the middle of Friday.

With Svetlanas laying down a massive marker as set of the festival, let alone the day, a little rest was in hand before catching the Petrol Girls over on the Empress Ballroom Stage. Festivals are all about moments, moments that go down in folklore, moments that are talked about for years to come, moments where you really had to be there- the Petrol Girls set was hands down one of these moments. Have you ever been there at the start of a revolution? 

The Petrol Girls set didn’t feel like a music set, it felt like a war-cry, a call to arms against sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism and a cry of support for those struggling and suffering with mental health issues. The most poignant moment of the set came as front-woman Ren spoke about sexual assault and the band played real-life recordings before they hit into track “Touch Me Again” from album ‘Talk Of Violence’. The band have meaning about everything the do in their music and their performance, Petrol Girls are a special band who if given the platform they deserve could influence a change in behaviors and attitudes within the punk music scene. 

All of us at HUSH are huge fans of The Distillers, and since they called it quits there has been that gap in the Punk scene, a rebellious old school Punk sound with those gravelly female vocals, and we might have found a fix in The Last Gang who hit the Rebellion Introducing Stage. This was the stage that belonged to Hands Off Gretel last year, and in 2017 they were upgraded to the Empress Ballroom stage so with that in mind and a possible 2017/2018 album release ahead of them, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see The Last Gang make that jump. As a trio, The Last Gang make a whole lot of noise, raw power and energy hit you with every note. Their sound is invigorating and inspiring, it’s just what we’ve been looking for. We had a sit down with these guys, check out our Conversation With coming soon.

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnake have had so many moments, there were those initial basement shows, that batshit crazy Leeds Festival set, the other batshit crazy Leeds set, the list goes on and on and on, and you can add Rebellion Festival to that list. As the song says “I am a juggernaut” and it is the perfect description of The Rattlesnakes, nothing short of a Punk powerhouse Frank and his band of Merry Men have arguably already reached legendary status and although Frank’s personal journey is one of rises and falls, at this current time with the Rattlesnakes this current rise is heading stratospheric. Having observed this journey of the Rattlesnakes from the get go, it’s amazing to say that Frank’s vocals seem to be getting even better, his performance is always surprising and never gets old. Ever the humble gent, Frank always always thanks the event staff for their hard work, and applauds the fans too, for making his life the wonder that it is. 

Punk hasn’t exactly been “main stream” over the last few years, but one band who have managed to breakout and gain themselves Radio One airplay and success are Slaves. If you heard Slaves on the radio, you’d be mistaken in thinking that the Slaves sound was created by a huge collaboration of musicians, so when you see Slaves live and just two men manage to bring so much noise to a Victorian ballroom in Blackpool, it puts a massive smile on any face. Slaves deserve this headline slot, and they’ll deserve all the future headline slots they will get at the likes of Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury and maybe even Download. Slaves are punk, just not as you remember it!