After an early finish to Friday's festivities, your intrepid reporter was fully ready for the last two days of Rebellion.
Los Fastidios are genuine Rebellion legends. Bringing their Italian oi/ska year after year it is hard not to be infected by their energy. Enrico and Elisa make a power front couple and any set that ends with the iconic Antifa Hooligans is going to be memorable.
From the sublime to the ridiculous with Hung Like Hanratty. Like a modern Macc Lads, HLH may be a bit of a joke band but their primary mission of offending as many people as possible can be misinterpreted. Fortunately the crowd in the Casbah were fully in on the joke.
For anyone old enough to remember P-Rock TV, 4 Ft Fingers will have a special place in their hearts. Bringing their own English version of skatecore, their set was like mainlining a can of Monster – all fun and games while it lasts but you’ll suffer from the shakes when the come down kicks in.
Paranoid Visions are always one of the first bands that PRUK looks for on the Rebellion announcements. Getting an upgrade from the RIS After Dark stage to the Casbah was fitting. With more decades of experience than they’d care to admit to, and a vast back catalogue, Paranoid Visions worked the crowd with ease with a set that had peaks and troughs in all the right places.
My history of listening to Ricky Warwick goes all the way back to listening to The Almighty place a session on the Tommy Vance Rock Show on Radio 1. Seeing him do an acoustic set was a fantastic surprise on the line up. While his hair colour may have some chemical assistance everything else about his performance was real and raw including the set closing cover of the Ace of Spades.
PRUK has always been a massive fan of Gimp Fist’s modern take on streetpunk. However, a muggy sound did them not favours in the Empress Ballroom. The gang singalongs struggled to get going against a sound dominated by the drums which was a real disappointment.
One of PRUK’s favourite punk podcasts is Football, Beer and Punk Rock so it was an absolute pleasure to be stood next to Monty from FBPR as Knock Off belted out the theme tune to the podcast. Just like Gimp Fist and Grade 2, Knock Off have been part of the new generation of oi that have revitalised the scene. This was evident throughout their seamless set.
Every year Subhumans are one of the must-sees at Rebellion. A stacked back catologue with Dick Lucas' insistent delivery never fails. A greatest hits set made for the Empress Ballroom. Every song was an anarcho-punk classic with plenty of singalongs to get the crowd involved.
Harley Flanagan may be a questionable person (not least for when he stabbed two people backstage at a Cro-Mags show back in 2010). However, what cannot be denied is the furiosity that he brings to the stage. Bringing the sizeable crowd along with him as Cro-Mags ran through a perfectly crafted set of NYHC classics leaving teh audience begging for more.
Somehow PRUK had not seen UK-82 legends GBH perform live before, a situation that was long overdue of remedy. Fully derserving of the reverence that they are treated with within punk circles, Jock Blyth led the band through a set that belied their age and reaffirmed their status as one of the defining bands of streetpunk.
Just like Subhumans and GBH before them, Die Toten Hosen delivered a classic set pulled from their extensive discography. A masterful performance delivered with ease like the consummate professionals that they are making them one of many highlights over the course of the weekend.
A brief sojourn out of the Winter Gardens to see Scotland’s finest ska punkers – The Guillotines. Despite a sound system that may have been made by Fisher-Price and with Muzzy from The Overbites standing in on bass, they still managed to get the Rose & Crown skanking like their lives depended on it.
As a band that formed two years before I was born, there is no way that Cock Sparrer should still be as good as they are. Starting with the Oi classic “Riot Squad” would be a brave move from anyone else but in the hands of Cock Sparrer it is merely an amuse bouche. An hour long set featuring songs from 1981’s “Shock Troops” to 2024’s “Hand on Heart” was a joy to behold. As usual “England Belongs To Me” was an absolute highlight of the weekend.
