Rebellion Festival 2022

[peteprodge]

That drag queen has awesome hair, they look like a Thundercat.

Yep, Travis looks stunning. 7 foot tall in that huge wig, pop-art leotard, fishnets and very high-heeled boots. It's actually embarrassing that I never saw her there at the time, book me into SpecSavers.

My description of the incident has gone somewhat viral among Rebellion attendees on Facebook and even though Travis is not one, they heard about me and sent a friend request yesterday. We chatted about drag and Blackpool's LGBT scene and how I went over to an LGBT bar in full drag on Thursday night for their karaoke event, where I covered Hole's Violet (one of the few female songs I can almost handle) and dedicated it to all the punks (about ten of them in). That sparked off the idea for others to take up songs of that ilk, so it all went Jilted John; Sex Pistols; The Clash; Guns N Roses; Madness... a pretty damned good night. (I did have to miss Dreadzone while I got all made-up in my hotel, and returned for Hawkwind's set all ready to hit Dickson Road.) Had one spiteful scroat slap my arse as I walked up Talbot Road, oh and some pissed lads getting a bit too close but turned out to be a curious mixture of respect and leeryness. F--k knows how women put up with this s--t 24/7, I'm just very much a part-time crossdresser.

As for Rebellion not needing 'woke' bands, I'm wondering if that's a dogwhistle because Bob Vylan are black. If it's a political thing, nobody tell him what lots of punk bands believed (and if he'd seen Billy Bragg or Tom Robinson, he'd have shat himself with rage).

Yeah, there's been a couple of dicks in an independent Rebellion attendees Facebook group who insist on 'keeping politics out of the music', which is very obviously 'keep left-wing politics out of the music', as one of them couldn't see a problem with the idea of someone attending in a Skrewdriver t-shirt - "so what, leave them to it, don't like, don't listen".

I had to make a not-so-subtle point to these nanowits:

I don't think the "keep politics out of this festival" 'advice' works for punk rock. If that rule was adhered to, we wouldn't have had:
* Ferocious Dog
* Levellers
* Steve Ignorant
* The Jam
* The Undertones
* Atilla The Stockbroker
* Rhoda Dakar
* Danbert Nobacon
* Pop Will Eat Itself
* Hung Like Hanratty
* Bob Vylan
* Stiff Little Fingers
* Billy Bragg
* Tom Robinson Band
* and others I'm not that knowledgeable on
Anyone who says politics should be kept out of punk should of course delete/destroy any music they have that's by The Clash, for starters. Go on. Do it.

F--k knows how these gibbering idiots claim to be punk and I do wonder what went through their minds when they saw this going on:

ETA: I wasn't paying full attention to the Undertones but whatsit/NotFeargal did a fine job. As did Baz the Strangler.

Oh, absolutely. A very strong showing.

[Jockice]

The thing is, like any subculture punk has its fair share of wankers involved. I once went to see Buzzcocks and was held in a headlock, had beer thrown at me (most of which missed) and threatened with a 'beating'. For the terrible crime of attempting to lean on a bit of fencing that apparently was reserved for a bunch of lads there. And there was me thinking it was to protect the mixing desk.

So a skinny bloke with specs and crutches was apparently so much of a threat to them they had to protect their territory. They may have thought I was on my own but in fact I had a lot of mates up front. There were more of us than there were of them.
But the only reasons I didn't get them involved was:
A) There would have been bloodshed. The guys I was with weren't hardnuts but nor would they have tolerated me being bullied. I didn't want them to end up with criminal records on my behalf. And
B) My mum had died the previous year. My dad was about to go away for a few days for the first time since then. If there had been any hint of me being in trouble he'd have cancelled. No doubt about it

So the wankers got away with doing their very impressive and macho picking on an easy target bit. Although they didn't get rid of me. I just moved away a bit.. Really rebellious. But actually about as far away from what I'd call punk as it's possible to be. Please understand me if I seem unforgiving but I sincerely hope in the last two decades all of them have suffered premature, painful and lonely deaths. At the very least.

[PlanktonSideburns]

just checked the line-up and surprised that our drummer isn't playing with one of his dozen or so bands.

some good bands names I've never heard a note by: Surgery Without Research, Kicked in the Teeth, The Meffs, Tiger Sex.

should I ever listen to Drongos For Europe? My mind imagines them as a kind of lost Fall/KUKL/Ceramic Hobs type band but also maybe they are utterly lumpen PUNX shit.

Tiger sex is a fucking brill band name