Psychobilly Forum ~ View topic - Rebellion Festival

In case you don't know, Rebellion is an annual punk festival in the sunny town of Blackpool (child abuse capitol of the UK, fact-fans), descended from Wasted/Holidays in the Sun.

We saw loads of bands this weekend (my mate worked out we saw 11 bands in 10 hours on the Sunday alone) but I'll keep this to a short sweet review of the 'billy and 'billy-like bands that played (or didn't).

There were more psychobilly bands on the bill this year than last year, I guess the timing was right for various summer tours.

Koffin Kats kicked things off on Thursday night. We didn't get there until Friday so missed them but from what I heard they were good stuff.

Mad Sin drew a massive crowd to the sweltering Arena stage late on Friday. Their crossover appeal on the punk scene did them a lot of favours at such a festival and they delivered a short, tight set which leaned heavily on up-tempo recent material and ended, as always, in fireworks spraying from Valle's bass.

Canadian newbies The Brains had a lot of buzz around them over the weekend, but their mid-afternoon set on Saturday wasn't the best-attended. Despite that they played great guns, whipping up the crowd for some singalongs with some polished tunes like 'Gone' and 'More Brains' (which went down particularly well), and were joined at one point by Sarah from the Creepshow for a recreation of their duet 'You're Dead'.

The Grit were scheduled to play but failed to show, for reasons nobody still seems quite sure about.

Then the ubiquitous Sarah Blackwood (she also played a solo set on the festival's Almost Acoustic stage that day which we missed as sitting in the sun eating ice-cream seemed a far more pleasant use of our time) returned to the Arena stage with the Creepshow later that night.

They played to a packed crowd and people I know who are fans of the band seemd to think it was a great show... but as I'm not especially interested in them it all left me a bit cold. A cover of the Misfits 'Halloween' was a highlight though, and I will say they do what they do very well.

If anyone saw Koffin Kats or the punk 'n' roll band Church of Confidence, I'd like to know how they were.

punk n roll band??? Laughing

wow.

i think punk fetivals should be left punk,theres enough billy festivals on as it is really,and if punk bands ever (rarely) appear on the line ups folk moan like fuck??
i only went for kj and the dickies,both were awesome aswell,i'd even say that KJ were better than last years london show i went to and i even enjoyed john otway in the afternoon,i know a lot of folks complained about the techniques of the security aswell and wont go back again.depends whose on the bill really for me next year,but it'll need to be a big draw to get me to shitty blackpool!!the winter gardens is a wicked venue though and its very well run without any trouble-first time since it began years back that we've been as punters which made it a lot more enjoyable but i dunno how the general public can afford 4 days of drinking piss weak beer in plastic glasses,hot dogs at over £3 a time and queuing for the bog Laughing

i enjoyed it for a day Laughing

well, i don't drink alcohol, i've learned from past experience to stay clear of the hot dogs and i'm a bloke so the bog queues are shorter... that's how i managed it.

psycho bands at a punk festival? what's wrong with that? it was hardly overrun with them and there's enough stages that if that wasn't your cup of tea, there was plenty else to do.

as it is, the psycho bands werent a deciding factor in me going. Mad Sin, yes, love 'em. but the rest? only found out The Brains were playing after i bought my ticket, Creepshow do nothing for me anyway and I missed Koffin Kats cos i had no intention of going until Friday.

but i went to have a great time with my mates and watch a ton of punk and ska bands (and the occasional psychobilly act), many of whom i might not have seen before. good times and happy memories, mission accomplished and worth the money and effort.

security are a bollocks there, it is true, although at least they weren't fucking rude to me like last year.

oh, punk n roll was the description on their Vince Ray'd up merch, i've never heard of 'em before. think they're Dutch.

even if you dont drink you still have to buy soft drinks and food over 4 days which will cost a bomb.
yeah we had a great time aswell,mainly down to some wicked company and a very nice hotel room,i still say punk festival the clues in the name so why cater for other genres??but then again they stick novelty bands like the bay city rollers on every year aswell so theres summut for everybody i suppose?lmfao.
i know folks that spent best part of a grand once they counted it up,i'd rather have a proper holiday somewhere hot. Laughing

i didn't had a single coin to the bar all weekend, just drank the free water they have in jugs on the side.

food - we did self-catering, flat was 2 minutes from the venue so we just nipped back to grab something to eat and drink when there was nobody on we wanted to see.

i probably could have had a modest b&b weekend away somewhere else in the UK for what i spent on tickets, transport, accomodation and sundries but thats all.

i know people in bands who won't play Rebellion because it's "too commercial" and i can kind of see their point - but for me, once you've bought your ticket you don't have to spend any more money lining the pockets of Rebellion and the Winter Gardens if you don't want to...

and if you do want what they are selling, don't complain if you've pissed a grand up the wall on beer and suspicious hotdogs and have nothing to show for it but a king-size hangover and a vague recollection that maybe you saw the Adicts at some point.

we wandered in on the Bay City Rollers looking for someone else. they were doing a T-Rex song. we didn't stay.

we stsyed in some holidays in blackpool once,it was shit cos you couldnt leave valuables in them and it was a hole that was as expensive as a b n b.
biggest expense we nearly had was £12 for overnight parking Laughing

till we found wilkos which was £4,£70 petrol between 4,£19 room which shouldve been £60 and got a £15 voucher when we checked out so it was actually only £4-didnt pay to get in as was on a band guest list,even though they played on the friday and we only went sunday.
couple of mates spent loads and bought loads of shit merc aswell,with the exception of kreepsville,carnaby,betty boot and a couple of others the stalls were crap aswell so we bought nothing.
the only good thing about moving it back to blackpool is that its not morecambe.

Carrie I gotta disagree about leaving psychobilly bands off the bill at punk festivals.

It's always good to mix up the bill slightly I think, whether it's a ska, punk, rockabilly, or minimal jazz trance fusion festival, it can soon seem a bit too much when all the bands are moving in the same direction.

In the case of Rebellion, all the bands mentioned weren't exactly out and out psychobilly or rockabilly bands, ok Mad Sin lean very heavily towards psychobilly but can also crossover into the punk scene just as easily. The other bands were in my opinion punk bands anyway!

Some of the best gigs we've had in the Johnnys have been to punk crowds, I think just because it's something a bit different to what they're used to normally.

I think the only way psychobilly can grow is to be involved with these kind of festivals and line ups.

I do agree with you on the piss weak expensive booze though, there is no need for such beverages at festivals or anywhere else Very Happy

Guest

I would have to agree that there needs to be a crossover of genre's at festivals.

To paraphrase from Hayseed dixie, I don't know anyone who only listens to one kind of music that I want to have a beer with.
I don't really drink at gigs either, i go for the music and sometimes the social side of it, alcohol is for relaxing for me, not getting smashed and pissing your pants on the floor like middle aged punks in old crass tshirts who should well know better by now.

I would much rather do a bluegrass festival than a punk one these dyas, better music in my never humble opinion Laughing

well if it means bands like the damned,killing joke and the dickies will be on the bill at some billy do's then i'm all for it!!!

cant see it though somehow,double standards work with the punks,but not with your average,designer quiffed,liquorbrand wearing billy boy do they. Laughing

another highlight of my weekend was sitting outside scruffies watching some caned punk youths whipping a perfectly ironed bandana out some designer-billies back pocket and then putting it in his pint of guinnes when he begged for it back. Laughing

i knew it was cruel to laugh so did it behind my hands quietly.

I wasn't talkig about music festivals as we didn't really get those out there much. Just pointing out that for individual shows, it always went really well IN ATLANTA.