One of my favourite bands, Bad Religion is a punk band from California. The
group has been around since the 80s, and has improved as time has marched on. They're still touring
and pulling in huge crowds. The latest album, "New Maps of Hell", is another winner, and
"The Process Of Belief" is excellent, although "The New America" and "Stranger Than Fiction" still
tie as my favourites. Some of singer Greg Graffin's essays on punk life are on the BR website and
well worth reading.
Another long time favourite is Vice Squad. Still touring, after a couple of line-up changes over
the years, original singer/guitarist Beki Bondage is still fronting the band, and looking as gorgeous as ever.
The
gig at Fibbers recently was fantastic - backed up by two excellent local support bands as well (Zoot Suit,
from York, and Flint, from
Tadcaster). The intro music was the theme from Dad's Army for some reason which escapes me, then Beki came running
on stage and the band belted out a mixture of old favourites and new songs, with some lively banter in between - there
seemed to be some confusion as to whether they were in Yorkshire or Wales amongst other things (?!). Absolutely
brilliant though. "Stand Strong, Stand Proud" was popular, and "Rock & Roll Massacre" too, with lots of crowd
participation, and saving "Last Rockers" for the grand finale made it a great night to remember. I like the new
line-up better than the old one in many ways (not just because they came to York!) - the sound is more lively
and positive, with some bizarre guitar sound effects which reminded me of an old computer game. Punk rock is alive
and well, and making a strong comeback if this night's entertainment was anything to go by.
The Damned have to be high on my favourites list too - I first saw them many years ago in Newcastle upon Tyne,
when Dave came out of a coffin on stage and looked scary with white make-up and black eyes. These days he looks relatively
normal, with his lovely wife Patricia on stage playing bass. Pinch has replaced Rat on drums, and new guy Monty Oxy Moron
is on keyboards (when he's not pogo-ing about like crazy behind them), but good ole Captain is still with them on guitar,
still doing his happy talky talk song whenever the others give him half a chance. These pictures were taken
by Yorkshire Evening Press photographer David Harrison and not me, which is why
they're a lot clearer than the others on the page! The gig was at York Barbican Centre on 25th April, 2003, and was
another brilliant night out, although their support band were crap (Surf Sluts - not my scene at all, nor the rest of the
audience's judging by the reactions - Beach Boys style music with a dismal front man. Boo! Get off!!!). Fortunately
The Damned were on top form, I just wish I'd taken my camera along! More than made up for their tortuous support. I
just hope they get one of the better local bands with them next time (see Vice Squad's supports above - both worthy of
going to see live). There were several tracks from the Damned's latest album, Grave Disorder, which is
one of their best yet - "Amen" was (is) brilliant. Also the old favourites - an excellent mixture in fact. The addition
of Patricia Morrison (ex Sisters of Mercy) to the Damned gets a big thumbs up from me. On tour
again soon - check out the dates by clicking one of these pictures to go to their website.
Other favourite bands include :- The Toy Dolls - a fun punk band
from Durham/Sunderland who sing happy songs about TV soap operas and everyday life in the North
East. They've also been around since the 80s (albeit with a variety of drummers and bassists backing
up the central genius of the band, Olga), and are also still making records and
touring, mainly in Germany and Japan these days, where Olga is very big (?). If you haven't seen or heard them before,
there are a couple of Toy Dolls videos available from Visionary,
both excellent!.
Another favourite band big in the 80s who recently regrouped and were touring again for a while, but then even more recently split up and are cast to the four winds again, are The Chameleons - I caught up with them at Fibbers in York in December 2001 and September 2002 - and enjoyed every minute. They were as magic as they ever were, I hope they regroup again sometime.
A slightly younger band from New York who I love are Wheatus (who
came to Fibbers in Old York in April 2003! Excellent gig, apart from the smoke - I wish Fibbers would ban smoking.) They
had two Apple Mac laptop computers controlling the sound desk (and lights?) - pretty impressive stuff - and the music was
good too of course. Their first album is entirely brilliant, and the followup (Hand Over Your Loved Ones) is pretty
damned good too.
Another Californian punk group I love are The Offspring - especially their more recent albums "Americana" and "Conspiracy of One". They have some older ones too, but not as good in my mind - I think they've improved somewhat with their later stuff. The video for "Huck It" is brilliant too.
Others bands on my current playlist worthy of mention - The Plugz, The Circle Jerks, in fact just
about everyone from the soundtrack of the brilliant film Repo Man (which I've seen more times
than I can remember and can recite large sections of!) - The Dickies,
Uncle Brian,
Gyllene Tider, and...
...in no particular order, some links to other nice music-related sites which tickled my fancy for some reason :-
Scary!