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Punk is alive and kicking
COME on, punk. Make our day. That's Blackpool's message to 8,000 punk fans heading here for 200 bands in residence in the resort over four days for the world's biggest punk music festival.
The North will rise again, predicts lippy local lad made music legend John Robb, rock journalist, singer-songwriter, cultural commentator. And it will do so here – in Blackpool.
Profligate politicians may propel us closer to anarchy in the UK but the Rebellion festival in August will storm the sedate surrounds of the Winter Gardens.
Fleetwood-born rock pundit Robb, former Membranes, and now
Goldblade frontman, loves the host
resort – and the venue.
"Blackpool's got this brashness which never dies – while the Winter Gardens add splendour as the backdrop to the bands," he adds.
He grew up here, born in Fleetwood, raised on Anchorsholme Lane, still comes back for school functions, and to lend weight as a music ambassador to struggling bands and writing wannabes.
Don't forget it was Robb who tipped the largely unheard of Oasis for success way back – when only the likes of the late Tony Wilson was
prepared to put his Hacienda (nightclub) on the line for them.
Punk is in rude health too. Look at elderly Sex Pistols squire John (Johnny Rotten) Lydon's new lease of life – buttering up Country Life but still battering down those music barriers.
Last year's sell out Rebellion festival attracted more than 5,000 music fans, from kids to pensioners, and from as far as Bulgaria, Romania, America and Japan.
"We always get such a warm welcome in Blackpool," says Robb, who now lives in Manchester. "It's the perfect place for the festival.
"As a local lad, I know it's good for the town and good for the local industry."
This year highlights include an exclusive gig from the original line up of headliners Killing Joke and top five American punk band Flogging Molly fresh from a number one album.
One of the UK's first chart punk bands, The Damned, are among the acts appearing at the festival, which runs from August 6 to 9.
Ex-Young Ones (and Hells Kitchen runner up) Ade Edmundson – aka Jennifer Saunders' other half – also brings his excellent punk folk band The Bad Shepherds here.
What more could a middle aged punk with bad hair and good
memories want?
Robb reckons this year's rebellion, at the Winter Gardens from August 6 to 9, is the best bill ever.
"It's great that it's happening in Blackpool," says Robb, author of several histories of punk, and the best selling biography of the Stone Roses.
His latest book, The North Will Rise Again, is a compilation, as he puts it, of "Manchester's gobbiest musicians." He's now on with an '80s underground music book.
Punk exploded on Manchester in the '70s, and paved the way for
Madchester, Wilson's Factory Records and Hacienda bringing us Joy Division/New Order and later the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses, setting the scene for the uber-lads of Britpop, a term Robb coined, the Gallagher brothers, who made Oasis the biggest band of the '90s.
The spin off for Blackpool can't be overstated. It became the seaside
retreat for punks who wanted to let their hair down (try that with a
mohican) and get their feet wet.
It "wasted" Morecambe in the
festival stakes – organisers returning here, where the festivals started, for better facilities.
Rebellion is the rebrand of the Wasted festivals, which started here, then defected to Morecambe, before finding Blackpool had the edge.
Last year's was a sell out here, tempting the old guard (those who grew up in the late '70s and early '80s) and the new fans.
Robb adds: "I can't think of a better place for all these shennanigans- a trip to the seaside with a high decibel sound track – perfect!"
It's to be hoped there's a tribute to Fes Parker, of Anchorsholme, one of the elder statesmen of music, 60 when he died from cancer this year, but part of the scene from which Robbs' The Membranes, The Fits and Section 25 emerged.
Fes was respected as one of Blackpool's finest songwriters and last year, when he released his "definitive best of" CD, Side Room, featuring his favourites, Robb stepped into produce nine of the tracks, and hail the "musical genius" of Fes.
Robb grew up in the Blackpool of the '70s, a decade derided as the hangover of the '60s, but which carved out its own identity.
"I was surrounded by glam rock, northern soul and then punk, all in a few short years. The North West lacks confidence to shout about what it does – but Blackpool has brashness. It was, and remains, a great place to be."
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Weather for Blackpool
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
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Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 16 C
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