Rebellion Festival 2026: Part 4

It’s the final day of this years Rebellion Festival, we simultaneously seem to have been in Blackpool for five minutes and forever, strange things seem to happen to time when you are caught in an endless blur of great music, good friends, and questionable food choices, the alcohol consumption may also contribute to this. But for one final time this year we are heading back to the Winter Gardens to soak up as much of the final day as we can.

Debate has been raging. It’s Mike-a-bomb, not meekabomb. First band up for us but a great crowd has gathered in the Empress Ballroom. Mikabomb burst onto the stage to greet a better crowd than some bands have managed in this slot. The London-based Japanese five piece purvey an excellent brand of sparky power pop. They’re full of energy, melody and a lot of fun. They’re not served well by the poor sound, an ongoing issue in this room, but the songs shine through. Short sharp bursts of fun with zero sense of self-importance. We like them.

We wearily head up the stairs to the Almost Acoustic to catch Guadeloupe’s only punk band, The Bolokos. This isn’t their first appearance at Rebellion Festival, or their first set of this weekend, but having caught them on a previous year in Club Casbah we get to catch a different side of the theatrical Caribbean ska punk band. They blend traditional influences which are blended with the more obvious influences you would expect at Rebellion Festival. The Almost Acoustic stage is bouncing and to my ears the stripped back approach, including an impressively minimal drum kit, seems to enhance their material.

Well a good song is always a good song and if ‘Angry Side‘ channelled the power of the full electric set, Millie Manders & The Shutup find a different kind of raw energy here in the more intimate setting. What’s common to both performances is the magnetic, mesmerising quality of Millie’s stage persona. The Almost Acoustic room is rammed with the faithful and Millie feeds off the vibe to create a real sense of communion. The Shut Up are the perfect vehicle, plugged or unplugged and they’re clearly also enjoying the love in the room. Much loved and hugely talented. This star should rise and rise.

Next up we catch Blackpool’s very own Sally Pepper delivering an acoustic set in the Old Vic, we also found out she runs the Fylde Coast Cats rescue so drop them a few quid if you can, one of mine is now wearing one of their collars until it gets removed, chewed off or left in a tree. Anyway, solo and acoustic she’s states she’s keeping it light with a song about “sexual predators in the punk scene”, and it does need saying as it isn’t just Justin Sane. We get a set of heartfelt inclusive acoustic punk that doesn’t pull it punches, but it’s also delivered with humour. We also see Millie Manders in attendance, who must have sprinted down after her set in the Almost Acoustic to catch Sally Pepper, if you needed a further endorsement then you now have it.

These more personal sessions in the Old Vic provide a great insight into the creative process. Stripped of the full band backing, the songs live in a more personal space. Molly Vulpyne is not simply delivering, she’s letting us in to a much more affecting and personal performance, proving yet again (if it ever needed to be proved) that the community of artists we support are not loud, shouty talentless nobodies. Molly Vulpyne has heart and a Celtic spirit that shines in every setting.

If you ever want to see a band who’s name says it all, then the Wokerati Party are it. Playing on the Loud Women Stage takeover of the Introducing Stage, and giving us all a taste of what life could be like when real human beings are in charge of the country. Preaching to the converted is possibly the only caveat here, but hopefully there may have been some in the crowd who needed some true woke happiness in their lives. Musically this is nothing too angst or even pop, just great songs that mean something. We left feeling happy and still ‘Woke As Fuck’.

Our sole visit to the Literary Stage, others were planned but we got distracted, sees us catch Dickies frontman Leonard Graves Phillips reminisce about his past in a funny, engaging and brutally honest manner. His disclosures range from their distaste for spitting at their early UK gigs, which it must be said is something no one misses, and the impact of Banana Splits being a surprise hit single, to addiction, rehab centres and relapse, through to touring communist China and having to explain his props to customs officers. This is of course ahead of upcoming new book, Dickies & Me: The Life & Times of Leonard Graves Phillips where all this and more will be documented. He also talked about the unexpected longevity of The Dickies and acknowledged his love of British punk rock, in particular Buzzcocks, and revealed that The Dickies long awaited final album will be released in 2027. Their final album will be titled Toodle-oo, this also means that this year and their upcoming appearance in the Empress Ballroom will not be the band’s swan song, but the end is understandably near for the The Dickies, so catch them whilst you can.

As alluded to in many of our previous reviews from this weekend, catching every band and artist is impossible at Rebellion, so when you walk in three quarters of the way through something like Atilla & Otway Present ‘Cheryl’ A Rock Opera in the Opera House, a sense of loss and also happiness ensues, missing some of it but still being a part of the end was so good. This show kicked into life back in about 1991 and has now been reinvented for us all to enjoy, this 35th anniversary edition was just as good as it ever was. For anyone who missed it, please go find them at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival or buy the CD, worth every bit of your hard earned cash.

Back at Loud Women takeover of the Introducing stage again, this time it’s for a DIY band who are on the up and fully deserve this moment at Rebellion. Breakup Haircut are said band, the term ‘Breakup Haircut’ is a used for taking back the power and shedding what came before, and this is a set that certainly takes control. This feels like friends having fun music, a stage that’s owned, music thats non punk but 100% punk all at the same time. It’s witty in places and pop without being pop, yes so many contradictions in their style, but what comes out of this is just so damned great, well worth checking out, and hopefully back next year. 

We reviewed The Members‘ early recordings gathered as the ‘At The Coach House‘ album and we liked those recordings a lot. The album traced a path from their roots through the process that ended in a deal and the At The Chelsea Nightclub album that this performance celebrates. The band are playing the album through tonight to bring that story full circle. At the Coach House proved the band to be much better than the subsequent studio album suggested, when their sound was more closely moulded to the nascent New Wave sound. That said, the band is on fire tonight as they rampage through the sharp pop and reggae-influenced tracks. That said, their signature song sounds a bit pedestrian. Maybe they have played it too often. It’s a small grumble. A fine show, perfectly executed.

We head into the Empress Ballroom and move on a decade from The Members to catch The Godfathers. This is a band who have lost none of their menace. This is all the more impressive given the passing of around four decades and this being the latest incarnation of the band, with only frontman Peter Coyne remaining from the band’s original line up, but any self respecting gangster accepts there will be losses of personnel and The Godfathers are no different. The Godfathers aren’t content just to relive past glories and their set shows equal respect to vintage material and their recent output, they of course do deliver the OG classics Cause I Said So, Birth School, Work, Death, I Want Everything and This Damn Nation in a set that proves there’s no school like the old school.

Last dip into The Arena Stage for this weekend, this time its the turn of the all female punk band (except Guitarist Karl) from Liverpool Iconoclasts. What is there to say about this band and their set other than pure nostalgia. These are songs that have that early 80’s punk after punk happened sound, some might say post-punk but that diesel;t feel quite right. This is a group who still live what they are doing and this exudes from there on stage smiles, even in the face of the heat in the Arena.

Our final band of the 2026 Rebellion Festival are The Dickies in the Empress Ballroom, the clown princes of punk have made a welcome return after what we thought was their final tour last time they were at Rebellion Festival. Having listened to Leonard Graves Phillips talking a little about his long Dickies journey and the tribulations thereof, we now form part of an expectant Empress Ballroom crowd. The end of this band is not nigh (Leonard is 70 next month), but we’re a lot closer than we think. The next album, and the last, likely entitled Toodle-oo will see the band back to the UK again to finally sign off their love-in with the country that embraced their quirks and theatricality to give them a spiritual home. After a doomy-laden and dramatic intro, the band stride onstage and from that point, it’s a glorious gallop through the catalogue. Sharp, distinctive and overburdened with familiar hits, the set is rapturously received. We get the full theatricality of Leonard’s penchant for comedy props. The momentum is only broken by a failed bass head. During the switchover, Leonard reminds us that his ruinously expensive book will soon be available. Bass head replaced, it’s a full tilt.rush, escalating and accelerating into a joyous climax with, of course, with Banana Splits. Rebellion Festival 2026 is not going to top that and we trudge, elated, into the freezing summer rain as real life is on horizon. We’ll be back next year, and hopefully every year until infirmity, old age or the grim reaper stops us!

The Rebellion Festival will return between the 5th and 8th August 2027 and tickets are now on sale here, with early confirmations for 2027 including The Only Ones, UK Subs, DOA, Street Dogs, The Undertones, The Meffs and more.

Words and photography in varying quantities by Mark Cartwright, Peter Hough and Phinky.