Rebellion Festival – Sunday 4th August 2024

  • Peter Hough posted
  • Reviews
Rebellion Festival

Rebellion Festival

Blackpool Winter Gardens - 4th August 2024

Everything hurts, we can’t drink anymore and normality is just 24 hours away, but we limp down to the Winter Gardens one last time as there are unmissable acts early doors, which means it’s business as usual at Rebellion Festival, starting with a second chance to catch one of last year’s highlights. A massive hit at last year’s festival, The Attack are back. They’re opening proceedings in the Empress Ballroom on a Sunday – not an ideal slot and there’s definitely a vague sense of festival fatigue among the early attendees. Shouldn’t have worried though. As showtime approaches the ballroom is filled up nicely. The Attack were always going to raise the energy levels with their brand of no-nonsense punk and it’s delivered in razor sharp bursts. Engaging and intense without menace. A great start to the day and the only band to choose Blackpool as their backdrop.

The Attack

Smoking Popes are making their debut at Rebellion as part of their long long long overdue return to the UK, there’s always a bucket list band or two at Rebellion and this was one of this years. The short afternoon set is not enough but we’ll take what we can get, and what we get is nothing short of spellbinding. The set is a snapshot that spans the back catalogue from Born To Quit to their superb latest single, Golden Moment, and there’s also the welcome revelation that there’s a new album on the way next year. This current touring touring line up absoultely nails the early afternoon set and Josh Caterer‘s vocals somehow sound even sweeter live. It’s been almost thirty years since the Smoking Popes played the UK, the reception at Rebellion, and on the subsequent dates on their UK tour, will hopefully bring them back a bit sooner.

Smoking Popes

Having played the full electric set yesterday, Ruts DC are back in the Opera House for their ELECTRacoustic set. The Opera House is rammed and the band is fresh off touring this stripped back version; a methodology honed here at Rebellion in previous years. The set ducks and dives through The Ruts & Ruts DC canons, kicking off with Music Must Destroy. All eras are represented, but seamlessly presented. The biggest cheers erupt for the crowd-pleasers including In A Rut, which segues into Neil Young‘s Rocking In The Free World. The golden moment though, in this set, is the beautiful Pretty Lunatics – a song that would be  showstopper in any format. These songs – old and new- performed in this way lack no fire or intensity and the format proves that the band transcend time and genre. Triumphant and brilliant.

Ruts DC

Whilst Pete has gone old school Phinky has headed over to the Loud Women takeover of the Introducing Stage for The Empty Page. It’s been a while since we last saw them, quite a while, but now they’re back with an impressive new album, Imploding, and a sound that seems re-energised with that dark edge that underscores the trio’s unique blend of dark and light and indie and post punk.

Empty Page

South Korea’s Rumkicks have returned after last years triumphant debut, a year they seem to have spent relentlessly touring anywhere and everywhere. There’s an enthusiasm, joy and energy about the furious bubblegum punk, this is the sound of three outsiders who have found their place in the world away from the conformity of their home country. Whereas last year they looked slightly overwhelmed by the audience response, this year they know they are part of the inclusive extended Rebellion family and the confidence from a year of touring shows in a set that possesses a raw charm.

Rumkicks

Vintage SoCal early punk adopters Channel 3 / CH3 released their first single in 1980 and have been recording and releasing material consistently but sporadically ever since. The former John Peel faves have put out seven full length albums since that debut. They’re still firing on all cylinders and deliver a hi-energy set of their tuneful, singalong punk rock to the Empress crowd. There’s hardly any banter between song, just a full on power charge through the set. It’s relentless.

CH3

Before Las Vegas’s The Dollheads make their appearance we get Dolly Parton’s 9-5 which makes an unexpected change from the vintage punk tunes that has been the soundtrack between bands, it also seems to get a few jaded feet moving, it seems everyone loves Dolly! The Dollheads must be the youngest band at this years Rebellion, the teen sibling trio from bring a youthful energy to the festival and play to a packed Pavilion with a set of original hard edged pop punk, they also veer into old school with a cover of Circle JerksWild In The streets. If this is the next generation of Rebellion then the future is looking bright.

The Dollheads

As befits Loud Women day, the Introducing Stage has been featuring all female and woman-fronted bands throughout the day. Hipersona are twin sisters from Turkey and they rock. A raucous and youthful two-piece line up provides plenty of pop punk power and the songs are excellent. There’s a pop disco vibe to this guitar-led punk which gives the experience a special flavour, although there is a question about why someone would wear a furry hat throughout their set on the sweaty Pavillion stage.

Hipersona

In juxtaposition to the bands on the Introducing Stage we now have rock monsters from the dawn of time. The Empress is absolutely rammed for the return of 70’s glam rock legends The Sweet, they deliver the hits with a contemporary slick rock twist, although technical issues cause some early problems gives some surviving original member Andy Scott  the chance to deliver some anecdotes from way back and to decry yesterday’s far right assembly, from glam rock to hardcore punks, nobody likes a racist. From this throwback time warp we switch to seeing another rock legend in Jax from Girlschool who is existing in the here and now with Syteria

Rebellion

With some excellent material available and a reputation for melodic rock punk, Syteria are a must see. We enjoyed them immensely last year and are excited to see how the band had progressed in the intervening year. Girlschool‘s Jax still leads the guitar assault and the four piece deliver super tuneful rock songs with gorgeous vocal arrangements. But most importantly, they rock. And rock they do. Sheer bad luck to be scheduled against The Sweet and then Stiff Little Fingers whose fans have rammed the Empress Ballroom and left the Opera House a bit sparsely attended, which is a shame. Front woman Julia has a physical energy that transcends the music, and her playful showmanship is a real plus. But it’s about the music, and Systeria rock it out in fine style.

Syteria

Rebellion is not just the music, it’s a family, a big dysfunctional happy family and the reaction to the far right disorder is an example, not just words, but action as well, as Rebellion attendees counter protested and helped clean up the mess those idiots left behind. Did we meet everyone we wanted to or see all the bands we wanted to? Of course we didn’t, we never do, and due to the scale of Rebellion I doubt we ever will, but we had new random encounters and discovered new music which is surely just as, if not more, important. We end the day eating chips by the muddy sea, whilst one of Blackpool’s mutant gulls repeatedly pecked at my converse until we gave it some chips. This is friendliest, safest, most good natured celebration of all things punk that puts negative stereotypes well and truly to bed. We’ll be back next year to do it all again.

Rebellion Festival

Rebellion Festival will return between the 7th and 10th August 2025 at the Blackpool Winter Gardens and tickets are available here. Early confirmations for 2025 include The Undertones, The Exploited, The Selecter, D.O.A., Save Ferris, Pegboy, Millions Of Dead Cops, Bite Me Bambi and Venomous Pinks, you can check out the full list of early confirmations here.

Rebellion Festival

Photography by Phinky and Scott Bradley from Phukin Photos with Ruts DC photo courtesy of Sheila Black. Words by Phinky & Peter Hough