A rock n' roll birthday party to end all others!
My goodness, we didn’t know that Shake Some Acton did birthday parties! Well, ok, tonight is still technically a gig, but it also happens to be the birthday of one Mark ‘The Giraffe’ Pointer, and hence we find the Hope & Anchor adorned with balloons and comedy inflatables. Oh, and there’s also the small matter of the four ace bands playing tonight – this has all the makings of a great celebration.
“Fucking hell, I’m too old for this!” That’s the increasingly sweaty singer of Mid-Age Rampage, after a grin-worthy romp through Showaddywaddy’s ‘Hey Rock And Roll’. We disagree, ma’am – you and your bandmates are clearly having a blast, as are we, and isn’t that what matters? The quartet specialise in covers of classic 70s glam and rock n’ roll (plus a touch of metal in the form of Judas Priest’s ‘Breaking The Law’), combined with some serious bubble-gun action, and the end result makes for a highly entertaining start to an evening of folks not taking themselves too seriously.
Frontmen don’t come much more charismatic or larger than life as The Ted Army vocalist Mick, whom we saw play a great set with his main band The Spacewasters earlier this year. He thanks us for showing up to see “four fat lazy bastards who play other people’s songs”, but the pleasure is ours; who knew that the likes of ‘Smooth Operator’ and ‘Best Friend’s Girl’ could sound so good when given a revved-up punk n’ roll twist? They play with the ease and confidence of a band who know they’re among friends tonight, and even treat us to a Ted Army original, ‘Rockabilly Rebel’, which goes down just as well as the rest of their set. Superb stuff.
Welsh punk veterans Foreign Legion are up next, and they do fine justice to the memory of their sadly-departed frontman Marcus Howells. Now a trio, they rip through a fourteen-song set of street-level punk rock tunes; rocket science it ain’t, but those fizzing guitar lines on songs like ‘We Are Legion’ and ‘1984’ sound amazing live. It’s a shame more folks aren’t watching them, but these guys are troopers to the end, and a searing final brace of ‘For The Legion’ and ‘Start A War’ will linger long in the memory.
Barcelona quintet Radioactivas come across as much a gang as a band, and they’re a gang that we wanna join. Vocalist Eri hands out some Iggy Pop masks for us to wear before the swaggering ‘La Iguana’; appropriate enough, given that her band have clearly taken plenty of influence from The Stooges. And hey, why not? This is garage rock as it should be; riffs that make you want to strut, gloriously fuzzed-up guitars, and no-shits-given attitude to burn – you can tell they’re in their element onstage, on a rock n’ roll mission to get our ears ringing.
There’s no let-up in terms of intensity or quality during their set, but if we were hard-pressed to choose highlights, we’d have to go for the ultra-catchy ‘La Nuit’ or their barnstorming cover of ‘Un Día En Texas’. An absolute triumph, and we can hardly wait for their return.
A very happy birthday to Mr Pointer, then, and a huge thanks to Shake Some Acton for having us along for the ride! There are plenty more SSA gigs coming up in September (and beyond) – check the links below for details.
All Photos: ALEX GOOSE
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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