Home Articles posted by Phil Withall
The Damned main - Tivoli - Sep 2026 - photo by Phil Withall
Punk News Reviews

Live review: The Damned and The Darts down under at The Tivoli, Brisbane 11/09/2026

By Phil Withall
A Damned gig, even after 50 years, is a magnificent musical experience. This is a band of talented friends that still enjoy playing together, entertaining and embracing what they have built. But it's more than that. For the people that came it’s a portal to people and places long since past, to venues both big and small. Every song has a memory, an emotion, a connection. Continue Reading
Hard-Ons & Jerry A main - photo by Tibone
New Releases Punk News Reviews

Album review: The Hard-Ons and Jerry A release long-promised self-titled joint LP

By Phil Withall
Australian punk royalty (if that’s not too much of a contradiction) Hard-Ons have known Jerry A. Lang, the American lead singer of Portland legends Poison Idea, since they first toured together back in the late Eighties. Studio collaboration - ‘Hard-Ons/Jerry A’, releaesd 14th August 2026, brings together the feeling of the music that inspired them both with their own Continue Reading
Punk Interviews Punk News

Interview: The Damned head down under; we caught up with Rat Scabies & Paul Gray before next month’s shows!

By Phil Withall
Ahead of The Damned’s final, final tour of Australia I managed to catch up with drummer Rat Scabies on 31st July to talk creativity, pushing yourself and never stopping learning… I also caught up with bassist Paul Gray, a few days later on 3rd August, to talk about house moving, cats, tinnitus, sound, “over playing” and touring…Continue Reading
Punk News Reviews

EP review: Plastic Meat show off their Punk energy in ‘Losing It’

By Phil Withall
Madrid's Plastic Meat describe their style as "frenetic Punk loaded with high doses of Rock’n’roll in a formula which includes 1977’s vibes revisited with the high-energy sound of the current Aussie scene." They are indeed fine exponents of the short, fast, loud form of music, and their latest release, a six-song E.P called ‘Losing It’ conveys what they are about and Continue Reading
The Dead Krazukies main - photo by Alberto Scattolin
New Releases Punk News Reviews

Album review: The Dead Krazukies release 4th LP – ‘CIPHER’

By Phil Withall
Hailing from the southwestern French town of Hossegor, The Dead Krazukies are a band often described as being a skate punk outfit - a lazy catch-all that doesn’t really cover the variety in their music - and with the release of their fourth album, ‘CIPHER’, prove this perfectly. This is an album of contrast, of reflection and heritage. Of both the music that influenced The Continue Reading
Sludgeworth main - photo by Tom Birch
New Releases Punk News Reviews

Album review: Sludgeworth return with first new LP in 35 years – ‘Second Time Around’

By Phil Withall
When Sludgeworth were formed in 1989, a side project from Chicago band Screeching Weasel, their pop punk sensibilities and infectious rhythms seemed to announce a band that had a bright future ahead of them. However, after just one album, 1991’s ‘What’s This?’ they split up. 2022 saw them officially regroup, and their long awaited (and appropriately titled!) second album Continue Reading
New Releases Punk News Reviews

EP review: Belgian HC band Caught Up drop debut ‘The End Begins’

By Phil Withall
Belgian Hardcore punks Caught Up are about to release their debut six track EP, ‘The End Begins’. Caught Up like to mix things up, there is no need for restrictions or restraint, they have enough confidence in both themselves and their audience to add something different. There’s a feeling of a band that wants to push themselves, that aren’t prepared to be confined by Continue Reading