A trio of UK punk bands got a warm welcome at Melkweg, The Netherlands!
Long ago, the Melkweg building in Amsterdam used to be a milk factory. Ever since the 1960s, it’s been a music venue. Many bands have played there, from Bikini Kill to the U.K. Subs.
On 14 May 2026, it was the turn of three punk bands from England: the Steve Ignorant Band and Headsticks, who together had played the Melkweg before, in 2022. And Hagar the Womb, for the first time, though they had wanted to play the Melkweg ever since 1981.
It was so great to see, really punky, that all three bands used the same bass drum with its Crass symbol, though they all had their own snare drums and cymbals. The bands also each had their own punk styles, making for a varied concert night.
The Melkweg was filled with an enthusiastic audience, ranging from people who had already been fans of Steve Ignorant’s first band Crass in the 1970s to teenagers and pre-teens.
First on stage were folk-punk band Headsticks, founded in 2012, from Stoke-on-Trent. The audience reacted enthusiastically to the Headsticks’ set, young people dancing frantically, older ones applauding.
Then came Hagar the Womb – Ruth Elias and Karen Penfold have been the band’s singers since its founding in 1980. Mitch Flacko became their bassist soon afterwards. More recent guitarist Lorna Tiefholz is also the singer/bassist of Rabies Babies. Paul Harding plays the other guitar. While Mike Howe is the drummer.
Hagar the Womb opened very successfully for Pussy Riot in Leuven, Belgium in 2022. This time, the ‘Hags’ enthused the punks present even more, with massive pogoing throughout their set. One of the attractions of a Hagar the Womb concert is the multi-vocals ‘chaos’, somewhat reminiscent of the Slits.
Like in Leuven, they kicked off with ‘Idolisation’, written in 1984. Then straight into Visible Woman, a relatively recent song. The audience greeted song number five, ‘Hated By The Daily Mail’, about the British conservative newspaper, like other songs, with frantic dancing.
At one point, Mitch was offstage, but he returned to applause. The photo by Hagar the Womb below shows the Melkweg audience after their set (with Terry, who took other photos in this report, second from left in the front row).
Catch Hagar the Womb live in the UK this year, including an apearance at Rebellion Festival:
Then, the headliners, the Steve Ignorant Band, came on stage.
They played several songs from the first Crass album ‘Feeding of the 5000’. Not all of the songs from that album: no ‘Asylum‘, the anti-religious authority track which in the 1970s brought trouble for the band with both a record pressing plant and with the police.
They did play songs from later than the first Crass LP, like ‘Bloody Revolutions‘.
When the band played in the Melkweg in 2022, Steve felt dog-tired from touring. Now, he felt much better, having more contact with the appreciative audience. Now, Steve sang ‘Securicor‘, to big applause. In 2022, Steve had left the singing of it to bassist Pete Rawlinson (originally, in Crass, their bassist Pete Wright sang this song; like ‘Sucks‘, now in 2026 also sung by Steve).
Carol Hodge played keyboard. She alternated lead vocals with Steve in the first song of the set ‘Heard Too Much About‘, and was powerful sole lead vocals on the songs underlined in the setlist, originally sung by Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre.
The second song was ‘Do They Owe Us a Living‘.
On this photo is Carol off stage, singing opposite Luciana Aguilar Facury. Carol walked back to the right side of the stage, see top photo, to get back on stage.
Steve remarked that ‘Fight War, not Wars‘ is still very topical in 2026. Everyone in the hall sang along. ‘Banned From The Roxy‘ was the last song of the official set. But, of course, the audience wanted an encore.
Steve sang as the final song ‘Do They Owe Us A Living‘ again, now a capella, sharing the singing with the audience. After the gig, Hagar the Womb guitarist Lorna, singer Ruth and others went back to the merch table.
Thank you so much Steve, all musicians on stage, Steve’s partner Jona and all others who made this possible, for a brilliant punky night!
There will be more Steve Ignorant concerts this year:
Main Photo Credit: TERRY
Follow Steve Ignorant on His Socials:
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In 1978 Herman co-founded Dutch Rock Against Racism and was a founder of Pin punkzine. He’s vocals/saxophone for Cheap ‘n’ Nasty and in 2021 co-founded the Punk Scholars Network, Netherlands.
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