You can’t help but bounce around to the infectious sound!
The Butler in Reading, UK is fast becoming a go-to venue for the local punk scene. Its unique feel is ideal for close quarters gig action. Along with the Facebar down the road, Chatham Street is Reading’s haven for grass roots music.
Tonight, it’s the turn of two veteran bands and Rebellion Festival favourites, Rage DC and The DeRellas to walk the boards at The Butler. I’ve fond memories of the last time I saw both bands play together as it was the first proper gig we went to post lockdown (at the sorely missed Bracknell Acoustic Couch). Seeing proper live music (and not being forced to be distanced or sit at tables) after eighteen months was a life-affirming experience – and a good opportunity to catch up with friends!
But first we have Hell Toupee, a punk and new wave covers band from Reading. For a punk covers band, there is a surprisingly wide selection of songs with a couple of lesser played choice cuts between the usual suspects. The Vapors’ ‘News at Ten’, The Undertones’ ‘You Got My Number’ and Dead Kennedys’ ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ rub shoulders with The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ and Ramones’ ‘Sheena is a Punk Rocker’.
Rage DC have a history going back nearly thirty years and their heavy street punk anthems have remained resolute throughout. The Bracknell based band are not breaking any boundaries with their aggro infused punk rock, but they do it very well. Songs like ‘Too Many Rules’, ‘Fuck the Man’ and ‘Austerity’ are exactly as you would imagine, short blasts of sledgehammer rhythms augmented by scratchy guitars and terrace chants.
(‘Austerity‘ video from the previous week in Guildford):
Lead singer & guitarist Simon ‘Loric’ Harwood has lost little of his edge over the years whilst guitarist Graham Pegler is having a whale of a time as he throws all sorts of rock posturing into the mix. On bass, Chris Surtees’ boundless energy sees him leaping in the air throughout the set like a crazed Zebedee on speed. Joe Daniel Smith has settled in nicely on drums providing a relentless backbeat to the whole shebang. The band race through their set so quickly that after thirty-five minutes they were almost done, only to be reminded they had an hour to fill. Not an issue and the adrenaline-fueled trio of ‘Normal’, ‘Had Enough’ and ‘R.I.P. Mr V.I.P’ finished a very enjoyable set.
The DeRellas have had a number of singers over the years, but now that bassist and founder Timmy DeRella has taken over lead vocal duties, the band find themselves able to concentrate on making sleazy punk rock of the highest order.
In the vaudevillian Timmy DeRella, the band have one of the more recognisable figures on the south’s punk scene, and the man behind the brilliant monthly Rockaway Beach at Islington’s Hope and Anchor. Like a punk rock Tommy Trinder, the ever-enigmatic Timmy’s guttural roar sounds like Stiv Bators at his most debauched.
Despite a lingering bout of illness that led several gigs being postponed earlier in the month, the band open with all cylinders firing. ‘This is Going to Hurt’ is an epic opener and sets the scene with its scuzzy guitar riffs and memorable chorus. ‘Fake It ‘Til You Make It’ and old favourite ‘Freakshow’ maintain the pace with equally hummable tunes. ‘Pressure Gonna Get Ya’ allows Luca Comencini and Jez Miller to give their guitars a good workout.
(‘This is Going to Hurt’ and ‘Fake It ‘Til You Make It’ video from three weeks ago in Brighton)
The excellent ‘Trust Me This Is Going To Hurt’ is in my Top 10 albums of the year and gets a good outing tonight. Opening track ‘Just Because I Smile, It Doesn’t Mean I Like You’ is a shoe-in for best song title of the year and is closely followed by the ‘Loveless Landslide of Love’ with its echoes of seventies’ Alice Cooper.
‘High Rise Superstar’ is a live favourite, and doesn’t disappoint as drummer Steve Grainger maintains the frenetic pace, whilst the faithful join in with the chorus. ‘Empire Vultures’ starts off like the theme tune to a 1980’s US sitcom before moving into more familiar territory.
It all comes to an end too soon on the exhilarating ‘Night Time’ as the band channel Iggy and the Stooges before Timmy mutates the song into Iggy’s ‘I’m Bored’. Magnificent.
The band may have been not fully match fit, but with tunes as good as these, you can’t help but bounce around to the infectious sound of The DeRellas!
Get your copy of The DeRellas’ most excellent latest album ‘Trust Me This Is Going To Hurt‘ from HERE
Main Photo Credit /All Photos: IAN LADLOW
All Live Videos: ALTEREDNATIVES
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My first gig was The Damned at Hull City Hall a few days after my 16th birthday way back in the mid-eighties. 800 gigs and 1,700 bands later, my love of live music remains undiminished – the thrill of discovering a new band is still one of life’s greatest experiences. My musical tastes cover a wide spectrum, but punk and goth still dominate my listening habits.
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