On 28 May 2026, London punk legends Brigandage, joined by Dutch punk veterans Rubber Gun, put on a great show in Arnhem!
In 1976, at the first punk festival in the UK at the 100 Club in London, there were three people at the front of the queue. They were Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin; and sixteen-year-old Michelle Archer was the third one.
The bands playing there, like The Clash and the Sex Pistols, (contrary to the dinosaur stadium rock establishment) encouraged audience members to start bands of their own. Siouxsie and Steven had already done so, playing their first gig as The Banshees at that festival.
Michelle wanted to do so as well, but it wasn’t until 1981 that she could start her band – Brigandage. This 26 December 1982 concert announcement shows Brigandage opening for the Sex Gang Children and others at the London Lyceum:
After a hiatus, in 2024 Michelle restarted the band.
Now, refounded Brigandage consists of: Michelle Brigandage, vocals. On guitar, Carl Evans, formerly of The Chefs and Yip Yip Coyote. Terry Macleay, co-founder of the Sex Gang Children and then their guitarist, is now Brigandage’s bassist. The name “Sex Gang Children” was taken by Malcolm McLaren from a William Burroughs novel as a possible band name. Alan McCulloch plays drums.
On this 28-30th May Brigandage tour of the Netherlands, they played with Dutch punk rockers Rubber Gun. Like Brigandage, Rubber Gun was founded in the 1980s, and they have been Michelle’s friends for decades. After Arnhem, they played in Nijmegen and Wageningen.
Before the Arnhem show, the bands warmly welcomed your Punktuation team. Michelle told us that she regretted never having seen the Lou’s play. She had gone to see the 1977 Mont-de-Marsan punk festival in France, where the Damned, the Clash, the Lou’s and others played. But she had travelled with people who didn’t know where Mont-de-Marsan was, so Michelle missed the festival. “The Lou’s in 1978 toured Italy with Penetration …” Michelle: “Yes, another great band!”
Michelle had long, sharp, blood-red fingernails. She discussed hair colours with fellow 1976 punk girl, Punktuation photographer Terry, who helped her with lipstick.
The small hall of venue Willemeen, making the audience compact, reminiscent of the London Roxy in 1977, though a bit bigger, inspired the bands and the audience.
Rubber Gun was founded in Zutphen, and was originally active from 1987 to 1989. They played a lot in Germany. Their singer, Susanne, told me that their then-bassist was addicted to drugs and died in prison.
The Rubber Gun singer said that in September 2025, Michelle contacted her: Brigandage want to play in the Netherlands, can they play with your band? This meant that Susanne had to gather a new line-up. It is: vocals Susanne Bagaya (who is also a jewellery maker – including this Anarchy pendant in brass):
On drums, is her cousin Joeri Bagaya. On bass, Luutzen Pen, and on guitar, Bob van Veldhuizen. They played their first concert as a refounded band in May 2026 at a festival in Zutphen. The Arnhem gig was their second gig, and their third and fourth ones were also with Brigandage in Nijmegen and Wageningen.
Rubber Gun preceded their set with a tape of a fragment of classical music. Like Siouxsie and the Banshees, who sometimes started with a bit of ‘The Rite Of Spring‘ by Stravinsky, it worked. Then they started to play, and Susanne started to sing in a T-shirt designed by Michelle.
From the first Rubber Gun song to the last one, the audience massively danced and applauded. Susanne announced that their second song, ‘Stepford Wife‘, is about being against the oppression of women, “so, really needed now”. Its title is from the novel and film The Stepford Wives, in which, based on a misogynist ideology, creative thinking women are murdered and replaced by robotic tradwives.
The third song, ‘Said and Done‘ is about cover bands. Rubber Gun write their own songs. As Susanne remarked, “better than cover bands”. The last song of their regular set was their only cover, ‘Teenage Kicks‘, originally by The Undertones.
But the audience wanted an encore. Susanne: “Which of our ten songs should we play again? Terry [in the front row of the audience], which one do you choose?” Terry chose ‘Don’t Like That‘, and the band played it to enthusiastic reactions.
Then, to much applause, Brigandage came on stage. Michelle wore a ‘Chaos’ badge, made by Susanne.
In the fifth song, ‘V W Babies‘, the abbreviation V W, unlike what car buffs may think, does not stand for Volkswagen, but for Vivienne Westwood.
Michelle wrote about it: “To Vivienne Westwood with love and thanks. Like many people on here, Vivienne’s death knocked me for six. Even though she was old, I thought she’d go on forever. What with losing Jordan it seems the warrior women of my youth have gone, leaving me crying for them, their families, but mainly for myself and that loss of youth. It was because of V W that I got the stupid idea to be a clothes designer instead of university…. It only took a couple of months to realize I was totally crap and had no idea. Well, the only idea I had was that I wanted to be her! So many years ago, I wrote a song as a thank-you love letter to Vivienne and had started to try and make a video to go with it to send to her, but in a world where perfect is the enemy of good, it never got done…but time waits for no woman and suddenly she was dead, gone forever, and it was too late. However, a lesson learnt is that in the world of creativity it paradoxically can be both too late and never too late, so I finally finished the video with a little help from my friends….”
Of course, after the ‘last’ song, the Arnhem audience wanted an encore. They got it, with everyone dancing to ‘Fragile‘.
Main Photo Credit / All Photos: TERRY
Live Videos: TERRY
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