1st up Eagle Spits spat poetry for 15 minutes and left.

Next up - Lowlife UK.  Played a 30 minute set of No Nonsense CockSparrer inspired punk rock, which at times flirted with Motorhead and ACDC. The vocalist at one point echoes the feelings of many of us when he attacks some egos in the punk scene in the song ‘You call it punk, I call it shit’". Mr James Pursey gets blasted by these blokes and sometimes I also feel it might be nice if another wave of dinosaurs got wiped out. However, there is very little venom in this band, but loads of good humour, excellent tuneage and a bad dress sense. It was obvious that they love playing Punk Rock and they play it very well. With song titles which include ‘Ugly And Proud’, Gimme Some More’ and ‘Oil And Sand’ it is obvious that there is an element of political concern amongst all the fun. Just as it should be! Yup! Punk and Chips from Bradford.

On Next another band with UK in the name. ‘Ooo Ooo it's my first time’ for seeing Obnoxious UK, who were a lot less obnoxious than I expected. Elements of Punk and Roll, Horror Punk, Punk and The Clash (sorry for all the sub genre labels - I hate labels, but they used to make things easier in the days of record shops. Tonight was a night of high quality punk bands and Obnoxious UK were no exception.  During the set they veered off the normal generic punk track on many occasions. I got the sense that there was an element of 1960's Rock and Roll swagger to the band and at other times they reminded me of my favourite No future band Attak. There was lots of dark humour to the band as evidenced in the song title ‘Cadava Doll’. They finished their set with a track called ‘Amelia’, which sounded nothing like The Mission's song of the same name but instead sounded more like The Clash, which pleased this Clash addict down to the ground.

Next to take to the stage were - End of History?  Full steam ahead hardcore punk from Nottingham. Think Poison Idea, Black Flag combined with some UK hardcore bands and you'll get the picture. I like my music hard on occasion and this was one of those occasions. There was some great banter between audience and the band. The band offered to play ‘Bite It You Scum’ by GG Allin if a member of the audience knew the words. Thankfully I kept quiet. So assertive politics and the noise harsh, abrasive and tight and a song about waking up covered in bites and bruises. My thirst for hardcore was sated.  A great set by a great band.
 
Asbo Peepshow are quickly becoming one of my favourite live bands on the underground scene these days. I first saw them a few months ago at Nottingham Punk festival and since then they have sent me a copy of their EP, which has my lady and I singing at the top of our voices in the car – ‘BROWN LINE-BULWELL’.  Although they didn't play that song tonight they did please us by playing it in the sound check. Solid punk rock with the humour of sloppy seconds and song quality akin to early Stiff Little Fingers. They kick off with a song entitled ‘Face Like Thunder’ and do half an hour of classic punk rock. The band have a great sense of humour, which is very much in evidence in their song ‘Taking The Michael’, where the names of famous Michael's are chanted in an almost Oi fashion; pure class.

Eagle Spits went on to do some more spitting, generally about Atos, multinationals and snogging your grandmother. You know the type of thing.

Dirt Box Disco, take the stage in their normal fancy dress attire. Not usually ones to kiss arse, least of all the arse of a scary, large camp clown, singing a medley of Boney M songs, but DirtBox Disco were great.  DirtBox Disco sit somewhere between The Wild Hearts, The Sweet, Splodgenessabounds and The Misfits. After the phantom flan flinger has done his business, the kind of Punk Rock before Punk Rock became formalised, with song titles ‘I Don't Wanna Go Out With You’ and "I Just Wanna Be A Girl’. Seriously fun Punk, Rock and Roll. Possibly the disturbing offspring of Toy Dolls and The Plasmatics. The crowd could not get enough and for an underground punk gig these days the turn out was good. Throw in some friendly banter with the girls from STP records and a pissed ageing punk rocker, who decided to try and put his denim jacket on upside down, to uproars of laughter and you have a great night out.

The Venue was excellent, Great to see Chiz from Septic Psychos, Danny from Worm and Johnny March from Feeb and Electric Shite Orchestra out on the town, supporting other talent. Lenny did everyone proud, and with bargains to be had from Stu Taylor this is one happy guy.

review by Gary Eagling (28 September 2012)