Guildford rocked and skanked to bring in the Spring with Undercover Festival XII - Ruth Rae reports on all the action..
Returning to Suburbs at The Holroyd, Guildford from 5th to 7th April for its twelfth consecutive outing, Undercover Festival brought a fantastic variety of alternative music to the town over jam-packed three days!
Punktuation’s Ruth Rae was present throughout to capture the atmosphere of this friendly festival, where both fans and bands all enjoy great music together in the pit and over a pint or two!
Following on, Punk band Matty G & Li’l Winter who had travelled from the wilds of King’s Lynn, Norfolk to be with us. A band of two rappers / singers, plus guitar, bass and drums, their tongue-in-cheek lyrics had us all grinning from ear to ear. Their song ‘Beer’ – about beer, oddly enough! – very much appealed to the crowd with its melodic guitar lines which morphed into a Ska beat. They weren’t afraid to get political either – ‘Brexit’ being a serious diatribe about the disaster this has been for the UK.
Taking us into mid afternoon were The Shakespearos, a New Wave covers band featuring Steve Smith (Vapors bassist) and Beautiful People members Du Kane and David Maskrey with Nick Horton on drums. These Guildford boys treated us to a fine selection of songs including Buzzcocks‘ ‘Ever Fallen in Love‘, Gen X’s ‘Dancing With Myself‘ and this Sex Pistols classic:
The irrepressible Max Splodge was up next with Splodgenessabounds. Playing their classic set including ‘My Socks Gone Down My Shoe‘ and ‘I Fell in Love with a Female Plumber from Harlesden NW10‘ which Max introduced as “The best song off our album from 47 years ago, which shows how shit the album was!” The comedy continued as he tangled his mic cable thoroughly around the stand, tipping it over, then bashing the guitarist with the end as he picked the stand up again.. Fortunately it’s easy to get your ‘Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps‘ at the Holroyd’s bar!
The evening’s Ska entertainment kicked off with New Tonic, a band formed from the ashes of naughties skangsters 2Tonic. My dancing shoes were put to good use as their cheerful set of tunes had all of us on the dance floor skanking along! Covers such as ‘Johnny Too Bad‘ interspersed with their own great material made for an uplifting early evening – these guys are well worth seeing!
Arriving only just in time, Paranoid Visions (who I last saw at Rebellion Festival with TV Smith, replaying hits from TV’s old band Cheap!) travelled all the way from Dublin to play at Undercover Festival this year. Their set was an interesting blend of old school Irish rebel Punk given a modern twist with background electronics. Powerhouse drummer Jay Bagnall was particularly good, throwing out colourful flourishes while making it look easy!
Tonight was one of the last opportunities to see The Trojan Beats, before its members disband to focus on their other projects. Of course I needed the dancing shoes again for their brilliant selection of Ska covers, all done exceptionally well! The good news is that singer Aaron ‘Twotone Malone’ Beard joined by several members of the band will be performing in their new band The Malones at live venues across the country soon. Ska-tastic!
Dirt Box Disco brought us back to Punk with a bang, these guys have to be seen to be appreciated with their crazy costumes and hilarious songs! Taking inspiration from strange dreams and even stranger people, this Alternative Punk band don’t take themselves too seriously, yet have an astonishing musical output. It’s easy to see why they are Rebellion favourites!
The always outstanding Menace finished the evening in grand style, the late finish no deterrent to the Punk faithful who wasted no time in getting a mosh pit going! Noel Martin‘s voice gets better and better (see the video below for new song ‘Death and Taxes‘) and the brand new songs in their set blended perfectly with the older ones. Our traditional stage invasion by we Menace Party Animals for riotous group renditions of ‘GLC‘ and ‘Last Years Youth‘ topped off another fantastic day of live music at Undercover Festival!
The hardy souls who partied on into the small hours were bolstered by a fine selection of tunes from DJ Jerry Lunn‘s extensive vinyl library. I headed out into the night, heart still singing!
Main Photo – Menace ‘Party Animals on stage’ Credit: RUTH RAE
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Usually found jumping around down the front at gigs, I also relish taking photos and videos, singing, speaking with fellow music fans, and asking musicians the questions nobody else does. Writing about my favourite bands and connecting with people who love music too keeps me more-or-less sane! I’ve worked for over 25 years at a video production company, mainly filming live music events, therefore I have an additional backstage perspective on the scene.
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