Words: Steve White & AJ Phink. Photography: Steve White.
The Great British Alternative Music Festival. Three days and
nights of live indie, punk, post punk with a smattering of mod and ska thrown
in for good measure. A festival with a bit more comfort than most. No tents in
muddy fields here. This is Butlins, Skegness. Comfortable chalets ranging from
the basic containing just bedroom and bathroom the luxury with lounge,
kitchen complete with complimentary tea, coffee, crisps and even a couple of
small bottles of red and white wine,TVs, bathrooms with towels and
complimentary toiletries. All chalets within a 10 minute walk of the venues and
the venues all indoors. It’s adults only – good because it means there’s no
kids wandering around with no interest in the music at all, not good because
there are 14/15/16/17 year olds around who love music that’s not straight out
of X-Factor and who would love the opportunity to see so many quality bands in
such a short space of time. Almost 4000 people brought together by a mutual
love of music from bands who refuse to conform to what the mainstream wants.
Whilst punk has its various fashions – there’s plenty of extreme mohicans, died
hair, leather jackets, and ripped T-shirt’s it’s attitude that joins people
together here and because of this there is never any bother. People aren’t here
to outdo each other. They’re here to meet with, drink with and listen to bands
with like minded people.
As for the bands. Three stages. The Introducing Stage kicks
off at 4pm each day and, in theory, introduces people to bands they haven’t
heard of before. In actual fact a load of these bands are well known, have been
going for years and have a dedicated following. This year saw Pete Bentham and The Dinner Ladies, Drongos For Europe, Witchdoktors, Desperate Measures – none of whom are ‘new’ kick out a range of hardcore
punk, psycho garage punk, socially aware stripped back poppy punk and guitar
drenched post punk. Desperate Measures
formed in 1982! The Lengthmen, The Reletics, Delinquents, Blue Carpet Band and others reinforce
the fact that punk/post punk/grungy rock n roll is not only not dead it’s alive
and well and here to stay. Introducing Stage bands receive votes from the
audience in the form of tokens and the winner from each day returns next year
to open the main stage. No disrespect to the winners, they were all brilliant, but
it’s a system that’s open to abuse and should be changed. Whatever, it’s great
exposure for all the bands with many saying they’d booked more gigs on the back
of this weekend and sold a load of merch.
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| Witchdoktors |
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| Blue Carpet Band |
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| Bus Station Loonies |
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| Delinquents |
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| Desperate Measures |
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| Pete Bentham & The Dinner Ladies |
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| The Relitics |
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| Verbal Warning |
The two main stages are a showcase of bands that reinforce your
faith in music. Bands from ‘back then’ still have the attitude, aggression,
passion and raw power that make you realise it’s still important to kick back
against a lot of the attitudes many try to force upon us nowadays. Sham 69, UK Subs, The Rezillos, The Boomtown Rats, Eddie & The Hot Rods, The
Blockheads, Spear of Destiny, The Professionals and New Model Army all played superb sets
that didn’t rely on regurgitating old songs but included, in the majority of
cases, songs released much more recently. Bad
Manners injected a real party atmosphere and kept people dancing until the
early hours. Newer bands No Thrills,
Hands Off Gretel and, love them or
loathe them, Hung Like Hanratty
prove beyond doubt that there’s more to music than the chart fodder too many
people buy into nowadays. There’s still anger, there’s still social commentary
and, with Dirt Box Disco there’s
also a lot of fun.
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| Anti-Nowhere League |
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| Bad Manners |
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| Blockheads |
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| The Boomtown Rats |
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| The Boomtown Rats |
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| Dirt Box Disco |
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| Ed Tudor Pole |
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| Eddie & The Hot Rods |
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| GBH |
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| Hands Off Gretel |
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| Hands Off Gretel |
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| Hung Like Hanratty |
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| New Model Army |
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| New Model Army |
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| No Thrills |
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| The Rezillos |
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| The Rezillos |
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| Sham 69 |
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| Sham 69 |
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| Spear Of Destiny |
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| The Professionals |
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| The Professionals |
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| UK Subs |
Should you wish you could watch some of every band that
plays. There are clashes but unless a venue is full, in which case it’s one in
one out, you can wander freely between the two main stages. It’s less than a two minute walk between them.
We had every intention of doing just this but sometimes a band will hook you in
so much you don’t want to leave. This year it was The Rezillos (so missed Flight
Brigade), Spear Of Destiny (I missed
The Lambrettas) and New Model Army (missed all but one song
of Angelic Upstarts).
As well as plenty of bars selling reasonably priced drinks
there’s slot machines, on site swimming pool, coffee bar, supermarket – you can
take your own alcohol to the Introducing Stage, chip shop, restaurants, clothes
stores, record stores and, of course, the beach where a walk can clear the
morning hangover.
Well organised with almost 40 bands over the three days,
decent accommodation, friendly, efficient staff and a price tag hovering around
£120 if you choose the basic package there really is nothing to complain about.
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