THE DERELLAS + SCARE TAXI – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 2.12.21
I had been looking forward to this gig for a while, having originally witnessed The DeRellas supporting the UK Subs in Lewes a couple of years ago. This time around they are the headline act at The Prince Albert with a relatively new change of personnel.
The current lineup features Timmy DeRella (bass, lead vocals), Luca DeRella (lead guitar, backing vocals), Marky T (guitar) and Steve Grainger (drums).
Nat King Cole ‘Let’s Face The Music’ was suddenly blasted out of The Prince Albert soundsystem and this was the signal for the guys to take to the stage. In true flamboyant glam punk style The DeRellas were off at 9:43pm with the first of 15 tunes with ‘Strung Out Sin City’ which can be found on their jolly decent 10” vinyl mini-album from 2016. This was the only tune from that release that they performed this evening. It was very much all about the brand new album ‘Something’s Got To Give’, of which we were treated to no less than ten of its 12 tracks.
As there are so many concerts taking place right now due to the covid backlog from rescheduled concerts as well as the newly booked ones, Sussex concert goers are now often faced with a dilemma as to which gigs to attend on certain nights due to them clashing. This was the case in point this evening, as I was mighty tempted to head off to Lewes to see the Cockney Rejects in action, but as I am unable to clone myself, The DeRellas won the day. Clearly, some of the other local punky types had decided to head off to Lewes as many of the usual faithful were not in attendance this evening, and thus I strongly suspect that neither event was at full capacity.
The Prince Albert overhead lighting has been bugging me for the last couple of years, as they have simply had solid red lighting that burns out a majority of photos taken. However this evening I was rather pleased to note that this has been replaced by eight circular lights which give out red, blue and green light at the same time, which combined gave out the desired effect – it was much brighter.
During their set, Timmy was in charge of his left handed bass, Luca (who incidentally is also a member of Spizzenergi when they go on tour) was using his Gibson guitar, Marky T was also on a Gibson and Steve was sitting behind the Gretsch drums. Their combined sound is arguably proto punk, so think Dead Boys meets Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers meets the Chris Spedding’s version of the early Sex Pistols recordings and you are about there.
This was my first time witnessing Timmy stepping up to the mark on lead vocals and to be honest, I always thought he should have been there anyway. It has made him a more serious prospect as opposed to a Sid Vicious clone. It’s like he has suddenly taken on this whole new persona, which is captivating and real fun.
After a couple more tunes, they were onto ‘Emergency 2020’, which certainly (to me) had serious nods to The Stooges meets the rawest Rolling Stones meets 999. The following number ‘Freakshow’ from 2010’s ‘Hollywood Monsters’ album was however the best so far and was about as raw as you can get, whilst still keeping the sound as a tight unit. Clearly these lads can’t arf play a tune or three!
‘Highrise Supersize’ from the new platter was great and ‘Underground LUV’ was announced as being the next single and that reminded me of Johnny Rotten’s line “Goodbye A & M” (from ‘EMI’). Funnily enough, the next number ‘Soho Hotel’ also reminded me of it.
‘Stick It To The Man’, found on the 2014 ‘Slam! Bam!’ album has a really glam rock drumming intro, which leads into a decent proto punk late glam rock sound. This was arguably a highlight of their whole set and an easy anthem. ‘Looking For You’ was their penultimate tune this evening and Timmy informed us that it was their very first single. The finale was the bass led ‘Night Time’, which certainly mimicked the riff from ‘No Love Lost’ by Joy Division. Indeed, there were so many familiar riffs from the lads this evening. Their 56 minute set concluded at 10:39pm.
The DeRellas have already been confirmed as one of the punk acts that are appearing at the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool from 4th to 7th August 2022. Ticket options for this premier punk rock music festival can be found HERE.
The DeRellas setlist:
‘Strung Out Sin City’ (from 2016 ‘Freakshow’ mini album)
‘Inner City Rock’n’Roll’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Don’t Tell Me What I did Last Night’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Emergency 2020’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Freakshow’ (from 2010 ‘Hollywood Monsters’ album)
‘Sweet Fatal Attraction’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Highrise Supersize’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Our World Tomorrow’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Underground LUV’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Soho Hotel’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Pressure Gonna Get Ya’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Sonic Detonator’ (from 2021 ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album)
‘Stick It To The Man’ (from 2014 ‘Slam! Bam!’ album)
‘Looking For You’ (from 2010 ‘Hollywood Monsters’ album)
‘Night Time’ (unreleased)
Find The DeRellas tunes on Bandcamp and further data can be located at www.derellas.com
Support this evening came from the trash rock-punk-pop duo Scare Taxi who debuted at The Wedding Present’s 2017 ‘Edge of the Sea Festival’ and have since played with Electric Six, Membranes, Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind, S*M*A*S*H, Art Brut, Ed Borrie, The DeRellas and The Ramonas, taking in festivals and the legendary Hope & Anchor along the way.
Scare Taxi can be found parked up in Brighton hoovering up the multifarious styles and ideologies of Brighton’s culture and fermenting this with their former eclectic gene pool to create a sound that only a drummer morphed to machine could keep up with.
Following the release of their debut album at the beginning of 2020 and looking forward to a tour in foreign climes, the P word hit and the world stopped! So here Scare Taxi stands with an altered course, a reshaped vision, with no politics or hidden agendas, just energy, hooks & a desire to keep live music alive!
Their debut album ‘Death By Music’ is available everywhere with a follow up long player planned for 2022.
Boag was the former frontman of 1990’s chart band ‘These Animal Men’, who in their time secured three Top 100 albums and five Top 100 singles. It’s no wonder then that spikey-haired, Johnnie Fingers (Boomtown Rats) style clad Boag certainly knows how to throw a pose or twelve, which he did throughout tonight’s ten track set. Boag regularly shares vocal duty tonight with captivating bassist Tara ‘Guitara‘ Harley, who offers varying facial expressions, whilst singing.
When I have previously witnessed the band performing live, they regularly called on the services of a live drummer, but these days they have trimmed down to just a duo. The drums now come to us courtesy of a Roland Boss FS-5U Unlatched Foot Switch on the floor which led to a thumb drive at the side of the stage which plays the drums in CD quality.
Their 37 minute set commenced at 8:47pm and the duo were smartly clad in black, with Boag on guitar and Tara on bass. They share lead vocal and backing vocal duty. The first half of the set was from their consistently good debut album ‘Death By Music’ which was unleashed to an unsuspecting world last year. The second half of the set was all new material that should hopefully arrive with album number two.
Highlights from their set was ‘Kickin’ Down Doors’ which has a slight ‘53rd & 3rd’ Ramones feel about it. ‘Great Things On My Mind’ and ‘Fly’ were also good. The new material stood up well as compared with the older material, so no drop in form (or poses) then. They concluded at 9:24pm.
Scare Taxi setlist:
‘If It Bothers You?’
‘Kickin’ Down Doors’
‘For Our Sisters For Our Brothers’
‘Anna’
‘Great Things On My Mind’
‘Fly’
‘El Lobo Solitario’
‘After Wed’
‘Personality Junkyard’
‘Senseless’
Listen to them HERE and also on Bandcamp and more info can be located HERE.
