CHELSEA + RONG’UNS – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 8.4.22
No I’m not talking football, but punk rock music! The band Chelsea announced seven concert performances this year, one of those being tonight at The Prince Albert in Brighton.
It was in August 1976 that Gene October (real name John O’Hara) placed an advert in Melody Maker which led to replies from guitarist William Broad (that’s Billy Idol to us), bassist Tony James (as in Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik fame) and drummer John Towe. On October 18th they made their live debut as Chelsea supporting Throbbing Gristle at London’s ICA. It was at this time that Gene convinced the manager of gay London nightclub in Covent Garden called Shageramas, to convert the club into London’s first live punk rock venue called The Roxy – a fact for which he is given little credit.
They went on to record sessions for the John Peel show and Chelsea frontman Gene also starred alongside my beloved partner Jordan Mooney (RIP), as well as Adam Ant, Toyah and Siouxsie Sioux in Derek Jarman’s ‘Jubilee’ film.
Wind the clock forward to 2016 and Chelsea’s Iggy Pop/Jagger-esque frontman Gene October celebrated a 40th anniversary tour and the release of the entire Chelsea back catalogue of albums in the ‘Chelsea definitive anthology’ volumes 1,2 & 3. Each volume includes three albums chronologically with a history of the band through the years. The album re-releases include lyrics, bonus tracks, demos and unreleased tracks never heard before. ‘Traitors Gate’ was finally released on collectors’ clear vinyl, ‘The Alternative’ on red vinyl and ‘Faster Cheaper Better Looking’ on white vinyl.
2017 arrived and in my opinion, Chelsea released their best ever album, in the form of a 15 track masterpiece entitled ‘Mission Impossible’. The new tuneful punk album drew inevitable comparisons to the UK Subs and the Buzzcocks and yet it’s typical Chelsea style.
2021 saw the band release the latest long player in the form of ‘Meanwhile Gardens’. It’s rather refreshing to hear an album of new material from a band that has been on the scene for over 45 years!
This evening at ‘The Albert’ the quintet took to the stage at 9:45pm and performed for an hour and four minutes and played 18 numbers, 17 of which were culled from their 1978-1982 heyday, the remainder being the title song from their new platter ‘Meanwhile Gardens’, which you can snap up on blue vinyl HERE. Sadly all tunes from their excellent previous album ‘Mission Impossible’ had been dropped for this tour.
I immediately noted the change of guitarist in their ranks. It seems that Rob Miller is back in the band with his Les Paul guitar, having last been seen with them in the 1990’s. Tonight is his second gig back with the guys. Steve Grainger is still behind the drumkit (as he also does for The DeRellas), Mat Sargent (on Fender bass) is still sporting the Sid Vicious look, Nic Austin’s mohican is showing no signs of disappearing and neither is his Gibson guitar, and ever present founder member Gene is master of ceremonies – as in “Did you like that one? Then you’re gonna love this one!”.
The first nine cuts are culled from their ‘Evacuate’ album which today has been released as ‘Evacuate Revisited’, which Gene informs us is the ‘Evacuate’ album done live with extra tracks. Gene is on lead vocals all night, except for song three which is ‘Cover Up’ and Nic Austin takes over the reins, having been promoted from backing vocals with Mat..
As usual, tonight is a tight set from the band and the first tune from another album is ‘Urban Kids’, which can be located on the 1980 ‘Alternative Hits’ compilation album. This starts off with Steve showing us his prowess with fantastic drumming which reminded me of the early glam rock days and mid song Nic complimented this with some decent guitar shaking to give us that wobbling sound.
Newbie ‘Meanwhile Gardens’ was up next; it’s the title track of the latest album and Gene had the lyrics written on a piece of paper that he could dip into just in case – no errors spotted!
‘No One’s Coming Outside’ was one of the highlights of the set with its decent guitar break from Rob and Nic, which reminded me of the Skids. The penultimate number was ‘No Admission’, which Gene recounted the time back in the day when he penned the tune as a direct result of his dire living conditions under the arches in Charing Cross and on park benches when he was only 16 and 17 years old.
Obviously Chelsea concluded their set with the ‘Right To Work’ anthem which always gets a mosh going, although it was noted that certain local punk characters came bursting through the door at 10:30pm, which left only 19 minutes of the set to go and thus they started the mosh of the night. Clearly, these had previously been at the Steve Ignorant plays Crass songs night down at the Concorde 2. You will be able to also read our review of that gig in the next day or so.
Chelsea are:
Gene October – vocals
Nic Austin – guitar
Mat Sargent – bass
Steve Grainger – drums
Rob Miller – guitar
Chelsea setlist:
‘Evacuate’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘How Do You Know’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘Cover Up’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘Looks Right’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘War Across The Nation’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘Forty People’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘Running Free’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘Last Drink’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘Only Thinking’ (from 1982 ‘Evacuate’ album)
‘Urban Kids’ (from 1980 ‘Alternative Hits’ compilation album)
‘Meanwhile Gardens’ (from 2021 ‘Meanwhile Gardens’ album)
‘Come On’ (from 1980 ‘Alternative Hits’ compilation album)
‘No Flowers’ (from 1980 ‘Alternative Hits’ compilation album)
‘I’m On Fire’ (from 1979 ‘Chelsea’ album)
‘No One’s Coming Outside’ (from 1980 ‘Alternative Hits’ compilation album)
‘The Loner’ (from 1980 ‘Alternative Hits’ compilation album)
‘No Admission’ (from 1980 ‘Alternative Hits’ compilation CD version)
‘Right To Work’ (from 1980 ‘Alternative Hits’ compilation album)
Support this evening came from a trio going by the name of the Rong’uns, who formed in 1997. After a couple of lineup changes over the next 18 months, the band eventually ended up as a three piece band. Then in 2017 to mark the 20 anniversary of the band forming they guys got it back together again.
The trio in front of us tonight are Robber Byker (on bass) from the Gaye Bykers On Acid – who incidentally the Brighton & Hove News Music Team reviewed last November, read our account HERE – Colin Bennett on lead vocals and Gretsch Electromatic guitar, and Gary on drums.
Colin introduced the band after taking to the stage at 8:29pm and the trio played 11 tracks in their 33 minute timeslot. Nine of these were original compositions and the other two were covers.
This chipper trio are Leicester based, but now Robber lives in Brighton. I would suggest that half of their tunes musically reside in the fast wave ‘82 punk sound that included the likes of GBH, but without the venomous spurting vocal delivery, and the other half were more traditional ‘the sound of 1977’.
The standout track of their set was most definitely ‘Johnny Boy’ which came in at number four and sounds not unlike Peter And The Test Tube Babies. The first of their two covers was the Dead Boys classic ‘Sonic Reducer’ which was very well received by the punters, as was the other cover (and final number) ‘Cranked Up Really High’ which was originally penned by Slaughter & The Dogs. At 9:02pm they were done and I would anticipate another Brighton gig some time later in the year – fingers crossed!
Rong’uns are:
Robber Byker – bass
Colin Bennett – guitar/vocals
Gary – drums
Rong’uns setlist:
‘Intro’
‘Social Control’
‘Bad Advice’
‘Johnny Boy’
‘Trapped’
‘Cold Sweat’
‘Sonic Reducer’ (Dead Boys cover)
‘Growing Old Disgracefully’
‘I Must Have P*ssed Off God’
‘Same Old Songs’
‘Cranked Up Really High’ (Slaughter & The Dogs cover)
The Rong’uns are on Facebook.
