THE RAMONAS – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 12.1.23
The Ramonas are certainly not strangers to the Brighton & Hove News Music Team as we have had the pleasure of seeing them live a number of times now…..and they never fail to deliver. They were back in Brighton tonight in order to ‘Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment’ by performing no less than 32 songs in just 67 minutes, which is astounding! One hopes that they don’t get RSI at this rate.
The Ramonas are as you would imagine an all-girl Ramones tribute act, but they also perform their own material too. They vary their sets and so some tours are their own material, whereas others are Ramones sets and this evening was mainly made up of the latter. Some of ye olde faithful might be thinking that this might not be a grand idea. Well, I will put your fears to rest straight away – just click HERE and enjoy.
It seems as though the Ramonas are forever gigging, just like the seminal US punk band the Ramones used to. In their time from their inception in Forest Hills, New York, in 1974, until their final concert in Los Angeles on 6th August 1996, The Ramones performed an astounding 2,263 concerts and I was proud to have witnessed around a dozen of them! It wasn’t all on the road either as they were prolific in the studio too and released 21 studio and live albums between 1976 and 1996.
The Ramonas have undergone an enforced lineup change over the past few months as drummer Camille has now joined high-spirited rock outfit The Subways, (who incidentally are set to play Chalk on Friday 3rd February along with Gaffa Tape Sandy and Catbear – Tickets HERE) and bassist Vicky is on maternity leave having recently given birth to an ickle babeee boy – CONGRATULATIONS! Thus tonight’s lineup features as always Scottish based Lisa on vocals, along with the Brighton based trio of Max on Mosrite (of California) guitar, new recruit Sadie on drums, and deputizing on Fender Jazz bass is Io.
The venue is almost full of mixed aged punters as the girls begin their blitzkrieg at 9:06pm with the ‘Durango 95’ instrumental as an intro, before launching straight into ‘Teenage Lobotomy’, ‘Rockaway Beach’ and ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. The longer they played for, the more animated the crowd became. ‘Glad To See You Go’, ‘Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment’, ‘Havana Affair’ and ‘Commando’ swiftly followed.
Next it was time for Lisa to use her baseball bat prop as they launched themselves into ‘Beat On The Brat’. ‘Pet Sematary’ for “Stephen King fans” followed. The tunes were arriving at breakneck speed with Sadie drumming the Duracell rabbit into oblivion, whilst Max’s hand was almost a blur as she plugged away at her guitar and indeed Io’s was very much the same, and Lisa’s vocals were going ten-to-the-dozen too.
Mid-set, Lisa comes out of her Joey Ramone character by dispensing with her sunglasses as the band perform four self-penned Ramonas compositions, commencing with ‘Consumed’, which we are told is about “the Scottish Government”. This was followed by ‘Filth’ which can like the previous number be found on their ‘Haphazard’ album. The subject matter of ‘Filth’ being about Lisa’s “pet hate” namely “littering”.
‘I Can’t Cope’, from the Ramonas 2017 ‘First World Problems’ album and ‘So Called This. So Called That’, from the Ramonas 2020 ‘I Want to Live in Outer Space’ album, completed the quartet of self-penned numbers. Cue sunglasses….1-2-3-4…………..and we are away with another 14 Ramones tunes, with the trio of Max, Io and Sadie on occasional backing vocals when required. The highlight of these for our photographer Cris was ‘Poison Heart’, but for yours truly it was ‘Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue’ which was played faster than the original…’Now I Wanna Take Some Speed’ morelike! The moshpit just went up a bigger shove or two!
The two-tune encore featured ‘We’re A Happy Family’ and the Motörhead composition ‘R.A.M.O.N.E.S’. It was 10:13pm and they were done for the night before heading off to Belgium to play some more gigs. As always it was a totally enjoyable experience, but the lack of any support band was poor. There are many decent local bands that, given time, could have stepped up to the plate and reaped the benefits of an almost full room.
Check out the Ramonas original material on their Bandcamp page HERE.
The Ramonas:
Lisa – vocals
Max – guitar
Io – bass
Sadie – drums
The Ramonas setlist:
‘Durango 95’ (original on 1984 ‘Too Tough To Die’ Ramones album)
‘Teenage Lobotomy’ (original on 1977 ‘Rocket To Russia’ Ramones album)
‘Rockaway Beach’ (original on 1977 ‘Rocket To Russia’ Ramones album)
‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘Glad To See You Go’ (original on 1977 ‘Leave Home’ Ramones album)
‘Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment’ (original on 1977 ‘Leave Home’ Ramones album)
‘Havana Affair’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘Commando’ (original on 1977 ‘Leave Home’ Ramones album)
‘Beat On The Brat’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘Pet Sematary’ (original on 1989 ‘Brain Drain’ Ramones album)
‘I Believe In Miracles’ (original on 1989 ‘Brain Drain’ Ramones album)
‘Chinese Rock’ (original on 1979 ‘End Of The Century’ Ramones album)
‘Consumed’ (found on Ramonas 2021 ‘Haphazard’ album)
‘Filth’ (found on Ramonas 2021 ‘Haphazard’ album)
‘I Can’t Cope’ (found on Ramonas 2017 ‘First World Problems’ album)
‘So Called This. So Called That’ (found on Ramonas 2020 ‘I Want to Live in Outer Space’ album)
‘California Sun’ (original on 1977 ‘Leave Home’ Ramones album)
‘Listen To My Heart’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘Suzy Is A Headbanger’ (original on 1977 ‘Leave Home’ Ramones album)
‘Let’s Dance’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘Poison Heart’ (original on 1992 ‘Mondo Bizarro’ Ramones album)
‘Bonzo Goes To Bitburg’ (original on 1986 ‘Animal Boy’ Ramones album as ‘My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)’)
‘Judy Is A Punk’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘53rd & 3rd’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘The KKK Took My Baby Away’ (original on 1981 ‘Pleasant Dreams’ Ramones album)
‘Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World’ (original on 1976 ‘Ramones’ Ramones album)
‘Pinhead’ (original on 1977 ‘Leave Home’ Ramones album)
‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ (original on 1977 ‘Rocket To Russia’ Ramones album)
‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ (original on 1978 ‘Road To Ruin’ Ramones album)
(encore)
‘We’re A Happy Family’ (original on 1977 ‘Rocket To Russia’ Ramones album)
‘R.A.M.O.N.E.S’ (original on 1991 ‘1916’ Motörhead album, then as a bonus track on 1995 ‘¡Adios Amigos!’ Ramones album)
