SHAM 69 + VOODOO RADIO – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 19.5.23
It’s Friday night, so let’s start the weekend with some punk rock excess at the Concorde 2 with Sham 69!
First though, the support… the very wonderful Voodoo Radio!
What a blast of fresh air, like an inverse version of the Courette’s, (boy drummer/girl guitar/vocals) this lot were Girl drummer/vocals and dad guitar!! (Dad Tony and Daughter Paige) What a fab idea!
A support band, (from Cumbria) getting a good reaction from a Brighton Friday night crowd at early o’clock was a massive win for them, catching me by surprise I had to frantically start paying attention.
A sadly short set started, I think with ‘Eat Your Words’, and before long got to, would you believe, a cover of Bow WoW Wow’s ‘C30 C60 C90 Go!’ great stuff. That’s on a new EP ‘Stupid Humans’ – as advised by Paige, in “viagra coloured blue”.
There was another song called ‘Ice Cream Man’ and then the wonderfully titled ‘Slag Bank’ – with much crowd participation on the chorus…I’m pretty certain, they played ‘Pretty Boy’ and ‘Stupid Humans’ also on the new EP too.
And then they were gone, a rollicking 30 minute set, way too short! If they are coming to your town- go see them!!!
And talking of short sets…in a flash the mighty Sham 69 hit the stage…
Although not as commercially successful as many of their contemporaries, they had I think a greater number of chart entries, Sham 69 has been a huge musical and lyrical influence on the Oi! and streetpunk genres- true legends deserving much respect.
The band apparently derived their name from a piece of football-related graffiti that founder Jimmy Pursey saw on a wall, which originally said “Walton and Hersham ’69” but had partly faded away.
They were formed back in 1975- and it was almost too good to be true to see Dave Tregunna, Dave Parsons and Jimmy Pursey hit the stage again…and straight into the ‘Hersham Boys’ LP with ‘What Have We Got?’ “A:-F-All” came back from from the punters, and it was crowd participation from start to finish, with everyone singing along, word perfect
Swiftly following was ‘Tear Gas Eyes’ and the single ‘I Don’t Wanna’ from 1977, ‘Ulster’, ‘Rip Off’ then the relatively young songs ‘Bastille Cake’ and ‘14 Years.’
Getting us back to the mid 70’s ‘Borstal Breakout’ then back again to ‘That’s Life’, ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’ following in rapid succession- hard to keep up. A cover of the Clash’s ‘White Riot’ bought the set to a close…(why no Tell us the Truth?? he asks-cracking song also-it was apparently Charlie Harper’s birthday too).
The boys were swiftly back for a total charge thru ‘Hersham Boys’ and then, of course the mega classic ‘Hurry Up Harry’ …and then they were gone, riding off into the sunset.
