THE DERELLAS + MING CITY ROCKERS + MARTIN SAVAGE AND THE JIGGERZ – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 7.12.23
If you are an avid fan of the work of the likes of Cleveland Ohio’s Dead Boys or Michigan’s finest sons The Stooges or New York City’s Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers or even the New York Dolls, then you will be interested in hearing what The DeRellas have to offer!
The outfit first got ‘All Fired Up’ when they dropped their debut EP of that name back in 2007 and dropped their first long player ‘Hollywood Monsters’ in 2009. Four singles and three albums see us up to August 2021, with that album being the anthemic ‘Something’s Got To Give’, with its rock solid action packed dozen tracks, it signified the band at the top of their game.
We last met up with the flamboyant glam punkster quartet at the annual Rebellion punk festival in Blackpool at the Pavilion on 7th August 2022 and they were certainly going at it. The current lineup features Timmy DeRella (bass, lead vocals), Luca DeRella (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jez Miller (guitar) and Steve Grainger (drums) and these are the guys in front of me tonight at The Prince Albert. The venue is unfortunately not full, which is a shame, but there are many gigs happening in Brighton tonight and of these we are covering four of them – reviews to follow!
The DeRellas set lasts for 55 minutes (from 9:33pm to 10:28pm) and consists of eleven career spanning works. They kick off with ‘Strung Out Sin City’ which can be found on their jolly decent ‘Freakshow’ 10” vinyl mini-album from 2016. This was the only tune from that release that they performed this evening. Tonight was still very much all about their ‘Something’s Got To Give’ album, as no less than seven tracks were culled from it. The first couple of these being ‘Don’t Tell Me What I Did Last Night’ and ‘Emergency 2020’, which to me had serious nods to The Stooges meets the rawest Rolling Stones meets 999. During their set, Sid Vicious clone Timmy was in charge of his left handed Fender bass, Luca (who incidentally is also a member of Spizzenergi) was using his Gibson guitar, Jez was on guitar 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 Chris Speeding’s version of the early Sex Pistols recordings and you are about there.
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! A handful of tracks from the current album followed, the first of which being set highlight ‘Highrise Supersize’, and then came ‘Our World Tomorrow’, ‘Underground LUV’ (which reminded me of Johnny Rotten’s line “Goodbye A & M” (from ‘EMI’), ‘Pressure Gonna Get Ya’ and the classic ‘Sonic Detonator’. The penultimate song was ‘Stick It To The Man’ (from 2014 ‘Slam! Bam!’ album) and this has a really glam rock drumming intro, which leads into a decent proto punk late glam rock sound. This was arguably a uber highlight of their whole set and an easy anthem. 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 and I guess that’s why I like them!
The DeRellas:
Timmy DeRella – vocals/bass
Luca Comencini – guitar/backing vocals
Jez Miller – guitar/backing vocals
Steve Grainger – drums
The DeRellas setlist:
‘Strung Out Sin City’ (from 2016 ‘Freakshow’ mini 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)
‘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)
‘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)
‘Night Time’ (unreleased)
There were two support acts this evening, the second of which were Ming City Rockers (stylized as Ming City R*ckers) who have had a somewhat fluid personnel across the past dozen years. They have released three long players ‘Ming City R*ckers’ in 2014, ‘Lemon’ in 2016 and the similarly titled ‘Lime’ this year. Any bets on ‘Orange’ being the next one? Tonight they kept us entertained for 29 minutes across their ten track set which ran from 9:03pm to 9:32pm. This current gender bending rebooted garage punk trio originally hail from Immingham (known locally as Ming-ming) which is located about 6 miles north-west from Grimsby. The band before me consists of Clancey Jones (vocals/bass), Morley Adams (guitar) and Jack Scales (drums).
They began with an opening crescendo and as far as I recall opened with ‘Chic And The Motherf*ckers’ from their first album. Clancey certainly gives off the cheap white trash vibe throughout the set which fits their current image. Morley is sporting the 21st Century Mick Ronson look which is cool, and Jack simply bashes away at his kit. ‘All I Wanna Do Is Waste My Time With You’ (from the 2016 ‘Lemon’ album) is their second selection. The next four tunes I think were ‘Jill Was An Anarchist’, ‘Void’, ‘Nancy, I’m Bitter’ and ‘Infectious’ and all found on the latest ‘Lime’ album. ‘Jill Was An Anarchist’ was rather good indeed and reminded me of Pete Shelley’s vocal style delivery and the music around the time of Buzzcocks ‘Love Bites’ album, and actually reminded me of ‘Love Battery’ from the previous Buzzcocks album ‘Another Music In A Different Kitchen’. ‘Void’ was memorable because of its rumbly bass intro and being the best in the set thus far.
OK I’ve got to come clean here, as I was getting into the Ming City Rockers sound so much that from this point my recollection of the tunes and my actual notes were scant. A crime I know, but hell, I’ve gotta have fun! No wonder my partner Jordan Mooney (RIP) loved them. In fact we were endeavouring to get them down to Brighton for Jordan’s Charity Memorial gig, but the logistics and running times sadly prevented this. Thus this evening is my debut encounter with them. I certainly do with hearing them more! As the set progressed we had a song with the lyrics something like “Times are plastic” and another with “So much better than you”, and there was a penultimate number and then they closed with ‘She’s A Wrong ‘Un’ (from 2014’s ‘Ming City Rockers’ album). Alas there was no written setlist, so I couldn’t verify all the tunes, but I enjoyed every track they played!
Ming City Rockers:
Clancey Jones – vocals/bass
Morley Adams – guitar
Jack Scales – drums
Ming City Rockers setlist:
‘Chic And The Motherf*ckers’ (from 2014 ‘Ming City Rockers’ album)
‘All I Wanna Do Is Waste My Time With You’ (from 2016 ‘Lemon’ album)
‘Jill Was An Anarchist’ (from 2023 ‘Lime’ album)
‘Void’ (from 2023 ‘Lime’ album)
‘Nancy, I’m Bitter’ (from 2023 ‘Lime’ album)
‘Infectious’ (from 2023 ‘Lime’ album)
(unknown)
(unknown)
(unknown)
‘She’s A Wrong ‘Un’ (from 2014 ‘Ming City Rockers’ album)
The night was opened up by Martin Savage And The Jiggerz who stated they are a “Punk rock band from Stockholm-Newington”. They played no less than 15 tunes across their 38 minute set which ran from 8:10pm to 8:48pm. The unit consists of Martin Savage (aka Martin Hildebrand) on vocals and Epiphone guitar, Kamikaze U.T. Vincent on Epiphone bass and backing vocals and Eric Baconstrip on drums.
It’s punk rock all the way with these lads! Their sound funnily enough also sounded like Buzzcocks, but from their early incarnation with Howard Devoto at the helm. But you need to add a tinge of old fashioned rock’n’roll and there you have it…Martin Savage And The Jiggers. Midway through their set Martin broke a guitar string, and using the famed “Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears”, then I recall it was the B-string. It’s punk rock right, so sod it, just get on with it and he did. Another band I would like to see live again.
Martin Savage And The Jiggerz:
Martin Savage (aka Martin Hildebrand) – vocals/guitar
Kamikaze U.T. Vincent – bass
Eric Baconstrip – drums
Martin Savage And The Jiggerz setlist:
‘Intro’
‘Shooting For Stars’ (B-side of ‘Between The Lines’ single)
‘Between The Lines’ (a 2020 single)
‘Get Away’ (a 2022 single)
‘Boomerang’ (a 2023 single)
‘Nothin’ For Me’ (B-side of 2023 ‘Boomerang’ single)
‘Runaway Train’ (a 2023 single)
‘Fat City’ (a 2022 single)
‘Fly By Night’ (unreleased)
‘Next In Line’ (unreleased)
‘This Broken Heart’ (B-side of 2020 ‘Time To Get Out’ single)
‘How Did You Know’ (B-side of ‘Fat City’ single)
‘The Chosen Few’ (B-side of 2020 ‘Time To Get Out’ single)
‘Time To Get Out’ (a 2020 single)
‘Mailman Blues’ (from 2016 Martin Savage Gang ‘S/t 10″ (Human Audio)’ mini album)
folcrecords.bandcamp.com/album/folc135-martin-savage-and-the-jiggerz
