When I first heard about the Sunday afternoon punk gigs series held at The Prince Albert in Brighton, I must say that I was a tad surprised and wasn’t sure if it would work or not, and yet here we are a few years down the line and it is now universally agreed to be a masterstroke. Punky types of all ages can rock on up to the venue, which is conveniently located literally feet away from Brighton’s mainline railway station, and chill out prior to having a good old pogo, and then head on home with plenty of time to recover for a day’s slog at work on the Monday.
One such forthcoming event that has been organised by ‘An Alternative Gathering’ promoters that has seriously caught our eye will be taking place from 2pm to 5pm on Sunday 13th April and is to feature a trio of quality acts: Army Of Skanks, Brigandage, and Playing Alice .
Let’s meet the bands…..
Headlining the concert will be Army of Skanks who these days are a dynamic three piece punk band that hail from Coventry and Alcester. These being Wendy X (aka Wendy Seenan) on lead vocals and bass guitar, Captain Chaos (aka Carol Lane) on guitars and backing vocals, and Whippet (aka Terry Downes) on drums, percussion and backing vocals.
When they first got it together back in 2010 they were a messy punk covers band, but then as they found themselves being influenced by likes of The Damned, Siouxsie & The Banshees, New Model Army, Killing Joke and even Rammstein, they found themselves writing their own material. They released their debut 9-track album titled ‘Punk Rock Warriors’ as a 5-piece in 2013 and the 11-song ‘La Petite Mort’ album came along a short while later. This was their last release as a quintet, and by July 2017 they had trimmed down to the trio of today.
Their first work in this new format came with the arrival of the thirteen tracks contained on their 2019 album ‘The Perfect Storm’. Here was the album that defined their Skank cohesive sound with a true passion for creating and playing music together. Their latest album ‘Negative Politics’ was released in November 2023 and last year they dropped their ‘Wage Slaves’ single.
Army Of Skanks have been building their reputation on the punk scene and have played a few festivals including the Holy Grail, Rebellion in Blackpool. Army Of Skanks have famously quoted after the release of their last album that they don’t intend to stop there with writing, and added “As Johnny Rotten said: We will only stop when we get bored and we’re not yet!”.
Brigandage will also be on the bill and so what better way to find out about them, than directly from founding member and frontperson, Michelle Brigandage….
“Started Brigandage in 1982 as a reaction/response to Oi which I thought was so macho and dreary and I wanted to remind people of the glory, colour and inclusiveness of 1976.
Due to a concatenation of events and timing within 9 months we were getting front cover of the N.M.E and a Peel session and supporting the likes of Sex Gang Children which in an incredible piece of luck and twist of fate Terry Macleay, founding member of Sex Gang Children, is now Brigandage Bassist! Unfortunately like many bands Brigandage imploded before it could really start. So I had to start all over again. I continued being Brigandage and making music all through to the ‘90s but it wasn’t until the advent of the Internet that things started happening again and finding the Brigandage tribe on Facebook.
Carl Evans, my partner and I started writing and filming during lockdown and Covid was a bit of a wake up call to Tempus Fugit… as we certainly aren’t getting any younger.. it really was a case of now or never, so I restarted Brigandage which has always been a bit of a collective and played Rebellion. We’ve finally settled with full time members of Carl Evans of Brighton faves The Chefs, Alan McCulloch drummer extraordinaire, Terry Macleay on bass and me, Michelle Brigandage”.
Check out their releases on their Bandcamp page HERE.
Completing the lineup are Rai Rai (vocals), Hazel (guitar), Kerry (bass) and Travis (drums) who collectively are Playing Alice who we last reviewed at the Green Door Store in Brighton on 13th October last year. Here is our account of their set.
Between the ‘ugly-pop’ of Skating Polly and ‘doom-gaze’ of Ugly Ozo was the very lively, queer disco-punk set from local Brighton four piece Playing Alice. They are an all queer all female band consisting of Rai Rai (vocals), Hazel (guitar), Kerry (bass) and Travis (drums). Gender issues seemed to feature in the subject matter of Playing Alice’s songs, most noticeably on the punk song ‘My Box’.
The two things you notice almost immediately about Playing Alice is the stage presence of Rai Rai and the bass lines from Kerry. In addition to her belting powerful vocals, Rai Ria’s stage persona was captivating, in a less sinister way, but a little like Sister Sniffany of Sniffany and The Nits. From their very first song she was at the very front of the stage, later sitting on the edge and then inevitably in among the audience.
For their fast loud punky sound, Kerry’s bass lines were very funky and danceable, which made Playing Alice’s sound different from their contemporaries. She swapped between metronomic bass playing at the start of the Gossip song ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ to a looser style later in the track.
It was a good entertaining lively set from Playing Alice. For all their shouted lyrics, and fast punk guitars. there was a refreshing sense of fun about the band, which soon made a connection with the Green Door Store audience.
Purchase your tickets for the 13th April gig HERE.
