THE RAMONAS + SHALLOW HONEY – THE FACTORY LIVE, WORTHING 13.1.22
The Girls are back in town! The Ramonas rocket once again hit Worthing. Last time was almost two years ago when they appeared at The Egremont pub (located at 32 Brighton Road), but this time around they were welcomed at The Factory Live at 9a Ivy Arch Road, Worthing, BN14 8BX.
Regrettably there was one unused ticket for tonight’s concert. It was purchased by Ramonas and Ramones fan Dave Towse aka Davey Ramone. Unfortunately he lost his brief battle with cancer on 27th December 2021. Dave was punk through and through and attended thousands of punk rock gigs over the past 45 years. He was known by many of the punk bands and this includes The Ramonas, who he had seen live on many occasions. He has now gone to be with Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone and Tommy Ramone. God bless x
Ramonas: The Band – Hey Ho! Let’s Go!
Now it does get confusing as the band has a dual identity: Ramonas names – for Ramones material, and then real names for their own Ramonas songs. Hope I have settled that for you.
Cloey Ramona – Vocals (Lisa):
Vocalist Cloey is so full of energy and passion. Tonight she hit the stage running as The Ramonas opened up with ‘Durango 95’. She handled the mic and struck the classic Joey stances throughout the set. She has a great voice full of power and intensity.
Rohnny Ramona – Guitar (Maxine):
On guitars is Rohnny. She takes full control of guitar duties. And she is a firecracker! Playing a blue Mosrite guitar – the favoured guitar of choice of Johnny Ramone – she belted out the riffs and chords at us at a breakneck speed. And yep – down strokes only. A super display all topped off with leaps and poses fitting with her role.
Pee Pee Ramona – Bass (Vicky):
The fabulous Pee Pee (yep – I know) has the bass duties, and that is some responsibility with what this band achieves . She also has the task of delivering the “1-2-3-4″‘s for every song and joins in with some support vocals. A great job again from a great bassist!
Cammy Ramona – Drums (Camille):
The lady at the back keeping the tight drum patterns was Cammy. Set back on the stage, but by crikey you knew she was there. Again, like the other members of the band, she has some tough acts to follow, such as Tommy, Marky etc but Cammy delivered with style, attitude and her huge smile! Not sure if it was the sound mix or just the pure energy (or both) with which she was playing but she brought out the drum thunder tonight. Sheer percussion power at times ruled the airwaves!
Ramonas: The Set
Well, Hey Ho! Let’s Go! A quick look at the setlist indicated nearly 30 songs on the line up. Extraordinary! How the hell were they going to do it! That many songs in an hour! All I know is that the sizable crowd at The Factory Live were in for a treat whilst hitching a ride along the ‘Road To Ruin’.
Part 1:
‘Durango 95’, from the often overlooked Ramones album ‘Too Tough To Die’, kicked off the set from Pee Pee, Rohnny and Cammy piling into us from the get go. And then Cloey hit the stage as Cammy powered up her kit for ‘Teenage Lobotomy’. Having road crewed for the Ramones, there was never any real chat from Joey with the crowd and the Ramonas do the same, they just power into the next track after a count in of “1-2-3-4”.
Chewing out the rhythm on my bubble gum we were into ‘Rockaway Beach’! Oh yes, The Ramonas were on fire, this was gonna be a blast tonight! And as if to prove a point the drums pounded out for ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. There has been a shake up on the setlist tonight and a different selection, and why not with such a back catalogue to choose from. ‘Pet Sematary’, ‘Bonzo Goes To Bitburg’ and a blasting rendition of the Thunders/Ramones ‘Chinese Rocks’. A song always shrouded in rumours, but tonight The Ramonas made it their own.
Part 2: ‘Haphazard’.
We were given a fistful of Ramonas self penned titles from their latest album, ‘Haphazard’ and ‘I Want To Live In Outer Space’, providing the opener of this section with ‘So Called This’. ‘For You’, ‘Haphazard’, ‘Imposter’ and ‘Consumed’, all combining to give us a wonderful taster of this newer material live. Lisa/Cloey had taken off the sunglasses for this section and the guys just let rip with their own material. They really seemed to power it up for this selection. I saw The Ramonas supporting the Skids recently where they rocked us through their own material. I would have loved to hear ‘Daily Fail’ from their first album, but hey! Maybe I am just a wee bit greedy!!
Part 3: A Happy Family.
OK, the guys took a slug of water as Rohnny/Maxine fired up the Mosrite for some more of those loved Ramones classics, ‘California Sun’, the wonderful ‘Lets Dance’ and without pausing to come up for air, ‘Judy Is A Punk’.
The crowd who had danced, sang, and let it all go for the last hour were now hot and sweaty. The Ramonas had played it hard and naturally played it fast! The crowd supplied the generated steam heat! The Ramonas, apart from being one of the nicest bands you could want to meet, are 100% passionate and totally dedicated to what they do. They can’t “become” the Ramones brudders, but they really do capture that spirit. They rocked the sizeable and mixed age audience in The Factory with a vigour that is really hard to describe. They just do it!
Lisa/Cloey nailed a brilliant vocal for ‘Poison Heart’, stunning vocals on that track, a favourite of mine. Next we were ‘Sniffing Glue’ and taken from there into ‘We’re A Happy Family’.
The guys left the stage, an arm from Maxine appears encouraging us all to shout for more. And boy! Did we!! The band came back and served up a stunning rendition of ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’. Damn that was good!
Initially The Ramonas were formed as an all-girl tribute to the Ramones. Tonight, yet again they raised the bar and showed what a formidable outfit they really are. I always appreciate a chat with the guys and delighted to see Lisa’s wee baby girl. She is gorgeous! I have a lot of respect for The Ramonas, and we have met up many times in the past. Always a joy and a pleasure and I just have to say “ya gotta love The Ramonas!”.
I have seen them performing their Ramones tribute sets a good few times now and it’s never boring! Also now backed up with a great selection of their own material they really are well worth seeing them “do it” if you get the chance. They really are rather good at it!
For more information on the Ramonas visit www.ramonas.co.uk and purchase their albums on Bandcamp HERE.
Guests: Shallow Honey
“We’re Shallow Honey; grunge rock’s answer to ASMR. Comparable to that feeling of being halfway through your 2nd pint. Better than finding a £10 note in an old coat pocket. When every traffic light is green.”
Something I love to do is meet and hear a new, young local band playing. These guys are not “new” however, they have been together for a while now honing those skills and quite unique sound. They engaged with the crowd and presented well with an air of flair, humour and a good slice of energy.
Shallow Honey are a four-piece Sussex outfit. Tonight they had landed a guest/support slot with The Ramonas at The Factory Live in Worthing. They fired up a 30 minute slot with a couple of heavy duty toe tappers, ‘Control’, a single release, and ‘Aim Low’. ‘Control’ is a great opener, not having seen this outfit before. Heavy drums and some delights from the guitar and dirty fuzz driving power from the bass guitar. And at the front some super vocals and almost theatrics. Another track with a delicious hook from the guitars was ‘Draw The Line’.
They set about pushing out sounds from the murky delight of Rock… Or maybe dirty pop? Alt Rock? As Shallow Honey say “ah, who needs labels anyway!!”
They claim to be heavily influenced by peer-pressure and partial to the occasional Double Decker. These guys have a delightful sense of humour to match their unique sound. Worth going to see these guys if you get the chance.
Shallow Honey can be found on Instagram and Spotify.
