The Undertones Rock City Nottingham5th December 2025

 

Here's a great sounding gig from the irrepressible Undertones from December when they played Rock City in Nottingham. The band here were captured on one of a handful of dates marking the 45th anniversary of the band's second studio album 'Hypnotised' delivered as part of a value for money 30 song set!

Many thanks to Chatts for the share.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-wvvvsSjMWx

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Ss47iadGZ5

Hugh Cornwell Woodhorn Lane Music Festival 22nd July 2017

 

Here's one from Hugh with band from a three day fundraising event hosted by Ashington Football Club in Northumberland. Hugh headlined on the Saturday night. many thanks to Yesican for this one.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-3gAsB9mlc2

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-29khpfP2YO

Keystone Palo Alto14th November 1980

 

For me it would have come close to being the best weekend ever..... that is if I were about five years older and I happened to be in the San Francisco area over 13th to 15th November 1980. That weekend saw the band play three consecutive nights in San Francisco and the Bay area. Looking at the combined venue flyer, good music in the locale was the order of the day for a month or two. It would be The Stranglers, Stiff Little Fingers, XTC, The Slits and the Young Marble Giants for me... maybe The Go Go's at a push.

But anyway, here are The Stranglers from their Keystone gig in the Palo Alto area, with another of those short, but perfectly formed sets.Were the lengths of the sets that the band played on those early '80s US tours dictated by stage times, did bands playing these club venues come on very late? Two thirds of the way through this ill-fated tour, the band here seem to have got to grips with using hired equipment, a necessity after someone made away with all their equipment in New York three weeks earlier. 

Not only have I not posted this gig before, but this version, provided to me last month by DomP is a significant upgrade on the version that has been sitting in my collection. I am not technical enough to state just how the sound has been improved, suffice to say that it just sounds much better (he did say that on top of the general remastering some channel balancing was corrected during 'The Raven'). Cheers Dom!!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ih0UqXJ3yq

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-mcz1hkSWzn

Siouxsie and the Banshees Interview (New Musical Express 14th January 1978)

Here's a positive early Banshees interview conducted by Paul Morley for the NME. Here a pre-contract Banshees discuss their music and motivations.

New Musical Express (14th January 1978)

By Paul Morley

SIOUXSIE IS THE frail-faced, tough-minded, strange-light-in-her-eyes voice/performer of Siouxsie and the Banshees.

When she was a little girl. . . "I was very lonely, actually. The few friends I had were gypsies. When I was eight I tried to commit suicide to get noticed by my parents. I used to do things

like fall on the floor upstairs so that they'd think I'd fallen downstairs, and I'd have bottles of pills in my hands. I've always felt on the outside, really."

She, like the rest of the group, admits to being a loner. They don't really like people. A thing they have in common. Their reason for existing is to perform noise with meaning for people to share and benefit from. They could be the last "rock" group. The only "rock" group. They are not a "rock" group. They are twentieth century performers.

Friday night at The Nashville. An incongruous/traditional venue, it would seem, for Siouxsie and the Banshees. Isn't anywhere? It is 'an occasion'. Names/faces are scattered, to be noticed and not to be noticed, perhaps admiring the path of individualism. Wayne County, Billy Idol, Marianne Faithful, Andy Czezowski, Howard Pickup, Jordan and on. It is a sell out. People straggle outside, hoping for admission. Some, absurdly, produce five pound notes in vain attempts at bribing the doorman. What is this?

Calm down and reflect on a bewildering reputation. It's now 15 months since the Banshees in a

spirited, impulsive shot of audience participation, went on stage at the 100 Club and set their precedent for the unique, shocking, honest. That's a dark, distant past, perhaps the only period that the Banshees have actually felt that they belonged to something. Felt part of anything… a movement that pressed self-destruct early on, a movement whose successful ones were, with odd exceptions, the shrewdest, the most adaptable to the business as opposed to the most creative , challenging, changing and committed.

For their first 'performance' at the 100 Club the Banshees were Sid Vicious on drums, Marco (now in The Models) on guitar, Steve Havoc on bass, Siouxsie singing. In March/April of '77 a concentrated Siouxsie and the Banshees appeared, playing their first real gig at the Roxy, Siouxsie singing, Steve on bass, Kenny (who was one of the original 'punks') looking different, dancing around, on drums, P. P. Barnum on guitar. They were poor and unformulated, but intense. From about this period, they appear jn Don Letts' flicker-movie, bad-mouthing the owner of the Roxy, having small fun at others' expense. About May they began to move out, into the provinces, speculative but never boring.

From there, the growth has been subdued and careful. P. P. Barnum left (he's now formed Heroes), Martin was brought in. The group, as to be expected, have touched controversy, the result of frustration. There's been a farcical fracas with the police , resulting in a £20  fine for Siouxsie, and the infamous spraying incident, "Signed Siouxsie and the Banshees." A few prestige gigs with Buzzcocks in Manchester and London, a So It Goes appearance, a John Peel session. No record deal, except the occasional futile one-off, and it's only in the last few months that they gelled in any way as a considered, permanent group. And now?

Their development has happened away from the sub-culture acceleration. On the outside, taking the best from the inside. There is no rush . They are patient.

Quietly spoken, softly articulating methods and motives, patient in contrived conversation

at interviewers' misconceptions/hesitations, learning as much as the provoker. "It's funny, now we're starting to do interviews, we've just begun to understand what we're doing, whereas before without doing interviews we never really thought about motives."

Having understood that, publicity - which because of the mode of expression that the Banshees have superficially adopted, is achieved through exposure in the 'rock press' - is necessary for the Banshees to reach some kind of identifiable mass. Even fame! But more, too. Now that they have been caught - through no fault of their own except their obvious uniqueness and thus their prospective 'hipness', in the media persecuting/giggling myth – they must perpetuate jargon  to denounce shamefully demoralising distortions through ignorant miscomprehension

(Huh ??? - Ed).

About these miscomprehensions, they are understandably sensitive. No bitterness/grudges. Hurt, puzzlement. For a group who leave such a huge question mark after their work , it is hard for them to take being so readily wrapped and dismissed, often as either "oh,-a-girl, the-future-is-female. Great. Next" or a "ooh-nazism-nasty-destroy. Next".

They have indeed been mistreated, through, admittedly, as regards 'Nazism', initial lack of forethought. They wore swastikas. There were stiff-armed salutes. Their lushly subversive, brutally sensual words and the rhythmic/anthemic noise they create to form an undoubted Teutonic heaviness didn't help.

"But always with any sort of politics, which is why we haven't got any, you get extremists, and once you get extremists you get people doing great things and terrible things… for every following of some sort you get followers who distort things. If people don't understand things, they should say so. There’s too much pride. We don't understand."

AND YET, DESPITE disruptions/distortions… despite the fact that they have no record deal… despite, paramountly, ignorance, Siouxsie and the Banshees find themselves in an almost enjoyable position.

Siouxsie is, according to the NME Poll, the fourteenth most popular female singer in the world. They hold the house record at the Vortex. They sold out The Nashville two nights running. They have made no commitment sacrifices, no compromises, and they feel comfortable that what they're saying is necessary.

"Things have to go on. We're trying to show that it does not have to be pop punk next, it doesn't have to be the same old rock'n'roll riffs. We don't like trends. We formed initially because we felt we had something of our own to say, What was happening was lacking in  certain aspects – it needed a different point of view, a variant on things, but with the same attack, impact."

Off on a variant… not like anyone else. Is it this different way of doing things/saying things/playing things that has attracted this curious following? Is there sympathy with the Banshees? A common recognition of the need for individual regeneration, the realisation that men must suffer to know joy, some genuine concern as to when a nihilism becomes a barbarism? Is there admiration/appreciation of the way that Siouxsie and the Banshees have conclusively shown the amount of expression/variation possible utilizing unorthodox and minimal techniques?

Or is it just hip to like them, for numerous reasons? Is it easy to jump up and down to them? Are they the new trend? "Well, there's the girl thing... there's a lot of people who've latched on to us because of the… because they've understood things that aren't there... like being labelled Nazis, things like that… many of the audience don't understand, but that's irrelevant as long as they get the feel that we're doing something different. . . we probably don't understand ourselves completely. "

Whatever the reasons, genuine or misplaced, for their popularity, it exists, and their presence and power in performance probably propels enough feel for an audience to intuitively grasp that they're not absorbing run-of-the-mill music/noise. It is almost hypnotic, an unfortunate association. Uninhibited, precise noise with very few reference points. Clean, perversely addictive, with more than an ounce of freedom. Unconventional in form, but no way inaccessible. Structured noise . Do they view themselves as musicians? An emphatic 'no'.

"As non-musicians. Sound innovators." A comprehensible term? "It's an interesting ... interesting noises... certain songs that rely on the drum beat... some relying on voice… some on guitar… experimenting, not just using a voice to say baby, baby... it's making different sounds with what you've got. We go out of our way not to be musicians...we don't rehearse til our fingers bleed.

"We can play rock'n'roll, but we ignore it, shove it in a corner. We don't see ourselves in the same context as rock'n'roll groups. We're out on a limb. It is dangerous, but it excites us, makes it worthwhile."

Visually, the group set no principles. Concentration from the three musicians. Instinctive bodily

maneouvring from Siouxsie. Snapped, harsh , asexual, she wears shorts/short skirts for freedom of movement. She is nicknamed 'android' by the group. Her make-up which eerily transforms her nervous , wistful, pale face into the hard lined clown-tragedian, is the one concession to the audience. Her voice is staggered. No orthodox fluid melodies, but clipped , forced lines, sharply falling and rising, forming careful, idiosyncratic 'hooks'.

She displays no exhaustion, exhilaration, amusement, frustration or any of those other colourful sideshows that performers often find in themselves. In the early days there was little nervousness when she got on stage. Now, she gets very nervous.

"Maybe i(s because there's a lot more emotion put into what we're doing now… when you just get up there like we used to the emotion that comes up… you're not realising it…" Emotion? "Passion ... it's just emotion full stop. There's no other-words. It's just one thing."

. . '

IF THE EMOTIONS of the group have toughened/flowered over the last few months, maybe in

sub-conscious urgency of desire to communicate something blurred but precious and important, then so has the group's overall intensity as performers. Weaknesses are gradually eradicated, the process of self-discovery.

"Now, we seem to have some sense of direction. Though we don't know what it is… over the last year we haven't got tangled. We have just kept a different way of doing things. We haven't just gone out and done every gig that we've been offered. The best gigs are those when you go down really badly but you know you've done a good set… we don't really need audience approval… the way we approach it, we're out there and we're putting on a show for ourselves and anyone who wants to put their hands in, well, they can.

"We're not out to give everyone a 'good time', oh you can come on stage, you're the same as us. It's not like that, ‘cos we go on stage and it's for us and if anyone wants to take something it's up to them. We're not going to impose anything on anyone, so in some aspects it's not entertainment. It's entertainment for some people but it's not mainstream entertainment.

"We're very aware of coming across as pretentious and that's one thing that we're all scared of, so we've never actually said, this is art, this is that... We leave it all open, we don't define anything so we can go back on ourselves like anyone else and find things that we didn't see before. We don't really like being tagged as anything, but it is inevitable that people have to tag something to understand it."

Of the Banshees' performance, fifty per cent is music/noise, fifty per cent is words. Complementary, equally Important. The words are of a strange language, derived from experience and observation, chilling vignettes of minor atrocities and gruesome indulgences, of frustration, of unrequited love. From the dark side of life , grinning, perverted, subversive; euphoria and depression, vision and pessimism mysteriously co-exist. The truth in ugliness.

Striving to manufacture some semblance of order, of purposefulness, set against the absurdity and-pointlessness of life. Their realism is vital, snatches of everyday life exaggerated for effect.

No-one sings songs like these; there must be room for abrupt confrontation. "People live in a

dreamworld" .'

Excerpts.

Make Up To Break Up

Spots and warts and blemishes

and deep receding crevices

seem to disappear

when foundation's on my face

when foundation's on my face

Girls with eyes like swimming pools

are the ones that I despise

'cos I need lots of colour

to hide my bloodshot eyes

to hide my bloodshot eyes

Now comes the break up from the make up

just like the devils rain

c ... c...c ... colours run insane.

Foundation starts to tremble

My nose a grotesque abstract

My mouth a gaping gap

My eyes are shooting blood

Bad Shape

We're all spastics

we're all paralysed

cancer in the ears

cataract in the eyes

we're all dismembered

we're all in stitches

wrapped in bandages

stumble with crutches

Suburban Relapse

I was washing up the dishes

minding my own business

when my string snapped

I had a relapse . . . a suburban relapse

(Should I?)

Throw things at the neighbours expose myself to strangers

kill myself or... you

now memory gets hazy

I think I must be crazy

But my strings snapped

I had a relapse... a suburban

relapse .

SUCH ABRASIVE, uncompromising language, and the way that its presented, is not of the type that is liable to entice record companies to propose lucrative deals. The group realises this is

important. 

They have got as far as they can in terms of reaching people without records.

"We want to become successful because it would mean that people are confronting what we're putting down on vinyl and paper… but if we are we'd probably be successful for the wrong reasons, and that's something we can't avoid."

Problems facing the controversial/different/indefinable - "Everyday there's a problem about

having to compromise… everyday there's a reporter wanting to interview just Siouxsie, take pictures of Siouxsie, getting across that it 's a backing band for Siouxsie. It's not that at all. It's a four-piece band… who supports us, who plays with us, it’s so hard when there's not many we like. . . getting certain people in on the guest list, record company people… having to deal with record company people because they're so out of touch with things. In the end you have to explain yourself in the most basic, moronic way and that takes something away. Record companies aren't there to help a band progress, that's bullshit. They're there to give the bands a little money and make as much money for themselves. They don't care if a band falls by the wayside as long as they've made enough money out of them. We haven't signed any record deals…  we want commitment from a record company so that we can do what we want to do.

"We'll win in the end. If we don't let people get the better of us, influence us, like the establishment. As long as we can resist I think we'll win in the end."

Siouxsie and the Banshees The Metro Plymouth 4th May 1978 (TFTLTYTD# 22)

 

One half of the Banshees rhythm section has gone. Original drummer (if you bypass Sid's one night only 100 Club hammering of the skins), Kenny Morris has died at the age of 68. He was in part responsible for that unique early Banshees sound. 

Thanks to the original Dime uploader, dimitroy.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ukIqdDVtFa

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-7vr70pshPL

Punk Rock Bowling Las Vegas 27th May 2019 DVD

 

To kick off the weekend, here is an authored DVD of the band's appearance at the US 'Punk Rock Bowling' festival back in 2019. This isn't the full set played on the day, that can be found in audio form here.

Not sure whether if was the down to hired equipment or what, but in parts Dave's fingers are not doing what Dave's head is telling them to do. Bless him!

At the moment, the US punk/new wave festival scene appears to be thriving still, but I wonder whether under financial pressures they will go the same way as similar festivals in the UK (I am thinking Stone Valley and Sign of the Times here)?

DVD image: https://we.tl/t-KU9zRervhT

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-SKY6b1qUQL

Subhumans The Venue New Cross London January 1991

 

I mentioned in the last post that I eventually got round to seeing Subhumans when they very briefly returned for two gigs at the very beginning of 1991 (2nd and 3rd January). I saw them on the first night where according to Ian Glasper's very comprehensive history of the band 'Silence Is No Reaction: Forty Years of Subhumans', The Instigators supported. That night (and on every occasion that I have seen them since) they were brilliant. This recording came from the Anarcho-punk.net site.

MP3: https://we.tl/t-g0sGJPzjFj

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-pIXfLfHPQm

Subhumans Con Club Lewes East Sussex 11th January 2026

 

I still find it strange that one of the best venues (at least judging from the gigs hosted in the last few years - I have yet to get back down there for a gig) in Sussex is located two doors down from the school that I went to between 1980 and 1987. Gigs didn't happen in Lewes back then... of any genre (maybe a bit of folk in a couple of the pubs) and certainly not anarch0 punk! For a few months I had bass lessons from a music tutor who worked out of one of the rooms above the Con Club hall. Back in 1985 I had the Subhumans logo on one or two of my exercise books. This would have been about the time of 'Worlds Apart. Missed them at The Richmond then and didn't get to see them until they reformed (very briefly) in 1991 and played at the Venue in New Cross.

One of the great bands to come out of that scene. Everything that Dick Lucas has turned his hand to since the early '80s has been great... Subhumans, Culture Shock and Citizen Fish.

Lincoln Castle 13th June 2025

 Another of The Stranglers' 'heritage' gigs from last summer. once again with Buzzcocks in tow. Many thanks to Chatts again for passing this one on. Cheers my friend!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-8hxP6q6n0L

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-6SCCIHlDSN

999 Readipop Studios Reading 13th December 2019

Ok so this is the last of ten posts reflecting my top 10 gigs of 2025. Finishing up with punk stalwarts (and an all time favourite of mine, 999). Apologies, I cannot recall how this 2019 gig from Reading reached me, but a big thank you to whoever provided this one.

So then, on to 2026 and another year of gigs. First of the year tonight and would you believe it... it's 999! This is a big year for the band as 2026 is the band's 50th anniversary. It has been said many times in the past, but who ever could have even entertained the notion that the horrible genre of punk rock could have lasted half a century!

WAV: https://we.tl/t-1S6WlF1RUb

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-JqBCEZIJbo

Sex Pistols Dreamland Margate 23rd August 2025

'I don't wanna holiday in the sun!' But on this day the sun did shine down upon Margate as thousands descended upon the Kentish resort hell bent on partying like it's 1977. I have written some more about the day here, but here is the gig itself. It was a great day out and the bands sounded great... I came in anticipation of rotten sound, but it was very good on the day. I am still not sure where I stand with regards to Frank Carter... he's fine, but I think that perhaps some of the crowd participation antics disrupt the flow of the gig. Not a complaint, rather an observation from one who wasn't in the circle pit or whatever he calls it.

As always thanks to Chatts for the share.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-AepvjzCxnm

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-0NOGwc333k

 

The March Violets Live on JBTV 7th November 2015

 

Here are The March Violets live on a Chicago based TV show back in 2015. It's a short live studio set that features some of the better known of the band's songs. If you have Spotify, take a listen to their 2024 album 'Crocodile Promises'... and then go out and buy it.

DVD disc image: https://we.tl/t-tMm7rQn5GZ

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-khQ0s4yies

The Courettes Ballonwiese Volksgarten Dusseldorf 23rd August 2025

 

Here's another gig from The Fabulous Courettes courtesy of Peter! As mentioned in the top 10 gig post earlier I had the pleasure of seeing the band twice late last year when they opened for Hugh. Following them now on Facebook they appear to fully deserve the 'hardest working band' title (wasn't this epithet once bestowed upon the UK Subs?). 110 gigs in 2025, fair play to them!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-fPJaZzyNyI

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-VR1xmDlHir

Hugh Cornwell Epic Norwich 6th November 2025

 

So this is the last one for today and perhaps I have saved the best to last. Here it is, 'Nosferatu' in all its gruesome, gothic glory. What's more Shadow 23 has applied some of his audio magic to make this one even better. Listening to these live versions of the Nosferatu tracks, it strikes me again how brave Cornwell and Burnel were in putting out the solo albums that they did at that time, since both deviated significantly from that 'Stranglers' sound. Burnel suffered rather for his art in this respect, especially when he took 'Euroman Cometh' out on the road (a factor in the fact that mooted Nosferatu live dates never materialised?.... it sounds like a plausible theory).

Good to have it finally in a live context in the collection. Thanks as ever go to Chatts and Shadow 23 for the time and effort spent on this one!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-BsWZ6JgUdj

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-xGr8hjBgMJ

Tom Robinson Band King Tut's Glasgow 3rd October 2024

 

In my list of top 10 gigs of 2025 I did sing the praises of Tom Robinson and here's a good example of just why. The man is a natural raconteur and he has many stories to tell and that's aside from his back catalogue. This recording finds TRB running through their two classic albums, 'Power In The Darkness' (1979) and TRB Two (1979). Thanks to the original Dime uploader (tempusfugit) and the taper (Sallygr). 

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-gITBJGu5V9

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Yf0CM5Qrog

The Vapors The Mountain Winery, Saratoga, California 31st August 2024

 

Crikely, this was a long way to go to deliver a four song set. I hope that the organisers had deep pockets. The Vapors appearance in another US retro festival, one with quite an eclectic line up! Thanks to the original uploader (loughney). Obviously, I have no knowledge how this  'Lost 80's Live' Festival was set up, but wouldn't it make sense to have each band in the line up play one new song... just as an indicator that the bands playing on the day were in actual fact still creating new music? Just a thought.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-2DrsS8KMAd

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-M7IMP97lKu

Bellahouston Park, Glasgow 21st June 2005

 

A punk party in the park. 1977 in 2025, almost. All the punk rock you can handle in a day. I wasn't there but I understand that for The Rezillos at least the Scottish summer weather was predictable... it pissed down. I believe the weather did improve later on though. The Stranglers played a hit heavy festival set as immediate warm up for the headlining Pistols. This was the first of several events in which The Stranglers shared the bill with Sex Pistols.

The sound is good on this one, especially considering that this was an open air gig. Thanks as ever Chatts for sharing.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ism2j9wTyh

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-otCLyrqVOv

Gary Numan O2 Academy Birmingham 15th November 2025

 

So the tour concluded. Probably the best 'retro' dates that Gary has done to date. Of course the tour took an unexpected and tragic turn just three nights in with the sudden and tragic death of John Webb. Consequently, what started out as a celebration of the 'Telekon' album very quickly evolved in a memorial to a beloved brother, someone who had been a part of Numan's career right from those earliest dates in London's Roxy and other punk dives. Many of the audience at these gigs would have seen John up on stage as part of his brother's touring band in the mid-'80s. As such Gary had 2,000+ people each night that were to a greater or lesser extent sharing in his grief. As hard is it was to see him struggle through 'Please Push No More', we knew that he knew that the audience were solidly behind him.

I said it in my earlier post related to the Cambridge date that the show has an edge that I thought, if not missing in previous classic album tours, was more pronounced this time around. Maybe is was an outward manifestation of the whole band's determination to rack it up even more than usual under such circumstances. Whatever the reason, it worked!

This then is from the night in Birmingham when the news broke within the Numan camp. It's a wonder he got through the night.

Thanks to the original uploader (emmanuel).

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-WvYDc3MULk

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-JQbPDZdLM7

Ruts DC MASH Cambridge 6th December 2025

 

This post should be read in conjunction with the review of the earlier gig that the band played at the Garage in London (here). Tonight's gig was the penultimate date of the current tour. The venue is an odd one, but I like it. MASH, tucked away in a corner of central Cambridge, is first and foremost a night club, one that occasionally puts on gigs. As such, the lay out is not so conducive to live gigs in the way the room is sectioned off. Nevertheless, get to the front of the tiny stage and you're laughing. 

As I mentioned, this was a Saturday night in a student town, which meant club night! I love a club night because that means an early door time and a curfew that is significantly earlier than 11 pm. Call it a sign of getting old, I don't care! Tonight the doors were due to open at 6.30, the queue lengthened and 7pm came and went, then 7.30.... wait, the band were due on at 7.45 and there was a support. By this time, the queue included everyone that was going to the gig. No pun intended, but IT WAS COLD! The entertainment provided by groups of inappropriately dressed girls and gangs of young men in Christmas jumpers and skin tight trousers passing by enroute to the bar next door wore thin quite quickly as feet started to numb. Word travelled down the queue that multiple technical issues were keeping the doors to the venue closed. 

Eventually we were granted access. Support came in the form of Chris Pope of The Chords, whose set was cut short in an attempt to claw back some show time for the headliners. On then with Ruts DC. Ruffy's new drum kit (of which he is inordinately proud) took centre stage... and most of stage left and stage right too, such are the proportions of the MASH stage!

This was no problem though really, it just meant that Leigh and Segs were a little more restricted in where they could go on the stage... nowhere basically. This did not have any impact on the music though. And, if there were significant sound issues then they were lost on this cloth-earned writer. My friend, Trevor (thanks for the photos!), mentioned in his Facebook post on the gig that the sound was good, but the lighting less so. I'll go with that then (the recording certainly sounds good!). As was the case with the London gig a week earlier, the set was unusually long for Ruts DC, this allowed then to acknowledge the 45th anniversary of the 'Grin and Bear It' album with renditions of 'Demolition Dancing' and 'Secret Soldier'.

I won't pontificate further on the set. Download it and hear it yourself. Thanks to Chatts for sharing this great very intimate gig.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-gOSwZ8BbuR

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-56CfIQoGaV

Top 10 Gigs of 2025

Always a difficult choice at the end of the year, but one that is getting a bit easier as each year passes. Enforced abstinence does mean that whilst it is not stopping me from going to gigs, I have become a little more selective in what I choose to go to. Pre-gig meets in pubs have been part of the process for decades and still is. The problem really comes with the Festival type events where the beer is/was (for me at least) an integral part of the day's proceedings. That kind of rules some things out for me... Rebellion for example.

So, the pool of gig experiences this year is a little shallower than in previous years, but here goes... in no particular order.

1. The March Violets Oslo Hackney London 25th June 2025.

Reviewed in greater detail (here), this was my first time of seeing the March Violets after liking them for 40 years! Some bands somehow just slip the net like that. But, it was worth the wait as they put in a great performance to a surprisingly thin audience (in number terms... not a physiological observation) on a very hot summer's night. No hits as such, but all of the big tunes were there as well as tracks from their excellent 2024 album 'Crocodile Promises'. They have UK dates booked for 2026.

The March Violets

(Oslo, Hackney 28th June 2025)

2. Hugh Cornwell The Islington Assembly Hall 13th November 2025

In an unintentional continuation of a gothic theme, next on my random list is Hugh's gig in Islington, a night of the undead as after a mere 45 years he unleashed 'Nosferatu' upon his audience. More can be read here. It is an album that I have always loved (in fact the top of the pile of all of the band's solo and spin-off efforts). Most of the crowd knew what to expect, but I did notice a few whose facial expressions suggested patient endurance of the experimental stuff whilst waiting for the hits! Even to my ears, and I know the album like the back of my hand, there were some bits in there that were reminiscent of The Fast Show's 'Jazz Club'! I hope that some of his earliest solo material still works its way into his sets going forward... perhaps in place of  'Bring on the Nubiles'... 'Wired' and 'White Room' survived through to the Dover gig in December so that's a start.

Hugh Cornwell

(The Islington Assembly Hall

13th November 2025)

3. Sex Pistols Dreamland Margate 23rd August 2025

This was really more of a day out than a run of the mill gig. An opportunity to enjoy a late summer day by the sea in the company of friends. The gig was really the icing on the cake. The Stranglers played a great festival set before the main attraction took to the stage. I like the Pistols and the 'Bollocks' album, but I have never really gone much out of my way to see them. I was at Finsbury Park for 'Filthy Lucre' but didn't bother with subsequent gigs... Shepherds Bush, Brixton Academy and the like. The same goes for the recent gigs, but I did want to see them once and this presented an ideal opportunity. I like the fact that the three Pistols involved in this project are asserting their right to perform the music that they created in '76/'77, in the face of noisy Lydon protests from the sidelines. Is Frank Carter a good fit?... I dunno, but then again how on Earth do you put in Lydon's place??

More on this one here.

Sex Pistols

(Dreamland Margate 23rd August 2025)

4. Tom Robinson Band Corn Exchange Hertford 13th August 2025

This perhaps was the one (more here), the best gig of the year. It wasn't the most raucous (the average age of the audience was the highest of the year) and the singer/bass player was forced to sit for most of the gig thanks to a troublesome hernia. Those facts notwithstanding....

It was the most positive, uplifting gig of the year as punk's premium activist went through TRB's impressive back catalogue. At a time when a far right minority feel empowered in this country, Tom's set was a much needed shot in the arm. Power in the darkness indeed!

Tom Robinson Band

(Corn Exchange Hertford 13th August 2025)

5. The Vapors & Ombudsmen Record Junkee Sheffield 15th March 2025

Promoting their new album 'Wasp In A Jar' The Vapors played a handful of gigs in the UK. Support for two of these gigs, in Manchester and Sheffield, came from Manchester's Ombudsmen. These grass roots dates made for a fun weekend of loading gear in and out, soundchecks and poor food! I know that the support appreciated the exposure that came with playing with a name band. Surprisingly, they were better received in Sheffield than in their own town. Having said that, Ombudsmen's experimental/Devo-esque set is a world away from the new wave/mod tinged music that a Vapor's audience were perhaps anticipating. Still winding up elements of an audience is no bad thing is it? Just ask The Stranglers!

More words here.

6. The Stranglers Roundhouse Camden 1st November 2025

Much anticipated Stranglers tour, albeit a small, nine date affair, seemingly in keeping with their declared intent to knock the touring marathons of previous years on the head. Great to hear 'Pin Up' in the set, but I am sure that for me and for a significant proportion of the audience, the run away highlight of the show was a closing rendition of 'Mean to Me'. Great stuff.

A typically poor photo from me (but it does get in all four members!).

The Stranglers

(The Roundhouse, Camden, London 1st November 2025)

7. Gary Numan Cambridge Corn Exchange 26th November 2025

Reviewed here. For someone who sang 'Keep your revivals', Numan pulls off a revival with the best of them. Tragically, what was initially intended to be a 45th Anniversary celebration of his 1980 No.1 album 'Telekon' unexpectedly evolved into a tribute tour following the tragic death of Gary's brother, John Webb, two days into the schedule. Of all of the 'classic album' tours that Numan has done, this was the best yet, delivered with an edge for which the sudden loss of John may or may not have been a contributing factor.

Gary Numan

(Cambridge Corn Exchange 26th November 2025)

8. The Courettes Concorde 2 Brighton 16th November 2025

Not my usual fayre, but a happy discovery this year. An unusual but most welcome choice by Hugh of support for his Nosferatu tour. Stylish, noisy and fun!

The Courettes

(Concorde 2 Brighton 16th November 2025)

9. Ruts DC MAH Cambridge 6th December 2025

Just as Moderna provided the required booster to the Pfizer vaccine back in the dark days of COVIC-19, Ruts DC's gigs in London and Cambridge in December offered a much needed booster to the TRB gig back in August. A further dose of intelligent music to challenge an alarming rise in intolerance and hatred was in order in the wake of certain events of last summer. As ever Ruts DC delivered it.

Segs's shirt choice of the evening neatly summed things up in one word... 'Resist'.

10. 999 Monkeys Music Club Hamburg 25th July 2025

Gunta and I have been following this band for 40 years now, but this summer was the first time that we had travelled over to Europe to see them. This was the second of two shows we took in (the other being in Dusseldorf). More here, but suffice to say that the band went down a storm with their German Crew!

999

(Monkeys Music Bar, Hamburg 25th July 2025)