1,148 MARKY RAMONE’S BLITZKRIEG, The Blunders, Bristol Fleece, Saturday 27th July 2019

I only grabbed 1/3 of the list this time... but here's a pic of the full shebang...!

Here's another opportunity to go gigging with my little man Logan, this time at the all-ages friendly Fleece, and once again we’re indulging his predilection for old school punk rock; after The Skids and Stiff Little Fingers, here’s none other than Marky Ramone! The Ramones, seminal 70’s NYC punk rockers and one of the absolute root metaphors for any music I’ve loved since then, the band responsible for my first “rock” t-shirt (a “Rocket To Russia” special in 1979) and a band whom I’ve pretty much always owned a t-shirt by since then, a band whom I got to see 4 utterly magical, mental, manic times back in the day, but a band I’d of course never see again, due to the untimely deaths of all 4 original members. However, first replacement drummer Marky Ramone (who took over the drum stool ceded by Tommy for the 4^th album “Road To Ruin” and enjoyed 2 subsequent lengthy stints with da Brudders) is thankfully still in rude health, and gigging with his own iteration of the band, a revolving door of CBGB’s casualties and NYC punk acolytes including (although sadly not tonight) Andrew WK! So a nearby gig sounded intriguing, and Logan (for whom The Ramones were one of his first introductions to music – quite right too!) was well up for it too!

So, shorts and kneestrap clad (me, not my son!), we hit the road at 6.15, parking up handily around the corner and queueing for doors, which were late at 7.30. Logan liked the “No Dickheads Policy” Fleece sign, and also the fact we got a barrier spot, house right. A short wait, and support The Blunders were on. A trio of old punk lags, I wasn’t expecting much – particularly when they mentioned to the early couple of dozen folks in the venue, “this is a lot of people for us!” – but they were pretty good, impressing with some strongarm, socially aware street punk, recalling not only The Ruts and Theatre Of Hate, but also newbies like Autobahn and Idles. The cockernee vocalist sounded like an angry Jim Bob, “Fireproof” was an impressive and more upbeat early number, and “Human” a good slab of anthemic popcore. A final call to arms, “Legion” rounded off a decent and better than expected set, although they squeezed in an encore as they were running early!

A bit of a wait between acts as the place filled up, but Logan and I kept our front row spot. Then Marky Ramone arrived (as is his wont, apparently, turning up 10 minutes before showtime for gigs!), older but still the legendary figure of old, rock-star skinny with an utterly massive mane of dyed black hair, undertaking some last drum adjustments before departing the stage to cheers. Not for long, however, as The Blitzkrieg joined us at 9, all black-clad and NYC 70’s street cool, kicking off with surf-punk classics “Rockaway Beach” and “Teenage Lobotomy” in short order. From the outset they sounded great, ripping through this hallowed material apace but never so fast as to render the tracks unrecognisable. Former Circle Jerks/ Black Flag guitarist Greg Hetson did an exemplary job keeping the riffs chugging along, low-slung bassist Alejandro Viejo pulled Jaret Reddick-style gurns and kept the gig rattling along with the obligatory, “waunchewfreeFOUR!!” song introductions, and rangy, preying mantis-like vocalist Inaki “Pela” Urbizu was a cross between Joey Ramone himself and The Horrors’ “Goblin King” Faris Badwan, towering over and into the crowd and striking wide-legged rock poses. But all eyes were on Marky, hunched over the drumkit, economical of movement and drum style, drumming from the wrist and chewing gum 19 to the dozen. Just one of those times when you feel privileged to be in the same room as a true rock’n’roll legend.

Highlights? Wow, so many… a brilliant early trio of “Sheena”, “Havana Affair” and “Commando” (first rule…IS!!); Pela pointing out all the girls in the front rows during “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”, accompanied or not (!) then pointing at Logan during “Beat On The Brat” (!!), later handing him a discarded pick (!!!); Logan going utterly batshit mental during “Surfin’ Bird”: Marky’s dynamic drum rolls during the excellent “Chinese Rock”’s chorus; a quite brilliantly singalong “I Wanna Be Sedated”; a manic “Spiderman” with Pela miming shooting webs around; the poignant encore of “Wonderful World” (Joey’s last record before his untimely demise); and then the cherry on the icing on the cake of final number “Blitzkrieg Bop”, which fittingly closed out a great 1 ½ hours and 40 (yes, 40!) numbers.

Caught our breath then a swift drive home. Great night out, and great to know that Marky Ramone is keeping the Ramones fire burning brightly, doing complete justice to their legendary legacy. Only one way to end this write-up… Hey Ho, Let’s Go!

29 U2, "The Longest Day", Milton Keynes Bowl, Saturday 22 June 1985

Ticket is mine, set list isn't. I wish!

My first big outdoor concert; and it rained! A dank horrible mid-Summer day greeted myself and 60-odd thousand folks as we arrived at this huge amphitheatre, parking up in the mud and failing to sell our spare ticket. Bah! Met up with my brother there - he, sensibly, went by train.

Openers THE FAITH BROTHERS were again rubbish. BILLY BRAGG however controlled the huge audience well, and performed a largely political song-based set. SPEAR OF DESTINY, next, impressed with a set of powerful rock with big choruses and big vocals from Kirk Brandon, but the real support card treat was the late afternoon appearance of THE RAMONES. The first time I'd seen da Brudders, they were just as I'd imagined, blasting through 30 songs of dumb sing-along surf punk in about an hour, all at breakneck speed! Moshed frantically down the front and got soaked in both rain and sweat.

Needed a breather after that, so went for a walk during REM's set. A band I'd later come to love fervently, they played a dull and dour set as bleak as the slate grey leaden skies overhead. The only notable number was the MTV-friendly "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)", from a poor set, which my brother spent hurling bottles of piss at Michael Stipe!.

U2 the headliners seized the day with gusto, starting with "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" and ripping through a brilliant and brilliantly chosen set of their euphoric, passionate rock. Right at this point, they were in a different league from the rest, for power, passion or indeed anything really! This was their moment and Bono, the supreme and sincere frontman, and the band took it perfectly, not even allowing technical problems during "Bad" to affect their performance. Brilliant stuff from a young band on the up and up.

The set was as follows; "11 O'Clock Tick Tock", "I Will Follow", "Seconds" ("a message to Margaret Thatcher, a message to Ronald Ray-Gun..."), "MLK" (dedicated to Coretta King), "The Unforgettable Fire", "Wire", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", The Electric Co.", "A Sort Of Homecoming", an appropriate "Rain" (the Beatles number, interspersed with snatches of Bob Dylan's "Hard Rain"), "Bad" (after a false start due to the synth breaking down), "October", "New Year's Day" and "Pride"

Encores were "Party Girl", a brilliant "Gloria" and finally a sing-along "40" to end the sodden yet superb day perfectly.

45 THE RAMONES, The Prisoners, London Hammersmith Palais, Monday 5 May 1986

Took the train up on a Bank Holiday Monday with Rich and Paul, my brother really saving my bacon by taking up a ticket offer which became available at the last minute due to a drop-out!

Hit the bar instead of paying attention to The Prisoners, so can't remember what they were like! However The Ramones lived up to their image and reputation once again, running through 30 numbers, including all the old favourites ("Sheena", "Blitzkrieg Bop" et al), plus many selections from return-to-form recent albums "Animal Boy" and the excellent "Too Tough To Die", all in a leather jacketed blur at breakneck pace! At one point, the 3 of us, furiously fighting for dear life in a frantic moshpit, all pitched up in the toilets at the same time just to get some air! "What are we all doing in here, the Ramones are on out there!"

228 THE RAMONES, Terrorvision, Sunday 13 December 1992

A bungled ticket-mare by the Bristol Rainbow (formerly Studio) box office meant needing to get there well early to ensure entry. It also meant, unfortunately, that we were there for all of the ham-fisted noisenik support band's poor set. Dreck! Dreck!

I decided on a "kill or cure" treatment for a recently onset bout of flu, and joined The Big Man in the moshpit for this dose of surf punk nostalgia. First time I'd seen "Da Bruddas", one of my first musical ever loves, since 1986 (back in gig 45), but the only change is that nowadays they play even faster - so fast, in fact, that beanpole vocalist Joey Ramone now has trouble keeping up with the verses! About 30 songs of breakneck-speed sheer euphoric punk rock classics ("Lobotomy"! "Blitzkrieg Bop"! "I Wanna Be Well"! "Sheena"! "Cretin Hop"! "Commando"! highlights amongst many many others) zoomed by in a, "take it CJ"; "wanchoofreefour!" haze. The brick wall backdrop, the leather jackets, the eagle, Joey's "Gabba Gabba Hey" sign; all the key elements were there. The Ramones never change, never even seem to age, they just get faster!

Oh, and by the way it was "kill" for me, as the flu (or was it the pounding I received in the moshpit?) left me bedridden for a few days afterwards! Yuck! Still, at least we had fun (in the warm California Sun) so it was well worth it!

314 THE RAMONES, Sultans Of Ping, London Brixton Academy, Saturday 3 February 1996

End of an era! This was billed as the "Last Ever" gig by The Ramones, and said so on the tickets as well, so me and The Big Man had to be there, really. Drove up, then had a few problems getting over from Shepherd's Bush, so missed first band Scarfo. Unfortunately, we were well in time for the now seriously past their sell-by date Sultans Of Ping, now minus the "FC" and most of the humour, with vocalist Niall now thinking he's Iggy Pop with his antics, in front of some tuneless mulchy rock dirge. Guys, that joke isn't funny anymore...

The Ramones took the stage to the theme tune from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", then proceeded to blast through a breakneck-fast greatest hits selection. "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Sheena", "Rockaway Beach", "Pinhead"; they played everything you'd want them to, as befitted a final performance, but occasionally too fast and too loud. In addition, the moshpit in the sold-out Academy was quite the most bat-shit mental I'd ever seen, so midway through, I retreated to safe haven.

As for Da Brudders; well, they kept rocking, but looked (recent recruit CJ excepted) a little old and tired, with Joey in particular having trouble keeping his vocals up in time with the superfast crash bang wallop rock. Nevertheless, they gave themselves a superb and fitting send-off, with surf punk classics aplenty. Only one thing left to say; Adios, Amigos!