Music > Live Reviews

Sham 69

The Adrian Flux Waterfront

12/06/17

Tonight, we have two legends of the punk scene, in Sham 69 and Angelic Upstarts. Both bands are celebrating their fortieth anniversaries, albeit that both have split-up, reformed and gone through several line-up changes. I was expecting great things from one and not a lot from the other.

First up, from South Shields, come Angelic Upstarts. If I am honest, I wasn't expecting much from this mob, just some big-standard punk. That wasn’t based on any previous experience of the Upstarts, just on things I had been told over the years. Boy oh boy, did I get that one wrong! They blew my bloody socks off. Mensi might not be the most mobile of frontmen but he holds the attention. The rhythm section keep things simple but powerful, whilst there is some steering guitar work.

Songs like 2,000,000 Voices, Never 'Ad Nothing and Last Night Another Soldier are as strong as anything in the punk canon, Solidarity is an almost Springsteenesque anthem and the band put out a seemingly tireless intensity throughout this hour long set. 

And now for Sham 69. I'd not listened to Sham for a while so I dug out some stuff to prepare for this. It was kinda revelatory. What I remembered was, well, primitive rock. What I had forgotten was The Who-like maximum R 'n' B and raucous rock 'n' roll that drove the bootboy anthems. So, I was expecting a lot from this. And it was.... OK. Nothing more, nothing less than OK.

Yeah, Jimmy Pursey can be a magnetic frontman. Yeah, Dave Tregunna, Dave Pearson and (only non-original member) Robin Guy are tight as a gnat's wotsit. Yeah, there some great songs. You can't argue with the likes of Ulster Boy, Borstal Breakout, Angels With Dirty Faces, If The Kids Are United, or Hersham Boys. But something doesn't quite click, Sham don't demand my attention like the Upstarts and they play for 45 minutes, including the encore. Not exactly value for money when tickets are the best part of thirty quid. 

Sometimes, I can judge a gig on when I first check my watch. For the Upstarts, it was after 50 minutes, for Sham, it was after 20. That sums this up. Sham are a little disappointing and the Upstarts blew me away.