On Monday 21st of March, The Pilgrim played host to one of the best showcases of Punk Rock you could hope for. The bill included some of the hottest Liverpool Punk Bands with the help of Apologies, I Have None on tour from London. £3 to get in was a bargain in anybody’s books for the quality of bands on show.
The show started with Liverpool newcomers Amateur Video. The lads gave it all they have and then a little bit more and I tip them to go a long way in the Punk scene. A great crowd of around 60 people packed in to the small room of the upstairs of The Pilgrim. You can tell a great opening act when the whole crowd converge to the front of the stage instead of standing back at the bar, which is what Amateur Video succeeded to do!
Following them were out-of-towners Apologies, I Have None with sing along anthems that remind me of bands like ‘The Loved Ones’. Despite being the only non-Northern act on the bill they had as much a following as the local bands. Everyone singing along especially when the southerners played ‘Sat In Vicky Park’, it was a pleasure to see these guys play at last, they are a credit to the Punk scene with their relentless touring and I implore you to check them out when they’re in your town next!
Southport’s Just Panic who organised and promoted this gig themselves were next on stage and despite some sound system failures managed to get everyone dancing with some pretty extreme dance moves including a human pyramid that would be more expected in an American cheerleading squad’s practice session, and crowd surfing which is synonymous with Punk Rock. A highlight of the set was when they played the crowd favourite, ‘Apologise for any Inconvenience’ when microphones were ignored due to the audience’s combined voice. Classic.
Headlining the show were Liverpool’s best hardcore band Chief. Following the sound system trouble and a small matter of microphone stands going missing, the crowd were forced to wait for Chief to start their set, and finally when the lads got the O.K. from the sound engineer, lead singer Nick wittily remarked ‘Apologies, I have one…..we only have one side of the PA!’. In true show business tradition ‘The show must go on!’ and Chief aren’t one to let technical difficulties get in the way of showing their fans a good time. Due to the problems with the sound their set was cut short and the sound engineer cut the sound to the microphones, however in the true Punk ethos ‘Chief’ and everyone in the crowd ‘did it themselves’ singing along to the awesome ‘Profits in Pockets’.
I woke up this morning with ‘Nice One’ written on my right hand in red marker pen. It is the audience of which I was privileged to be a part of who should be thanking everyone involved as it was a very enjoyable gig, with the sound problems forcing the bands and audience to up their game. Nice one lads.
