You're Nicked!
It's twenty-nine years since the Angelic Upstarts first burst onto the scene, during that time they've released some classic punk anthems, some rather poor punk anthems, split up a few times, reformed a few times, had numerous fights between members and had their gigs stormed by Nazi skinheads taking exception to singer Mensi's outspoken anti-racist views. Stepping into the Thatched House tonight though it's like stepping into a time warp that takes us back to the early 1980s! The healthy (in number, not physically!) crowd is made up almost exclusively of old punks and skinheads, if you ever wondered where all the mohicans had gone there's little doubt that they have all moved to Stockport.
For a moment I fail to recognise Mensi as he takes the stage, having only ever seen him before in pictures from the 80s I wasn't expecting the large and balding figure that he's become but as soon as he looks out at the audience there's no doubt who he is! Mensi has always had the ability to hold a crowd, be it with an intense stare or highly amusing in between song banter and it soon becomes evident that he's lost none of his charisma. They begin proceedings with the excellent 'Teenage Warning' and despite their advancing years the crowd go nuts, you may have seen circle pits or been moshing at the front of your average metal gig but until you've seen the aggression and at times sheer violence of a hardcore punk crowd you've seen nothing! The sound is great and it seems that the majority of the crowd are well versed on the Upstarts back catalogue as they sing a long through a succession of classics. I really had forgotten just how good some of the songs were, especially as in a live setting they pack far more punch than the studio versions.
There can't have been anyone in the crowd left disappointed by the set tonight, 'Never 'ad Nothin', 'Last Night Another Soldier', 'Police Oppression', 'I'm An Upstart', 'Anti Nazi' and the brilliant 'Leave Me Alone' were all delivered with a passion and energy that defied the age of the songs. The only let up for the particularly wild crowd came in the form of 'I Understand', an early attempt at reggae which was just about passable on record but falls completely flat live!
Everyone has their favourite songs and although the band turn out an absolutely blistering version of '2,000,000 voices' it's the encore of 'England' that steals the show with the majority of the crowd bellowing out the words whilst holding their hands aloft. A step back in time this may have been but as a lesson in straight up hardcore street punk it was unmissable, a fantastic performance from one of the most underrated second wave punk bands. Refusing to grow old gracefully never looked or sounded so good! Excellent stuff.