Four grown men swearing – tick.
Four cult figures rambling – tick.
Four middle aged men showing signs of medical frailty – tick.
Four punk rock legends – tick.
Four Dead Men (still) Walking – tick.
Welcome to the Old Fire Station Sunday 4th February 2024.
This combo has a rolling ensemble of players, tonight we have Kirk Brandon, Jake Burns, Seggs & Ruffy, I’m sure dear reader you already know of each individual and their road to this stage, so I will not bore you with their past at this moment in time. The chaps were casually attired, all showed signs of general wear and tear – but here they all are up there and still doing it! Out of them all Kirk looks the coolest with that ‘quiff’ still in evidence, Jake’s head is now shaved and The Ruts boys wear hats.
After a brief introduction about how tonight’s programme would unfold the audience settled down and Mr Brandon was called to perform, followed by the Ruts boys then Mr Reilly then back to Kirk. There were long-ish gaps between each song as a story was told, sometimes alluding to the subject matter of the song sometimes just a bit of raconteuring and name dropping. When ex-band members or random celebs got an airing there was murmurs of approval but throughout the evening the audience were heard chatting which was slightly disconcerting for the band. All the Dead Men had a story to tell and even Kirk settled down after some initial reluctance.
The hits of Stiff Little Fingers, The Ruts, Spear of Destiny and Theatre of Hate were all rolled out in an acoustic styley, we got Nobody’s Heroes, In a Rut, Never take me Alive, Suspect Device, Babylon’s Burning, (Do you believe in the) Westworld, Alternative Ulster, Staring at the Rude Boys and all points in between. One chap came down to the front to ‘groove’ to a lesser known Ruts song, apologising to the audience for his forwardness then falling out with them as someone dared to question his credentials. Surprisingly all of the songs fitted nicely into an acoustic setting and the band seemed to have a good time; which leads me on to 99 Mr Benns who opened the evening, they are a piano & vocal duo and do lounge versions of modern classics, that statement is for the world outside Carlisle, locally it’s another Stephen (Dunno) Dunn combo. He is a seasoned performer and can hold an audience with ease but tonight it took a while to get comfortable, maybe sitting down on a ‘crooning’ chair might work as there was a lot of nervous wandering about during the instrumental sections. Weller’s back catalogue got a sprightly airing and we all sang along, he even updating pulled out a ‘queen’ to pulled out a ‘king’ – he is a national treasure!
DeClunk 