Gigs Archive

Tickets are £8, £6 for members, unemployed, nurses, students.

• Buff Medways | See The Buff Medways on Myspace
  

  Fronted by Billy Childish - he of well known rock'n'roll bands such as The Milkshakes, Thee Mighty Caesars, The Pop Rivets and Thee Headcoats, plus, more recently, the Musicians of the British Empire - the Buff Medways have reformed for a short period of time whilst Nurse Julie of the MBEs becomes a mother. Original bassist Johnny Barker returns, as heard on their version of Hendrix's "Fire" as well as Billy's own "Troubled Mind", amongst other great tunes. This is the last of the Buff Medways reformation gigs. The MBEs will be back next time.

• Lil' Lost Lou | See Lil' Lost Lou on Myspace
  

  Last year Lil’ Lost Lou released the BBC Radio 2 acclaimed limited 7” single “Bad Bad Girl” which Steve Lamaq described as “a great little single”. Recently Lou’s band has played some great supports – from Wanda Jackson, the queen of rock’n’roll (although Little Richard might fight for the title) to Pete Doherty, the king of the skid row.  A mix of country blues and PJ Harvey on speed (or, possibly, Jack White in drag), Lil’ Lost Lou has arrived.

• Kid Congo Powers & the Pink Monkey Birds | See Kid Congo Powers on Myspace
  

  Many of you will know Kid Congo Powers from when he was in Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, or the Gun Club...or, of course, The Cramps. But his latest incarnation will be talked about in the not so distant future in the same hushed yet excited tones. New album Dracula Boots is on the highly estemeed In The Red label and contains the kind of sounds we here at Dirty Water love the most. Powers goes back to the music that inspired him right in the beginning - the raw sounds of early garage-punk and East LA Chicano rock'n'roll. The original songs go from loud, fuzzy biker rock to a greasy rump shaker groove, from a scary movie soundtrack to The Meters having an acid flashback. And you get a great cover of Thee Midniters' I Found a Peanut too!

• King Salami & the Cumberland 3 | See King Salami on Myspace
  

  The King howls like Screaming Jay Hawkins with Bo Diddley chasing his coat-tail and with Andre Williams trying to offer up some of his bacon fat. This man never stops shakin' and twistin' and groovin' while the Cumberland 3 (former members of the Ulcers, Chinese Lungs and Parkinsons) play their own branded mix of vintage rockabilly desperate rock'n'roll and a bit of soul with fire, energy, gusto and fun!

• Crushers | See The Crushers on Myspace
  
  Two members of The Vacants got a couple of mates together with the intention of playing some f*cked up punk rock'n'roll that'll make yer ears bleed. They take in any influences they find along the way but to my ears it seems to include the likes of the Cramps, Ramones, Tom Waits and various garage bands of the sixties and punk bands from the seventies.

Tickets are £8, £6 for members, unemployed, nurses, students.

• Buff Medways | See The Buff Medways on Myspace
  

  Fronted by Billy Childish - he of well known rock'n'roll bands such as The Milkshakes, Thee Mighty Caesars, The Pop Rivets and Thee Headcoats, plus, more recently, the Musicians of the British Empire - the Buff Medways have reformed for a short period of time whilst Nurse Julie of the MBEs becomes a mother. Original bassist Johnny Barker returns, as heard on their version of Hendrix's "Fire" as well as Billy's own "Troubled Mind", amongst other great tunes. This is the last of the Buff Medways reformation gigs. The MBEs will be back next time.

Tickets are £8, £6 for members, unemployed, nurses, students.

• Goldblade | See Goldblade on Myspace
  

  A shamelessly fundamental collision of The Ramones, James Brown, and The Stooges, backed by the tribal thump of two drummers, the song with which they open their set says it all: “Do You Believe in the Power of Rock’n’Roll?” John Robb's restless spirit courses through the urgency of the band's glam-drenched strut, giving you a sense that every moment of your life should be an all-or-nothing, doing it to the utmost, that rock'n'roll can be your salvation, your reason for living.

• TV Smith | See TV Smith on Myspace
  

  The Adverts were one of the best of the original wave of punk rock groups and in his current live act TV Smith will always bow to the crowd and play some of the old familiar tunes - Gary Gilmore’s Eyes, One Chord Wonders, Bored Teenagers, No Time To Be 21, and all of them still sound great. Despite it being more than 30 years since he first played those hits, the man still puts in a solid, exciting and exhilerating performance. Of his last CD release, Big Takeover said: “The simple truth is, Smith is gracefully graduating in to Punk's true elder statesman and one that's managed to escape the baggage of his past or that of any other subsequent or prior generation. This recording shows he's doing so in a plaintive manner, without compromise, without ever forgetting about that bombsite boy with the fire in his eyes.”

• Johnny Casino & the Secrets | See Johnny Casino & the Secrets on Myspace
  
  Johnny Casino has the songs, the sound and the spirit of irresistible rock'n'roll bursting with soul. When Casino is firing on all six, he’s a man possessed – from the opening salvo of the cover of The Real Kids’ “Who Needs Ya” that opens his “I Am Who I Am, Not Who You Want Me to Be” album, to the bruising power chord attack of the title track, to the whisky and Chuck Berry-fuelled excitement of “Can’t Be Who You Want Me to Be” – there’s enough muscle here to lift the truck of turgid mainstream indie-rock and hurl it into distant oblivion. In Spain the fans sing football songs with Johnny Casino’s name substituted for the soccer player, in France they call him “Chuck Berry on Acid”, in Australia they say "he is like walking into the wrong room of a party at the RIGHT time"! Now is the time to roll the dice with Johnny Casino.

Tickets £7, £5 members, nurses, unemployed, students

• Wildebeests | See The Wildebeests on Myspace
  

  Members of the Kaisers, Milkshakes and Thanes combine their talents to become the Lairds of the Boss Racket. John, Russ and Lenny all cut their teeth playing raw beat music and generally causing a rumpus aurally, and when their paths crossed they found that they had the same old cranky, rusty equipment plus some new(ish) shiny tunes that had accumulated along the way, and the Wildebeests were born! This gig marks the release of their new album, "Gnus of Gnaverone", on Dirty Water Records.

• Fallen Leaves | See The Fallen Leaves on Myspace
  
  Reviewing their abum, "It's Too Late Now", The Sunday Times said: "The Fallen Leaves are a four-piece built around the distinctive punk-mod guitar sound of the impeccably preserved Rob Symmons, who formed the stylishly subversive Subway Sect in the late-1970s. The Leaves' debut stirs memories of the 1960s Brit-beat bands that inspired him and of the 1980s indie groups that aped his style. This sharp, angular, melodic garage-pop will doubtless appeal to the same authenticity-starved youngsters who have made Billy Childish their king, and will provide comfort for ageing hipsters worried that they just don't make them like that any more."
• Bof | See Les Bof on Myspace
  

  Growing up in Marseilles, Laurent considered himself to be musical enemy number one! No one wanted to play garage-beat music with him. Eventually, however, in exile in the UK he searched high and low and came across some tearaways up in the wilds of Scotland who fell for his Gallic charm. And, thus, Les Bof, the undisputed greatest purveyors of French beat in the UK, were born. If you dig the sounds of Jacques Dutronc, Antoine et les Playboys and Ronnie Bird, then you'll love the beat of Les Bof!

Tickets are £8, £6 for members, unemployed, nurses, students.

• Billy Childish & The Musicians Of The British Empire | See The MBEs on Myspace
  

  With his latest combo, The Musicians of the British Empire, Billy carries on his tradition of home made punk and rhythm and blues, singing odes to Joe Strummer and nodding to The Who, whilst showing the next generation what a real rock ’n’ roll group sounds like. Since his first recordings in the late '70s with the Pop Rivets, Childish has followed a single-minded course under a variety of monikers including the Headcoats, the Milkshakes, the Mighty Caesars and more recently the Buff Medways. Childish hasn't really deviated from his punky Kinks-Who-Bo Diddley-Link Wray formula – but, hey, if it’s good it’s good, if it ain’t broke there’s no need to fix it!

Advance tickets, £14, on the door £16. As of Thursday morning there are just a few advance tickets left, but we will be holding back  40 or 50 to sell on the door.

• Black Lips | See The Black Lips on Myspace
  

  Pitchfork says of their new album 200 Million Thousand: “Whatever you like to call the Black Lips' particular branch of guitar rock - garage, revival, their own “flower punk” tag – it’s an easier sell whenever the band in question is painted the fastest, craziest, or most depraved in the land. But it's long past time we put the band's reputation and ridiculous press aside and look at them for who they are; they're neither buffoons nor savants, and they deserve to be judged on their music, which was plenty maniacal without taking any outside factors into consideration. Now on the verge of a potential breakthrough-- maybe because of it, who knows-- on 200 Million Thousand, Black Lips sidestep expectations and make a record less approachable than its predecessor. Indeed, the cleaner sound and summery pop of Good Bad Not Evil has been ditched here for a psychedelic haze.”

• Vicars | See Thee Vicars on Myspace
  

  Teenage rock'n'roll terrorists from the small town of Bury St Edmunds on a mission to kung-fu kick all the boring bands out of existence! Real raw and vintage sounding garage-rock'n'roll! Their single, Don't Try To Tell Me, came out on Dirty Water Records earlier this year. Their debut album, "Back on the Streets", came out on Dirty Water Records last year. A second single, You Lie, is out now and brand new album "Psychotic Beat!", which heads in a more sixties garage direction away from the Childish-inspired punky debut - released on 15 December - has been getting great reviews.

• Sex Beet | See Sex Beet on Myspace
  

  You all love Thee Vicars, right? Well, those young scamps have started their own record label, as you'll know if you've bought their Feel So Good 45 at the Dirty Water merch table. Well, this other bunch of young scamps called Sex Beet have been signed up by Thee Vicars to be on an EP alongside themselves along with The Hipshakes and The Wailin' Yeahs (a Vicars side-project). So, hey, you know they're gonna be good fun lo-fi garagey punky rock'n'roll, yeah? Of course you're gonna love 'em!

Tickets are £8, £6 for members, unemployed, nurses, students.

• Billy Childish & The Musicians Of The British Empire | See The MBEs on Myspace
  

  With his latest combo, The Musicians of the British Empire, Billy carries on his tradition of home made punk and rhythm and blues, singing odes to Joe Strummer and nodding to The Who, whilst showing the next generation what a real rock ’n’ roll group sounds like. Since his first recordings in the late '70s with the Pop Rivets, Childish has followed a single-minded course under a variety of monikers including the Headcoats, the Milkshakes, the Mighty Caesars and more recently the Buff Medways. Childish hasn't really deviated from his punky Kinks-Who-Bo Diddley-Link Wray formula – but, hey, if it’s good it’s good, if it ain’t broke there’s no need to fix it!

Tickets are £8, £6 for members, unemployed, nurses, students.

• Billy Childish & The Musicians Of The British Empire | See The MBEs on Myspace
  

  With his latest combo, The Musicians of the British Empire, Billy carries on his tradition of home made punk and rhythm and blues, singing odes to Joe Strummer and nodding to The Who, whilst showing the next generation what a real rock ’n’ roll group sounds like. Since his first recordings in the late '70s with the Pop Rivets, Childish has followed a single-minded course under a variety of monikers including the Headcoats, the Milkshakes, the Mighty Caesars and more recently the Buff Medways. Childish hasn't really deviated from his punky Kinks-Who-Bo Diddley-Link Wray formula – but, hey, if it’s good it’s good, if it ain’t broke there’s no need to fix it!