Rockaway Seaside 2025 – Pageant Evaluate

Rockaway Seaside Pageant
Bognor Regis
3-Fifth Jan 2025

Iain Key and John Robb run round Butlins getting immersed in music previous and new

John Robb

There’s one thing fairly cool about having already been to your first competition of the 12 months, and it’s nonetheless solely sixth January. Changing the naffest evening of the 12 months – New 12 months’s Eve- with a excessive decibel occasion that completely mixes the previous and the brand new is the USP of Rockaway Seaside, now celebrating its tenth 12 months of noisy thrills at Butlins in Bognor Regis.

The birthday was celebrated with a brand new constructed venue added to the Butlins web site – a cutting-edge 3000 cap venue with an ideal PA which cranks the competition as much as one other stage and cements the yearly offered out competition’s fame because the curtain-raising occasion of every new 12 months.

Rockaway Seaside has the right mixture of out of season seaside city, windswept seashores, chalets, and a 5 minute stroll to a snapshot of present indie/different tradition, which is a fairly cool mixture.

Friday evening noticed the oozing perfection of Spiritualized’s gospel-fused set, filled with epic dynamics and spectral feelings. There’s a nice sonic magnificence that hangs within the air because the band patiently rolls out its brooding perfection. In fact, it’s not the slam dunk moshpit a go-go of normal competition headliners, and that’s a serious plus level. They pull you into their journey like an emotional black gap and its attendant splendid magnificence. 

Iain Key

Over virtually two hours we’re handled to a sensory overload as Jason Pierce and crew ship a career-spanning set, together with a elegant Shine A Mild, by way of to So Lengthy You Fairly Factor, with a heavy smattering of tracks from And Nothing Damage. I’ll say at this level, the expertise was marginally spoilt by a handful of viewers members watching the darts last on their telephones who have been joyful to offer a operating commentary, and others extra usually chatting about their journeys to the positioning and sharing their test in expertise. Throughout a quiet passage somebody even thought it was a good suggestion to sing joyful birthday…

John Robb

Friday evening’s nocturnal treats from Arab Strap sees their charismatic storytelling of life in a Scottish sitting room and past into the encircling city; with poetic takes on the warts and all of residing a life completely framed by their twilight music, that merges digital beats with lo-fi soundscapes and into one thing wholly distinctive and their very own. By delving into the human facet of life, they’ve a heartwarming and embracing humanity. Their clever genius is hypnotic and creative as they form shift from one soundscape to the subsequent, as Aidan Moffat intones his overwhelmed up beat poetry and observations. 

New York’s Bodega open their set amusingly with a final minute cowl of the Ramones traditional Rockaway Seaside, which units the stall for his or her quirky artwork punk and storage rock shocks.

Iain Key

The omens for an excellent weekend have been in place when, travelling down south on Thursday I ran into Pete Wylie, my first precedence for the weekend, at Warwick Providers. He was en path to play a warm-up present in Portsmouth, however was eager to inform me in regards to the new band he’d not too long ago assembled after ‘being sacked’ from the earlier incarnation of Wah!, and the way good they have been.

Mr Wylie might say a whole lot of issues, however he places his cash the place his mouth is, and Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! completely stay as much as their billing, regardless of solely a few gigs beneath their belts. They kick off with By no means Beloved As A Little one, the opening monitor from 2000’s Songs Of Power And Heartbreak, which is because of get a reappreciation and tour later in 2025. The group are up for it, however not everybody might have seen the legend earlier than, not conscious that banter, each between Pete and band and Pete and viewers, are a part of the act. There may be the odd heckle which is shot down with aplomb and occasional self-depreciation, nonetheless this doesn’t take away the underlying message that we should always all love each other (except you’re a Tory). Through the hour lengthy set we get the ‘hits’, together with Come Again (The Story Of The Reds), The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies (A Get together Track), Higher Scream, Sinful, Free Falling (In Love With You), Seven Minutes To Midnight earlier than closing on Coronary heart As Large As Liverpool and The Story Of The Blues.

John Robb

The last word energy trio with the band’s a long time of expertise, Ruts DC, ship the tightest set of the weekend. Their machine-like musicianship doesn’t crush one iota of emotion out of the songs that made them one of many nice final hopes of the unique punk motion again within the mists of time, when their clutch of hits was cruelly curtailed by the dying of their charismatic singer, Malcolm Owen. The reconvened band, with an added ‘DC’, continued on and off and are actually very a lot on, and have the respect of their viewers for not solely their dignity however their craft, which sees new songs nearly as good as the massive hitters from again within the day. 

Iain Key

Described as ‘a collective of sonic pioneers, defying conference and transcending boundaries with their esoteric mix of cosmic blues’, catching their 30min set on Sunday afternoon with a gap quantity which appeared to take up not less than half of the allotted time, you’d be forgiven in pondering you’d walked right into a surreal musical model of The Wicker Man. The Jonny Halifax Invocation’s sounds are completely compelling, with visuals to match. I’m not sure what I noticed/heard. Would undoubtedly return once more to ensure it wasn’t a fever dream.

Meryl Streek is a should watch, having seen the Louder Than Struggle favorite a number of instances during the last couple of years as each headline act and in help. There are a couple of people within the crowd who haven’t had that chance and nonetheless want a little bit convincing following the opening montage of audio clips, however they’re quickly gained over as soon as the Dubliner hits the stage together with his all-out assault. If there may be one strategy to win over a crowd, it’s to get in amongst them as Streek does for Paddy; one other manner is to deliver on a visitor, as he does with Cal from The Chisels for Canines. The hard-hitting set pulls no punches and finishes with the double knock out of Demise To The Landlord and If This Is Life.

The Filth are one other should see on my checklist; one other act I’ve seen a number of instances. I’ve been trying ahead to as we speak, with the promise of fabric from their second album, together with the forthcoming single Chaos. Jack and spouse, Sachiko have been taking advantage of the weekend and making a whole lot of mates, judging by the variety of t-shirts bearing their identify within the viewers. Backed with beautiful visuals, the pair fill the stage. In distinction to the sooner Jonny Halifax expertise it’s saved easy, with the frontman together with his sampler and spoon, and his companion in crime together with her guitar and amp. The music and lyrics are difficult, however there’s additionally banter which highlights their attraction. Jack, as at all times, takes the chance to straight interact, singing at and hugging members of the group, earlier than the closing Crying Out Loud leaves us all with our ears ringing.

John Robb

Sunday sees no let up, with the Miki Berenyi Trio filling a busy principal venue with their creative guitar sounds that mix the melancholy fragile great thing about so known as shoegaze with a publish punk edge and crystalline melodies that create spectral moods, however at all times in some way they cram them into good pop. Breaking free from her previous, the previous Lush singer has discovered her personal manner because the messy divorce of that band, and is proof that, because the years roll by, the artwork doesn’t need to decay – and the present band is a transfer to a brand new future. The trio, made up of Miki’s companion Moose on a guitar that makes its personal distinctive noise and shapes, and former member of Cooler, Oliver Cherer, on bass, have been initially put collectively as Piroshka. They then joined Miki on her ebook tour for her acclaimed and superbly written Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success memoirs, and have now acquired a lifetime of their very own. This assured efficiency on the massive stage bodes properly for a future manner past their present DIY standing.

Fuck the naysayers – there’s a future! And most of it appears to be coming from Eire. Fashioned simply earlier than the pandemic, Dublin’s quick rising Sprints have been delivering nice reveals for a couple of years and have honed down final 12 months’s sonically explosive debut album Letter To Self into perfection. They personal the stage, and their entrancing darkish noise sounds stadium-huge while retaining its dynamics and intimate soul energy. You can name this publish punk, and people influences are in there, however they’re so manipulated into new shapes, textures and sounds that we desperately want a brand new time period for this wonderful pop/noise. 

With loping bass traces holing the strain with clipped guitars exploding into shards of guitar noise that ebbs and flows the strain with thrilling avalanches of sound, they command the dynamics like the primary Siouxsie And The Banshees album however with their very own essential improve, and there may be an urgency that firmly locations them into the long run. Singer Karla Chubb is an entrancing and charismatic presence, together with her whooping voice filled with a sonic and emotional vary because it fills the songs with an intense and melodic tsunami. It’s an exhilarating and explosive set and proof that music is as very important, pressing, entrancing and seat of the pants thrilling than ever. The band’s set and total politik is hope in instances of despair and an empowering enveloping thrill of electrical sound that can energy them into being one of many main bands of 2025.

Theoretically, there may very well be no following of Dash’s huge second – the massive second the place it looks like they go from cool competition band to headliners; that nexus second when all the things modifications. However Experience aren’t any slackers, and tonight they play the perfect I’ve ever seen them in 40 odd years. They’ve at all times been understated characters and a band that appears to lurk just below the floor, however their music is an entrancing psychedelic hypnotism, with music after music charming with its sheer magnificence; the dual guitars and twin vocals knitted collectively to journey you out with their lysergic melodic magic. The band are in fixed inventive second and the brand new songs effortlessly slip into the previous and right into a seamless complete. with the traditional Depart Them All Behind in some way marrying the consolation of familiarity with a recent new edge that makes it really feel pressing and new. Mesmerising and easy, Experience pull you into their psychedelic vortex and into their second and into their eternally that, even when it could be interrupted in some unspecified time in the future, will nonetheless be everlasting. 

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All phrases by John Robb and Iain Key

All images by Jamie MacMillan with variety permission

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