Ceremony / Never Healed / Jailbait @ Bar Academy, London

(by MWJ)

So I’m working in London for the week and decided to get along to this gig, despite having heard very little by any of the bands.

First up were local favourites Jailbait who played hardcore with brutal beatdowns. Their mates were obviously all in attendance (as it should be!) and they were launching themselves into kamikaze stage-dives, one lad took a running jump along the length of the bar! A good start.

Next up were Californian psychos Never Healed. They were like early Black Flag in parts, and the singer resembled Henry Rollins’ slightly crazier fresh-outta-jail brother! The crowd were more restrained for their performance, but I thought that they were the best band of the night.

I also picked up a copy of their “Only Europa Knows” LP 76/250 too, good times.

So onto headliners Ceremony who were touring their well-received new album “Still Nothing Moves You”. It was obvious from the start that the fairly sparse crowd were all huge fans (apart from me!) and were word-perfect on every song. Kids were climbing over each other to grab the microphone from the singer and belt out a line or two.

The modern hardcore “dancing” of karate kicks and windmilling (!) were in evidence, but it was heartening to see one “scene kid” get fucking sent flying by an old-school bloke who took exception to being caught by the lad’s swinging foot. Not that I condone violence against “scene kids” you understand…

Overall this was a good gig. The bands were what I expected and the crowd, although fairly low in numbers, were enthusiastic and energetic.