Out of The Ashes Festival, Ellesmere Port

Not a bad looking festival (shame about the tribute bands), but enough local talent to warrant the £12 entry with camping – www.newworldevents.co.uk

ZEBEDY – Exist (new album)

Fatboy Slim’s album title, ‘You’ve Come A Long Way Baby’ is quite fitting if you direct it at Zebedy. They certainly have come a long way. From the beginnings of Lantern in 2002, when Jonny Harding-Smith (known then, and probably now as Jonny Lantern) slid across the scene on his knees and somehow managed to wind up all and sundry simply by playing guitar better than the rest of them put together.
Lantern’s PR machine (whoever that was) flamed just about everybody on the early day forums, and there’d be spits and spats, songs written in the name of local rivalry – and it was all entertaining. Publicity whoring aside, one fact they couldn’t deny is that Jonny is one motherfucking excellent guitarist.
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STILLETOES, ZEBEDY @ The Grapevine, Rhyl

(review n live pix by neil crud)

Rhyl may have recently experienced a mass desertion on the punter front, but it didn’t show tonight, with The Stilletoes stamping back into town, they manage to send a seductive punk pulse around these sullen streets by thrashing their instruments to death. Here is a young band that are going to be there and do that before any others in the area are going to have been there and done it. They mean business in this mean business, but by fuck are they gonna have fun on the way.
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Lantern, Upstarts, Anti Virus, Zebedy, Harrow Down, DLO @ Old Hall, Penrhyn Bay

(by mwj)

With the cancellation of my train friendly option of The Imperial I elected for a sober drive to the old hall for the first time in years, since my old pissed biking expeditions to the punk nights they’d put on here. I’m am out of sensible biking range (and lacking match fitness) at the moment but this was my first chance to check out these regular rock nights that the guys from Lantern have set up and organised. Continue reading