Sham 69 in Falmouth

I was back in Falmouth on Saturday for the Sham 69 gig at the Princess Pavilions. I was a student at the art school during 81/92 but don't remember this venue at all. The first time I ever visited this place was last year but it has a great atmosphere, is well-organised and the sound quality is good. (Photo from Sham 69 official website)

Support was from Distortion UK and The Surgeons. Distortion UK were just a bit too much thrash-metal band and disjointed for me but they can certainly play. And don't lack energy - I never thought I'd hear a faster version of Motorhead's Ace of spades but I have now. The Surgeons are a long established local punk band.I reckon they improve with hearing and they certainly went down well. Frontman Pete Kliskey said one song had already been performed in a support set for Sham 69 at a Penzance punk fest back in the 70s.

Sham 69 did not disappoint. They rocked. And the appreciative crowd responded in kind.

The set reminded me what great songs Sham 69 have. They’re not too Oi! and their performance confirmed what I’d suspected for a long time – these guys can really play. The yobbishnness that they attracted all those years ago hid this fact for too long.

And – in a way that’s sad but true – their songs are just as relevant as ever, rousing chants from the terraces where (apparently) two teams of eleven men kick around inflated pig’s bladders for amusement. (They ought to get out more.) Sometimes I get the feeling the pig in question might have been a member of Her Majesty’s law enforcement agencies but if there was any menace it was not aimed at you or me but them – them that get one over on us, the perpetrators of the greatest cockney ripoff.

For me Questions and answers is simply a great song.

My mate Gary said that he’d tried to see Sham 69 on six previous occasions. Out of five of those six, Jimmy Pursey didn't show up and the gig was cancelled. On the sixth occasion, Gary said the crowd were keen (at last) to hear some of Sham 69's hits played live and were shouting out "Breakout!" and "Hersham Boys!"

Pursey’s response was, "We're Sham 69! We don't do requests!"

And they didn't.

That's not how to please the crowd.

But that was then and this is now.

As guitarist Dave Parsons put it in an interview with the NME, “Sham 69 have left Jimmy Pursey on the eve of their 30th anniversary. The band had become increasingly fed up with Jimmy's lack of interest in playing live and continually letting down both promoters and fans by pulling out of gigs at the last moment."

Pursey has now been replaced by Tim V. Sham 69 can now be relied on to turn up and play everyone's favourites. Pursey may have been a charismatic front man but so is Tim V, with his Johnny Rotten spiked blond hairdo and Millwall football shirt. I don't know what he did before he became Sham 69’s front man but he’s just right and got on his soap box about knife crime just before delivering a heartfelt version of If the kids are united. He fits in as well as Paul McLoone has fitted into The Undertones – which is to say seamlessly - and the crowd was definitely pleased, which may not have happened as much in the past.

If you can accept that middle aged men in their late forties mean we’re going to live to 90 at least, then you can accept that such old gits can still rock and sing about The Kids. Their message meybe tempered by experience but there’s no sense of irony in Sham 69 performing Borstal breakout – more a sense that they actually did it and had a good time doing it.

The kids were definitely united last Saturday. And so were their mums and dads.

And it was good to see Gary and Julie again. We were trying to remember the last time we'd seem each other at a punk gig. It must have been - ooo - last week when we saw Stiff Little Fingers in Plymouth.