‘RUINFEST’ – VARIOUS ARTISTS – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 3.9.22
This weekend we headed on over to The Hope & Ruin on Queens Road in Brighton as they have teamed up with Sugar-Free Records and label/promoter Love Thy Neighbour to bring in-the-know punters the latest instalment of the venues ‘RuinFest’.
This mini-festival is supported by Arts Council England and Saturday’s proceedings were brought to us by Sugar-Free Records and Love Thy Neighbour was taking care of Sunday.
Saturday’s event ran from 2pm to 11pm and Sunday’s event ran from 3pm to 10pm. There were no less than eleven live performances going down on Day One and eight sets on Day Two as well as a 90 minute sustainable fashion workshop.
Taking part on Day One (Sugar-Free Records day) were:
Johnny Foreigner, CLT DRP, Blood Command, Plastics, All Better, Uzumaki, Brutalligators, H_ngm_n, Buds., CUTTING TIES and Making Friends.
Taking part on Day Two (Love Thy Neighbour day) were:
BABii, Pholo, Jessica Winter, Speedboat, LibraLibra, SAD DADS Gloop Unit, and Milo Korbenski.
Read about the bands on Day Two HERE.
Day One (Sugar-Free Records day):
Making Friends (Downstairs Bar) 2pm
We arrived in plenty of time to purchase some liquid refreshment prior to the first of eleven acts during the mammoth first day of ‘RuinFest’. Soundchecking in the downstairs bar area were Making Friends who were sounding great. We had covered their performance at the same venue just over a year ago – Check it out HERE.
The outfit hail from Worthing way and consists of Ryan (Gibson guitar/lead vocals), Dan (Gibson guitar), Bill (Enigma bass/vocals) and Pete (drums/vocals). Their 26 minute, 10 tune set ran from 2:01pm to 2:27pm.
Being the openers is certainly no enviable task, especially as initially the downstairs street level bar was sparsely populated at the start of their set. This certainly did not detract from frontman Ryan’s enthusiasm as he and his trio of chums waded through their sub three minute nouveau skatepunk tunes. Two of these (‘Die Trying’ and ‘Ignore The Exit’) can be found on their recent split EP (with Shackleford) which dropped on 6th July.
I thought that Dan’s glam rock/metal Gibson guitar was really cool and appreciated a band that is full of the joys of youth, as they whizzed through their speeded up Green Day style songs as the first band of the day.
makingfriendsofficial.bandcamp.com
CUTTING TIES (Downstairs Bar) 2:45pm
A mere 16 minutes after Making Friends had vacated the performance area of The Hope & Ruin’s downstairs bar area, it was the turn of local quartet CUTTING TIES (stylized in capitals) to show us what they’ve got. The band consists of Italian import via Russia, Alessandro (vocals and Fender guitar), Sam (Squier Jaguar guitar), Jack (Fender Precision bass) and Ben (drums).
They confusingly refer to themselves as “The only Emo-Punk band that isn’t Emo or Punk”. Coincidentally we had last reported on Cutting Ties at the same concert as Making Friends (Review HERE).
Their 25 minute set ran from 2:43pm to 3:08pm and they kicked off with a brand new number which was getting its very first live outing. Alessandro’s vocal delivery is shouty in-yer-face and this quartet offer up a more grungy punk sound then previous band. Imagine The Horrors at their most distorted barrage of guitar and drums and you have CUTTING TIES. Their material often has one or more gear changes within their songs, just like IDLES do, which keeps you guessing. They went down well with the punters and should be on the radar of larger bands as a viable support act. They (like many today) had merchandise for sale such as T-shirts, but if only they could bottle up their energy and enthusiasm and sell it. I would buy a bucket load!
‘One Day’ (found on the 2019 ‘Baby Steps’ EP) was arguably the pick of the bunch this afternoon. A special shout must honestly go out to Alessandro who was found centre front in the crowd for all of the other acts performing today. You can’t miss him as he bobs away with his arms behind his back as he merrily sings away to the other songs. Clearly he has a fine memory in remembering everyone else’s lyrics as well as his own for CUTTING TIES.
You can next catch them live in Brighton on Thursday 22nd September, when they play The Pipeline in celebration of their brand new ‘Paltry Eyes’ EP that drops six days prior. Support acts on the night will be Jar Of Blind Flies, Maxwell and Dumfun. You can purchase your tickets HERE.
Buds. (Upstairs Venue) 3:30pm
Twenty-two minutes after CUTTING TIES vacated the downstairs bar performance area, we were underway again with Buds. (spelt with a full stop at the end!) who were the first of the ‘RuniFest’ acts to play on stage at the main first floor concert room. The quartet performed for 26 minutes, from 3:30pm to 3:56pm.
This is our first encounter with Buds. and on social media they inform us that they offer up “Punk Rock from a small town in Hampshire (Basingstoke). Their songs make you feel good in spite of your dread”. They dropped their self-titled seven tune cassette back in 2019, which was followed last year by their 5 song ‘Full’ cassette/10” EP.
This afternoon, they are operating the standard lead vocals and guitar, backing vocals and guitar, bass and backing vocals, and drums format. The room is half full at the start of their performance. There is a small TV monitor with the band’s name on it at the rear of the stage, just in case we didn’t catch their name. As you would expect, they are another indie rock band, but they are not as grungy as the previous band. These are more bouncy and dare I say at times heading to mainstream punk. There are some great pseudo Sex Pistols guitar licks going down with this outfit. Today, they are a tight outfit with a raspy vocal delivery and definitely for fans of Green Day.
Buds. will be crossing over the county border again on Wednesday 19th October, when they will be playing support to emo punk rockers Trashed for their ‘Happy In Hindsight’ album tour. The selected venue will be The Prince Albert. Purchase your tickets HERE.
H_ngm_n (Downstairs Bar) 4:15pm
A gap of 19 minutes ensued and there was plenty of time to venture back downstairs and catch the 27 minute set from 4:14pm to 4:41pm by Chris Childs and James Martin who are H_ngm_n. They inform us that they “are an in-yer-face dirty emo pop duo who make lotsa noise and are from the South Coast and have an EP out titled ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Home’”. Our paths had previously crossed with H_ngm_n just over a year ago at the same venue (Review HERE).
Vocalist and Fender guitarist Chris Childs and drummer James Martin have been on the case since at least 2015, when they dropped their three track ‘Lions, Tigers & Velociraptors’ single. They have intermittently released a few tunes here and there ever since with the last being the 2020 six tune split EP with Brightr. Sadly they aren’t that prolific, which is a real shame as they make a reasonable amount of noise for just two blokes.
Their set tonight featured a collection of anthemic modern indie punk tunes. The vocals are clearly audible on the quieter parts of their songs. It’s fair to say there was copious amounts of head bobbing during this enjoyable set. The only slight hiccup being that mid set Chris broke one of his guitar strings, cue CUTTING TIES to the rescue with the loan of one of their guitars. At times I would liken them to a heavier version of West Yorkshire’s Embrace. They were the most melodic outfit to date and their set was again rather enjoyable.
Clearly Chris and James were overjoyed with their performance as they have posted the following on social media:
“Yesterday was so good, thanks so much to everyone who caught our set at Sugar-Free Records ‘RuinFest’ at The Hope & Ruin. That was probably our favourite show of all time. Thanks for singing the words and making us feel all warm and stuff”
Brutalligators (Upstairs Venue) 5pm
We headed back upstairs in order to catch the Brutalligators 34 minute set that began bang on time at 5pm. In their own words state that they are a “Post-youth band from North Herts, UK playing melodic and occasionally heavy music”. Their ‘This House Is Too Big, This House Is Too Small’ album dropped last November.
Coming at us from Hitchin were a quartet of guys (Luke Murphy, Paul Wade, Rhys Kirkman and Simon Lee) whose debut 5 track EP ‘Animals I Wish I’d Seen’ came out mid 2017. Their latest work (that I will most definitely be checking out) is the aforementioned ten song ‘This House Is Too Big, This House Is Too Small’ album, which I note is available in limited edition milky clear with pink splatter 12″ vinyl.
Their format is lead vocals with striking pink Gretsch guitar, Fender Telecaster guitar and bv’s, Fender bass with bv’s and drums also with bv’s. From the outset, the room was more than half full. I would suggest that they are a punk band along the same lines of that which has gone before today, but with an indie nouveau queer punk slant.
This was a really consistent set and the (Australian?) singer stated “Today is a bit of a banger isn’t it” and he wasn’t wrong either, despite having a supposed brain freeze on one of the six month old tune’s lyrics that he thought that he had forgotten, but he actually hadn’t. Several of those fans parked at the front started singing the lyrics which immediately put him back on track. The following number was a speed track that would have kept Discharge and the like rather happy. They concluded with ‘Don’t Talk To Me’ from their album and invited the punters to join them on stage of which a few braved the limelight. One thing’s certain with this lot, none of them are in Arcade Fire’s fan club!
Clearly there was a buzz in the air during today’s ‘RuinFest’ as the band posted “WE LOVE BRIGHTON SO MUCH…..All the bands were amazing, It’s so inspiring getting to play with so many talented and lovely people”.
Uzumaki (Downstairs Bar) 5:45pm
We again headed back downstairs and this time the outfit that were performing for us next were the unusually named Uzumaki, who we last reported on at the ‘Washed Out Festival’ last year that saw them sharing the bill with no less than eleven other acts (Read our account HERE).
Surprisingly there are at least five bands that share this band’s name, but this lot are the ones coming at us from London and Norwich, having previously been based in Brighton. They refer to themselves as playing “90’s alt, indie and grunge influenced punk rock” and “Sonically intimate 90’s-inspired colourful alternative rock”. Today’s teatime slot performance was short and sweet, lasting 25 minutes from 5:44pm to 6:09pm.
Last year their lineup featured Cheung (vocals/guitar), Fletch (vocals/drums), Nick (vocals/guitar) and Andy (bass) and they dropped two tunes ‘Tired’ and ‘Screw Loose’. Tonight, they all seem to look familiar and are thus probably the same lineup. Their format is guitar and vocals, Fender bass and bv’s, drums, and bv’s with Fender Jag-Stang electric guitar, which interestingly was designed by Nirvana guitarist/vocalist Kurt Cobain. It was intended as a hybrid of two Fender electric guitar models: the Jaguar and the Mustang.
The bar was not quite half full for the teatime shift, which is a real shame as in my honest opinion they should have been witnessed by a bigger crowd. In being able to compare the overall sound between the downstairs bar and the upstairs venue, I noted that the vocals weren’t that clear for this quartet, but I still really enjoyed them! At times they had a true punk sound akin to a dirty New York Dolls. I suspect that at least one or more of them like Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers and possibly a tiny bit of the Rolling Stones. Their decent set was held together rather nicely by the drummer.
All Better (Upstairs Venue) 6:30pm
After a 23 minute break in proceedings, we were again upstairs and this time it was the turn of All Better, who coincidentally we had also reported on at last year’s ‘Washed Out Festival’ (Review HERE)
All Better are a Brighton based trio that consists of Nick Burdett (Fender bass/vocals), Sam Perkins (drums) and Chris Childs (Fender guitar/vocals), who is also half of the H_angm_n duo (with James Martin on drums). It’s worth noting that today’s Sugar-Free ‘RuinFest’ has actually been organised by Chris and Sam, so they have been busy fellas! Their 33 minute set ran from 6:32pm to 7:05pm.
Their debut release came back in mid 2018, with the unleashing of their six track ‘A Turn At Being Cool’ EP, which was followed exactly a year later with the seven song ‘How It All Worked Out’ EP. Their debut dozen track album titled ‘How To Be Alone’ came out on Coke bottle green vinyl back in May.
As one would surmise, the room was almost at full capacity for this Green Day tinged emo punk sounding set. Clearly this lot have a loyal following as many around me are singing all the words to their bouncy new punk tunes. They are a tight unit live and it seemed as though their set got more energetic the longer it went on.
Plastics (Downstairs Bar) 7:15pm
Nine minutes after All Better had finished performing upstairs, Plastics were taking over the reins at the downstairs bar for a swift blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 20 minute set that ran from 7:14pm to 7:34pm. We have reviewed Plastics a few times in the past. A choice review would be their appearance at the Cowley Club a couple of years ago – Read our account HERE.
This was the final ‘RuniFest’ performance to take place in the bar this evening, although we will be catching another act performing live here later on….more on that shortly! Brighton based quartet Plastics consist of Oli Carter Hopkins on vocals, James Clarning on guitar, Louis Orm on long-neck bass and Sam Rack on drums. As my colleague Sonny Tyler noted during their Cowley Club performance “The singer Oli, has great onstage charisma and the band certainly know how to deliver these short bursts of punk rock”. This is still very much the case today and although Oli is the shortest of the four, your eyes very rarely stray from her as she delivers her shouty vocals, although like the previous act, they are sadly down in the mix for the first few numbers.
Plastics have been garnering quite a reputation in the local punk scene with their hard ‘n’ fast punk live onslaught. Indeed, I’m the proud owner of their 7” blue vinyl ‘Plastic World’ EP. Tonight the first mosh of the event kicked off mid point and continued until the quartet had finished their barrage. I rather enjoyed their whole set, especially Louis’ rumbly bass work this evening and the longer I watched them, the more and more I became totally convinced that they would go down a storm at Rebellion in Blackpool, which is the UK’s biggest punk festival. I would urge them to apply for the 2023 festival if they haven’t already done so!
Blood Command (Upstairs Venue) 8pm
We were now camped upstairs for the rest of today’s ‘RuinFest’. There was a gap of 26 minutes between band’s and so liquid refreshment top ups were the order of the day. Next up were Blood Command who’s intro tape kicked off their 31 minute set bang on 8pm. Until now, this quintet had totally gone under my radar, but I guess one factor might be that they don’t hail from these parts. They were coming at us from Bergen in Norway and their diminutive female singer Nikki Bruman (formerly of Pagan) was at a loose end in her homeland of (Melbourne) Australia and in February 2020 had a call from one of the guys enquiring whether she would care to be their new lead singer in the next chapter of the band. The answer was affirmative and thus she uprooted herself and joined the lads in Bergen – More on that HERE.
The quintet have now released their fruits from this pairing in the form of their ten track ‘Praise Armageddonism’ album, which dropped on 1st July and is only their fourth long player to date. I note that this is available in a number of exciting limited edition vinyl options including orange and black splatter 12″ vinyl, transparent magenta vinyl, and half orange/half purple vinyl.
Blood Command originally got it together back in 2008 with Yngve Andersen, Silje Tombre and Sigurd Haakaas. They dropped a trio of LP’s ‘Ghost Clocks’ (2010), ‘Funeral Beach’ (2012) and ‘Cult Drugs’ in 2017. They were quite possibly one of the world’s best kept secrets in rock, but I suspect that Kerrang fans might have heard of them. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Blood Command reboot of Benjamin Berge, Sigurd Haakaas, Snorre Kilvær, Yngve Andersen and the aforementioned Nikki Brumen won’t be unknown for very much longer, especially if their new recorded material is as exciting as they are live!
Tonight’s infectious pummelling hardcore-meets-pop-punk set was bathed in blood red (a photographer’s nightmare, but striking for the rest of us) with their noisy in-yer-face format was shouty lead vocals, Fender guitar, Fender bass, second guitar, and drums. The excitement levels rocketed sky high throughout the room for this quintet. They hit us with a wall of sound and I thought to myself “oh boy here is a band I need to know more about”. Think of a metal style Svetlanas, but with a poppy edge meets Amyl And The Sniffers and then some….. It’s rock with a capital ‘R’. They would be equally at home at Monsters Of Rock as well as Rebellion. For myself (and I reckon many others) Blood Command was the best band by far to play live today!
CLT DRP (Upstairs Venue) 9pm
A 29 minute recovery was in order after the fantastic Blood Command set. Next up it was the turn of the much touted locally based feminist electro-punks CLT DRP, who met and formed at BIMM (British and Irish Institute of Modern Music) in Brighton in 2017. We have reviewed a couple of times before, one of which was at the Green Door Store last October – Read our account HERE.
The band are with Small Pond Records and released their 12 track debut album ‘Without The Eyes’ on 28th August 2020 and then swiftly remixed it for release just three months later. A steam of songs have followed.
Their 38 minute set commenced bang on time at 9pm, with vocalist Annie Dorrett, guitarist Scott Reynolds and drummer Daphne Koskeridou taking to the stage. They were going to show us a masterclass on crafting something really distinct. I was based at the front stage right (punters left) for this and the other performances on the first floor. However, for CLT DRP, I really should have stood on the opposite side, as I would have been better equipped to endeavour to figure out how the hell Scott makes his guitar sound so different, almost like keyboards and dubstep-style drops at times. I know his secret was on the floor in front of him with an impressive array for foot pedals. There was atmospheric dissonance and electro glitches a plenty with this fellow as he was endeavouring to turn his axe into keys! Having said that it’s not all about Scott and his mind-bogglingly massive board of effects. Daphne’s drumming is absolutely top notch and is supplemented by an Alesis trigger pad. And then there’s Annie’s impressively powerful sassy vocal delivery atop which even Shirley Bassey (ask your grandma) would be able to compete with.
I totally get the attraction of this trio and the delivery of their often quirky off-kilter ever changing beats that skip across a whole host of genres within the one set. On my notes I had logged so many different styles during their set, that looking back at what I had written was hard to believe that this was just for one band. I listed rave, electro house, dubstep and dance, heavy funk, punk and so on.
CLT DRP are a band very much ploughing their own unique furrow and that impresses me. I would like to see them again in order to see if they can still be this good. My chance should arise on 20th September, when they will be supporting The Big Moon at the sold out concert at the Concorde 2.
Just as we were walking back downstairs for some air, we heard another band striking up. This was the beginning of another event that had taken over the downstairs bar area from 8pm to 2am. It was a free entry event being put on by Stay Sick DJ’s and concert promoters and featuring fuzzed out garage punk duo Skinny Milk (stylized as SKiNNY MiLK) from Brighton (who had dropped their ‘Under Your Skin’ single back in March and will be releasing their ‘Shadowplay’ album in a short while) and also featured atomic age surf punk rock trio The Atom Jacks, as well as a host of relevant tunes being spun by host Neil ‘Sick’ Smith.
Thankfully we were able to catch all of the 37 minute set from The Atom Jacks set, bar the few notes as we walked downstairs. This tied us down very nicely until 10:15pm and then we could witness today’s final ‘RuinFest’ act start their set from 10:15pm.
The Atom Jacks (Downstairs Bar)
We have reviewed The Atom Jacks a few times in the past, one of which was here at The Hope & Ruin last December – Read our review HERE.
I’m rather partial to this “Nuclear Power Surf detachment” and so this was an unexpected bonus for us. My colleague hadn’t seen them live before, but she certainly enjoyed what she saw. I wish that this trio would package together their download tracks (2018’s ‘Atom Jacks’ EP, 2019’s ‘Seb Tropicana Atom Dance’ single and this July’s ‘Kai Tak Connection’ tune) and their unreleased material and release them onto a luminous vinyl LP in the same style as the awesome ‘Neon Lights’ 12” single by Kraftwerk which dropped back in 1978. They could even add in protective eyewear glasses with the package in order to reduce radiation to a minimum level. What about it Atom Jacks?
The Atom Jacks were originally from Chichester but are now Brighton based. The trio features former BIMM Brighton student Jamie on guitar (he), Lin on bass (she) and Sam on drums (he). For every live event, they protect themselves from the devils of nuclear fallout by wearing their hazmat jumpsuits with badges with their surnames listed on each (Hewitt, Hoare and Gasper). When I have seen them before, their performances have been enhanced by 1950’s and 1960’s style American propaganda films on a backdrop behind them, but sadly these were missing this evening, which was a great shame as it allows the punters to easily get into the (nuclear) zone more easily. There was a backdrop in operation, but this was only displaying the Stay Sick logo.
Tonight, as always, they were spreading information to the punters on what action to take when under atomic threat. This information is offloaded by Jamie in between their instrumental tunes. The Atom Jacks set was a real bum shaking foot tapping bonanza and both Lin and Jamie venturing into the crowd, as thankfully they weren’t worried about picking up any radiation from us, but just good old positive vibes. If you are a fan of the music themes of 1960’s spy movies, then The Atom Jacks are for you. Once again this time they are encouraged to play an encore of a couple of numbers, the second of which being ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials. You can catch them locally when they surf their way to The Brunswick in Hove on the afternoon of Saturday 17th September as part of the ‘Nice Friends Festival’ which plays host to a selection of Brighton’s finest local talent from ambient acoustic acts to alternative rock and metal. You can find out the festival lineup, times and ticket details HERE.
Johnny Foreigner (Upstairs Venue) 10:15pm
We concluded our marathon ‘RuinFest’ music experience upstairs with an almost 45 minute set from Alcopop Records signings Johnny Foreigner, who are this evening playing their first show in Brighton since 2016, when they played live at the closed but not forgotten Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar as part of their 16-date ‘Mono No Aware’ album tour.
It was a shame as their set totally clashed with the SKiNNY MiLK performance downstairs, but we had come to review ‘RuinFest’ and so that was the plan, plus SKiNNY MiLK are local and so it is more likely that we would be able to cover them at another time.
Johnny Foreigner hail from the streets of Birmingham, where the trio first honed their blend of noisy co-ed vocals and rambunctious, syncopated chord structures back in 2005. Their debut album ‘We Left You Sleeping And Gone Now’ came out in December of that year and they have been on the case on and off ever since.
Tonight, they are back in action from 10:16pm until almost 11pm was my first encounter with Alexei Berrow (lead vocals/Fender Telecaster Deluxe guitar), Kelly Parker lead vocals/bass), Junior Elvis Washington Laidley (drums, little keyboard and bv’s) and Lewes Herriot (Fender Telecaster Deluxe guitar and bv’s).
There has as far as I can tell been no new material released over the past six years, so maybe they are doing the live gigs in order to get it together again. Their set was littered with catchy punk style tunes, two of which Alexei dedicated to the aforementioned Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar – good man! Surprisingly, Alexei informed us that he had attended the Charli XCX Concorde 2 concert last night. The Brighton & Hove News Music Team were there as well, the review will follow in due course for those that are interested.
The ‘RuinFest’ Day Two review can be read HERE.
