27 February 2004

Cometh the hour and cometh the man or some bollocks like that, with the crowd eagerly anticipating a great night MENACE took to the stage. I myself had been eagerly awaiting this moment for the past two months seeing one of the greatest punk bands of all time on my home turf. To me bands like menace are and have always been what punk was originally about. They may have aged , they may have two new members but boy they can still kick ass, from the opening chords of the crowd were putty in their hands.

With bands like Menace you always get the feeling that they are playing for their fans, and unlike some bands not for the money!. The set consisted of old classics like “Screwed up” “ Insane Society” “ Electrocution” mixed with the newer stuff like “rocks and dust” and “C & A” each song was played as fresh and as energetic as if it was 77 all over again. The crowd fed off the band and in turn the band fed off the crowd , when the band launched into “Punk Rocker” new front man oddy was mobbed and joined in the pogoing frenzy at the front of the stage with various members of the crowd doing the vocals. In fact oddy spent the majority of the rest of the gig off the stage and in the crowd at times it was hard to spot him under the mass of bodies. With the front section of the crowd already reaching fever point the place erupted when the the opening chords of “GLC” started. To be honest I haven’t seen a band whip the crowd into such a frenzy at a gig in Blackburn like this, the place went mad.

At the end of GLC with bodies all over the place, the band reacted to the cries for more by doing one more song . Despite being veteran’s of the punk scene Noel and Charlie are still playing as fresh ever and from the looks of it still enjoying it.
This was probably one of the greatest punk gigs ever in Blackburn, everything was just right, the venue suited the band with it’s intimate atmosphere, the band were up for it and the crowd were up for it and everybody enjoyed it. What a great night. It took some balls to put Menace on in Blackburn and credit has got to go to Noize Anoize for taking the risk. For me the only downer was that the place was not packed out, so for those of you that missed it , tough shit you should have got off your arses and got down there! you wouldn’t believe what you missed.