Live Review: Kubix Festival Day 1 (Herrington Park, Sunderland) (15/7/22)
So your correspondent finally makes it back to a festival a mere decade or so after his last one (well, if you discount a few trips to the Bishops Stortford Music Festival when I lived down there). Kubix Festival is now in its seventh year (discounting 2020 where Covid put paid to it) and this is your correspondent's third attempt at attending - as I mentioned, the 2020 attempt was wiped out by the pandemic and the 2021 version ended up moved back to October for the same reason. And maybe this is just a sign of me getting older but the prospect of sitting at the bottom of Penshaw Hill to watch some bands in the freezing autumn rain didn't appeal somehow. Still, better late than never...
Local lads Crashed Out are pretty much a perfect band to open this festival and draw an impressively large crowd for this point in the day. With a barrelling punk energy, they even manage to get a small moshpit going as old favourites like The Town That Died and Jarrow Song rub shoulder with cuts from the new Against All Odds album like The Chancer and Urban Zoo. A closing cover of the Angelic Upstarts' I'm An Upstart dedicated to the Upstarts' late singer Mensi (the two bands were good friends and a couple of the Crashed Out lads served with the Upstarts as well) is a nice touch too.
As I'm wandering out of the tent after Crashed Out's set and checking my phone, I find out the awful news that Paul Ryder, bass player with the Happy Mondays who were supposed to be the main support on the main stage tonight, has died suddenly this morning with the band understandably cancelling and the main stage bill being shifted around. RIP Paul and thanks for the memories feller.
I find myself back at the second stage to take in Duncan Reid & The Big Heads who take the unwanted slot of being probably the unluckiest band of the day - having to compete with the Skids who are opening on the main stage means that the crowd is a fraction of what it was for Crashed Out while the set is plagued by technical gremlins with Duncan's bass and Sophie's guitar both cutting out several times. The Big Heads are nothing if not troopers though and they give a good account of themselves today with energetic runs through Your Future Ex Wife and C'mon Josephine being particular highlights. Special mention to stand-in drummer Camille who apparently learnt the set at just four days' notice after their usual tub-thumper Karen tested positive for Covid!
I manage to catch the last few songs of the Skids' set after the Big Heads finish (well, I did hear my favourite song of theirs Working For The Yankee Dollar while Duncan and co were trying to fix their amps so at least one good thing came out of those technical issues!) and I'm impressed with what I see as frenetic runs through Masquerade, Into The Valley and The Olympian plus a crowd chantalong TV Stars ("it's a curse, this song..." chuckles Richard Jobson as he introduces it) and a cover of the Pistols' Pretty Vacant make for a good start to the main stage bill for the day. Note to self, must see this band properly next time they tour.
One of my favourite moments of the first day of the festival is standing next to a couple of big burly Mackem punk rockers as the Urban Voodoo Machine make their sinister swaying entrance onstage and seeing the look of utter confusion on their faces before the band kick in with High Jeopardy Thing and they suddenly start saying "Actually, these guys aren't bad are they?" It's been way too long since I last saw the Voodoos live and the set tonight is a good mix of the old and the new with established favourites like Cheers For The Tears and Help Me Jesus rubbing shoulders with newer tracks like Empty Plastic Cup and Living In Fear. By the time a decidedly unseasonal but still excellent Goodbye To Another Year finishes the set off in fine style, they've definitely won a lot of new converts here. Roll on that new album.
By this point, I've been on my feet for a good three or four hours and my 43 year old knees are not what they once were so I use the Undertones' set on the main stage as an excuse to grab some food and have a sit down. Although Feargal Sharkey is long gone, the group still pack a decent punch and their decision to throw Teenage Kicks in very early on in the set shows they're not afraid of mixing things up either with Here Comes The Summer (which, being the British festival season, the weather chooses as the point to start absolutely tanking it down), Male Model and a storming closer of Get Over You being particular highlights.
With the Mondays out of action, it's The Lightning Seeds who round things off on the main stage for your correspondent today and although it's got to be at least 25 years since I last saw them, they remain just as much of a perfect festival band now as they were in their Britpop pomp with the first half of their set being frontloaded with hits - Change, Perfect, Sugar Coated Iceberg, Marvellous and especially Lucky You have all weathered the storms of time better than you'd maybe expect and they show just how much of a knack Ian Broudie has with a catchy tune. Definitely a great underappreciated band of their time.
I miss the last few songs of the Lightning Seeds' set (including the inevitable Three Lions) as I head back to the second stage for one last time and it's safe to say that Theatre of Hate are by some distance the heaviest band I've heard today with the likes of Do You Believe In The Westworld? hitting like a force ten gale across a graveyard after the more sunny tuneful likes of the Undertones and the Lightning Seeds. The group remain impressively tight all these years on with Stan Stammers and Chris Bell being a particularly tight rhythm section while Kirk Brandon remains the focus point at the centre of the storm for the likes of Nero and Incinerator.
By this point, I'm absolutely knackered and the prospect of listening to UB40 or the Rifles just doesn't really do it for me I'm afraid so I decide to call it a night and head for my bed. The main shift, lest we forget, is still to come tomorrow but overall this has been a good start to the festival, no question about it.
All photos by Andy Close. All rights reserved.
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