NEWPORT PUNK FESTIVAL
ACTS | TICKETS | CONTACT | VENUE | TERMS & CONDITIONS | HOME
CLICK HERE TO VIEW RUNNING TIMES.
 




Up to the point of 2006 the band in its umpteenth line up change chose to part company with the then singer Jimmy Pursey. That point the band was at its lowest with no shows and low turn outs things had to change...both Dave Parsons and Ian Whitewood recruited the now singer Tim V and set about reworking the band..this took the form of Tim V and the band working the UK righting the wrongs they inherited and touring as was the nature of SHAM 69. That took them the length and breath of Britain and within the first year they had toured the UK and the USA...and released their first original album in years. From there word got out and though it was tough on the fans to face change, like many bands today it stood the test and saw them tour the world tirelessly taking in countries such as Australia, Japan, Russia and China. Also in this time they released 3 more original albums and had made a movie which is still touring the Movie Festival market. Of course things have changed but to many true fans who know and have followed the band they still command respect which still see's them touring and keeping the true faith of what SHAM 69 original stood for!

Formed in 1984, Merthyr Punk Rock band Foreign Legion have worked tirelessly to become a force to be reckoned with within the music industry. Their powerful stage presence is renowned for its raw energy and the band never fails to deliver a show that absolutely rocks. Over the years Foreign Legion has shared the stage with names like Johnny Rotten, Mick Jones and Joe Strummer and acts like The Buzzcocks, PIL, The UK Subs and The RUTS DC to name just a few. Foreign Legion are the only Welsh Band ever to play CBGB’s in New York city and are proud to have played a number of fundraising gigs for the striking miners back in ‘84’. In 2003 their album, ‘What goes around comes around’ was produced by the legendary Mick Jones from The Clash. Foreign Legion are Marcus/Vocals Si Bendon/Guitar Dave Linehan/Bass Greg Boulton/Drums

Chron Gen are Glynn Barber (vocals/guitar), John “JJ” Johnson (drums), Roy Horner (bass), Fraser Britten (guitarist) This is the Age, but before that there was this: Chronic Generation was born in a Hertfordshire school music room, one rainy afternoon in 1977 and raised on a healthy diet of playing Pistols, Clash & Damned covers with assorted mates on vocals. November 1979 sees the Hitchin based Chronic Generation play their first gig at a 6th form party. Early 1980 the band start to pick up a local following and drop half their name. 1981 - The band release 1,000 copies of their self financed debut EP Puppets of War on the Gargoyle label. Later signed to Fresh Records it spends almost ten months in the UK Independent Chart, peaking at number 4. Selling over 45,000 copies it was one of the top selling Indie singles of the year. With the success of the EP, Chron Gen go from local youth club to the Lyceum, London in front of 3,000 people and are invited to join The Exploited, Discharge and Anti-Pasti on the now infamous Apocalypse tour in the UK in the summer of 1981. The tour rips up all four corners of the country and brings Chron Gen to the nations youth, gaining them many column inches in the weekly music press, who can’t quite categorise their more ‘tuneful’ approach to Punk songwriting! They sign to Miles Copeland’s Step Forward label and release ‘Reality’ before moving to Secret Records, who issue the band’s debut album, Chronic Generation, in March 1982, reaching number 53 on the UK Albums Chart. It is the last release to feature Jon Thurlow, who is replaced by Mark ‘Floyd’ Alison. The band joined The Anti Nowhere League on their UK ‘So What’ tour and then an 18 date tour of the United States in support of the album. After a further single, Outlaw, Pete Dimmock left to join Chelsea and is replaced by Liverpool’s finest bass player, Roy Horner in 1983. The band’s final studio release was the 1984 mini-album Nowhere to Run, which was recorded be-fore Horner joined and featured session musician Nigel Ross-Scott on bass. The band split up in October 1984, subsequently reforming to play occasional reunion shows. Floyd later joined The Occasional Tables. He died on 31 October 1999. Pete Dimmock died on the 12th August 2011. 2016 . New album released & band are invited to play Rebellion Festival !


In 1978 the 17 year old punks Peter Bywaters and Del Strangefish founded PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES in the small town of Peacehaven near Brighton. After a couple of rehearsals they made their first recording ‘Elvis Is Dead’ which appeared on the Vaultage ‘78 compilation of Brighton new wave bands. Radio 1 DJ John Peel loved the song instantly and produced a John Peel session with the TEST TUBE BABIES. The success was breath taking and PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES became one of the hottest unsigned bands in the UK overnight. The first single ‘Banned From The Pubs’ followed fast, and fans and press freaked out in equal measure. From that moment everything went crazy, sold out concert halls in England and Europe and their big success in the media pushed their debut album Pissed And Proud to #1 in the English independent charts. Directly after that The Mating Sounds Of South American Frogs was released – a must have for every record collection – and sold more than 100.000 copies, resulting in invitations from far and wide. THE TEST TUBES BABIES played shows all over the world and cemented their status as one of the most brilliant and funniest live bands in punk rock culture. They also had the honour to represent the United Kingdom at the historical MTV East/West party to celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall. A few bass players and drummers have served their time in the band, but the songwriters Peter & Del have always been the foundation of PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES and together wrote records like Soberphobia, and the brilliantSupermodels, which brought them their comeback in 1995. Around this time the DVD Paralitico (Spanish: crazy disturbed perception, elicited by alcoholic and other suggestive excesses) was released , followed triumphantly by the albums A Foot Full Of Bullets and For A Few Bullets More with the guest appearances of Campino ( DIE TOTEN HOSEN ) and Olga fromTHE TOY DOLLS. All three products sold out worldwide. However, constant touring around the world made it nearly impossible to record a new record, until the day when Lars Friedrickson from RANCID told Peter at the REBELLION festival and Campino told Del in a hotel bar in Stuttgart: “I’m in need of a good, new Test Tubes album.” Del and Peter didn’t need to be told twice. Recruiting Nick Abnett and Sam Fuller on bass and drums respectively, was a masterstroke giving THE TEST TUBES the impetus to create their best album ever – the highly acclaimed That Shallot. Featuring not just one, but two hit singles ( None of Your Fucking Business and Crap Californian Punk Band ) , That Shallot is the album that the critics are raving about and the fans are buying in ever increasing numbers. Next year ( 2018 ) is the TEST TUBES 40th year , but nothing can hold them back from going on tour again and presenting their new record That Shallot. The band surprisingly now states: “We’ve actually held back our best record until just before retirement and we’re more than happy that we were able to create this.” Now THE TEST TUBE BABIES are planning more and even bigger things. For example to celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2018, the band will soon present their own TEST TUBE BABIES festival. PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES remain indestructible.

Micky Bones – vocals / Ollie Hoon – guitar / Ben Hanson– bass / Kevin Nixon– drums
Anti-Pasti’s street fighting punk’n’roll anthems for the underdog strike a chord as relevant now as it’s ever been. The industrial rumble of their Midlands home may have given way to the sleek hiss of hi-tech engineering, but Anti-Pasti’s thunderous locomotive rolls on untamed. “I like to think of us as a socially aware band,” explains drummer Kevin Nixon. “The new stuff has that certain power, as did the old, but perhaps with a little more maturity and a wider world view. Although Anti-Pasti sit proud among the list of bands who rode the wave of early Eighties punk, there have been qualities that always set them apart. “Musically, we never thought of ourselves as being like many of our contemporaries,” says Nixon. “We had great arrangements and key changes although at the time that was partly to hide musical limitations. “The nuclear countdown clock was ticking loud in the early Eighties so of course that was a hot topic and a lot of our lyrics were anti-war – you look around the globe now and not a lot has changed. “We wrote songs about the rising dangers of extremism and the corruption of belief, but we dropped some of those back in the day as we were worried that it may attract the wrong type of punk or skinhead, because at the time violence and hooliganism were rife and we didn’t want that label. “Our new material is very much the in the same vein, using topics that provoke a bit of fury. This is a new chapter … Founded in 1978 in Derby, Martin Roper on vocals, Dugi Bell on guitar, Stu Winfield on bass and Stan Smith on drums released their debut EP, "Four Sore Points", featuring the all-time punk rock classic "No Government", on their own Dose record label. Winfield and Smith were soon replaced by Nixon on drums and Will Hoon on bass before the group signed to Rondelet Records and re-released "Four Sore Points" and the "Let Them Free" single in January 1981. The same year their debut album, "The Last Call" reached number 1 in the Indie Charts and spent seven weeks in the UK Album Chart, peaking at No. 31. Third single, "Six Guns", reached number 1 in the UK Indie Chart, as did the joint 12” single with The Exploited "Don't Let 'Em Grind You Down". The two bands and Discharge were part of the legendary Apocalypse Now UK Tour in 1981. Single "East To The West" was released in 1982, followed by the last Anti-Pasti album and single, both titled "Caution In The Wind", which featured Ollie Hoon, Will's brother, on guitar. A self-titled singles retrospective surfaced a year later, but the group split in 1983 following the departure of Roper. There was a reunion in 1995, mini-tours of the UK and Germany, and further shows in 2013 . 2014 saw a new era for the band with Martin departing from the vocal duties to be replaced by GeZ Addictive. The band recorded a third album RISE UP available early August 2016 and parted company with their vocalist shortly afterwards. 2018 band have a new singer called Mickey Bones…new material is currently being written for future release !


Department S are back playing gigs for what is now the 9th year since they reformed. Current line up features the legendary Eddie Roxy and ex PiL, Cowboys International, Brian Brain bass man Pete Jones…along with guitarist Phil Thompson (who also plays for Bug) and Alan Galaxy on drums whose past credits include SNIDE and The Wigs, he still plays for Lipstick Torpedo when time allows. Department S evolved from a previous punk/ska combo, Guns For Hire, and featured former Madness drummer John Hasler, Mike Herbage joined them and wrote Guns For Hire's only single - "I'm Gonna Rough My Girlfriend's Boyfriend Up Tonight" which emerged on the Korova record label The group then became Department S, with the addition of Eddie Roxy and Stuart Mizon. They debuted at London’s Rock Garden on 24 September 1980. Their first single, "Is Vic There?", was released in December 1980. It was produced by former Mott the Hoople members Buffin and Overend Watts, and reached number 23 in the UK charts aided by 3 appearances on Top Of The Pops. The group recorded a session for the legendary DJ John Peel on 3 December 1980. The tracks laid down were "Is Vic There?"; "Age Concern"; "Ode To Cologne (Stench Of War)"; and "Clap Now".



HUNG LIKE HANRATTY are the most talked about band on the circuit. They sing about every day life what people get angry at, but say nothing. Like picking dog mess up. People riding mobility scooters when there is nothing wrong with them. Etc. They were voted as the best live band in 2016 by punk planet. There album released in 2016 on the mighty FLICKNIFE RECORDS has been a huge success world wide. There energetic hilarious stage show will have you in stitches, Make a point of watching them. You won't be disappointed. Heavily influenced by 1977 punk attitude, and bands like Toy Dolls, macc lads, pork dukes, damned etc, HUNG LIKE HANRATTY are top of there game. What you see is what you get.
SOLID ENTERTAINMENTS Presents... NEWPORT PUNK FESTIVAL