This was one of those gigs you just had to get to no matter what.  Bringing together shitloads of local talent headlined by the unmissable Bad Samaritans this has "Classic TJ's Christmas Gig" stamped all over it.  If only Johnny Sieco would stop the Scrooge act and turn the fucking heating on.  Fuck me, you had to go outside for a warm.

Anyway, first up were The Swinging Stylers, who could be called System of the Dwarves, such are the obvious similarities.  Good stuff though, with an early peak of the evening being the, soon to be classic, 'I'm A Chav'.

Urbanlegends were up next and judging by the crowd reaction they were pretty good.  I'll have to take the fifth on this as rap isn't my cup of tea at all (fucking hate it to be honest but that's not really objective is it?), but they did go down pretty well.

Audio Terrorists are intriguing. An occasional project for ex-Kennedy Soundtrack's Donnie Clarko and Pun Ra, they knock out some serious Senser-esque soundscapes. At times very fucking intense they really did bring some terrorism to bear. Nice.

Next up and nearly (and it was close) stealing the show were The Sick Livers ("It's the Viva Knievels with Dave from Black Eyed Riot" as Pig succinctly put it) and their local brand of death Punk 'n' Roll. The VK's were fucking ace so it's no surprise that The Sick Livers plough that same furrow. Anyone who misses Gluecifer and Turbonegro will cream their bare-ass chaps over 'Hell Of A Girl', the quite beautiful 'I Was Born To Fuck You' and finale 'St Pauli'. Ginge is the consummate frontman, extolling the virtues of quitting the 'Bow in order to fit into one of their T-Shirts, and generally talking the kind of bollocks we both expect and demand of him.

On any other day this lot would have been unbeatable but...Ladies and Gentlemen...The Bad Samaritans. 

With frontman Beddis tastefully clad in kilt, very realistic (!!!) beard and Santa hat this was only going to be one thing. Fucking ugly, but in the best possible way of course. Straight into the crowd, Beddis let's you know that he means every single fucking word that comes out of that mic (cock jokes apart) as they blast through 'Stab Vest', 'Gold Tops', 'Dicks With Dogs', 'Cars' and 'Living In The 'Port' amongst others. With James "Glover" May providing the riffs, Beddis provides the angst with everything culminating in the truly fucking intense 'Grovel'. The ultimate in catharsis, you know this ain't no fuck about.  Ending the night on two up-tempo screamers i.e. 'Cocaine Me' and a real rock star touch in the encore (whatever next drum solos???) 'Valium'. This was fucking peerless hardcore punk par excellence.

Thank you and good fucking night. Oh and a Merry Christmas to you all!!!

(Thanks to Julian Riot for the Gig Poster pic).