Rebellion Festival @ Winter Gardens Day one – Blackpool 6th August 2026
2026 is a momentous year for both Rebellion and punk. It’s the 30th anniversary of the former and, somewhat unbelievably, the 50th anniversary of the latter. There had been some talk about the festival this year having a particularly spectacular line-up. However, the festival has a spectacular line-up every year, and this year is no different. There are more artists I want to see than it is actually possible to see. When I arrive in Blackpool on Wednesday, the town is already heaving with punks. So, here we go then.
There’s certainly no gentle easing into Thursday. South Korea’s 18 Fevers slam the festival straight into fifth gear with an explosive set on the Empress Stage. The South Korean punks waste absolutely no time making their presence felt and provide a suitably frantic start to proceedings.
The great thing about Rebellion, of course, is that you barely have time to catch your breath before there’s something else demanding your attention. The Dollheads may be young, but they’ve got a keen ear for a classic punk tune. This is the third time I’ve seen them at Rebellion in as many years, and they’re getting better every time, with the new material sounding faster and harder than ever.
A change of pace, although certainly not a drop in energy, comes courtesy of Black Water County. They blew me away a few years back at Takedown Festival in Portsmouth, and today they light up the Opera Stage with their blend of folk melodies and Celtic punk charm. They’re one of those bands that seem almost purpose-built for festivals, and on this showing they’re an absolute must-see.
Back in the Empress Ballroom on Thursday are The Good, The Bad and The Zugly. The Empress Ballroom has always struck me as being a little too grand for punk, but maybe in a way that’s what punk is all about: accessing places where we’re really not supposed to be. Which is what punks and punk music have been doing unapologetically since 1976. Norwegian five-piece The Good, The Bad and The Zugly continue that tradition, giving us a lightning-fast tour of their eight-album-strong back catalogue, with an emphasis on their most recent album, November Boys, which was released in 2025. The music is fast and furious and is a perfect palate cleanser for the rest of the day, with any cobwebs being unceremoniously blown away.
One of the most notable things about this festival is the number of bands who come from all over the world to play here. Some I’ve heard of, and for some seeing them play here is my first introduction to them. One band that I’ve very much heard of and indeed seen many times are The Courettes. They are a truly international band, with singer and guitarist Flavia Couri coming from Brazil and drummer Martin Couri hailing from Denmark. They are unusual for a two-piece band in that they are a married couple. They are also one of the best live rock ’n’ roll bands on the planet. Martin’s drumming is thunderous whilst Flavia’s singing and buzzsaw guitar are tunefully powerful.
I’m sure that last year they played in the Pavilion, so they’ve had a venue upgrade. They still have a relatively short time slot, and with a back catalogue crammed with bangers it must be difficult for them to decide what to leave out. Irrespective of what they play, their performance is always electrifying. No matter how many times you see The Courettes, they’re never boring. They wouldn’t know how to be! For Trash Can Honey Flavia calls for women to come to the front. Want You (Like a Cigarette) is a stone-cold classic, and Boom! Dynamite! is the fastest song of the set yet. Flavia machine-guns the audience with her guitar, and they stop stock-still mid-song. Keep Dancing has almost a Motown beat, and Flavia announces that it’s our “last chance to shake” with what else but Shake! As they leave the stage Martin tells us that he’ll see us next year. Presumably he’s forgotten that they’re touring for the rest of the month and through September too. Amongst other places, they play London’s 100 Club on 4th September and Daltons in Brighton on 6th September.
There’s barely time to draw breath before another band comes along to remind me just how much good punk there is crammed into these four days. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen Bad Cop/Bad Cop, but these Californian punksters still know exactly how to deliver. The hooks, attitude and energy are all firmly intact, making me wonder why I’ve left it quite so long.
Next up are The Bar Stool Preachers, who astonishingly I’ve never managed to see before. There really is no excuse, is there? One of the guitarists is onstage first, playing the opening chords to Call Me on the Way Home before the rest of the band hit the stage. This is from the band’s most recent album, Above the Static, which came out in 2023. Unsurprisingly, the whole crowd sing along. Indeed, they sing along to everything!
During the superb Choose My Friends, multi-instrumentalist Ray Waters is on ‘Bez duty’, dancing along and adding to the vibe. As an intro to All Turned Blue, singer Tom ‘TJ’ Fielding tells us to “understand that there is strength in f*cking numbers”. Fair enough. The middle eight borders on reggae, which adds additional flavour. Suicide Girls is a Cock Sparrer cover, which is unsurprising as TJ is the son of Cock Sparrer’s Colin Fielding.
Lighthouse Keeper has a relatively delicate electric piano intro, until the rest of the band come crashing in! During One Fool Down TJ calls for a mosh pit, but it only happens down the front. The set comes to a close with the ska of their anthem Bar Stool Preacher. This is the side of The Bar Stool Preachers that I prefer, to be honest. They are a good punk band, but they’re also an absolutely storming ska band, and you really can’t have too much ska. The Bar Stool Preachers tour the UK until mid-November, playing London’s The Garage on 3rd October.
From ska-infused punk we head straight into something considerably more ferocious. Scream, famed for having a 17-year-old Dave Grohl as their drummer back in the day, are an absolute blast on the Casbah Stage, tearing through a blistering set of pure DC hardcore punk. Vocalist Pete Stahl is all over the stage before heading straight into the crowd. It’s fast, raw and gloriously chaotic – exactly the sort of set that Rebellion seems able to throw at you almost without warning.
One of the highlights of my weekend is seeing the seemingly immortal UK Subs. Charlie Harper is now 82, but you really wouldn’t know it. However, the Subs will apparently play their last ever show at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 25th September 2027, so Charlie has at least one eye on retirement. However, that’s over a year away and tonight Charlie and the band are here to rock. Yet again they have a guitarist that I haven’t seen, or indeed heard of, before. His name is Abe Inglis and he is the six-string incumbent for the Subs’ current UK dates. He’s bloody good too, as evidenced by the cracking solo in opener Emotional Blackmail.
The Subs were a little late onstage, so consequently there is the minimum of chat and virtually no gap between songs. The oldies kick in about two-thirds of the way through the set when Tomorrow’s Girl is given an airing. Warhead follows with the crowd singing the “are you ready” refrain. By Stranglehold they’re overrunning, but nobody really cares.
The Subs are punk royalty, so another five or ten minutes is not a problem where they’re concerned. The set ends with CID, but they don’t leave the stage before the encore – there isn’t time! So we get another couple of songs including I Live in a Car. This has absolutely been a full-throttle performance. The Subs could give bands a quarter of Charlie’s age a run for their money. The term awesome doesn’t quite do them justice.
Tonight’s headliners are The Stranglers. I’ve seen the band many times, both with the original line-up and since, and they’ve never come anywhere close to being disappointing. However, a friend of mine who hasn’t seen the band since the 1980s walks out saying, “That’s not The Stranglers. That’s a tribute band with Jean-Jacques Burnel on bass.” Well, that isn’t an opinion that I’d share with JJ. Or Baz Warne for that matter, as he’s now been in the band for twenty-six years, a decade more than Hugh Cornwell managed. So, in order to quash any doubts, the band onstage tonight are definitely The Stranglers. JJ and Baz will be available to discuss the matter with any naysayers at the end of the review. Probably.
This being a festival, what we get tonight is a greatest hits set, and there really is nothing to fault. You really can’t beat an opening trio of Straighten Out, Duchess and (Get a) Grip (On Yourself). For me, the sound of The Stranglers always revolved around JJ’s bass and Dave Greenfield’s keyboards. Current keyboard player Toby Hounsham plays just like the late Dave Greenfield, so that sound is very much intact. Although this is largely a hits set, there is the odd excursion away from that zone, such as Relentless from 2006’s Suite XVI album. This song also highlights what a wildly underrated guitarist Baz Warne is, as his playing is incandescent. White Stallion from the band’s most recent album, Dark Matters, is another comparatively recent highlight.
Apart from that there are very few surprises, but that is by no means a complaint. The Stranglers give this crowd what they want, which is a tour through some of the best of their back catalogue. Toby Hounsham’s keyboard solo in Walk On By is excellent, whilst Baz Warne’s solo in Hanging Around kicks ass. The set closes with the brilliant Tank from the Black and White album. The first of the encores, Mean to Me, also from Black and White (although it dates back to at least a couple of years before that album’s release), harks back to the band’s blues-rock origins, and what else could the final encore be but No More Heroes? This has been a brilliant end to a brilliant day, and there are still three more days to go! Yowzah!!!
WORDS: MARK KELLY PHOTOS: CRIS WATKINS
FULL REBELLION FESTIVAL 2026 DAY ONE GALLERY
EARLY BIRD TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW FOR REBELLION FESTIVAL 2027 VIA THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE HERE
