Never Mind The Festival… – GBH Coalville 28.06.25

Saturday, 28th of June was the punk all-dayer held at the infamous Victoria Inn Bikers pub in Coalville, Leicestershire. With it being one of the hottest days of the year, this was always gonna be a sticky one.

I arrive late at about 8:00 in time to catch the last four bands. The first band Dog Rotten are playing outside and who describe themselves as a “five piece dirty punk rap rock and roll from London/Kent” were hitting their stride. Heavy and rhythmic with some serious fat riffs, like a cross between Limp Bizkit and punk with two male singers rapping/singing on top. Very dancey, very catchy and very full on with the singers venturing out into the audience putting on a great show while sweating to death.

After them came Desperate Measures fronted by Eugene from Vive Le Rock magazine. Out of the four bands I saw tonight, they seemed a little incongruous. Probably not helped by the fact that they had to feature a last minute guitarist in the shape of the legend that is Giz Butt. So a very rock’n’roll set, strangely interspersed with some almost shredding and finger tapping solos that I don’t know if were part of the songs originally. Picks of the set would have been one of the earliest songs from 40 odd years ago called 1984 and a version of Breathe by The Prodigy. It was a bit of a shock so recall that I last saw Giz doing this on stage at Glastonbury Festival in 1997 as Fat Of The Land broke. They signed off with a couple of covers, Be Your Dog and Bodies.

So on to the next band outside called Face Up from Coventry and describe themselves as “West Midlands UK Punk/Hardcore” and have been going for nearly a decade, so fair play to them.  I didn’t have much hope of liking them. Very heavy, riff-heavy drone guitar with double-time drums and double bass pedal with Vice Squad style vocals. But as the set progressed, I actually found myself getting more and more into it. The singer was incredibly engaging and interacted again with the audience, putting on a great show.

And so to GBH, the headliners. I’m not the greatest fan of UK 82 punk, but I was really looking forward to this gig and seeing them in a tiny club.

What can I say – they delivered in spades! From the very first moment when Colin the singer casually walked through the crowd in front of the stage in zipped up leather bike jacket and took up that trademark pose with his whippet-like frame leaning onto the mike to the very end, I just had a shit eating grin on my face.

It’s quite simple, Colin has just got that same charisma as Charlie Harper and all great frontmen. He just stands there in that pose with the mike, and it’s enough before letting rip with that rasping punk rock voice. Behind him, the band is incredibly tight, delivering a mix of short, sharp Motörhead colliding with punk tuneage. They play all the classics from No Survivors to Give Me Fire to the Babies songs to the Bell End Bop and all points in between. It’s sweaty, glorious fun as punk rock tune after punk rock tune is delivered with stripped-down ferocity and bite. You’ve got to commend the drummer, because single-handedly, he propels these songs at a frenetic pace as he slowly loses all of his clothes in the melting heat. They come back and encore with a couple of songs, finishing off with Motörhead’s Bomber, which is an apt and fantastic way to finish off the evening.

Also a big hand to Both Eyes Open who put on the event and the Victoria Inn, because they did a fantastic job and help keep the scene going and thriving.

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Facebook pages for more info, gigs etc Both Eyes Open | GBH | Dog Rotten | Face Up | Desperate Measures

Dog Rotten and Face Up pictures Caroline Abrahall

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