Yes I know it only seems like five minutes since the last one but it’s that time of year again when we give you, for what it’s worth, our opinion on who made the best music in the celtic-punk scene over 2016. It’s been another outstanding year for the music that we all love and some truly fantastic records came out in the last twelve months. So read on to find out who came #1! Remember though this is only our opinion and these twenty-five album’s are only the tip of the iceberg of what was released last year. Feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…
TOP 25 CELTIC PUNK ALBUMS
1. THE RUMJACKS (Australia)-‘Sleepin’Rough’ Review
2. THE NARROWBACKS (New York)- ‘Arrogance & Ignorance’ Review
3. THE CLOVES AND THE TOBACCO (Indonesia)- ‘Across The Horizon’ Review
4. MICKEY RICKSHAW (Boston)- ‘Behind The Eight Ball’ Review
5. THE WAKES (Glasgow)- ‘Venceremos!’ Review
Absolutely no surprise here at all. For the first time we had an unanimous vote from all the admin’s that sees The Rumjacks sail away with the #1 spot for the second year running. It’s been an outstanding year for the Bhoys and with an American tour on the horizon they about to take another giant step in their campaign of world domination! Other notables were NYC’s Narrowbacks whose second album really showed the depth of their songwriting and could just have easily won the folk/trad best of too! The Cloves And The Tobacco deserve plaudits galore in another fantastic year for Indonesian celtic punk bands while Mickey Rickshaw could probably be said to have won the ‘unified title’ across all the various celtic-punk sites. In all we have twenty five bands from fourteen countries including USA x 6, Australia x 3, Indonesia x2, Germany x2, Netherlands x2, Catalonia x 2, Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Czech Republic, Russia and Belarus with The Wakes being the only Celtic country based band which goes to show how international the scene has become.
6. THE CLAN (Italy)- ‘All In The Name Of Folk’ Review
7. HOIST THE COLORS (USA)- ‘Mourners’ Review
8. SIR REG (Sweden)- ‘Modern Day Disgrace’ Review
9. FOX n FIRKIN (Australia)- ‘No Vacancy’ Review
10. FIDDLER’S GREEN (Germany)- ‘Devil’s Dozen’ Review
11. LUGH (Brazil)- ‘Histórias Do Mar’ Review
12. JAY WARS AND THE HOWARD YOUTH (Australia)- ‘Love In The Time Of Fear’ Review
13. BUNCH OF BASTARDS (Netherlands)- ‘My Drinkin’ Ain’t Done’ Review
14. SIGELPA (Catalonia)- ‘Rabant Original’ Review
15. TENHOLES (Indonesia)- ‘Loyalty’ Review
16. THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS (Germany)- ‘Seven Hearts One Soul’ Review
17. 13KRAUSS (Spain)- TheEnd Is Nigh’ Review
18. DRINK HUNTERS (Catalonia)- ‘Shameless’ Review
19. PIRATES OF THE PUBS (Czech Republic)- ‘Drunken Forever’ Review
20. THE MUCKERS (USA)- ‘The Muckers’ Review
21. LQR (Netherlands)- ’10 Pinter’ Review
22. THE Пауки/THE PAUKI (Russia)- ‘La Isla Del Muerto’ Review
23. Всё CRAZY (Belarus)- ‘По Морям’ Review
24. RUSTY NAIL (USA)- ‘Bitter Ale, Bitter Heart’ Review
25. THE LANGER’S BALL (USA)- ‘Whiskey Outlaws’ Review
A special mention here to the ever prolific and always a pleasurable experience The Mahones who released a greatest hits entitled The Very Best: 25 Years Of Irish Punk which couldn’t be included in the Top 25 but if it did would have given The Rumjacks a run for their money!
TOP TEN CELTIC PUNK EP’S
1. MICK O’TOOLE (England)- ‘A Working Class Battalion’ Review
2. THE RAMSHACKLE ARMY (Australia)- ‘Whitewashed Graves’ Review
3. DRUNKEN FAIRY TALES (Russia) – ‘Пьяные Сказки’ Review
With The Rumjacks returning a year later to sweep the Album Of The Year it’s no surprise then that Wiltshire lads Mick O’Toole follow up last year’s win in the EP Of The Year awards to do the same thing. A great year for them that has seen them play less and less within the celtic-punk scene and really start to make waves outside of it. A foreign tour and more support slots to various punk rock legends than most bands play in a lifetime and all in the space of twelve months. The Ramshackle Army EP got lost in the post leaving us to do a rush-job review and given time I’m sure they may have given the O’Toole’s a run for their money. Drunken Fairy Tales impressed everyone and Matilda’s vinyl only release deserve a mention as well Mick O’Toole grabbing the 5th spot too.
4. MATILDA’S SCOUNDRELS (England)- ‘Crowleys Curse’ Review
5. MICK O’TOOLE (England)- ‘False Flag Collapse’ Review
6. BAY STREET BASTARDS (Canada)- ‘Small Batch’ Review
7. LEXINGTON FIELD (USA)- ‘Redwood’ Review
8. HANDSOME YOUNG STRANGERS (Australia)- ‘Battle Of Broken Hill’ Review
9. MATILDA’S SCOUNDRELS (England)- ‘The Organworks Recordings Session’ Review
10. BALSALL HEATHENS (England)- ‘Life’s Too Short’ Review
TOP TEN FOLK/TRADITIONAL RELEASES
1. ANTO MORRA (London)-’16’ Review
2. THE LOGUES (Ireland)- ‘Comin’ Of Age’ Review
3. MICKEY RICKSHAW (Boston)- ‘Wild Atlantic’ Review
Possibly the hardest Best Of List of them all to do is this one as so many releases cross over the genres between rock and punk and folk and trad but our good friend Anto Morra, the ‘London Irish folk-punker’, just edging it from The Logues with his superb tribute to the 1916 Easter Rising. Mickey Rickshaw swept to third with their specially recorded acoustic EP that came out for their European tour and ShamRocks put out an album of high quality and original Irish folk with imagination galore. A special mention for Blackwater Banshee whose EP came out later in the year and shows enormous promise and one or two original songs would have seen a much higher position I am sure.
4. ShamRocks (Ukraine)- ‘Captain’s Log’ Review
5. LARKIN (USA)- ‘A Toast To St. Jude’ Review
6. FOLK THE SYSTEM (England)- Unrest In The Wolds’ Review
7. SHAMBOLICS (Australia)- ‘Riot On Race Day’ Review
8. CLEAR THE BATTLE FIELD (USA)- ‘Set Me Free’ Review
9. SOLAS (USA)- ‘All These Years’ Review
10. BLACKWATER BANSHEE (Bristol)- ‘Blackwater Banshee’ Review
TOP CELTIC PUNK WEB-SITE
Now this has over the years become the Celtic Folk Punk And More Top Celtic Punk Web-Site award so often has that esteemed site walked away with the top spot but there’s a new kid on the block and this year we are happy to award top spot to our good mates over at Mersey Celt Punks. They only kicked off the site a few months ago but super regular postings on all manner of celtic-punkness has seen them triumphant. You can join their fun over at Twitter and Facebook and we heartily recommend you do. A special mention here also for Viva La XV another new kid on the block which looks amazing but sadly as none of us can read Spanish we can’t tell if it’s as good as it looks! We’re sure it is and you can check it out for yourselves at the Blog or over on Facebook.
Right now the details. The Best Of lists were cajoled and bullied out of the four admins on the London Celtic Punks Facebook page. The various scraps of crumpled paper were received and then tallied up over several pints of Guinness in Mannions in north London while watching the football on the telly.
We are now in our fourth year of doing these Best Of lists so if you would like to have a look at the previous years best in celtic-punk then click the link below the relevant year.
all the major players in celtic-punk do Best Of lists so click below to check out what they thought
CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE
PADDYROCK
MacSLONS IRISH RADIO
CELTIC-ROCK.DE
remember any views or comments we would love to hear them…
Only one more thing to mention about 2016 and that is to remember here Erik Petersen the lead singer of the influential folk-punk band Mischief Brew who sadly passed away earlier this year. I still find it hard to believe that he has gone but he will always be commemorated.
“So tattoo our arms and raise our glasses, call out your name at New Year’s Eve, maybe next time we kneel at a casket, we can say at least the story’s complete”
Read our obituary for Erik here and raise a glass the next time you get the chance to.
Rest In Peace comrade.
Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- January, 2017
LONDON CELTIC PUNKS WEB-ZINE 
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