LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS THE BEST OF 2020!

Well here we go again. It seems an awful long time since we were compiling all the votes into 2019’s Best Of. Last year saw The Walker Roaders triumph but with this year being a lot quieter on the Celtic-Punk front thanks to the lockdowns around the world bands have found themselves unable to tour and promote new releases so have held onto them till things got better. Still that’s not to say it was a complete wash out and as you can see from below their have been some absolute knock-outs during the year.

Remember this is only our opinion so feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. The Readers Poll is back again this year so you can even vote on your favourite release of 2020 yourself. We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…

(for more information click on the release title in green)

Was very close between the top three this year but Ogras seem to have been not only our favourites but also most of the Celtic-Punk medias too. A lot less albums may have come out during the year but still plenty more that didn’t make the cut. Don’t be down hearted if you are one of them it could just be that one of the judges hadn’t heard that album. Again if we don’t hear your album we can’t review it so the massive majority here are ones that were sent in to us. We only need a download link (NO Spotify!) and we’re happy. Out of the 30 albums 18 countries were represented including 2 from the Celtic nations Scotland #4 and Brittany #13 and our first from Hawaii!

1. OGRAS – No Love In The City

2. UNCLE BARD AND THE DIRTY BASTARDS – The Men Behind The Glass

3. FINNEGANS HELL – Work Is The Curse Of The Drinking Class

4. THECUNDEEZ – Teckle And Hide

5. KRAKIN’ KELLYS – Burn Your Flag

6. THE GO-SET – Of Bright Futures And Broken Pasts

7. BLACK WATER COUNTY – Comedies And Tragedies

8. McSCALLYWAG – Songs For The Wicked

9. BATALLON DE SAN PATRICIO- Hermanos De Guerra

10. THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS – Off The Leash

11. THE REAL McKENZIES – Beer And Loathing

12. THE MUCKERS – Irish Goodbye

13. CELT & PIPER – No Mercy

14. THE FEELGOOD MacLOUDS – Life On A Ferris Wheel

15. FEROCIOUS DOG – You

16. THE KONA ROGUES – Batten Down The Hatches

17. PADDY WAGGIN- Race To The Bottom

18. BLACK ANEMONE – Chasing The Sun

19. PADDY MURPHY – Rams Rebels Goats And Girls

20. THE STUBBY SHILLEAGHS – Glass To Mouth

21. CELKILT – The Next One Down

22. THE DEAD MAGGIES – More Than Just Ghosts

23. KELTIKON – The Black Boar

24. THE CELTIC SOCIAL CLUB – From Babylon To Avalon

25. BARBAR O’RHUM – Journal de B’O’R

26. JAMESTOWN BROTHERS – Rebels, Rogues And Regrets

27. SMZB – Once Upon A Time In The East

28. THE NEW RUFFIANS – Shenanigans

29. GRASS MUD HORSE – Beijing Bikini

30. NEVER SAY DIE – Punk Rock Pirates

Several bands have taken the chance during the lockdown to release compilations of sorts. While it would be a little unfair to include them in the main ‘Best Of’ section they still deserve a mention. Among these were two 30 year celebrations from two of Celtic-Punks most successful and popular bands in THE MAHONES – This Is All We Got To Show For It and FIDDLER’S GREEN – 3 Cheers For 30 Years. Both fully deserve a round of applause, a raise of the pint and a tip o’ the hat! Band compilations included ANTO MORRA – Twenty, THE DEAD RABBITS – The Dead Rabbits, LEXINGTON FIELD – Here’s To You Ten Years Of Fiddle Rock and LQR – Barrel-Aged. A couple of live albums THE STANFIELDS – Welcome To The Ball and ShamROCKS – FCP Live were both well received, you may have heard that a little known band THE POGUES put out a new album of previously unreleased material BBC Sessions 1984-86 and Quintessential Quarantunes was a 6-band compilation released in the Summer featuring the Bible Code Sundays and The Reels. MacSlons Irish Pub Radio also released volume 5 of Raise Your Pints the best Celtic-Punk sampler around of 19 of the Celtic-Punk scenes best bands.

You have to go back to the beginning of January for 1916’s release and though many more would challenge it stayed top of the pile all year long. Some great debut releases here from bands that will I am sure go on to bigger things. This time last year I was crowing about Shanghai Treason and how much I was looking forward to seeing them play… well I still am!

1. 1916 – Meant To Be

2. SHANGHAI TREASON – It’s Treason

3. BEAVER SECRET HANDSHAKE – Beaver Secret Handshake

4. KILMAINE SAINTS – Off The Wagon Acoustic Sessions

5. LEXINGTON FIELD – Win The Day

6. 7 STOUT CLAN – 7 Stout Clan

7. THE CLOVES AND THE TOBACCO – Jalan Pulang

8. LUCKY LAD GREEN – Get There Somehow

9. BRAVE THE SEA – The Murders Three

10. THE PLACKS – My Dearest Friend

BATALLON DE SAN PATRICIO- Hermanos De Guerra

This year’s winner of Best Debut Album comes from a continent where Celtic-Punk appears to be booming! The South American scene has been dominated in the past by bands from Brazil and Argentina (last years winners in this category were Aires Bastardos from Argentina) but with Batallón de San Patricio from Guadalajara in Mexico things are changing with several bands popping up over the last couple of years. The last twelve months have seen Batallón de San Patricio garner favourable reviews from various singles and live streams. Hermanos De Guerra/ Brothers Of War is delivered entirely in Spanish and spans the length of Celtic-Punk from trad Irish up to Celtic-PUNK making it fully deserving of the award.

Always the hardest list to compile as it covers so much ground. Some of these bands play Trad Folk with a Punk Rock heart like Clover’s Revenge while others didn’t quite fit as Celtic-Punk releases but the winners are the Rose family from NY state otherwise known as The Wild Irish Roses. An album that took us by surprise and managed to please everyone.

1. THE WILD IRISH ROSES – Full Bloom

2. CLOVERS REVENGE – Truants And Absolution

3. 6’10 – Carried In Retrospect

4. RUNA – The Tide Of Winter

5. MAGGIES FLOCK – Party At The Cemetery

6. PYROLYSIS – Alotsie

7. PATRICKS – Rocky Road To Ireland

8. HUGH MORRISON – The Other Side

9. TC COSTELLO – The Bluebird

10. PEAT & DIESEL – Light My Byre

Now this section is tinged with sadness. There is no question which site has the biggest impact on the Celtic-Punk scene over the last year and while not strictly a web-site the CELTIC PUNK, FOLK AND ROCK FANS group on Facebook fully deserved this years award. Sadness because the group founder Mike Kilroe very sadly passed away at the beginning of the month. Created back in February 2019 it was around the time of last years ill fated St. Patrick’s day and the subsequent Dropkick Murphys live stream show that membership of the group exploded and has now passed over 8000 members. If on Facebook they should be your first port of call, alongside us of course! We had a great interview with the founder of the group Mike back in May that you can find here and of course our thoughts go out to his family and friends.

We are not alone in doing these Best Of 2020 lists in fact all the major players in Celtic-Punk do them so click below to check out what they thought.

THE CELTIC PUNKCAST  *  FOLK’N’ROCK  *  PADDYROCK

So there you go. Remember we have never pretended to be the final word on things in fact have a look at the other Celtic-Punk media’s Best Of’s and I’m sure they are all pretty different. Our Best Of’s, as usual, cajoled and bullied out of the admins from the London Celtic Punks Facebook page and then tallied up over a few pints in Mannions in north London. One important thing to note is that not all of us heard the same albums so like all the various Best Of’s ours is also subjective.

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Nine years we’ve been doing these lists now. It seems incredible looking back at some of the previous winners and also-rans how so many bands are still with us from Year 1. If you would like to check for yourself then just click on the link below the relevant year.

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Alongside the Best Of polls we also run a special Readers Poll where you get to pick your favourite release of the year. This will be The Readers Poll’s third year with Krakin’ Kellys and Mickey Rickshaw previously champions! There is only room to list the Top Ten albums but there is an option to write in your favourite release of 2020. You are allowed to vote for up to two releases but not for the same artist.

The Poll will close at midnight on Sunday 31st January with the result announced soon after.

 Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- January, 2021

EP REVIEW: BEAVER SECRET HANDSHAKE – ‘Beaver Secret Handshake’ (2020)

A new band on the Celtic-Punk scene Beaver Secret Handshake from Finland may have formed at an awkward time but their excellent debut release a 4-track EP manages to capture both their energy as well as their great live sound. 

The days are long gone when anyone would be shocked by a band from Finland playing Celtic-Punk music. Yes their was a time when only the offspring of the Irish diaspora felt the need to affix traditional Folk music to Punk Rock to express their identities. Even a country like Finland, where the sole public face of the Irish diaspora is the Finnish defender Daniel O’Shaughnessy, who plays his football in the land of his birth but also would have qualified for Ireland through his Irish father, has while not quite a thriving Celtic-Punk scene but a very good one nevertheless. Bands like Loretta Problem and & Stout Clan represent both ends of the Celtic-Punk scale and are both pretty active (when they are allowed to be!). The new band on the Finnish scene then is the rather interestingly named Beaver Secret Handshake who hail from the country’s capital Helsinki. I was tempted to ask them where they got their name from but I think a bit of intrigue does no harm at all. This four-track self/titled EP is the band’s debut release and was recorded at the end of 2019 at Sonic Pump Studios in their hometown. The band were gigging regularly right up until clampdown with a lengthy set made up of originals and Irish themed covers.

Beaver Secret Handshake left to right: Samppa Salminen – Guitar * Perttu Ruotsalainen – Lead Vocals, Mandolin, Banjo * Jukka Polvi – Bass, Backing Vocals * Petra Vedenpää – Fiddle, Backing Vocals * Olli Ruotsalainen – Drums, Backing Vocals. Photo – Kuutti Haapanen

The EP begins with ‘Captain John’ and its high tempo dancing music from the off. Fiddle led but not too in yer face it’s produced excellently with all the instruments complementing each other. Perttu’s vocals are clear and sit nicely between the Punk and Folk styles. This is music to get down to and in ‘Sins Of Our Fathers’ a slight Country influence is added and the song while slower still has enough of a bounce not to empty any dancefloor. Nay ballads here and ‘Walk Of Shame’ takes us to the embarrassing world of going home in your clubbing clothes after spending the night ‘out’. The music has that Irish/Country feel but not an Irish Country feel. That last sentence may only make sense to anyone who grew up listening to Brendan Shine, Margo or Big Tom! The EP comes to an end with the rather Poguesy ‘Last Day Of The Summer Sun’ and perhaps the EP’s standout track for me. Catchy as hell and reminiscent of not just The Pogues but also The Levellers and more recent English Folk-Punk bands like The Jamestown Brothers. The whole release is a foot-tappers dream and after several listens I get the feeling that it is pretty much how they would sound live which as you know in Celtic-Punk that is not a bad thing.

All in all an outstanding first release and just a pity it’s confined to just four songs and thirteen minutes. Beaver Secret Handshake are very much and a band that I will be checking out in the future when normality returns. Scandinavia has produced more fantastic Celtic-Punk bands than I care to mention and already this year Ogras have captured my ear and now I can add another one to the list too.

Now to find out what their name means???

(You can hear the EP in its entirety on the Soundcloud player below)

Buy Beaver Secret Handshake EP  DaddyKoolRecords  Amazon

Contact Beaver Secret Handshake Facebook  YouTube  Spotify  Instagram

ODDS’N’SODS. CELTIC-PUNK ROUND UP NOVEMBER 2020

We want to move away from just being ‘ReviewReviewReviewReview’ so we have started this monthly feature that comes out on the last day of each month. All news items that we otherwise miss will get a mention but I need YOU to be the eyes and ears if it’s going to work so send over to us any band news, record releases, videos, tours (not individual gigs though yet sadly), live streams, crowd funders etc., to us at londoncelticpunks@hotmail.co.uk or through the Contact Us page and it will go in here!

We start off November’s Odds’n’Sods with the shocking news that the classic FLOGGING MOLLY album Swagger celebrated its 20th anniversary (yikes!!!!) last month and it is now available remixed and remastered in a limited edition vinyl box set that includes a bonus LP, a never-before-seen DVD documentary plus full live performance, expanded lyric booklet featuring many unseen before photos and much more! Orders for the box set are now available at floggingmolly.com/swagger!

More news from FLOGGING MOLLY was the recent announcement that they will be returning to these shores next Summer for gigs in Manchester, Birmingham and north London. Tickets on sale here.

One of the best and productive scenes in Celtic-Punk is the one in Indonesia and one of the best of a great bunch is THE CLOVES AND THE TOBACCO who play Irish music just as if they were raised on the Emerald Isle itself. There’s not many who play Celtic-Punk and Irish music with this much talent and passion. Enjoy their great new video a bit subdued for them but still outstanding. ‘Denting Gelas Akhir Pekan’ from their new album Jalan Pulang.

The new album from Doyle Duff and his band has landed. Mistakes Were Made by ST. DOYLE AND THE LAST CALL PHILHARMONIC is available for download below.

Dutch Celtic band MAGGIE’S FLOCK continue to release a song a month through 2020. Autumn is upon us! Check out this atmospheric beauty!

BEAVER SECRET HANDSHAKE are from Helskini and have a EP out on YouTube and Spotify.

RUNA have released a cover of Hoagy Carmichaels auld hit ‘Buttermilk Sky’. The video was filmed in the French Quarter of New Orleans and I defy anyone not to enjoy it. Shannon has after all one of the best voices in Irish music.

THE PLACKS one of the brightest new bands in the scene released a new video/single ‘Sail Away’ about the Highland Clearances. Shot in Dunoon and Gourock and filmed in the first week of September. It’s been likened to an ad for Visit Scotland! Available for download for the princely sum of a fifth of a pint of beer here in London or under half a pint in Bonnie Scotland!

There was a time when SMZB were the sole Celtic-Punk band in China but since the arrival of Grass Mud Horse we could even start to claim their is some sort of scene now!! SMZB have a new album out of Punk with Pipes and its bloody great. Try and support this great band.

Speaking of GRASS MUD HORSE they have released a download only version of their debut album Beijing Bikini featuring ten songs never released before. These songs are from the band’s first year and are described as “very eclectic” and is made up of songs written in their first year together before they settled in as one of the best Celtic-Punk bands around.

Not Celtic-Punk but I really enjoyed the debut track from Scots band BRòGEAL. As they say themselves ‘four wise boys on that folk noise fresh outta Falkirk’ and it really is quite superb Celtic music. Send the lads a ‘like’ over at their Facebook Page as they just getting started.

Remember if you want your release featured then we have to have heard it first!

THE CUNDEEZ – Teckle An Hide

THE STUBBY SHILLEAGHS – Glass To Mouth (review later this week!)

ST. DOYLE AND THE LAST CALL PHILHARMONIC – Mistakes Were Made

SMZB – Once Upon A Time In The East

THE CLOVES AND THE TOBACCO – Jalan Pulang

STEVE WHITE AND THE PROTEST FAMILY – The Debased Street Music Of The Vulgar

KILMURA – Hybris

Even doing this we still come across stuff we missed from the past that is worth another look. This time it’s something again a bit different… well a lot bloody different! Irish Meet the Blues by ANTONI O’BRESKEY is the first and as far as I know the only album ever recorded on piano where traditional Irish music meets Blues and Jazz. For Antoni “musical cultures are not defined by borders, but by historical roots that reach deeply across all areas of the globe.”

Another interesting band we just came across is ‘The American Irish band’ BEGORRAH. Celtic Punk/Metal band that formed in 2010 in New York City by music veterans Kevin Patrick Corrigan and Shane O’Connor. Begorrah have two albums out Molly B’gee in 2012 and Tough Guy Prayer in 2017 that you can listen to and download on Bandcamp.

Aussie band FOX’n’FIRKIN have a new song out ‘Get On The Boat’ urging us to get behind a fellow Brisbane Punk band they are mates with called Flangipanis. It’s out on Folk Til Ya Punk Records and is available for download here.

A plug for some good friends of ours over on Facebook. The Dropkick Murphys- Fan Page and the Celtic Punk, Folk And Rock Fans are two of the best music forums on FB let alone Celtic-Punk. Ran By Fans For Fans. Just like and join in the fun!

All we need to do now is for you to help fill this page with news and remember if you are new to the London Celtic Punks blog it is easy to subscribe / follow and never miss a post. Also if anyone is interested in helping out on the reviews front then let us know via the Contact Us page.