If June be sunny, harvest comes early, June damp and warm does the farmer no harm.
in this month’s Odds’n’Sods all the news fit to print on what’s going in our wonderful Celtic-Punk world. From the scene’s biggest and well established bands to those just starting out it’s all in here!
We had a great night out watching THE MARY WALLOPERS playing their final date of their UK tour last month and what a lovely surprise to see legendary Pogues blow-hard Spider Stacy coming on to play a wild ‘Holy ground’ with the Dundalk bhoys.
There’s a couple of different tracks floating round on You Tube from popular Californians THE PROVOS set at the Constellation Room during St. Patrick’s weekend but ‘From Hell To Sea’ is my favourite. New single due out later this week. Really fallen for this band!
CHEERS! Celtic Folk-Punk band brewed in Pilsen in the Czech Republic. The track comes from their new release ‘Flowers In Rye’ – out now.
Still footage appearing from around St. Patrick’s Day and here’s fifteen minutes of the BRICK TOP BLAGGERS playing live at the St. Pat’s 2023 Fremont St. Experience in Las Vegas.
The brilliant new Galician Celtic Celtic-Punk band TECOR SOCIETARIO live in Sala Capitol, Compostela, on February 4th with a new song influenced by Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Our Land’.
Hungarian Celtic-Punks THE CRAZY ROGUES recorded a live session at the Hungarian National Library for the HUN State TV Channel 2. It premiered on TV a couple of weeks ago and is fantastic. Sad news for the band and their fans is that Laszlo, the long-time singer of the band, has decided to move onto pastures new. His decision is amicable and he will return as a guest in the future. The new singer is already up and running!
JESSE AHERN has been over to these shores a couple of times of course the last being the support to the Dropkick Murphys and The Rumjacks and on his new single he’s roped in over all talented bastard Mikee from The Rumjacks to produce and direct the video. The track is from his forthcoming album Roots Rock Rebel – out September 15. Pre-order at https://jesseahern.store
More amazing traditonal Hungarian Celtic-Folk-Punk from a great band JOLLY JACKERS that we have featured several times over the years.
Italian Celtic / Irish trad. Folk band PATRICKS knocked out a great version of ‘I’ll Tell Ma’ last month. I may have heard it a 100,000 times but theirs a very good reason why its so popular… its because its a brilliant song!
DROPKICK MURPHYS – Okemah Rising
DROPKICK MURPHYS – Live At Ryman Auditorium
BRAVE THE SEA – Lady Death
BLOOD OR WHISKEY – Poxy Pub (EP)
BEYOND THE LAMPLIGHT – Don’t Forget to Leave It All Behind
MERRY HELL – Let The Music Speak For Itself
NO MURDER NO MOUSTACHE – There’s A War Going On For Your Mind
Remember we can’t review it if we don’t hear it!
NORTH ALONE are a Folk-Punk/acoustic band from Osnabrück, Germany who have been together just over 10 years and have a new EP out.
WAYNE BRERETON is a Folk and ballad singer-songwriter from Co. Offaly in Ireland. He cites Luke Kelly, Shane McGowan, Sean Keane and of course his multi-talented father as his biggest influences for the crafting of his own style. Wayne is a Gaelic Speaker with a great love for Irish culture, songs and ballads. Pre-order his new album The Robin’s Call via the Bandcamp app.
London alt-folk band LOCKS new single ‘Jars’ is out now taken from their forthcoming EP Tall Tales.
Award winning North- West of England Folk-Rock 8-piece MERRY HELL came from the embers of the much loved Folk-Punk band The Tansads, developing a life and feel all of its own. Through twelve years, six albums and hundreds of gigs they have released Let The Music Speak For Itself a 28 track Greatest hits of sorts. As they say
This collection does not represent the beginning of the end; it represents the end of the beginning…
An ‘eclectic’ (I think the word is!) cover of The Pogues ‘If I Should Fall From Grace With God’ by THE WIGGINS which is essentially Jon Read over there in Houston, Texas. I love it!!
THE TENBAGS are a Folk-Punk outfit hailing from Birmingham, with original boozy Brummie ballads and traditional woozy wailers. Their first release since since the Bags O’ Craic album in 2019.
Welsh one-man-band NO MURDER NO MOUSTACHE have a new album out on May 26. Anti-establishment Punk Rock with Celtic influences. Sometimes acoustic, sometimes not, always #punk.
We’ve been doing this now for nearly 10 years and in that time we have covered 100’s of bands and musicians but still plenty of bands have passed us by. We can’t see everything after all so this column is to remind us of bands that never made these pages at the time but deserve another mention. These hopefully come with a free download like today so you can help yourself to some free music. Last month we had the music of Folk-Punk band Tail Light rebellion and today we go to the where they began their musical adventure in the Celtic-Punk band THE SWAGGERING GROWLERS. A traditional Irish Folk-Punk band based in Boston, Mass. Infusing the spirit and the tradition of Irish session players with the fire, intensity, and heart of Boston Punk and Hardcore, and tempered with the earnestness and soul of American Folk and created an unforgettable musical juggernaut. Here is Outlaw Waltz the last of their three studio albums but all are available here as ‘name your price’ downloads.
With the demise of the four piece Wolfe Tones and the inevitable split into two bands and while both offer a great night out we can’t recommend DEREK WARFIELD AND THE YOUNG WOLFE TONES enough. Power, passion and history with their charismatic leader. Playing the 229 on Great Portland Street on Friday 2nd June. The 3rd sees SKIMMINGTON RIDE play McCaffertys in Seven Kings. American political singer-songwriter DAVID ROVICS is supported by ROBB JOHNSON at LARC in East London on the 8th and Trad band FLOOK are at the Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith on June 10th. Fast-paced trashgrass and blues band from Colorado the TEJON CORNER STREET THIEVES are at the Islington Assembly Hall supported by AMIGO THE DEVIL on Thursday June 22. The following day on the 23rd is the world’s #1 Pogues tribute band THE POGUE TRADERS live at Mill Hill Golf Club. July 18th sees Scandinavian Celtic-Punk pirates YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS at The Black Heart, Camden and the following day American Folk-Country-Doombilly band the HEATHEN APOSTLES play The Lexington in Kings Cross on Wednesday 19th July. The founders of Alt-Country THE LONG RYDERS are coming back to these shores this month with a full Europe and UK tour. RETURN TO LONDON, London’s 25th Festival of traditional Irish music, song and dance is between Friday 27th – Monday 30th October 2023 at The Crown Hotel (Cricklewood) and other local venues – http://www.returntolondontown.org The postponed MR. IRISH BASTARD UK tour is back on and during November they will be heading to Brixton (22nd), Southampton, Bridgwater, Manchester and Edinburgh. Can’t wait! One more thing we saw the OLD TIME SAILORS recently and they were incredible. A 17-piece band playing Irish Folk and sea-shanties half theatre and half the best music show you’ll see all year. Check their Fan-Page on Facebook for gigs near you. They literally play everywhere. I saw them in Guildford and they had driven down from Scotland the night before and the next day theu were heading to wonderful Doncaster to play for my Mammy… and others!
COMING SOON !!!
LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS
BRAVE THE SEA (OH. USA) | ANTO MORRA | MORE TBC
American Celtic-Rock / Punk band BRAVE THE SEA on tour in the UK and playing London for the first time supported by London-Irish Folk-Punker ANTO MORRA and GREENFORD BHOY playing all your favourite Irish rock rebel late into the night or until we are asked to leave! Support to be confirmed soon but we promise it will be a packed show. Entry is free but their will be a whip round – as you can imagine getting here from the States as a DIY musicians isn’t cheap. Live at The Bird’s Nest, one of the last standing live venues in SE London and one of the best. Located at 32 Deptford Church Street, Lewisham, London SE8 4RZ. close to New Cross and New Cross Gate tube stations so easily accessible from across London. http://www.thebirdsnestpub.co.uk/
All money we raise from our merch we put back into the Celtic-Punk scene so if you like what we do then you can support us by checking out our online store and buying something. The Harp’n’Bones design is back in all sizes and also on black or white shirts. Also we have the last few remaining polo shirts, nifty woolly hats and Green’n’White ‘Skully Cap’ ringer shirts that we need to get rid of. Click the link below for the full range of all our other tatt. Shirts, badges, stickers, flags, CD’s and fridge magnets – all the discerning Celtic-Punk fan could ever need! Help keep Punk Celtic! https://the30492shop.fwscart.com/
Facebook is rubbish and I can’t wait to see it go broke and a return to the era of paper flyers and fanzines. It has a stranglehold on all forms of expression that is far from healthy. If you are thinking of leaving and still want to keep up with us you can do via the London Celtic Punks group on the phone app Telegram. Similar to What’s App but completely free from outside interference. Join us on Telegram, don’t miss a single post and even receive the odd exclusive and special offer! https://t.me/londoncelticpunks/
Some new London Celtic Punks merch. The LCP ‘Tricolour Skull’ mug is back after a couple of years. Available for a tenner in the UK (£20 EU) with free badge / coaster/ sticker. I nearly fell over when I found out its £20 to post to the States but there you go if you desperately want one it’s £30! The ‘Celtic Punks’ metal badge is selling well only a handful left and available for just £5 – UK and £7 – EU post-paid and we’ll throw in a few stickers and a button badge too. For further overseas contact us and we’ll work it out. Also if you want to add more merch from the store above contact us. It helps us out if you buy from Paypal (friends & family) for these items to londoncelticpunks@hotmail.co.uk
Even though we hate it Facebook does supply the (very) occasional ray of sunshine so a shout out to 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 you and me. Like and join in the fun!
With the sad demise of The Celtic Punkcast over there in Oz we have thrown in our lot with the good folks over at MacSlon’s Irish Pub Radio. Check them out for all the best in Celtic-Punk, Irish Folk and Rock. They also have just about the biggest selection of shirts and hoodys and all sorts of other gear over at the https://www.macslons.com shop.
There are around 600,000 Irish living in Britain, the true figure, if we look at those who are first and second generation, is probably something like 10% of the population of this country – some 6 million people and nowhere is it greater than London and THE KINKS are representative of those numbers.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
As funny as it may seem the Best Debut Album award for 2022 was decided way back in January last year when the long awaited self titled debut album from Yorkshire banjo Punks SHANGHAI TREASON arrived in the post. Eleven original songs of high tempo energetic Celtic-Punk with some of the best banjo we heard all year long! On top of that later in the year they released a 3-track EP of songs that didn’t make the album that was also superb! That’s not to say it was a easy choice as by the end of the year REINA ROJA, THE LUCKY TROLLS and ZECKYBOYS all put out albums that challenged the Treason and in any other year could easily have won the award themselves.
The first of the EP’s six songs is ‘Preamble’, a instrumental with pounding tribal drums and mournful fiddle that builds slowly up into ‘Hope Fiend’. English born Steve Almond (B-right-on) is still at the helm and listen very closely and you can hear the odd English pronunciation slipping in! His vocals and songwriting are superb and he manages to convey exactly what his songs are and they say a lot. All the songs here are well over the standard length with ‘Forgotten Generation’ the longest but also the EP’s standout track. Telling simply the story of men conscripted and sent off to fight and for many to die for the freedoms we take for granted. Next up is the title track and ‘Obey The Tyrant’ sees them speeding things up though always keeping it firmly in the Folk camp. Karin’s excellent fiddle helps of course as does Steve’s vocals that sit just right between ‘nice’ Folky singing and ‘shouty’ Punk singing. Now is the foot stomper ‘Invisible Man’ is a loving tribute that cracks along at a fair old pace. We first heard ‘Denial’ on St. Patrick’s day last year and here it brings down the curtain. The Punkiest track of the EP
Well we have been blown away by the response to the new London Celtic Punk badge. Not surprising really as they are so bloomin’ gorgeous. 
Following this is ‘Poor Troubled Life’ which again is taken from the album of the same name and once again is possibly the stand out track from that record. The music is exemplary and though I can imagine a few punk rock snobs not quite getting it I always say man cannot live by punk rock alone! Usually on a Lexington Field record the upbeat music belies the often darkness of the lyrics but here in acoustic mood it seems to fit a lot more easily. The music may be slow but plenty to admire and love especially here on this song with the whistle that sounds great (and shhh don’t mention the electric guitar on their supposed acoustic record!!!).
Andy the Celtic Punk Author
celticpunkcast
classicalbumreviewer
essexmarv
gtmellon
kevingrooney
The Don
shaneoneill1888
Stephen Francis Bourke
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londoncelticpunks.wordpress.com 
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