Images and a few words from Alan Dearling
I spent five days in Blackpool during the first week of July, returning to Todmorden on Monday.
It was a riot of musical madness in the company of 18 lively bands over 3 days. I photographed them all. An incredibly friendly audience, many old friends from different decades of my life. In fact, these are very much an extended ‘family’. Travellers, festi-people, punk people, rock ‘n rollers – the ‘other people’ perhaps, as invited by Frank Zappa back in the 1960s to join together:
“You are the Other People too!”
The Waterloo pub music venue is a good size, probably holding upwards of 300 punters. There was much punk, post-punk, rockabilly, r&b, alternative rock and electronica. And some downright surreal weirdness!
I definitely think that this otherness is part of the vibe of the Boneyard event. RatFink the ex-Alien, and co-organiser of the event, told me: “This year we had over 300 bands who wanted to play.” Lots of ballsy, sexy, female performers (like from Mystery Action, the March Violets, Human Toys from France and the Cave Girl & the Neandergals).
Jim Jones Allstars headlined on the Saturday night. He’s an enormous crowd-pleasing front-man. A true natural godfather of garage r&b and a real performance artist. There were even the genuine dark country cowpokes from the USA, offering American Gothic Country. These were the Heathen Apostles. Headlining on Sunday, the noisy ghouls from Ex-Alien put their spells on the crowd with a set of songs, horror, sex-sci-fi, mostly I think from the annals of the Cramps and Alien Sex Fiend. We were also treated to the scatalogical, manic, loud, rock ‘n’ discotheque guitar and fuzzed synths, theatrics and thundering drums along with back screen projections fronted by gold-suited, Tim Lane and aCiD DoL from The Pink Diamond Revue.
And some great bluesy rock from Bones Shake, who reminded me a bit of the presence and dark energy of the Doors, which is pretty impressive. The singer even looked a tad like Jim. There was sneering, leering punk from the Electric Cowboy Club and lots of cavorting on stage and in the mosh pit. It’s hard to conjure up a band fronted by a baby complete with rattle, a sort of Elvis character, much bondage and more than a hint of S&M from Blackpool’s own, Hot Pink Sewage. The March Violets, fronted by Rosie Garland have been around the alternative Indie music scene since Leeds 1981. They were often spoken of in the same breath as the Sisters of Mercy.
There really were no fillers, just a flow of varied and often fearsome and prodigious musical talent festooning the Waterloo Music Venue stage and the two screens which broadcast the visuals and sounds to other bars around the Victorian bar spaces inside the Waterloo, including Lemmy’s Bar.
Mystery Action had kicked off the weekend with a spirit of edgy, raw, spaghetti-western tinged rock ‘n’ roll on the Friday night. And their singer, I think she’s called Aislynn, is certainly not the shy, retiring type. Kind of a sweary Blondie in a black cat suit.
Also , on Friday we were are able to share a few hours in the musical company of:
The masked musical marauders, psychobillies, the Kings of Hong Kong. Think, primitive garage beat-merchants. The Scaners from France are firm favourites with many of the Boneyard regulars. They accurately describe themselves as a “Sci-Fi gonzo synth garage punk band from France.”
The Kingonz are a Dublin-reared, Irish punk outfit, sporting clown make-up and an edgy, slightly confrontational stage act. Spiked hair and an attitude well summed up in the their album title, ‘Up Uranus!’ And finally on Friday, King Kurt, whose name and logo adorned many T-shirts and chests in the Boneyard. They have toured the musical block of gigs and festies since the early 1980s, and I remember them when they were on a Stiff Records’ tour, perhaps around 1983/84. Described as a bunch of psychobilly pranksters!
Other bands, not already mentioned, who performed on the eight-band, ‘busy’ all-day twelve hour, Saturday, were:
The Dead Stilettos, musical upstarts from Mancheser who describe themselves as, “Your creepy uncle’s wedding band!” Definitely a garage rock-style band, a bit messy, a bit MC5, and better for it. The Razerbills look like they have escaped from a Turkish bordello. Lively, masked surf-boarding rock ‘n’ roll instrumentalists from Bradford. Returning again from successfully entertaining the 2025 Boneyard crowd, this French duo, the Human Toys, are downright weird, a subversive raw punk mix of Mr Bean and a musical S&M party.
King Salami and the Cumberland Three are a visually unlikely group, who apparently formed, “… In 2006, one Japanese punk, one French punk, one Spanish punk, and one Caribbean tennis teacher got together to form the world’s greatest rhythm & blues party band.”
Ultimately, the Boneyard is a monumental get-together for ‘outsiders’ who love indie/alternative music. It provides a fabulous zeitgeist of ‘alternative’ world-views, dress, beliefs and opinions. A true melting pot where new friendships are made, old mates are reunited. And because the venue is more than a mile from the tourist Blackpool seafront, it provides plenty of opportunities to mingle with real locals. And beyond the wonderful panoply of music, it creates custom and business for other local eateries and bars such as the Gurkha, the Royal Oak and the Tipsy Seagull. A truly great and ‘special’ weekend. More pics from all three nights in a kind of Gallery of the Undead from the Boneyard!!!
Jim Jones Allstars, headlined the Boneyard on Saturday night.
