Welcome to the Boneyard!

A kind of Zombie Muzakical Experience (a three day festival in Blackpool based at the Waterloo pub venue). Venture into a little of the mayhem with:

Alan Dearling.

Loved the Boneyard Festi team, led by Andrew Wilson (Ratty, the Ratfink!). Three-days of well-organised music: punk, ghoul, goth and psychobilly madness at the wonderful Waterloo pub.

Here are some of my blow-by-blow notes.

So, Friday in the Boneyard Festi at the Waterloo is behind us. Andrew and friends have two more festi days lined up for our delectation! Friday was most definitely Psycho-Billy Day (kind of rock-a-billy with a few hilly bits and added punk attitude!). It certainly brought in the crowds. It was pretty wedged and with drizzly weather outside, it made it even busier inside and around the two bar areas. You can see the Friday ‘style’ and the theme as you look through some of the pics…  One heck of a lot stand-up basses. The Hillbilly Moon Explosion seemed to bring a lot of fans with them and they did an especially good trade at the Merch stand.

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion was formed in Zurich in 1998. According to Wikipedia, the band members still live near that city. Very much a high energy rockabilly outfit. Jump jive with lots of nods to the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. Plenty of music and links on their official site: https://www.hillbillymoon.com/

The Palooka 5 had kick-started proceedings with a good time, visually quirky set which got the show started exactly as compere, Andrew Wilson, wanted. They are self-described as a ‘surf garage band’. The audience had arrived early on the Friday evening, so it was already busy and the air was crackling with anticipation. Howling Bones are hillbilly punks. Like the Palooka 5, along with music they provided lots and lots of quirky fun. Guana Batz go way back in musical time. In fact, they were formed in Feltham, West London in 1982 and the engaging and charismatic frontman, Pip Hancox, is still looking in fine fettle with his tats and big grin. More hi-energy psychobilly with plenty of the punters singing along.

Boneyard Saturday: I’ve just sorted through some through-a-glass-very-darkly images from the catacombs, the pits and vaults of rotting corpses and nightmares. Pics from Saturday. The very essence and stench of the Boneyard Festi in Blackpool. These are pretty much all from the pounding, theatrical, bass-thumping sets from headliners, Dr Diablo and the Rodent and the cinematic, mind crumbling, guitar and incessant pounding beats of Pink Diamond Revue. Flashing lights, back projections and Tim Lane darting dementedly around the stage like a ghoul on speed! Nigh on impossible to take ‘normal’ pics, so instead I offer spectral images as well as a few more averagely ghoulish ones… Legendary!  Dr Diablo and the Rodent are theatrical…imagine Beetlejuice performing a set of songs from the Cramps and Alien Sex Fiend. You’ve got it! Ratfink, the Rodent is also the frontman of the Boneyard event and was a guitarist, drummer and singer with the Alien Sex Fiend back in the day.  Some sweary live footage of the duo from Birmingham 2024: https://youtu.be/_-eZHe4NbCA       Here’s a substantial American interview video with Andrew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzFDXHwVIi4

Tim Lane, aka Pink Diamond Revue, was on 105% manic form.  His overlaid bleeps and electronica complemented his strutting, cavorting explosions of guitar playing reminded me of Wilko Johnson from Dr Feelgood in their halcyon days. Raw, frantic, frenetic power!  Our own UK version of a guitar-led Kraftwerk on an Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test!, perhaps?

An Andrew Lawrence video: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.lawrence.549/videos/1040317438197628

Ok, lovely people and other punks…here are still more images from the remains of the Blackpool Boneyard (festi). I will miss the Waterloo pub and the new and old friends well-met there. I feel rather sad about the legendary Bowling Green out the back. Maybe it will get some TLC in the future.

I’d very much like to especially recommend  four of the bands at Boneyard 3: From the USA: The Darts; Wasted Youth; from Paris: Human Toys, and Blackpool’s finest and weirdest: Hot Pink Sewage! Enjoy!!!  The Darts, headlined on the Sunday night. They are an all-female outfit with real musical and visual attitude. Kind of a blend of the Runaways, morphing into a good-time version of The Slits. I rather love their own self-description:

“THE DARTS formed in 2016 with the singular goal of getting four women together to make great garagerock noise, see the world, and have a giant slumber-party of a good time every night. We put on our black slips, took our shoes off, and set out on the adventure.”

Video link to the gothic, ‘Middle of Nowhere’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCAOyYm3X90

Post-punk, punks who started out in 1979, Wasted Youth reformed in 2022 with two of the original members, Ken Scott on vocals and lead guitarist, Rocco Barker. Lots of the Boneyard audience members shared memories of the band and knew many of their old songs. A lot of punk attitude. Visually they looked a bit like Van the Man with Keith Richards on guitar breaks! Wasted Youth live in 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoIaLMgmXbU

Human Toys from France are real devils without disguises! Visually daring. Here’s how they describe themselves:

“HUMAN TOYS is a garage punk duo. Poupée Mecanik (vocals, theremin) plays with female archetypes, coupling subversion with irony. Guitarist Jon Von, x-Rip Offs, has transformed the band with new songs somewhere between the Ramones and the Avengers!”

They are great crowd pleasers. Particularly some of the males in the crowd who ‘encountered’ the provocative, Poupée…

A cartoon video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlSICldxDkQ

My personal new discovery from The Boneyard was the outrageous, Hot Pink Sewage.

Humorous, punk cabaret extraordinaire! Catchy, confrontational songs delivered with a slapstick visual eccentricity. Theatre of the Absurd created in, or maybe embalmed in, Blackpool Rock! Bonkers…  You’ll be singing this little ditty down the pub later. Video ‘Eyeballs in my anus’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrFyTmDT6Nw

That’s me well-tired with photo editing and sorting out images. Hope there are some you like. They come from a mix of musical prodigies from the Saturday and Sunday shows. My mind is addled, but they probably include – Krank Williams; The Complaint that Creeps; Zombina and the Skeletones; Hipbone Slim; The Zipheads; Coughing Vicars and the Bitter Lemons.  And for good measure, a last visual helping of, a little End of the World magic from Blackpool’s wonderful Hot Pink Sewage!!! Respect!

From top left clockwise: Krank Williams; The Complaint that Creeps; Hipbone Slim; The Zipheads; Bitter Lemons; Coughin Vicars and Zombina and the Skeletones

Loved the Boneyard Festi team, led by Andrew Wilson (Ratty). The Waterloo is steeped in music history and memorabilia. It features signed artefacts from the likes of Paul Weller, The Who and even Lemmy’s Bar! The 2026 Boneyard is well into pre-planning. Here are a mix of mostly non-festi pics.  To end, some of my my pics of Boneyarders at play and a few Blackpool tourist pics, and a few of the ‘other’ sides of the town… The weather was mixed!

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