999 – Live at the Rifle Club
Tonight celebrating 40 years in the industry, unlike many of their counterparts, English punk band 999 have remained a fairly constant line-up throughout. Arturo Bassick (from the Lurkers) may not have been there since the start, but still joined the group back in 1993. Tonight however, due to suffering from arthritis, original drummer Pablo LaBritain is replaced by Arturo’s Lurkers bandmate Stuart Meadows.
Local punks Archive 45 also had to pull out at the last minute, leaving 5 Go Mad as the main support. They may have only been existence since 2015 but have already shared a stage with the likes of GBH, Vibrators and UK Subs.
In fact, the Vibrators gig can be read about here and the live CD of 5 Go Mad’s support slot here. Both of which are also a fair representation of tonight’s set, mixing the in-jokes and between song banter with an endless flurry of 3-chord-punk rock. All the time Wozza on drums continues to push the rest of the band, seemingly in a race to see who can finish the song first.
5 Go Mad
At a venue slowly becoming Portsmouth’s new home for the old-school local punk scene, 999 at the Rifle Club was a busy night. It wasn’t long until frontman Nick Cash was reminiscing about past venues that 999 have played in Portsmouth over the years, genuinely looking pleased to see many familiar faces.
The positive energy coming from the stage was reflected in the performance too, the band possibly looking more the part now than they did on those early album covers. That of course is one of the many misconceptions about punk rock, it was never really about studded jackets and Mohawks.
Those first 3 albums though “The Biggest Prize in Sports, “Separates” and the self-titled debut, all contain some punk rock classics. It’s not surprising then, that tracks such as “Emergency” continue to receive the biggest reaction all these years later.
The audience were chanting along to “Homicide” while the bass line kept “Feeling alright with the Crew” chugging along nicely. Newer tracks from “Death in Soho” may already be 10 years old, but the songs are in keeping with those earlier tracks and sound as fresh as ever.
40 years later and 999 prove that punk rock is just as relevant in 2017 as it was in 1977 when it all began. As for more concerts live at the Rifle Club, Portsmouth, let’s hope we’re still singing its praises in another 40.
999
