ENGLISH DOGS, BASTARD SQUAD, RUST, RUKUS             

2 March Valve Bar, Tempe, Sydney Australia

Being a fan of the UK 82 genre, I started collecting English Dogs vinyl a while back. I now have a semi-complete collection of their stuff from ’83 to’86, all of which gets trotted out fairly regularly. I love this early stuff, and both the “punk” and “metal/crossover” sides to the band. I think the cover of “Mad Punx and English Dogs” is great, with the massive spikes and mohawks, and also the art and gatefold on “Forward into Battle”. I even reckon the ambitious “Where legend began” is pretty good, sound and cover wise, this one also has a gatefold sleeve and Tolkien-ish art and lyrics.

Long standing Wollongong chaos punkers RUKUS are up next, priming the crowd with their rowdy UK82 influnced oi!. These guys are great! Covers of THE LAST RESORT and THE ANTI NOWHERE LEAGUE give an idea of where they’re coming from. Ironically, given their cover of “Violence in our minds”, the bass player got into a bit of a stoush with a hard-nut skin later on......... A few hard lookin’ skins out this evening......... 

Dependable Sydney boys RUST are up next. With a new guitarist, their meat and potatoes oi! now has a bit more of a metal edge. Tunes like “Sprit of the ANZACS” and “Black Rats”, and their cover of the 4 SKINS ACAB ain’t too bad at all.

BASTARD SQUAD, who always seem to come out whenever an old UK 82 punk band are, in the words of vocalist Jason, back with a vengeance. And that they are. Even guitars difficulties didn’t slow ‘em down. No nonsense flat out Oi! Influenced by their heroes, but they definitely have their own flavour.

Sporting a cardboard sign around his neck that says “I like drugs” ENGLISH DOGS vocalist Wakey encourages the crowd to get into it when they come on stage – “Come on Sydney, It’s Saturday fucking night!” then they are into “Brain Disease” (it’s evident in the lyrics and his stage persona that Wakey embraces the erm, slightly weirder side of life), a new song from their split CD with Bastard Squad. Another new one, and then “The fall of Max” from their 1983 classic “Mad Punx and English Dogs”.

Formed in the early 80’s, the ENGLISH DOGS were one of the classic UK82 bands, although they lacked the profile of GBH or THE EXPLOITED. After the first two records, “Mad Punx and English Dogs” and “Invasion of the Porky Men” Wakey departed and the line up changed, with a new vocalist and guitarist coming in. This line up released the punk/metal crossover classic “Forward into Battle”. (A separate line up of the band toured this record last year).

After several reformations in the 90s and 2000’s which saw Wakey return, and several different line ups of the band  put  out various recordings, Wakey again reformed the band proper, only to split again, seeing him form a completely new line up for the “punk” version of the band, with the “metal” version also touring.

So it’s the punk version tonight. Although he may be getting on a bit, Wakey has plenty of enthusiasm.  Interspersed with newer songs were also classics from “Invasion of the Porky Men”, the cover of which was a huge backdrop. With slightly younger fellas making up the rest of the band, they tear through classic ENGLISH DOGS stuff; “Psycho Killer”, “Left me for dead” “World War 2”, “Newsflash”. Great to finally see the ENGLISH DOGS, I thought they put on a great show. No encore, unfortunately, Wakey politely waves goodbye, and that’s that.