JJJack

More: I saw the film the punk singer on film 4 the other night, Kathleen Hanna. From Bikini kill, loads of attitude, diy, political and great. A "punk" attitude. Also check out Tilt and retching red, female singer with good voice (tilt) and bucketfuls of anger (retching red). My current favourite track is blue kid trapped in a red state. Disregard the above if you think there are no American punk bands and the genre only existed in the late 70s. Gabba gabba hey!

Loving the sound of JJ bass, virtually any track, nice and sleazy, walk on by and the list goes on. Conflict: great Bert, enjoy the rudimentary peni, let us you know what you think, great artwork too. Hardcore prawn is more fleshy than punk and pinker in colour. It's strange when people say punk was only one date to another, that argument doesn't work with other genres e.g. Blues, rock, hip hop, tango, humppa, jazz etc. but people love to split into sub categories: punk, hardcore, goof core, geekcore, new wave, So Cal, blah blah. It's probably been said countless times, it's a state of mind. In the science world especially botany people are either clumpers or splitters when it comes to categorising species. Jack

Basstractor, Thanks you've just made me look for the records and I found some records from another band with fantastic manic bass: Rudimentary Peni, YouTube them, mind blowing. Like nothing I had ever heard before. I found my Norge album: Ingenting for Norge featuring, Allahrm, terror, Norrrske Budeier and Fader War. My deck is not connected so I'm not sure what it's like. I remember that a family friend from Norway got it and when she went to the record shop the man said it was easier to get hardcore porn than hardcore punk. This was in the 1980s. Found this as well, Finnish compilation: hardcore 83, propaganda featuring Kansan uutiset, riistetyt, jakke & lateri, Äpärät, rattus and many more. And I found another rough Finnish band, the Bastards 10 track EP with blue vinyl! All loud fast and rough, the way it should be!! I must get the deck set up. Cheers Jack

Basstractor, I got kudos! Grew up on flux, omega tribe, amebic, antisect, a heads, crass, conflict, subhumans, crucifix. Perhaps only listen a few of the old guard now but they shaped the way I think about stuff. Add on the American and the Canadian bands and you have the greatest punk festival. I have Finnish and Norwegian punk too. Incidentally, some guy did a remix of Fluxs' neu smell, excellent.

Defining punk always turns into a nightmare. Regardless of decade, country of origin if it's fast, raw, loud, melodic or basic it's all punk to me. How about: DK Nomeansno DOA Nofx Subhumans The damned Conflict Stranglers Ramones All of which have been mentioned above, but also Black flag Minor threat MDC Crass Disorder Husker Dü Propagandhi Flux of pink Indians Or is this just a list of bands I like?

I was there at the weekend and it's a great little festival, it could maybe do with a few more people but it's only the second year. I missed your set ( Fracture?) but the three stand out acts for me were John Otway, Professor Elemental and Happy Mondays. And the choice of cider was good too. the no kids rule probably has both a positive and negative impact. If you live locally, it's definitely worth a look.

Stingray HH has an excellent range of tones, I think it's great, but then I have a go on my 2 EQ Stingray and I think that's fantastic too. Never played a Sandberg but I'm sure they're fine. All of the above better than my old Jedson short scale bass!

Better to cause a reaction than none at all I reckon. They're only a bit of fun and better than beige!

What do you reckon? Too much? Took a punt on the Neons, not too bad but not as "zingy" as Ernie Balls.