Cockney Rejects – Mothership: February 6, 2023

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Cockney Rejects wasted no time on stage as they blasted out a classic British punk show, undiminished in its power and glory even after forty-plus years.

Their story began in 1978 in London’s East End. By that time the Sex Pistols were on the ropes as a band and imploding in America amidst farce and tragedy. The Rejects’ mission was to keep the original filth and fury alive and vital. A monster sound of venomous attack with songs of street politics and social upheaval. A wicked sense of humour was there along with all the baiting of politicians, police, thugs, idiots and wankers.

Two brothers kicked it all off. Jeff Stinky Turner Geggus lead vocals and Mick Geggus guitar. The solid engine room is powered by long-serving bass guitarist Vince Vinny Riordan, and the much younger-looking Joe Sansome on drums.

They bring it on with the fast punches of Fighting in the Street. No matter what the government do/ it’s never gonna change.

Paper Tiger and the band are locked in now with powerful attacking guitar riffs, backed by the ground attack of the rhythm section.

We Are the Firm and I Love Being Me. All anthemic and dispensing with any subtlety. You try to shut us up/ Yeah, we are cunts. I swear that’s what I hear.

Singer Jeff takes a boxers stance throughout the show, and continually throws fast left-right combinations. Built wiry and tough and looks gym-trained in his early Sixties. Both brothers were amateur boxers who fought at the national level.

In their first flush as a band, they attracted the attention of the Far Right and the ultra-National British Movement, which they always denounced. But they were hard-core football supporters of West Ham, and they attracted some fan violence of other clubs.

The fighter’s stance works. They have the presence of guys who could handle violent male jerks. Audience combat was part of their initial breakout.

Reminds me of one of the pioneers of this, Alan Vega from Suicide who would swing a motorcycle chain around his head before slamming it onto the stage, in their proto-punk early days when they would deliberately bait their audience.

Along with Sham 69, whose leader Jimmy Pursey discovered them and was instrumental in getting them an early recording contract, they were the spearheads of the Oi! Movement.

Oi! was essentially streamlined hard-core punk, and the genuine torchbearers of the sound.

A song like Urban Guerilla sounds like a perfect blend of Ramones and Sex Pistols. The bass riff leads the song tonight. Looking for some fun/ and I’m gonna kill someone. The Beastie Boys debut album Licensed To Ill could be regarded as variations on this sentiment.

They introduce East End as written about the shit hole we come from. Now it’s high rises and all gentrified. But they change the name to Auckland. It’s the only place left/ where anyone is alive. Set to the Bo Diddley rhythm in its most basic form. One of his claims is being the Godfather to punk.

It is ironic, in that walking around central Auckland now is like being in a ghost town. Empty shops outnumber expensive boutiques, and the homeless now regard it as their turf.

Headbanger has a similar rhythm riff to the Ramones Beat on the Brat.

Bad Man and the guitarist rips out an opening salvo which seems to have taken inspiration from AC-DC.

Hate of the City also features a rare guitar solo. But there are some white reggae rhythms in there. The style of the early Clash when Lee Perry worked with them to smash out the classic Complete Control single.

I was sort of hoping they may do Rutling Orange Peel, an instrumental dub reggae workout. Not to be though. I nicked it for my writing handle, and it actually is a deep Beatles reference. Like the Ramones name.

The Oi! Oi! Oi! anthem closes the show. They go out in a blaze, exactly how they started the show.

The Cockney Rejects are one of the true legends of punk.

Rev (Rutling) Orange Peel          

                        

Rev Orange Peel
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