It’s Thursday, it’s 7pm, and no, it’s not Crackerjack – it’s the banging annual Bad Manners Festive Fun Show.
Buster Bloodvessel and the Band are back.
Nothing says Christmas like a good old late December gig in the Diff, with a few cheeky beers, and a few even cheekier moves in the mosh pit.
For me, cheering with a cracking crowd, screaming out stonking songs, surrounded by mates you love, in a brilliant band venue, is a feeling that just can’t be beat.
So this regular roof-raiser, complete with our sharp Fred Perrys, and sturdy stomping brogues, is standard for us Gig Girls now – and we wouldn’t miss it for the world.
There we were, obligatory toilet selfie taken, and plastic pint glass firmly in hand, waiting for it all to kick off – in more ways than one.
Max Splodge, decked in the expected ‘Dennis the Menace’ old Skool mohair jumper, set the scene with half and hour of pure punk classics.
Then came Buster to thunderous applause – and those immortal screams and shouts of ‘You Fat Bastard,’
Plaudits taken, and with infamous tongue flapping in the breeze, he launched straight into This is Ska.
And it certainly was as Bad Manners took us through two hours of their top tunage.
Lorraine, Just a Feeling, Walking in the Sunshine, Sally Brown and Fatty, Fatty.
Covers like Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, El Pussycat, and Woolly Bully.
And that classic that always gets me singing and stomping, their version of Millie’s My Girl Lollipop.
I saved my smoothest shapes though for the Bad Manners beat I love the best – Special Brew.
Money can’t buy you happiness but it can sure as Hell buy you concert tickets – and that’s kind of like the same thing.
For me, a passionate devotee, I need to feel my music, and indeed everything, from the floorboards up – words I nicked from Weller.
For my soul to sing it must have the tune, the lyric, the sentiment, and the relativity – or a cute combination of those four.
Of course, some singers, like my much-loved Modfather, and the late, great Bowie give me it all…and then some.
For others it is about the tunes and the time. Thank you Boy George for bravely and boldly celebrating gender bending queerness in the savage Section 28 late 80’s.
With Bad Manners, it’s just pure sentiment. Nostalgia mixed with memories standing next to both the music, and the mates of my terrific, and sometimes turbulent, teenage years.
Nothing says Comp Disco like manically dancing and having a laugh whilst skanking to punk and ska on a naughty night out.
Bad Manners always, always, capture this feeling.
And after a storming session, totally raised the roof with the chaotic Can Can as their final farewell.
Thank you so much Buster for always bringing that cracking Christmas Spirit to Cardiff.
I sure don’t want this Fatty to Lip Up anytime soon.
See you next year then.
Speak soon.
Mrs SVJ
Sue Vincent-Jones, writing as Mrs SVJ, is a Barry born journalist, editor, and communications specialist. She blogs about Barry – and her life in the wider world, through the eyes of a, quirky and queer, local girl done good.
Gig Girl Reviews is where she shows that the world is wider than just our town by writing about the gigs, the films, the theatre, the exhibitions, and all things arty – all through the eyes of a local girl done good.
Mrs SVJ, Barry’s Boldest Blogger, can be contacted here.