London Punks

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Saturday, June 13, as part of the Forest City London Music Week 2026 there's a punk show outdoors at the Covent Gardens Market. There are some bands from the early 1980's who have reformed (some I suspect especially for this event) and others with players from back then who have started new bands. All of the players are folks at/near our age. Like us, they are reliving their misspent youth. Unlike us they've done their 10,000 hours, some on stage, and can play!

We saw a few friends from the day. Dave & Rena, Peter & Angela.

We are especially interested in seeing the Wabi Sabis; they are composed of players from back then; some we know fairly well. They've been recording quite a bit and playing a lot in town; we've just not had the chance to see them. Peter Dekoker, who plays with 63 Monroe, Thames Rivieras, the Wabi Sabis (and god knows where else) greets us. Peter and Angela came to our 45th anniversary party last year.

It's an evening event starting at 5pm. We arrive lateish and miss several acts. We catch the Black Donnellys (a notorious 1980s band from Lucan), the Lucy's (a new band of players from the day — Iain Staines from the Demics, Paul Scriven from Itsa Skitsa, Marcy Saddy from Certain Generals, and more), the Wabi Sabis (as mentioned — from the Crash 80's Peter Tangredi voice, Peter DeKoker and Dave Clark formally of October Crisis, 98DA and the Terminals are pictured above) and the Legend Killers who reformed and played a first gig at the Palasad a couple of weeks ago. Mike McGill of the Legend Killers acts as the host for the evening. We understand there's been some fuss regarding the host originally planned (our friend Scott).

The music that night was loud, often too loud. When the speakers start fibulating (bzzz .. bzzz ...) it's time to turn it down from 11. The Lucy's were great and had a better sound mix; I especially liked their rendition of "Ohio" (by Neil Young of CSNY, re: Kent State shootings of 1970). I recognized the song right away. There's a lot to protest in the US right now. Not a "punk" song but a great one and nice to hear again.

Wabi Sabis were fun to see and they obviously were enjoying themselves. Perhaps a little less F-bombs might make them more palatable to the surrounding apartments who got to hear it all. The Legend Killers were great as well. I had never seen them before.

Finally, I'm experimenting with film again and shot most of these pictures with my Nikon F2A. The B/W film I developed at home and did a terrible job — it has that grainy push processed feel. The color was done at a local lab; not as terrible a job but nothing to crow about either. Both have been heavily manipulated; I'm trying to pull out something salvageable. The Legend Killers were shot on my digital camera and worked well. Kate thinks I'm crazy to shoot film on these old cameras; I suspect she's right.