Bad Manners 06.12.2024
Invited: Guest Review by Jane Welsh
We arrived to Boiler Shop to a full house despite the rain and storm brewing outside, dedicated fans showing commitment to see the brilliant 1980s London Ska band, Bad Manners. Queues were relatively short at both the bar and toilet facilities considering the amount of people. Merchandise reasonably priced and selling like hot cakes!
Unfortunately the original support act Max Splodge couldn’t be here tonight, so was pleasantly replaced by Skaboom UK who were absolutely amazing playing all the classics from the likes of Madness and The Specials. Bad Manners members also stood in on instruments to help out with the support act, thoroughly enjoyable and the crowd happily dancing and singing along.
The crowd were then hyped and awaited the much anticipated Bad Manners by clapping and chanting ‘You Fat Bastard!’ a famous line from frontman Buster Bloodvessel and also a song which the crowd loved later on in the set. The band commenced with ‘This is Ska’, instantly taking the crowd under their wing to floods of dancing and singing from the crowd. Shortly followed by ‘My Girl Lollipop’ and ‘Lorraine’. Buster intermittently showing his famous considerably long ‘tongue’ to the crowd much to their delight. The band continued with the likes of ‘Feel Like Jumping’, with full crowd participation, rocking the Boiler Shop to its core.
Buster left the stage for a short while whilst the rest of the band kept the audience morale high playing some great tunes to keep the crowd dancing. ‘Just A Feeling’ was amazing and took my mam back to her teens. As soon as ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ started, the whole crowd lit up and the band absolutely brought the house down, the audience singing was so loud you could barely hear the band, brilliant to see so many people enjoying themselves!
‘Ne-Ne Na-Na Na-Na Nu-Nu’ was next, followed by ‘Wooly Bully’, a cover originally by Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs, another iconic Ska tune. The crowd was full of people wearing two-tone outfits, Harrington Jackets and braces. Brilliant to see all age groups enjoying Ska music as much as it was originally popular in the early eighties.
Buster did not disappoint when my mams favourite ‘Special Brew’ was performed. The band gave it their all and it was the highlight of the night for us. The encore was fully anticipated by chants of ‘You Fat Bastard!’ again, cheers for the band returning back to the stage to finish off with an absolute classic ‘Lip Up Fatty’. All in all a journey back in time to reminisce on some brilliant times and amazing music still being enjoyed to this day!