The unofficial Soundcity 2012 review : 

Conferences, guerilla gigs and an after-party never to be remembered...for some.

Day One 

Thursday - 10am registration @ the Hilton. Free papers, free coffee, free food. This ain't so bad. A meet & greet with a bunch of people in a room, half of which we know already but it's nice to catch up with some friends.

Things are in place for the Friday night after-party @ Mello Mello and Friday's guerilla gigs so it's a nice laid back meet & greet before a swift lunch and a talk on Digital Marketing. Whoop-de-doo! But a whole load of boring $^%£ this wasn't, Dave Emery and Darren Hemmings know their stuff when it comes to facebook etc. Notes aplenty. 

Of course there are the usual daft questions like, "How do I get more friends on Myspace?" to which the standard LSC panelists answers arises, "Be good!" This won't be the last time this golden nugget of advice is dished out during the weekend.

By the end of the day we'd had lunch with festival director and chatted to the most relevant punk rock journalist in the country. Success? Yeah!

Day Two

Friday - Starting with a guerilla gig on the grasses of Chavasse Park. Security at the Hilton immediately alerted L1 staff (pictured in red) and our illegally parked van was causing concern while Super Fast Girlie Show fired into the opening onslaught of their set. Mid-way through they were asked to move away from the private land. Threats to call the police because the van was parked on the pavement meant the concert was wrapped up almost as quickly as it was set-up. That's the beauty of pop-up gigs. Pack up and move onto the next location.

image: LuLowe

Upon the steps of St. Luke's, the bombed-out church with an impromptu appearance that saw people from all over Bold St, Berry St, Lecce St and Renshaw St converge to watch The Dead Class and Super Fast Girlie Show serenade the streets in a hail of punk rock. Ambrose Reynolds (patron saint of St. Lukes) was more than happy for the pop-up gigs to take place even while there was a SoundCity showcase taking place inside the church. This proved to be a perfect guerilla location and we look forward to other people nicking the idea. Keep an eye out for SFGS back there during the summer. These kind of gigs usually only get announced on Twitter so make sure you follow @AntipopUK if you're up for a bit of spontaneous musical combustion.

The rain started shortly after this and we packed up and departed the scene.

The after-party inside a packed out Mello Mello Cafe kept everybody waiting with it's midnight start and the venue was heaving as The Vermin Suicides took the stage under the Antipop banner. Smashing through a Dub/Punk set of neo-classical rock anthems. Moshpits, one hip-hop track and 30 minutes later it was over and the night was well and truly underway.

Elmo and the Styx (below) are one of the newest bands on the local scene, their debut EP has been out for just over six months. This is their first gig in Liverpool since their debut album was recorded at Parr St. Studios. Their energy and comical cover of Coolio's highschool rap musical Gangster's Paradise delights the crowd, Rob on guitar plays Coolio while Elmo takes the mantle of Cee-Lo. That leaves JJ on drums to play Michelle Pfeiffer.

image: AdrianWharton

The headline band and the fan's favourite The Dead Class show the nicely lubricated audience just how it's done. They're a glossy machine exhibiting a punk rock horrorshow as they wheel out the 'Freak'. In the stand-out moment of an unusual night this concave chested bunny-masked jazz mutant is no match for the crowd of earth punks and Antipoppers as they tear him limb from limb ingesting his form with their hungry eyes.

image: AdrianWharton

And thusly the night descends into utter chaos as the stage is invaded by guerillas Super Fast Girlie Show and friends, turning the Mello stage into a swelling hive of instrument and journalist bashing. One unfortunate writer gets an earful for a negative review from the SFGS drummer. We best not say anything bad about this impromptu drunken gig here! Reviewers beware...

image: LuLowe

The night perfectly captures a self-supportive underground scene, the alternative music label and the real terrifying spirit of anarchic punk rock.

Day Three

Saturday - While Super Fast Girlie are hungover and sleeping we are up and out with Space, the reformed UK Britpop band from the 90s featuring former Drellas (Antipop) members Allan Jones (drums), Ryan Clarke (keys) and Antipop founder Phil Hartley (bass). They are set to play in a warehouse space in Wolstenholme Square and this is the venue a band called Temper Trap filled the previous night. Massive delays from all angles ensure this becomes the longest soundcheck in the history of music festivals. Finally, at 5:30pm, five and a half hours behind schedule, the band leave the stage, done. Yikes! This crappy phone picture taken later in the night with Space mid-set shows it was all worth the wait.

It's now time to round up Super Fast Girlie Show for their final gig of the weekend at Royal Standard Art Gallery on Vauxhall Road, Liverpool. Here they perform in a small glass room on a six-inch high plywood stage. They deafen people with screeching feedback between songs and crashing cymbals during it. It's yet another fitting and rousing performance to shake any cobwebs from your dusty ears after the heavy weekend.

Another year of SoundCity and undoubtedly the best yet. They are making you work harder to keep up with what's cool, and likelihood is you missed the best SoundCity had to offer because it's hard to stay hip in a dying world. One thing's for certain, you can trust Antipop to jam a rusty spanner in the works.

Photos: Lu Lowe Imaging

Photos: Adrian Wharton

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