Punks 4 Veterans Llanelli

Friday night ( 16th June) saw the second of two Punks 4 Veterans charity gigs in aid of The VC Gallery, Haverfordwest. The Gallery helps people with mental health issues such as depression and veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but also helps people with learning disabilities, autism and the socially excluded who have nowhere else to go. The first gig was a fortnight ago when my band joined others for a great night in the Labyrinth in Haverfordwest. This time the gig took place in the Masons, Llanelli. As with the Haverfordwest gig, the night was opened by event organiser, Tamsin Mathias who played some emo classics on her acoustic guitar. Although I am not that familiar with the genre myself, I could appreciate Tamsin’s great talent, there was definitely something very Joan Jett about her version of Pink’s So What. ( I loved Tamsin’s The Used cover as well as the MCR tune !! Trudi) Next up were Haverfordwest punkers, trunk Shot. Although I only ever get to see this band once every few years, they must have some catchy songs as I found myself singing along with most of the songs. They always remind me of The Wildhearts, possibly because singer, Al Muirez, usually wears a Wildhearts t-shirt. Their song which always gets me going and puts a smile on my face is the sing-a-long drinking classic, “Beautiful B*****ds” and this went down really well with the appreciative audience. The third act of the night World vs. World did not play the Haverfordwest gig but were very passionate about playing a charity gig. Lead singer Kirk Bowen did make a couple of rousing political speeches which received a lot of positive reaction from the crowd. I have played a couple of gigs with World vs. World lately and they always put on a great show. Another band which we have played with a number of times are headliners, Fat Wreck. At their first few gigs I had a feeling that they had not quite settled into their sound; lead vocalist, Lewis Larkman, was used to playing blues and prog rock so he didn’t quite fit in with 90s American punk rock covers. However the boys have really worked hard playing a lot of gigs since and they had hit absolute top form on Friday. Their choice of songs was spot-on, opening with a nice bit of ska with Rancid’s Time Bomb, before moving onto Welcome to Paradise by Green Day. These choices had the crowd up and dancing from the start and by the time they revisited Rancid later on in the set, with Ruby Soho, the excitement had got too much with the boys from Trunk Shot and Tamsin, who join in on stage. By the time they closed with Four Simple Words by Frank Turner, there was a large crowd up in front of the band with arms around each other singing and dancing along. A cracking night for a great cause.