The PLAGUE is back. PLAGUE UK play Brighton!

Plague UK

PLAGUE UK

These guys steamed into Brighton for a gig at Brighton Electric on Saturday 3 March, billed as a Punk Shake Up! Fortunately the snow and ice had cleared and all the bands taking part in the event managed to get into town safe and sound!

These are the power Punk Rockers that are the Plague UK, the band was originally from way back in 1976.  Punk band The Plague, known to have played the Roxy Club more times than any other, released a single in 78 called ‘In Love’ which charted and was played on Radio. The band disbanded back in 1981, and they decided to reform in 2005, and in 2015 put out an album called ‘What Do You Expect’ but again the band went their separate ways in 2016.

Well, now its time to unleash this monster with the band having a new name, new band members, except the original creator and front man Marc Jefferies. We were ready to see the guys power on and bring it to Brighton and spread the sound and energy of the all new Plague, Plague UK.

The Band:

Marc Jefferies – Guitar / Vocals
Simon Godfrey – Guitar / Vocals
Lee Page – Bass (Guest: playing bass for this gig)
Martin Taylor – Bass / Backing Vocals
Lee Morrell – Drums / Backing Vocals

Lee Page was filling in on bass guitar for Martin Taylor tonight. So here is a shot of the full band line up with Martin in it! Next time Martin!

Plague UK

The Set

Make no mistake, these guys are all accomplished, talented musicians. They have come together from various other sources to bring Plague UK to life. I had met all of the guys before at various gigs and they were as delightful to spend time with now as they were at previous meets. We were promised an in your face, teeth rattling set. A catalogue of material had been finely crafted and ready for presentation. Marc, the original from Plague, took center stage. He looked great with his SG slung round his neck. Lee settled behind his kit, no neon tonight. Simon climbed onto the stage with his guitar and shock of blue hair. The other side of the stage Lee plugged in, positioned his hat and sun glasses and we were ready!

Hell fire! Marc and the guys launched into I Hate The State., with Lee giving the bass lines intro for it.  This was pure adrenalised punk energy from the album What do You Expect! Wow, what an opener! Out On The Streets and  Do It  from the same album slammed into us faster than the speed of sound, almost pinning the crowd against the wall in Brighton Electric. We had some fine banter from the band at times, interspersed between the songs. At times Marc would spend a little time to give us an insight into a song or an anecdote of how he had worked on pissing off their record company back in the day. A fabulous musical history lesson, all of the fascinating and humourous insights and gossip were lapped up by the assembled lucky audience.

It was getting hot in the venue and the crowd loved their version of Virginia Plain, with Simon nailing the vocals for this one “Whats your name?” – with no Virginia Plain. Fabulous!. A top song given a make over, an edgy punk Plague UK touch again a track from the last album. Pure punked up class guys! Wimpy Bar Song ( the B side to the single In Love) was up next and then a couple of songs later and we got  the song itself, In Love. Another cover Suffragette City was delivered hard n fast! All of the guys were working hard for the set, sweat dripping onto guitars and equipment. This was an exciting gig, pure rock and roll, the sound generated with buzzed up guitars, was an almost back to basics sound and it was that sound, and attitude, which helped create a generation of music. These guys were good, real good! It really doesn’t get much better than this.

A Video

Get a highly infectious slice of PLAGUE UK, turn it up!

The last song of the night, well it just had to be One Two, F*ck You. And that was it! Phew! We all stood there, nobody moved. That was a delight to watch, and The Brighton Electric guys had done a great job on the sound desk. Yes, hell yes, it was loud – but they did a great job blending those sounds to deliver great audio. Then someone broke the spell and headed to back of the room, and the well and truly satisfied crowd started to move and head to the bar!

A great night, and so good to talk to everyone again. Hope to see you soon back down this way. Thanks PLAGUE UK, I’m infected!

PLAGUE UK are on Facebook

Wavestate Promotions are on Facebook

This was an event billed as Plague UK \ Duncan Reid And The Big Heads – Punk Shake Up! It was organised by Wavestate Promotions and took place at Brighton Electric.

Please note all images / video are copyright, please do not copy. If any of the featured artists/promoters/venues want copies of the images – or more if available – please just get in touch.

All original pictures / video – copyright to IANB/MEDIA WORKS/ SCENE SUSSEX – Ian “The Lens” Bourn 2018.

Got an event coming up? Need some gig photography, promo shots, previews or reviews? – please get in touch! See you down the front – come and say “hi!”