ROCKAWAY BEACH! The Ramonas doing it live! 1

The Ramonas

The Ramonas:(Scroll down the page for a new video!)

Chewing out a rhythm on my bubblegum! The Ramonas were back in Sussex – this time in Lewes Con Club. The Ramonas are on a UK and Europe tour promising to play the entire set from The Ramones – Its Alive album. A new “Rhonny” Ramona was introduced – clutching a pale blue Mosrite.

Managed to have a quick catch up before the set, and the guys looked chilled and ready. Cammy, on drums, had been really ill, but she made it! Yeah – rock and roll!

As the name suggests, The Ramonas are an all female tribute to the iconic New York Punk Rock band The Ramones. Originally conceived back in 2004 with multiple different lineups, The Ramonas have evolved into a fully fledged, razor sharp live band in their own right, and releasing some damn fine original material! Touring, Touring is never boring and these girls are guaranteed to play high energy, full throttle one hour shows that’ll leave you buzzing for more of that 1976 spirit.

Cloey Ramona – Vocals

Cloey Ramona

Vocalist Cloey is so full of energy and passion. She handled the mic and struck the Joey stances through out the set. She has a great voice full of power and intensity. Talking to her after the set her strong Scottish accent made me feel homesick and we had both watched the first half of the England V Scotland rugby match! She rocks the Ramones songs, absolutely!

Pee Pee Ramona

Pee Pee Ramona

The fabulous Pee Pee (yep – I know) has the bass duties, and that is some responsibility. She also has the task of delivering the “1-2-3-4″‘s for every song and joins in with some support vocals. A great job again from a great bassist!

Cammy Ramona – Drums

Cammy Ramona

The lady at the back keeping the tight drum patterns was Cammy.  She was set far back on the stage, almost in total darkness but by thunder you could hear her. Again she has some hard acts to follow but Cammy delivered with style and attitude and considering she was very ill – hats off and top marks to her. Well played!

Rohnny Ramona – Guitar

Rohnny Ramona

The latest addition to the line up is Rohnny. She has recently joined The Ramonas taking over guitar duties from the previous incumbent. And she is a firecracker! Playing a blue Mosrite guitar – the favoured guitar of choice of Johnny Ramone – she belted out the riffs and chords at us at a breakneck speed. And yep – down strokes only.

The Set

Well, not sure what to say about this. Quite extraordinary. Every song from the Ramones classic “Its Alive” album in the same running order. I road crewed for the Ramones on that tour and remember how exhausted they were, and The Ramonas must have felt the same, but they came back for an encore of their self-penned material. Not sure how they did that – real staying power and stamina!

GABBA GABBA HEY!

Some of the 28 songs fired at us at 100mph included: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, Blitzkrieg Bop, Rockaway Beach, Commando, Surfin Bird, Pinhead – and loads more! The guys finished off their set with their own material from the EP “You Asked For It”. The Ramonas didn’t stop, not for one second. Song after song fired at us with such an intensity. All the great songs were there.  Faultlessly delivered!

Lets Dance!

The Ramonas worked so damned hard to give the packed venue a great time. Cloey only stopped for a second when she lay down on the stage – only for the song Surfin Bird – watch the single cam video created for The Ramonas, with their permission – turn it up nice and loud!

In true Ramones fashion, the band blast through the tracks with speed, precision and attitude, and I can say that every song they did was a pure energetic blast of nostalgia.

And so, finally…

The crowd who had just had a blast of their lives drifted out. All smiling, chatting and all hot and sweaty! The Ramonas had a great merch stand and sadly I didn’t get a chance to grab a tour T shirt. Next time! CD’s and latest EP were available and a good selection of well priced merch.

The guys were chatting with fans and posing for selfies – one guy camera phone selfie time – took the pic – showed the girls the shot as his camera screensaver came on with said gent in some state of undress. I aint gonna forget that pic in a hurry – we all collapsed laughing. Cloey was letting me know that legend Charlie Harper, who was in the crowd, UK Subs, had loaned the band his blue Mosrite guitar. The Ramonas were absolutely thrilled to have it and use it! It really was a beauty and well played by Rhonny. Also in the crowd was Snips – Sharks Band, and it was great to see him and have a catch up chat. He had a gig coming up in Lewes which sounded as though it would be fun.

Well played The Ramonas – great to see you again, just don’t leave it to long before you Leave Home again!

The band made up with four female musicians who just happen to be huge Ramones fans. They travel the world playing the songs made famous by The Ramones. The Ramonas have got to be one of the only “tribute” bands worth seeing – so grab your old/new Ramones T and Lets Dance!

Gabba Gabba Hey!

And a shout to the staff and crew at Lewes Con Club. Great night. Hosted by We Love the Big Blue Shed

The Ramonas are on Facebook

The Ramonas are on the web

Please note all images/video are copyright, please do not copy. If any of the featured artists/venues would like copies of the images – or more if available – please get in touch.
All pictures – copyright to IANB/MEDIA WORKS/ Scene Sussex/ Ian “The Lens” Bourn 2017.

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