Newbury mosh pit heaves to raucous, irreverent old school punk

Ferocious Dog, with support Abdoujaparov, at Arlington Arts, on Saturday, April 23. Review by BRIAN HARRINGTON.

Formed in 1998 by Les Carter of Carter USM fame (The Only Living Boy In New Cross etc). Abdoujaparov can be described as old school punk. This was only a 30-minute set, but it was stuffed full of great tracks. I loved Brixton Flippin' Riots, Fingers, the slightly more reflective My Little Life and There's A Monster In My Garden, a song about being drunk.

Ferocious Dog are a force of nature. Described as "English working class Celtic folk punk" you might think (as someone said to me) "The Levellers meet the Ramones". They are raw, raucous, irreverent and, above all, hugely entertaining. Socially and politically aware lyrics, with cynicism and humour in equal measure they never stop moving and the packed audience loved them from the get-go. It's been a while since I last saw a heaving mosh pit!

Musically, six-piece Ferocious Dog are brilliant. Tight and absolutely together their powerful sound never flags. The current tour coincides with their new album The Hope and includes many tracks from that disc. Opening with Haul Away Joe, after their walk on track Port Isaac they immediately got their many faithful followers (affectionately referred to as hell hounds) jumping up and down. A melancholy fiddle intro heralded 'Lee's Tune' - Broken Soldier a song written about the sad suicide of Lee Bonsall the son of lead vocalist Ken, at the age of just 24 after returning from a tour with the army in Afghanistan.

A superb and socially aware track Sea Shepherds was a highlight for me with Ken Bonsall pointing out that if we kill the oceans we kill ourselves.

Ending the main set with Parting Glass and Hell Hounds the band returned for a huge encore which included The Hope, and Gallows Justice and finished with Slow Motion Suicide before Ken Bonsall, still bursting with energy led the mosh pit dancing to Nellie The Elephant!