Words and Pictures: Adrian Hextall / (C) MindHex Media
Celebrating it’s tenth anniversary, Resolution Festival at London’s iconic 100 Club kicked of 2025 in style with multiple headline shows over 8 nights including; TV SMITH & Vom Ritchie, DISCHARGE, FEROCIOUS DOG, SUBHUMANS, UK SUBS, THE BOYS, GBH and 999.
Each of the bands had quality supports and a damp Sunday night in early January was thankfully made much easier by openers, Headsticks.
Headsticks
Formed in late 2012 the band boasts former members of some of the regions most successful folk crossover bands Tower Struck Down, Jugopunch, and The Clay Faces. Ten years on from debut album ‘Muster’ the band are still in fine fettle and as fired up and agitated about life as their ‘cold, grey, English skies’ opener would suggest.
For me, this is a completely new band. I’ve not seen them before so in order to truly gauge their impact, a quick scan of the crowd was necessary. With a setlist that gave us the best part of an hour’s worth of music the room looked as happy to see the openers as they were when the headliners arrived. Their new album, best of collection, ‘Headsticks: 2012-2022 Ten Years Without Killing Each Other’; brings together 15 tracks that showcase all the band has to offer musically and lyrically.
Speaking of lyrics, lead vocalist and lyricist Andrew Tanter has a skill for recounting the lives and stories of people we all recognise and he spent most of the set explaining those stories loudly and energetically to anyone who catches his eye in the front few rows. You only have to look at some of the photos below to realise the passion and energy he puts into a show.
Ably supported by guitarist Stephen (Doon) Dunn, bassist Nick Bayes and drummer Tom Carter, Headsticks spent their set tackling topics from class, climate change, poverty and political turmoil. The world and country that we live in at the moment sometimes feels like progress takes 3 steps forward and 5 steps back. Thankfully thanks to bands like Headsticks who spread the word via catchy melodies, solid scores and heartfelt lyrics, we are waking up to those realities.
SETLIST: Cold, Grey, English Skies / Dying for a Lie / Miles and Miles / Naked / Mississippi Burning / Flatline Town /The God Song / St. George’s Infirmary /Tyger Tyger /Dark Waters / My Own War / Peace and Quiet
Ferocious Dog
With the crowd suitably warmed up, and filled with the sort of fire not seen since the miners strikes of the early 1980s, the reception that greeted Ferocious Dog when they came on stage was, well, ferocious! They came on to ‘There Is Power In A Union’ which Billy Bragg probably still believes is true but I’m not so sure the unions have the power that they did some 30-40 years ago. When the band plugged in and started with ‘Haul Away Joe’, the crowd in the sweaty home of punk rock, The 100 Club, were bouncing, cheering and generally just having a blast.
Given that your average classic punk rock crowd has been there since the 1970s, you’d think that they might have slowed a little and begun to sway in appreciation rather than pogoing around the room but no, a Ferocious Dog crowd knows no bounds and bouncing, something that lead singer Ken Bonsall was clearly channeling as he flew around the stage with his low slung acoustic guitar. As such, the fans, appropriately named ‘Hell Hounds’ are and were every much a part of the show as the band themselves.
The new songs from latest album ‘Kleptocracy’ stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of the bands formative years and the crowd clearly agreed. Every song was sung back to the band word for word, much to the delight of the six lads on stage. Highlights from the newer material included the title track and the rather excellent ‘Sus Laws’ (there’s a fair few of those these days). If you’ve seen the band play before then you’ll know their brand of Celtic folk infused punk rock music energises, invigorates the body and stimulates the mind in equal measure. Their shows are nothing but fun, albeit with serious messages attached to the music and the crowd can be equally raucous and respectful when required during the sets.
For more info please take a look at The Lee Bonsall Memorial Fund and Andy’s Man Club or Mind if you are struggling.
They closed with a singalong and a dance (enthusiastically) to the age old classic ‘Nellie The Elephant’. Whatever the messages that needed to be stated (and were), this was still a gig and was there to be enjoyed. What better way than this timeless classic that we all learnt as kids.. A brilliant way to finish the night.
SETLIST:
[TAPE] There Is Power in a Union (Billy Bragg song)
Haul Away Joe
Pentrich Rising
Iron Mike Malloy
Spin
Kleptocracy
Black Gold
Poor Angry and Young
Broken Soldier
Pocket of Madness
Darker Side of Town
The Punk Police
Sus Laws
Parting Glass
Paddy on the Railway
Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya
Hell Hounds
Mairi’s Wedding II
Slow Motion Suicide
[TAPE] Nellie the Elephant (Mandy Miller song)