[Spunge] Now I haven’t been to the Town Hall in Cheltenham
for years, in fact the last time I went to the venue
was to watch [Spunge] and 4FT Fingers play and that
must of been a good 5 years ago when both bands
were at the top of their game, back then the venue
was pretty damn packed and everyone was going mental
to their two most favourite UK ska/punk bands.
Tonight when I walked into the Town Hall, first
of all I was shocked to see how empty it was and
secondly just how casual the gig was, the members
of [Spunge] were walking round the venue and chatting
to their fans and family in and out of the bar
which was quite a nice thing to see and after
all Cheltenham is a local show for [Spunge] as
they grew up in Tewkesbury and spent a lot of
their earlier days playing in Gloucester and Cheltenham
on a regular basis.
Luckily by the time [Spunge] took to the stage
things were looking up and the Town Hall had a
fair few people in the main hall, there was still
plenty of room to move about but after all the
venue is very over sized when it comes to music
events.
[Spunge] only played for an hour tonight but
in that time they played some really big fan favourites
such as ‘Jump On Demand’, ‘Skanking
Song’, ‘Kicking pigeons’, ‘Roots’
which all got the crowd in the Town Hall moving
tonight, the crowd was really mixed you had people
ranging from 14 to their late 60’s and it
was great to see such a wide age group having
such a fun time, on a number of occasions some
very drunk looking 14 year girls jumped up on
the stage to steal [Spunge’s] limelight
with their drunk dancing and general irritating
behaviour but it didn’t take too long before
the tour crew asked them to leave the stage.
The show was very unprofessional and [Spunge]
even made jokes about that themselves by saying
that they once used to be a professional band,
there were many teething problems with Jarv’s
bass messing up and Des’s guitar not being
tuned properly but these problems were sorted
in no time and Alex managed to please the crowd
during these moments with random jokes and general
talking.
Like true [Spunge] tradition they played a number
of cover songs such as ‘Centrefold’,
‘Land Down Under’ and ‘No Women
No Cry’ all three songs went down extremely
well but I was slightly disappointed that they
didn’t play ‘Oliver’s Army’
as the song is a classic that [Spunge] play so
damn well.
Tonight’s show was charity gig for Help
For Heroes, and knowing that bands go out of their
way to help such good causes is really good to
know and also that the fans come along a buy a
ticket with the money going to the good causes,
tonight’s show was nowhere near the best
I have seen [Spunge] but it was good to see [Spunge]
play a local show and generally have fun with
their friends, family and fans whilst helping
a much needed charity.
[Spunge] 3.5/5
Review By Trigger
[Spunge]
Alex Copeland (Vocals) Damon Robins (Lead Guitar) Chris Murphy (Bass Guitar) Jeremy King (Drums)
![Photo Of [Spunge] © Copyright Trigger](gigreviewpics/gigreview98pic1.jpg)
Now I haven’t been to the Town Hall in Cheltenham
for years, in fact the last time I went to the venue
was to watch [Spunge] and 4FT Fingers play and that
must of been a good 5 years ago when both bands
were at the top of their game, back then the venue
was pretty damn packed and everyone was going mental
to their two most favourite UK ska/punk bands.![Photo Of [Spunge] © Copyright Trigger](gigreviewpics/gigreview98pic2.jpg)
[Spunge] only played for an hour tonight but
in that time they played some really big fan favourites
such as ‘Jump On Demand’, ‘Skanking
Song’, ‘Kicking pigeons’, ‘Roots’
which all got the crowd in the Town Hall moving
tonight, the crowd was really mixed you had people
ranging from 14 to their late 60’s and it
was great to see such a wide age group having
such a fun time, on a number of occasions some
very drunk looking 14 year girls jumped up on
the stage to steal [Spunge’s] limelight
with their drunk dancing and general irritating
behaviour but it didn’t take too long before
the tour crew asked them to leave the stage.![Photo Of [Spunge] © Copyright Trigger](gigreviewpics/gigreview98pic3.jpg)
Like true [Spunge] tradition they played a number
of cover songs such as ‘Centrefold’,
‘Land Down Under’ and ‘No Women
No Cry’ all three songs went down extremely
well but I was slightly disappointed that they
didn’t play ‘Oliver’s Army’
as the song is a classic that [Spunge] play so
damn well.