BIG ANNIVERSARY CLOSING IN AFTER SIZZLING SUMMER OF FESTIVALS
- lomasjohn
- Jul 22
- 3 min read
It has been quite a summer – and year – so far for Verbal Warning with plenty yet to come.
We have already celebrated 20 years since our reformation earlier in the year and 10 years on the drums for Ant.
And, once our outdoor shows in this incredible summer sunshine are over, we can look forward to the band's 45th anniversary of our first ever gig, which will take place at the Latch Lifter, Ilkeston, on Sunday, 7th December.
The early VW gigs in 1980 were fronted by the band's original singer, Dave Smith, and, now back from Ireland, he has agreed to jump up at the special anniversary show and sing a couple of songs from those early days, so it should be a very special afternoon.
Our long haul down to the Glastonwick Festival near Brighton in June was quite an emotional one as it was the 30th and final Glastonwick.
VW have played the festival, organised by legendary punk poet Attila the Stockbroker, many times over that period and built up a family, some of whom we may never now see again.
It was an idyllic festival, set on an idyllic farm with real ale and cider and really nice people and will long live in the memory.
Long Eaton Carnival Friday night saw us take the stage last and the crowd stay on for a great finish to the evening.
Then Rock & Bike Festival once again gave us our biggest audience of the year and it felt like playing a big home game before home fans – thanks all for your support and love and cheers to Ben for booking us again.
We now face a very busy August with six gigs looming – three of them outdoors - and plenty more as the year winds towards the December anniversary.
Last month, John and Paul visited a radio studio in Chesterfield to talk about the band's history and future and to select a few cool tunes for Gary Sitlinton's Spin Cycle Live vinyl-only show - give it a listen by clicking HERE
Music-wise we are writing furiously and have already debuted four new tunes at most gigs since May.
We recorded four demos at the Loft Studios in Long Eaton which sounded decent – they were Burning the Candle at Both Ends, I Don't Want to be a Twat, McDonald's Girl and Fake News - and are now in the process of recording the definitive versions.
We are not yet sure if we will put them out as an EP or just go for the full album – it will depend on how fast we write and how happy we are with the finished product.
I think it's fair to say it is a tough decision on how to release them too, aside of the usual leeching download/streaming options, as we are finding less and less people buy CDs and vinyl and often people at gigs do not even have a CD or record player any more.
So any physical version we do will be strictly limited.
Enjoy the rest of the summer sunshine and hope to see you all at a gig very soon.
And doubtless we will bump into some of you at Blackpool Rebellion Festival in the pubs or main Winter Gardens venue.
It's now been 17 years since we graced the stage of the world's biggest punk rock festival but we always hold out hope we may get to play there one more time before we push up daisies.
Maybe a few of you could message them later this year and ask for us? That would be fantastic x!
Love to all and keep smiling on an increasingly shitty planet - and keep practising your duck throwing!
The shots in the photo gallery above were taken at the Rock & Bike Festival by Barry Roberts and Dawn Holt - cheers to you both for some great camera work
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