Avangelist Photography

The Ghost of a Thousand
The Plight
Blackhole
Hexes

Brighton Freebutt 24th February

Tonight sees the final date of the Atticus Flip the Bird Tour which has seen the créme de la créme of current UK Hardcore traverse the country ripping up town after town.

But tonight is special for another reason, as tour headliners The Ghost of a Thousand descend on their home turf, Brighton.

Rarely do you find a bill where all the acts are bolstering some serious levity.

Daniel P Carter - Hexes

The nights proceedings are headed off by new boys on the block Hexes. Although they have only been slamming down for just under a year, Hexes consist of some serious Rock Veterans. Consisting of former members of The Lucky Nine, which also featured Colin Doran from Hundred Reasons. Lead orchestrator Daniel P Carter (also DJ for Radio1 Rock show) thrashes out groove laden riffs and a versatile vocal that gets the already packed Freebutt surging back and forth.

Next up are Blackhole, who are possibly getting a lot of press recently for all the wrong reasons. Concentration seems to firmly situate on the fact that front man Rich is Frank Carter of Gallows younger brother. And Younger is as close as it gets. Where Gallows show a true British 80’s Punk swagger Blackhole fill it the void with more of Southern Rock sludge.

As a lot of bands in the past 18 months have proven age means nothing, with outfits like Architects and Bring Me the Horizon all coming in under 21 and packing out some of the larger venues in the country. What Blackhole do have despite their relatively young age however is a balls about them that would make Axel Rose look like your geography teacher, but this is marred for me by their school boy antics on stage, talking to mates in the crowd and lengthy delays between tracks.

The Plight

New comers The Plight have some of the greatest potential I have seen since first catching tonight’s headliners way back in 2004. From the school of bands like The Bronx and American Nightmare, again there is a strong Southern Rock sound pushing through what is essential the most delectable Sleazy Rock ‘n’ Fucking Roll you will hear to date. Lead track Clarendon from their debut EP Black Summer is the stand out for the set. A lengthy explanation about a tour mate’s hygiene and the loan of a sleeping bag may not seem like note worthy stuff now but crops up later in the evening’s proceedings.

Andy & Tom - The Ghost of a Thousand

As the kids come and go from the venue, braving the mild winter evening for a sly fag, Brighton home comers The Ghost of a Thousand take to the stage.

I have been championing ‘TGOAT’ since their first show now almost 4 years ago. Tonight they pull out a few new tracks, which are much of the same as their predecessors, but that by no means they aren’t brilliant, hooky, swathing punk rock perfection. They blast through almost entirety of their face melting debut This Is Where the Fight Begins, with just as much compassion, spirit and bile that I have seen them play off many times before. Standout tracks are recent Video single Black Art Number One and a savage rendition of Bored of Math.

Once again the evening comes to a slight juddering halt and is marred by tour antics as members of Blackhole and The Plight invade the stage to cocoon chief screamer Tom Lacey in aforementioned Sleeping bag. Hilarious to them I am sure, incredible irritation to us paying punters.

The evening ends with a mandated stage invasion as everyone is bellowed at to get the fuck up, whistling feedback and busted drum sticks are that remains as the lights drop and the CD player starts spinning again.

It would be dangerous to say that The Ghost of a Thousand will be this years big thing, partly because I have said it every year since they formed, but what is safe to say is that they are going to be around for quite a while and with the chance of a new EP some time later this year, they will most certainly be making some moves and plenty of noise on the UK scene.

Originally posted 24th February 2008

More photos from the show can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/theavangelist