Hackfest #2

Our second all-dayer was a much cosier affair. We'd been putting on the occasional night at a pub called The Belvoir Arms on Bath's Lower Bristol Road, and the landlord was offering the place up for free if we'd do an all-dayer there. So Hackfest's new home was born! We had nothing against the football club, but this place had more of a punk rock feel, and the sound was much easier to control, too.

There were rumours, however, that this was likely to be the last show at this venue, as the landlord was planning on redeveloping the space, which let to a few wags thinking it would be OK to kick the ceiling tags out – leading to the chant of the night... "Don't kick the ceiling!". It pretty soon stopped though when we told the miscreants that they were asbestos tiles.

It was also the year that we lost a whole load of bands along the wayside. The original line-up was set to include local youths The Disease – who sadly split up before the big night; our acid punk pals from Illminster, Space Tourettes – who were laid up in their sickbeds; Bristol noisemongers The Migraines – whose singer couldn't get the time off work; Bridgwater's happy time ska band The Splash – who had some personal stuff they had to resolve; and best/worst of all, Devon's witch rock marvels Husbands 'N Knives – whose bassist nearly lost his thumb in a powertool accident the night before the show!

But somehow we just about managed to pull a bill together – some of who agreed to play at very short notice, despite there being a massive bug doing the rounds – and it turned out to be an absolute cracker of a night!

The Line-Up

The Woodsman

Luke and the boys stepped in with a couple of days to spare after we'd put a call out on the local punk rock grapevine – and what a great start to the night they were too. Hailing from the deepest Welsh Valleys, their unusual three-piece line up of drums, guitar and separate lead vocalist powered out a and urgent Killing Jokey kind of noise that we highly approved of! Sadly there's no clips of their set, but click the link below the pic to see what they sound like like in rehearsal!

The Woodsman Live

Hatepenny

This lot were so last minute that Roy only met them for the first time the previous night when his other band GlueHorse played with them in Abertillery. But he was so taken by their quite terrifying bass and drum noise that he knew they had to fill the slot so sadly vacated by that Devon bassist's stricken finger. And man alive did they turn a few heads. Deep, overdriven bassy noise with haunted, screamy vocals. If you'd ever met these fellas in real life you'd have never imagined that they could ever make an evil sounding noise like this!

Grief Ritual

Another band that we knew we had to have on the bill the second we heard them. This was incredibly only the second show for Cheltenham's blackened hardcore aces, who've gone on to great things since. We suspect their singer Jamie's creepy mask unsettled a few of the older guard who were hanging about nervously at the back, but their brutal, metal-tinged filth made them a lot of new friends that night. By heavens were they good!

State Of Decay

Surely one of Britain's most underrated UKHC bands, these Welsh lads hammer out their politicised hardcore at breakneck speed, and had the whole room down the front and bouncing about for the first time at this year's event. If you ever want a great, solid, reliable band for your gig that will absolutely knock your audience's socks off, these are your boys!

Lesser Known Character

Melodies, harmonies, complicated time signatures, knockabout fun and pure bloody showbiz! You really can't go wrong with a big lump of LKC on your bill. And they're beautiful people too, and helped us out with a bass amp for the night, which really was above and beyond the call of duty. We've known most of these lads since they were nippers, and they just keep getting better and better, and were bang on form tonight – even if Mrs Hacksaw did think that all their songs needed a few less notes in them!

Hacksaw

We both got off our deathbeds again and ended up playing an absolute blinder – even if we do say so ourselves. Our George even managed to fulfil a lifetime's ambition and play his guitar solo in Disorder Forgot To Come while being passed over the heads of the crowd. Roy made sure that he checked the floor for the change that fell out of his pockets afterwards...

Fifty First State

Another totally unique band from down county, the State's two-piece cosmic space punk had the whole audience either skanking or thrashing from start to finish. Two of the nicest humans on the scene, we bloody love this pair, we do, and we love how much everyone loves them even more!

Eastfield

They may have been a year late, but we got them in the end! And what better way to end off a cracking night at the end of a difficult week than the bounciest and happiest band on the whole bloody punk rock underground. It was doubly excellent to have the classic line up, too, with Ben back on the drums. You can't beat a bit of folksy punk pop that's mostly about trains! Old friends that are always an absolute pleasure to see.

There were moments in the last few days before Hackfest #2 where we feared that we'd be struggling for a full line up, but we got there in the end, and it turned out to be an absolute blinder of a night, with eight great bands who all felt the full love of the crowd. We loved the new venue, too – but would it still be standing by the time we got around to Hackfest #3?