THIS was to be a super little show - a real old school punk party with a veritable rainbow of hair colour.

First up were Six Fish from Salisbury, an excellent little ska-punk band, who I have seen before. I was however a little disconcerted because their drummer had broken his leg and was unable to make the show. Still the guys were playing never the less and to their credit, they did very well indeed.

After the third song they invited anyone in the crowd to come up and drum for them and blow me down it a guy didn't do it! He made a fair got of it too. A very enjoyable opening set.

Next up were a new trio to me, The Extinguishers from Bournemouth. They started with a very mellow intro and I thought they were going to be far too laid back, but they kicked into a much more forceful ska-punk sound. The fans went crazy at this point and the whole venue seemed to be alive with movement. They were very impressive indeed, a very tight, professional and great fun to watch.

The headline band, Citizen Fish (from Bath), do have a historical significance to me - their lead singer is Dicken who was/is the lead singer with The Subhumans, a contemporary to my own Basingstoke punk band twenty odd years ago. I was curious to see how a fellow OAP (Old Age Punk) was faring.

In a nutshell - amazingly, he hardly seems to have aged at all and his charismatic presence easily explained the packed crowd. Even more impressive, they played for over an hour, which is twice as long as most bands half their age play.

Fantastic show.

- Neil Duncan, ISSUEPUNKZINE