Henry And The Bleeders, The Tendons, The Dilenquents.

Saturday 30th August 2014. The Zombie Hut, Corby.

It's rather amazing to learn that Henry And The Bleeders have been blasting out their psychobilly sounds for ten years. This special anniversary really deserves to be celebrated and tonight marked the start of, hopefully, the birthday shows. The Zombie Hut in Corby is not a music venue that I have been to before. Indeed, hardly anyone on the bus from Bedford (expertly laid on and organised by Adam Bleeder) had visited previously. It is in a rather remote industrial area of town and backs onto the vast fields of Corby Rugby Club. The inside is on two levels and is darkly decorated, which sits perfectly with tonight's punk sounds, although at times the sound was less than pristine.

A few years ago BBCTV produced a series called Rock Family Trees. These hugely enjoyable shows told of the close links between various bands and musicians. Bedfordshire itself could have featured with these three bands playing tonight. The Tendons need no introduction to local music fans. They purvey old skool punk and have done so for well over a quarter of a century. When Henry And The Bleeders first arrived on the Bedford scene, they originally mixed in a lot of raucous punk compositions. The two bands naturally bonded and the older fellas took the young upstarts under their wing. Next on the scene a few months later, from the same area as HATB, were The Dilenquents who favour horror punk. This family tree can be further extended, firstly by Radiating Eyes and more recently Hulkenburg.

The Dilenquents open the show. Original members Rich (guitar, vocals) and Jason (vocals, bass) are joined by Dazz (guitar, backing vocals) and Adam of The Bleeders, doing a double shift tonight as he shows his drumming prowess. The highlight of the set, and there are many, arrives early with a fantastic rendition of "Zombie government" (very apt). Tonight the band are minus keyboardist Mash. They have been hard at work in the recording studio lately and all those hours spent honing their skills has made them super tight. Because of various travelling arrangements, The Dilenquents have not been regular Bedford gig performers so it was extra special to see them on top form tonight.

In the past few weeks The Tendons have been busy gigging, culminating with a support slot at Esquires with USA punks Cerebral Ballzy. The set tonight includes (with random Jon quotes) "Bedford girls" who are "a bit of alright", "Johnny don't care" about "an old friend" or a "wanker!". With "Dettol dick " Jon bemoans "It's been so long since I had a shag" and "Blubberguts" goes out to "fat c**ts", while "Fishy fanny" is "dedicated to the gypsy c**ts" who invaded Jon's pub last Monday. One thing is for certain, "Punks not dead" with this lot!

Starting off as a rough edged rockabilly core punk band in late 2004, Henry And The Bleeders then comprised Adam (vocals, guitar), Quincy (upright bass) and Miles (drums). Eventually they turned into a fully fledged psychobilly band and were later joined by Julian (guitar, various). I can vividly remember their early gigs at Esquires, especially when they competed in the 2005 Planet Clothing BOTB competition and defeated Enter Shikari in the semi-final. With numerous high profile gigs and festivals in the resulting years, they have been fairly quiet over the last couple of years due to working commitments. Indeed, this is my first sighting of HATB since last October's early appearance at OxJam. On this anniversary show they demonstrate just why so many people adore them. Their conviction to their chosen genre is always fearless and they never hold back. They have a stylish bold swagger that is encapsulated by a polished and poised version of "Volkswagen boogie". Happy tenth birthday lads. It was a real pleasure to be here with Henry And The Bleeders and, hopefully, here's to the next ten!