Portsmouth's legendary lost Surf Punks Emptifish return for a home-town show next weekend, headlining a night of Garage Rock at the city's newest venue, The House of Rapture. In the 80's the band's gigs gained an infamous reputation, due to in part to an often raw connection with some of the more raucous Pompey fans, leading to Emptifish gaining a ban from playing within the city limits. Whilst it could be argued that this censure led in part to the band's split, on the eve of recording their debut album no less, time heals most rifts (even The Eagles reformed, despite Don Henley's famous quip) and, after all this time, it only seems fitting that their latest gig is in the shadow of Fratton Park.
Support on the Skaraman curated night comes from Sci-Fi Punk supergroup The Gary 7, a band featuring members of Armoured Flu Unit, Thee DB3, The Good Time Charlies and, of course, Emptifish themselves, with mood music between sets courtesy of DJ Paul Groovy.
The band recently released a new single, Haunted, through local label Mayfield which featured ex-Damned drummer Rat Scabies on percussive duties (I remember seeing Dead Men Walking at The Wedgewood Rooms some years ago, an evening notable for Captain Sensible telling some rather interesting and slightly off-colour anecdotes about his old bandmate, but those are tales for another time).
Tickets for the Saturday 6th July gig are £8 in advance, available now from the venue, direct from the bands involved or in person from Lord Sonic's shop on Albert Road.
"That girl has got, got me, got me cursed"
In 2015, after some nearly 30 years of radio silence, Portsmouth Garage Rockers Emptifish re-emerged from the musical mists of time to finally release their debut long player. Having plundered the vaults 6.57 collected both long lost recordings and the band's two singles, on vinyl, in a deliciously designed retro sleeve. The positive reaction that their vinyl retrospective received naturally led to more live dates, including sets at Victorious Festival, which in turn energised the foursome to return to the studio, subsequently releasing the Sonic's Got A Ray Gun EP in 2017.
Spool the reel-to-reel forward a few years and the Pompey Surf Punks are back at it; new single Haunted, released via Portsmouth label Mayfield and featuring Rat Scabies (yes, THAT Rat Scabies) on drums, has a stomping swagger about it. A heady blend of guitars and thumping drums that power the tune along, laced with distorted vocals and organ stabs fill which out the sound to make something sinfully catchy. It's a great return although, and I'll admit this might sound picky, my only complaint would be that it sounds too slick for Emptifish (where's Lee Mavers with his bag of dust when you need it?)
