Roll up, Roll up and bring the outsiders, the defiant punks, shady goths, kitched-up rockabillies, tattooed dames, mascaraed ne’er do wells, chic pirate attired oldies, skull and crossbones wastrels, demimonde dandies and riff-raff, riotous ruffians, to gather together between the stage pit and bar as another anarchic awards ceremony stakes its claim as the ultimate organised chaotic night of bauble giving.

The second Vive Le Rocks Awards blazed another trail of aural destruction to leave all other music awards in their wake on this unseasonal balmy night in Islington.

Eugene Butcher’s passionate magazine, which covers under the radar musical movements, brought out all of the above attendees to celebrate the heroes and shakers in the punk, new wave, glam and garage genres.

This year’s presenter, Ed Tudor Pole, who played a two-song set of Who Killed Bambi? and Swords Of A Thousand Men, loomed large on stage to entertain the masses with his punk patter as he introduced the categories.

In fact, it’s a roll call of all the personalities who shaped this loose genre and are still active on the gigging circuit: Barrie Masters (Eddie & The Hot Rods), Glenn Matlock( Sex Pistols), Pauline Black (The Beat), Steve Diggle (Buzzcocks), Suzie Quatro – whose award was presented by legendary band Girlschool, Jaz Coleman (Killing Joke) and JJ Burnel (The Stranglers) all accepted their gongs with the grace and danger you would expect of these alternative characters.

Live performances by Matlock’s reformed The Rich Kids, Steve Diggle with Pauline Murray on a slew of Buzzcocks teenage anthems, Suzi Quatro smashing her inimitable way through Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Rock ‘N’ Roller and Barrie Master almost stealing the show with new wave classics Do Anything You Wanna Do, Teenage Depression and a smart cover of Bob Seger’s Get Out Of Denver.

However, it was the final band of this adrenalised evening who got a tight grip on tonight’s finale to walk away with the honours and add prestige to this burgeoning ceremony.

Poignantly wrapping up an evening of awards with No More Heroes, The Stranglers musically menaced the sonically sated throng of punked up punters with an arresting six-song set including 5 Minutes, Tank, Unbroken, This Song, Get a Grip On Yourself and the aforementioned No More Heroes.

Tonight, everybody was a hero from those who were feted with a gong to all the punters who crawled out from their glammy gutter’s to celebrate.

Everybody starred tonight. Roll on next year…

Words: Paul Davies / Photos: Eric Duvet

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Vive Le Rock
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Event Date: 27-Mar-2019

About The Author

I began my career in journalism at the now defunct, pre-digital Smash Hits magazine, which was situated in London's Carnaby Street. After learning the ropes, I washed up at Vox Magazine, essentially the NME'S monthly magazine, as the Internet arrived into our lives. Thereon, I eventually graduated onto Q Magazine when people still treasured the magazine that they bought. My journalistic career since has been on newspapers at The Times, The Independent/i newspaper, Daily & Sunday Express and, ofcourse, National Rock Review.