Epic…COKE BUST
London Photo Essay!

Text and all Photos by Steve Sweet

Big Takeover recently put on a two-day punk rock extravaganza in North London to raise money for NIA, who work to prevent violence against women and children and for DIY Space For London. I was there for day two.

Hunger opened the show and played a pretty good, sneery-vocal post-punk kinda thing. Like most all-day shows the crowd weren’t quite warmed up yet but seemed to dig what the guys were doing.

Endless Rope were up next and this was when my interest really picked up. Like most of the bands (except Coke Bust and Sick FIx) I’d not heard these guys before the day. They were down from Leeds (the north for all non-UKers out there) and their kind of Husker Fugazi sound really caught my ears. I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on them.


Heaviest band of the day had to be Lich. Kent/London based hardcore sludge machines fronted by the powerhouse growler Samantha Ludwig (who was surprisingly sweet when not singing). I’d heard a few tracks before the show and was looking forward to them but I hadn’t known just how good they’d be. In fact their set was possibly the only downer on the day in that I’d liked to have seen them play longer! Not really much of a complaint!


Perspex Flesh had been knocking about in the crowd for the day and had obviously decided things needed livening up a bit. Their first move was to bring the crowd forward and it worked. Their abrasive punk got people moving and I got an old-school punk vibe mixed in with their hardcore.

The Lowest Form changed that vibe with some ferocious grind influenced hardcore. Things were gearing up for the headliners by this point and Lowest Form did a good job of increasing the momentum. Even if they spent most of the set trying to kick hell out of each other. Not to mention the drummer, playing with a broken foot managed to break the skin on the kick drum within seconds of starting the first song…


Sick Fix have been a favourite of mine for a while now and I’d been dying to see them live. This was the last show of the tour for them and they, along with Coke Bust, had just driven down from an afternoon show in Birmingham. Despite that their energy was incredible. Michelle Northam is an awesome front woman, not afraid to speak her mind and not afraid to rock the fuck out. And the rest of the guys, Patrick, Rob and Chris do a fine job of keeping up with her. It seems to be a running theme with hardcore bands that the nicer they are in person the more intense they are on stage. Having waited a long time to see them I was not disappointed. I always know when a gig has reached the ‘awesome’ level as I ease off on the photographs. Not always a great way to measure it as it leaves me fewer pictures of my favourite bands but hey, you’ve got to enjoy the show right? These guys have a new 12″ out on August 28 through the ever awesome A389 Records(which means another conversation with my wife about how our daughter really doesn’t need clothes or food and would much rather her dad bought some new music).


The first thing to note about Coke Bust’s set is that drummer Chris had already played a blindingly hard and fast set with Sick Fix and was about to do the same again. Having chatted to Nick, Coke Bust’s vocalist, before the show it was hard to believe, like a lot of punk and metal bands, that someone so friendly and chilled out can switch it on and be that pissed at the world once they’re playing. There was quite a party atmosphere by this point as Nick’s band mates from Sectarian Violence had turned up and it was a friend of the band’s birthday which brought on the slightly surreal experience of a seriously hardcore set coming to a halt to sing Happy Birthday before starting all over again!

If you’ve not heard any of these bands before go find them on the web and see them live. Most of them have at least got demos on Bandcamp as well as 7″ and cassettes.

Big thanks to Bryony at Big Takeover for putting it on. I’m gutted I didn’t make the first day. And a special mention to Coke Bust as we’d tried to set up a shoot after the show but fate fucked it up for us and they were very cool about it.