I have to admit I am quite enjoying getting back into my gig photography after the enforced break which was imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Literally the last gig before lockdown was The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing at the Tooth and Claw in Inverness at the end of 2019 and we all knew what happened next.

I did dabble with The Gathering festival in the city a couple of years back and I finally got to see Big Country supporting Scottish trad band Skippinish and, in my humble opinion, they were better than the headliners.

However, since moving back to Carlisle, I have since made contact with two venues in the city – The Brickyard and The Old Fire Station – and it is looking hopeful with a lot of good gigs in the year ahead. But my baptism of fire was when Snapped Ankles last month, when they played The Brickyard, and last night saw my return to The Old Fire Station which was the venue where I last caught Ian Hunter.

Ferocious Dog and The Cloverhearts at The Old Fire Station in Carlisle, Saturday, June 8, 2024.

First up were support band The Cloverhearts who were clearly channelling a range of influences including Green Day, Blink 182 and the Dropkick Murphys with their own brand of Celtic punk.

There was an immediate connection with the crowd who they held in the palm of their hand throughout the entire set.

According to the organiser of the gig the crowd was at half capacity but, as he admitted, the show was rather a niche target audience.

During the show it was nice to see nods to an eclectic bunch including Green Day, Bob Marley and Lemmy.

Their songs were a collection of suitable chant along choruses and the band had bagfuls of energy but the complete left field surprise was their cover of Take Me Home, Country Roads originally sung by John Denver.

And it was good to see headliners Ferocious Dog take the stage with their own brand of folk punk as they were touring to promote their latest album Kleptocracy.

They even invited the bagpipe player from The Cloverhearts to join them on stage at one point and I was getting flashbacks to my time in Inverness covering Scottish bands.

They rattled through a mix of new tracks from the latest album as well as a few good choices from the back catalogue.

There was even a tribute to Shane MacGowan, the former lead singer with The Pogues who sadly passed away recently, with a cover of Poor Paddy, which was a traditional arrangement by the band on their Red Roses For Me album, which went down rather well with the crowd. And singer Ken Bonsall quite rightly pointed out that MacGowan invented the folk punk genre.

And there was a chance to chant the former Labour Party’s leader’s name Jeremy Cornyn when they broke into the opening riff of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army at one point.

But proceedings were nicely rounded off with a bizarre singalong to Nellie The Elephant by The Toy Dolls which was rather a throwback to my punk days of the early 1980s following the band during that time.

On the whole it was a great gig which was well received by those who were there.