29/08/2026
THE GALILEO 7 / LORD ROCHESTER / THE BURNTWICK SMUGGLERS – Anchor, Wingham – August 28th 2026. (111 photos from a stirring gig at https://mickmercer.substack.com/p/the-galileo-7-lord-rochester-the - freely available for the next seven days. Free to subscribe or choose ‘no thanks/continue reading’ and it lets you straight in.)
Voyages into the unknown at the Anchor always seem rewarding, and here I am again, lured by three bands I’ve never seen, with hints of musical styles to which I am basically unaccustomed, and it all works out wonderfully.
Let’s start with what THE BURNTWICK SMUGGLERS don’t do, shall we? They didn’t play the chipper churning ‘Back To Berlin’, or the bleaker ‘Better Man Than You’. We heard neither ‘Class Traitor’ (which sounds a bit like The Motors, if they’d actually been a punk band) or the piercing ‘Psycho Bitch’. We didn’t even hear the jaunty ‘Washed Away In The Rain’ or mocking ‘Tory Boy’. No, instead of playing anything off their cool “The Fall And The Rise Of The Medway Towns” EP they plump instead for gamely cantering through a selection of punk covers.
Led by the engaging Wolife Smith style lunatic at the front they go from ‘12XU’ to ‘Pills’, only really throwing themselves into ‘What’s My Name’, with a side serving of ‘Jean Genie’ and I didn’t see the point of that at all. I have since discovered they have a ‘Punk Rockin’ At Ranscombe’ 7”coming out containing covers but when you have excellent songs of your own why not play them as well, promoting both sides of the band? They evidently forgot to explain any of this and I know I wasn’t the only one mystified.
So then to the elegant chicanery of LORD ROCHESTER who offer sublime rock ‘n’ roll entertainment with that cool power trios provide naturally. From the mysterious tooting opener they charm casually, with sardonic quippery and musical friskiness that can be surprisingly gritty and then almost airily melodic, light and cheeky.
I don’t pretend to understand the arcane chaos of drummers but is Lois sometimes playing the drums with maracas instead of sticks?
There’s occasional joint guitar movement cleverly choreographed and the bassist wandering into the audience. Much talk of Australia before the choppy ‘Chicken Salt’, there’s the glorious multi-mood ‘Breaking My Back’ and so easily do they have us eating out of their hands that when they invite us to sing along to ‘Way O’ we do lustily. Hypnotism, probably. They even throw in a killer ‘Hey Bo Diddley’ with a brief Marc Bolan intersection.
THE GALILEO 7 have a few problems but we don’t notice initially as having had the seat warmed by Lois we see Mole at the drums and he’s a positively demonic presence for the first few numbers, the rest of the band somewhat more restrained. Turns out the main vocalist and the keyboard player can’t hear their vocals and so they do waver from time to time sounding a trifle weak.
My eyesight’s terrible and initially I thought the guitarist had a really interesting neck tattoo. Upon moving closer I realised it was the collar of his shirt which just proves you can’t trust anybody these days, least of all yourself. Generally there wasn’t much going on visually beyond the windmilling Mole and the occasionally bouncing bassist but musically they’re an interesting bunch.
I’d only had a chance to check out their “Decayed” album and it pretty much fits the mood of the opening songs in that whether they’re more on a bubblegum style, like The Monkees ‘Head’ period, carefree melodic psychedelia or cool garage they opt for an invigorating approach. That we got. It was only when the set became more interesting the longer it went on – not difficult when the vocals are shared as all four are capable singers – that I caught on to the fact we were missing one valuable component. Until the last few songs I could barely make out any keyboards at all. There was also one song where it started with keyboardist Viv singing but then drifted on into something far moodier than exhibited in the rest of the set. A few more like that would have been interesting to experience, but they generally pounded us into submission in a cool way.
After the gig Lois insisted I meet Lord Rochester bassist Saskia Holling, who wanted to talk photos and it turns out she’d written two books which I bought on the spot, ‘Girslville, The Story Of The Delmonas & Thee Headcoatees’ and ‘You & Me Against The World’ which covers Rote Kapelle, Shop Assistants, Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes, The Fizzbombs and The Motorcycle Boy. Both look intriguing.
I was deeply grateful for the lift home from Mole and Lois as the last bus back from Wingham to Canterbury would have chugged away roughly the time The Galileo 7 were just setting foot onstage! They’re back at the Anchor tomorrow afternoon as their plans for world domination increase. Lord Rochester are playing with Big Lightnin’ and if I have this correct Big Lightnin’ will effectively be what I have just seen as Lord Rochester, but with Lois remaining on drums they’re both operating on guitars as Mole joins with his trusty bass. That’s going to be really cool. 4pm kick off, possibly in the garden. If you live anywhere near Canterbury you should make an effort to be there.
