It's all started on May 28th, 2026 when early in the early
morning I've got my flight to the marvelous city of Barcelona. Then together
with some Norwegian guys I've met at the airport we headed by a taxi to the
lovely town when the Festival was about to take place.
Right after I checked in my hotel, I went to see some comrades who arrived
earlier on. Walking thro
ugh the streets of the town I could see tons of skins
from all around the world hanging around preparing for the next days of never-ending
parties.
Immediately I've bumped into a group of all friends from England, Scotland,
Czech Republic, Croatia and Austria who were drinking sangria on the huge
balcony of the main hotel the international Skinhead battalion was accommodated.
The next few hours ran out so fast, and it was time for the pre-party concert
which started about 8 P.M. local time. The capacity of the underground
nightclub chosen for the venue could hardly the hundreds of skinheads inside.
The bands for the night were
Vindicte Populare from France, Total Annihilation, and some guests from USA.
To be honest the sound in this club was quite bad, so all of the bands could
not show their actual potential. The Frenchies got a saxophone as an additional
instrument which is typical for the bands from this country. Nevertheless, they
sounded a bit weak, may be because of the poor sound or lack of previous
experience.
All the American bands had (in my view) a mediocre performance due to the
aforementioned reasons, but they were about to unleash their full potential in
the next two days of the main event.
So the party ended around 1 A.M. and I headed to my hotel in order to catch
some sleep before the next long day of Skinhead RAC'n'Roll.
The next day the preparation for the first day of the Festival started about
midday when we needed to collect our tickets and wristbands for the upcoming
gigs. Right afterwards we headed to the place of the Festival - an open-air
space located few kilometers away from the town
center. For the purpose the organized have booked a few 50+ seated luxury buses.
Both the transportation and the bands schedule was running smoothly and on
time. The same was valid for the quality of the sound of the Festival and the
whole organization of the event was on a top level.
Day 1:
The first band of the Friday's program was Polish Oi! band Lumpex 75 from the
city of Gdansk. I know they just by a name, as the band is non-political, but
managed to hear few of their songs on YouTube and I was pleasantly surprised.
They started right on time at 5 P.M. and played for an hour. The band's history
dates back to 1993 and these guys really know how to play well their catchy
streetpunk/Oi! catchy melodies. All of their songs were in Polish, so me as a
Bulgarian could understand a bit of the lyrics. They didn't played my favorite
song of theirs named "Gdanski Club Sportowy", but instead they
finished their set with a cover of "Alkohol dla mas" by another
Polish band The Gits. So fellows, if you haven't heard Lumpex 75 yet, give them
a chance, they totally deserve it.
The second band for the night were
The London Die Hards - a three piece band
from England, but as they announced none of them lives in London anymore
"surprise, surprise :(". Their sound was quite solid and well-packed
with strong backing vocals on most of the songs.
Next on the bill were Evil Inside from Orange County, California and what a
performance in was! The members are well-known musicians involved in the scene for many years. Their performance blew everything up, both musically and
vocally as the band showed their full potential. My favorite songs if their set
were "End of the line" and "Nationalist"!
The band played for more than an hour and in my humble opinion was the best for
the night!
Right after them the Belgium 's finest
Les Vilains hit the stage with a power
of an earthquake! The band stopped its activity a few years back and it was a
pleasant surprise to see them again, in their what appeared to be last ever
concert. They started with songs such as "Skinhead family",
"Grosse Salope" and "Belgique Hooligans", but the highlight
of their performance was the epic cover of "Give back the Oi!" by
Kill Baby Kill! The audience literally exploded chanting " Give it back,
give back the Oi! to the white Working class"! Prior this song the singer
Suck displayed a big photo of the sadly lost Dieter (singer of KBK) and Oliver,
who was former Les Vilains member. After the end of their set together with my
Czech "colleague" Bohomil we managed to get one piece of hand written
setlist from the band - a precious souvenir from that glorious night
The last band of the Friday's program were the English veterans of The
Ovaltenees, a.historical band established in 1983. The band was added as a headliner
on a later basis as the original planned German Skinhead legends could not make
it this year due to personal difficulties. Joined by Brad of London Breed on guitar
the Brits played 10-songs set which included their old school hits such as
"Joe Public" and "Argentina". Their singer Mickey sang with
a such a power and enthusiasm that you can rarely see from the old guard. The
gig ended after midnight, so we all headed back to the busses and went to have
some sleep after the long day of fun and music.
Day 2:
The next day after two hours at the beach I went to the Festival
area, where the show was renewed at 5 P.M. sharp with Skinprost from Belfort,
France. This band played at Ritorno A Camelot in 1991 with Skrewdriver and
nowadays it's only the guitarist who left from the original line up. Their
drummer and singer play in Riot Krew as well. Skinprost played a great set in
the vein of Evil Skins and many French skins and skingirls enjoyed their set.
Hated and Proud from Detroit were second in the schedule. They played with Roy
and Alonso from SunCity Skins on guitars, Ben from Legitime Violence on bass
and Nate from Birthrite/Wellington Arms on the bass. Their music can be
described as an American patriotic Oi!/RAC and the band performed most of the
hits from their killer album "Let Freedom Reign" together with a
brilliant cover of "Disorderly conduct" by the legends of Arresting
Officers.
The third band for the night were the well-known
TMF from England. With no
special introduction needed, the band did a long 17-songs set from which I can
highlight "Jack Daniels" and "Violence runs supreme". The
singer Jonesy traveled by a car from England all the way to Spain only to find
out right before their set that someone smashed his windshield and he was not
happy about it.
Next on the list were the Quebec finest Legitime Violence. I saw them live once
in Italy 11 years ago and I knew Raf and the guys are like a dynamite on stage.
They definitely were the best band for the night as they did a brilliant set
with hits Iike "Rock haine Oi!" and "Quebec stomper". They
finished their performance with a song dedicated to late Jocke Karlsson, a true
RAC icon and a great friend to many of us! R.I.P. Jocke!
The last band for the weekend were Americans of the
Youth Defense League. To be
totally honest with you this was more of a tribute band, as none of the
original members was part of it. The band was re-established by a former
roadie, which was in touch with a former member who was about to participate in
it, but he never did. Having this in mind I knew that we cannot expect a lot
from them, but nevertheless they played some of the YDL's classics such as
"Skinhead 88" and "Turncoat", together with the cover of
"Violence in our minds" by The Last Resort.
By the end of the show I've managed to talk to one of the gig organizers who
assured me that the next year's edition will have some top bands I've haven't
seen in ages. I'm really looking forward to it and will do my very best to
visit Chaos in the sun 2027!
It was time to say goodbye to all my old and new friends I had the chance to
meet in sunny Spain. The audience was a nice mixture of people like me who only
attend WP gigs and a lot of Oi! Oi! Skins which I could not meet otherwise.
Spoke to few of them, all seem to be nice lads with a love of good music. Told
them about the huge state pressure we're facing while organizing our gigs and
they were genuinely surprised by what cost us to hear our bands. The whole
Festival went without any issues or incidents, no brawls, no fights, just a
pure love and appreciation for the RAC and Oi!
To sum it up: 3 shows, 14 excellent bands, gig attendees from all across
continental Europe, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Canada and USA. A
bunch of people from several South American countries were represented as well
such as Mexico and Chile. The Skinhead scene showed once again that it's
pretty much alive and kickin' no matter most of us are nearly (or even above)
our 50's now. The spirit it still here, the flame is still burning! Listen to
RAC'n'Oi! and you'll never grow old!!!
