On Sunday 7th May, I went to Birmingham to see the Dead Kennedy’s at the O2 Academy. The gig was superb, and it prompted me to take to my keyboard and end a prolonged blogging drought.
I got into the DKs when I was a teenager, the band’s music with its challenging themes, provocative, often irreverent lyrics, anti-hypocrisy positioning and rebellious delivery really appealed to me.
As a teen, I remember taking trips to London to visit Alternative Tentacles, the record label the band was signed to. Decades later, I still have the DK patches that I saved from my battle jacket.
But the DKs, with legendary front man Jello Biafra (real name Eric Reed Boucher), split up rather acrimoniously in 1986 and that meant I never got to see the band perform live.
Original members, Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall), East Bay Ray (Raymond Pepperell) and DH Peligro (Darren Eric Henley) later reformed the DKs and, after a few changes in front man, Ron ‘Skip’ Greer joined in 2008. He is now the longest serving singer in the band’s history.
The DKs had toured in the UK a handful of times over the last decade or so, but those tours never made it on to my radar. In fact, I wasn’t aware of this tour until the last minute either. The death of a dead kennedy, drummer Darren Henley, was the unfortunate catalyst.
In April 2023, a post to the Facebook page for the DKs (which ended up in my feed) detailed that the band had decided to fulfil a UK tour commitment made prior to Henley’s demise. The justification was that the surviving band members didn’t want to let the fans down, and that Henley would have been in complete agreement. No doubt there were some commercial and contractual factors too. The tour from that point on was to be called ‘D H Power’ in tribute to their fallen comrade. A friend of Henley’s would take his space and drumming duties on the stage.
It was at that point that I knew about the tour, that it was definitely going to happen, and that there was a Birmingham date on the schedule. I dashed to Ticket Master and was able to buy a fan-to-fan resale ticket. It meant that less than a week later, I’d be going to what had already been a sold-out gig.
After a car, train and foot journey, I made it to the O2 in plenty of time, as did many others. The audience was a varied bunch of young and old, plenty of grey hairs like me in attendance. Punk rock clearly isn’t dead – and neither are a lot of the older fans.
Prior to the Dead Kennedys commencing their set, Klaus, Ray and Skip took to the stage to talk to the throng about Peligro – they paid him a moving tribute which gave the gig a poignancy it deserved.
As soon as “Forward to Death” kicked off, so did the mosh. And, as I was close to the stage, I was soon involved in the melee. There were a number of occasions when I felt that I was perhaps getting a bit old for the ‘dancing’ (I use the term lightly), but I was pleased that I could still stay the pace without collapsing in exhaustion.
Much to the delight of the crowd, the band played through many of its classic tracks and there was much singing along. I know I was in full voice, horrendous as it is.
By the time the lights came up, I was soaked to the skin from sweating and the beer that had been getting thrown about. I am sure I looked like a bit of a wreck, my voice was hoarse and I smelt rather bad too. I’d have pitied those around me, if they weren’t all in exactly the same kind of state.
I digress a moment here, but I was obviously a bit dehydrated – that’s my excuse anyway. When I finally got home later that night, I had one 330ml can of beer (I hadn’t touched a drop before that because I was driving) and woke up on the Monday morning with a hangover. I felt old at that point too.
Anyway, back to the gig - at the end of it, Skip screwed up the set lists and threw them into the audience. I caught one, which was lucky, a bit cool, and rather useful for this post because I wouldn’t have remembered the running order otherwise.
I got into the DKs when I was a teenager, the band’s music with its challenging themes, provocative, often irreverent lyrics, anti-hypocrisy positioning and rebellious delivery really appealed to me.
As a teen, I remember taking trips to London to visit Alternative Tentacles, the record label the band was signed to. Decades later, I still have the DK patches that I saved from my battle jacket.
But the DKs, with legendary front man Jello Biafra (real name Eric Reed Boucher), split up rather acrimoniously in 1986 and that meant I never got to see the band perform live.
Original members, Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall), East Bay Ray (Raymond Pepperell) and DH Peligro (Darren Eric Henley) later reformed the DKs and, after a few changes in front man, Ron ‘Skip’ Greer joined in 2008. He is now the longest serving singer in the band’s history.
The DKs had toured in the UK a handful of times over the last decade or so, but those tours never made it on to my radar. In fact, I wasn’t aware of this tour until the last minute either. The death of a dead kennedy, drummer Darren Henley, was the unfortunate catalyst.
In April 2023, a post to the Facebook page for the DKs (which ended up in my feed) detailed that the band had decided to fulfil a UK tour commitment made prior to Henley’s demise. The justification was that the surviving band members didn’t want to let the fans down, and that Henley would have been in complete agreement. No doubt there were some commercial and contractual factors too. The tour from that point on was to be called ‘D H Power’ in tribute to their fallen comrade. A friend of Henley’s would take his space and drumming duties on the stage.
It was at that point that I knew about the tour, that it was definitely going to happen, and that there was a Birmingham date on the schedule. I dashed to Ticket Master and was able to buy a fan-to-fan resale ticket. It meant that less than a week later, I’d be going to what had already been a sold-out gig.
After a car, train and foot journey, I made it to the O2 in plenty of time, as did many others. The audience was a varied bunch of young and old, plenty of grey hairs like me in attendance. Punk rock clearly isn’t dead – and neither are a lot of the older fans.
Prior to the Dead Kennedys commencing their set, Klaus, Ray and Skip took to the stage to talk to the throng about Peligro – they paid him a moving tribute which gave the gig a poignancy it deserved.
As soon as “Forward to Death” kicked off, so did the mosh. And, as I was close to the stage, I was soon involved in the melee. There were a number of occasions when I felt that I was perhaps getting a bit old for the ‘dancing’ (I use the term lightly), but I was pleased that I could still stay the pace without collapsing in exhaustion.
Much to the delight of the crowd, the band played through many of its classic tracks and there was much singing along. I know I was in full voice, horrendous as it is.
By the time the lights came up, I was soaked to the skin from sweating and the beer that had been getting thrown about. I am sure I looked like a bit of a wreck, my voice was hoarse and I smelt rather bad too. I’d have pitied those around me, if they weren’t all in exactly the same kind of state.
I digress a moment here, but I was obviously a bit dehydrated – that’s my excuse anyway. When I finally got home later that night, I had one 330ml can of beer (I hadn’t touched a drop before that because I was driving) and woke up on the Monday morning with a hangover. I felt old at that point too.
Anyway, back to the gig - at the end of it, Skip screwed up the set lists and threw them into the audience. I caught one, which was lucky, a bit cool, and rather useful for this post because I wouldn’t have remembered the running order otherwise.
Click to enlarge The DK 16-song set, which included the encore, only lasted for an hour or so, but that ended up being convenient because I was able to drag my sweaty, smelly body back to New Street and get a slightly earlier train than I had expected.
On the train journey towards home, I reflected on the DK experience. Though the band fulfilled its touring commitments this time, who knows if the death of Henley will stop the guys doing anymore. Then, Klaus is 73 and may not want to tour for much longer either.
So, I am really pleased that I made it to that gig because who knows if I will get the chance to see the DKs again.
I called this post ‘live at last’ because after a number of decades, I finally got to see the band perform ‘live’ (with the exception of Peligro, obviously) and ‘last’ because the first time may be the last as well.
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On the train journey towards home, I reflected on the DK experience. Though the band fulfilled its touring commitments this time, who knows if the death of Henley will stop the guys doing anymore. Then, Klaus is 73 and may not want to tour for much longer either.
So, I am really pleased that I made it to that gig because who knows if I will get the chance to see the DKs again.
I called this post ‘live at last’ because after a number of decades, I finally got to see the band perform ‘live’ (with the exception of Peligro, obviously) and ‘last’ because the first time may be the last as well.
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