Sham 69 live at The 1865, Southampton (6.12.2025) with Club Brat supporting.
As a lad, I lived over the river from true Sham country but the South West London suburbs were still Jimmy Pursey heartlands. I bought Angels With Dirty Faces when it charted which got me started – I was 15 and a wore my “lace up boots” (army cadet boots) “and corduroys” (black flares taken into a drainpipe with a bit of mum sewing).
I never went to see Sham live back then though. Their gigs attracted trouble – right wing skinheads began infiltrating – and it proved to be a burden. One of their 12 inch singles, Hersham Boys, even has Pursey breaking up a fight on the B-side.
No bother here and it’s nostalgic smiles tonight and a happy place to be. A lot of older single blokes in – back to see Jimmy Pursey and the 1977 line up.
I didn’t see Sham live until nine years ago in Bristol and the only other times I have reunited with these tunes from my youth were a Butlins Minehead festival performance a few years back, and support slot for Stiff Little Fingers in Belfast earlier this year. All excellent.
Uncomplicated songs to stir the mood up with anthemic air punching choruses. Raw. Still raw and no let up.
Jimmy Pursey is 70 years old now and what a performer he is still. Pained expressions accompanied by knee and back flexibility I can only dream of.
“What have we got?” Bawls Pursey – “Fuuuck all” is the cheery response as the set kicks off.
The rest of the band play hard and fast but no one challenges Pursey’s limelight. Between songs he swigs from his water bottles, squirting the contents and discarding them over his shoulders – it adds to the chaotic look and fuses the lights at one point, plunging the stage into darkness.
The set is compact and intense at around an hour but 17 songs on the setlist. They have a lot of short songs – that was the way – you only needed 3 minutes to make your point.
The best known hits, yes they were ‘hits’ (If The Kids Are United got to number 9; Hersham Boys, number 6) are the most singalong rabble rousers of all, but there is a familiarity in every track. When we were 16, we played our limited collection of records to death, so leaving an indelible marker in our brains. Even the stuttering Rip Off or more inaccessible Tear Gas Eyes sound melodic to my ears.
Borstal Breakout – Feltham Borstal and its naughty boys was a few miles away home – was always the first song I thought of with Sham. The Borstal Breakout graffiti just sat there uncleaned for years under the concrete flyover that took the M3 into London. The single cover hung on the wall in Sunbury Record Scene. Hence it was that song I latched onto as it started and recorded here on my YouTube channel.
Angels With Dirty Faces is my favourite song tonight though, but who can resist the finale of the defining Hersham Boys and almost comedic Hurry Up Harry. This is extreme pleasure. So glad I came.
By the end, Pursey has given his all and shed his top clothing to reveal an Iggy Pop like image. He’s still lean and mean.
The support band tonight, Club Brat, are really well worth clocking. Novel. A special collection of noise: heavy bass and drums; scratchy guitar and bold rasping vocal. Punky yet hard to define. Have a listen but it is a live sound to experience. (Official YouTube clip.)
You can hear all the instruments distinctly working away frantically. A gymnastic small female bassist throws shapes while everything is led by the big man Ike McCormick.
Between some songs Ike reads from a small book. Poetry? Or just words of wisdom..or doom?
Yup – another successful night at The 1865.
Gigs with Ivan 