4 May 2026
Band: IRKED
Who: Fast and furious punk squad from North East England who slot somewhere
between modern garage punk, ’80s hardcore and eggy post-punk, outside of
the group, we’ve all been pals for around 15 years +.
FFO: X-Ray Spex, Downtown Boys, Alien Nosejob, Uranium Club, Radio Birdman,
Pissed Jeans, METZ, New Bomb Turks, C.O.F.F.I.N, Eddie Current Suppression Ring
and Cher (‘the’ Cher?).
Album: THE GRIEVANCE
Their debut.
Press info: “The Grievance is born out of an excitement for playing live and the noble
desire to rip it up. However, as with all the best party music there’s a mission statement
too. Dancing to Betty Davis or Syl Johnson or Bikini Kill or Public Enemy is all well and
good in the clubs, but when you really dig into it, you are taught and inspired as well
as entertained.
As the title suggests, there is spleen being vented here, just as when Huggy Bear vented,
or Dead Kennedys vented, or X-Ray Spex vented. IRKED’s rage might be tempered by wit
and killer hooks but it’s still laser focused. The Grievance is genuinely righteous music
made by people embedded in their local community and rightly enraged at the world
around them.”
TUTV: These blazing Brits have two perfervid things in common with Australian rock gangbangers Amyl And The Sniffers. Their frantic front Amazon, and their insatiable punk addiction. Both bands have a zonkers appetite for riff-rattling orgies. No breaks for the wicked, no fooling around, no pompous posing.
Sucker-punch after sucker-punch at 100 miles per hour. Listening to The Grievance feels like being in the middle of a warzone, and there’s no way to escape (not that you really want to).
Loudmouth Helen Walkinshaw has four lungs and aims at your poor eardrums with her iron pipes, while her accomplices in crime roll over Beethoven with a riotous exorbitance. You need Duracell-motorized rollerskates to keep up.
For those about to punk, Irked salute you.
KEY SINGLE
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