21.06.2026 - Marina Zispin/SQ Mice/Modern Heaven - The Lubberfiend, Newcastle

 

Another hot night at the Lubberfiend on a Sunday!

Don't really know much about Modern Heaven, they are a duo from Melbourne, Australia.
A bit of mix of shoegaze/dream pop, some pretty catchy tunes from their set.
Looking them up online they do have an EP from 2018 and nothing much else though believe they do have an album coming out.

Second up were SQ Mice who also I don't really know much about, looking them up they seem to be based in Paris, which makes sense as sure in their final song sounded like the lass was singing the word 'la bouche'(?!) which is definitely French! They are down as a three piece but they played as a duo this night.
Decent enough set, again a mix of dream pop and electronic beats - nice music for a warm evening into night!

Mainly came out for the headliners, Marina Zispin.
Known Martyn for a few if not more years through the Newcastle noise scene via his solo offerings as Depletion, don't know Bianca well, though know she is local and have seen her do a short solo set a few years back at one of the Tusk festivals and believe she has a lot of solo lo fi ambient/electronic releases herself.

Together they do some really good synth pop, it's a bit daft it's the second time I've seen them play!
Really great set with a couple of new tracks played? Catchy as always! Pretty cool to see how far they have came as been playing all over the UK and a few dates in mainland Europe.

Was also the first time when going home when stopped by someone asking for money if I could just make a bank transfer to their account!

03.06.2026- Gorilla Biscuits/Unified Action/Turn Your Back - Anarchy Brewery, Walker

Good night of hardcore with NYC legends Gorilla Biscuits playing Newcastle for the first time! Last time they were up North was back in 1989 when they played the Casbah (which later became the infamous After Dark nightclub) in Sunderland.

Opening up were local straight edge band Turn Your Back, decent band and think this may be like their fourth gig, I'm not sure.

Only thing I found a bit off putting is the singer saying he won't play unless the empty space got filled, mean understand get more people near the stage so everyone isn't packed at the side but can see the point where some people won't go near the front when some kids are going apeshit and karate kid all over the shop. I think it's something that will always happen. Anyway the crowd did pick up and the young folk were enjoying themselves though did notice some Max Cavalera look a like trip some kid over on purpose which was a bit shit!

Though speaking of look a likes, a one point I thought Moby was at gig, mean wasn't him as dude had no tattoos like Moby!

Another great set from Unified Action, really enjoyed the bit where some kid staged dived in the area I was knocking the person in front of me drink all over me! Next time at gig I'll wear darker shorts and not light sandy tan ones so it would look like I pissed myself! Also same kid somehow managed to get me in the bollocks!

Finally Gorilla Biscuits came on and it was just fucking class, I stayed at the back as knew it would be full on plus I'm too old now for that sorta stuff!

Played all the good stuff with added Minor Threat and Clash cover! Kids stage diving, jumping in for singalongs. Civ did gave out a shout out to the OG's that saw them back in 1989 and was happier that now compared to 1989 it was easier to get more vegan food!

Was cool to see a bucket list band and great Conviction Records/Byker Grave managed to get them here as it was a short UK tour of 4 dates, also great seeing a ton of people I hadn't seen for a while.