Scarlet Rebels
18th August 2024
The Cavern, Exeter

Just two days after the release of their latest album “Where The Colours Meet”, Scarlet Rebels embarked on a journey along the M4 and down the M5 to play for the first time in Exeter. Now whilst I appreciate the venue is small (max capacity…) and being a Sunday but even I was surprised this wasn’t sold out especially as if you pre-ordered the album you got free entry!

I had mentioned to Wayne (Doyle) the venue size so it was little surprise to find there was no support band; as Wayne said “we felt it was easier to set up on stage, play and not worry about swapping equipment”. It also meant being a so called “school night” (more about that later) the gig could finish early.

So at 8pm on Sunday, 17th August, the Rebels made their Exeter debut to a crowd of (guessing here) approximately 100 or so Devonians and some from across the borders of Cornwall and Somerset. Speaking of the crowd, a quick look around highlighted to me the average age must have been 50+ lol. Now is that an indication of the New Wave of Classic Rock (NWOCR) scene, or just that Devon is full of oldies? I’ll leave that with you.

The Rebels promised to play the new album in its entirety but before embarking on that pleasure they warmed the crowd up with a few tracks from “See Through Blue”, their last album that reached no.7 in the official album charts. Straight from the outset we were treated to the full rock treatment with the amazing guitar from Chris Jones, the power of the drums from Gary Doyle, loud bass riffs from Carl Oag, and the distinct Welsh vocals from Wayne with tracks such as “I’m Alive”, “These Days”, “Take You Home ” to name a few.

By now the crowd were warmed up and Wayne introduced us to a unique “never to be repeated” (his words, not mine) full rendition of “Where The Colours Meet” from start to finish. “Not even at Stonedead?” was offered from one member of the crowd to which Wayne replied “album is 45 minutes long and we’ve only got 35 minutes at Stonedead so ummm no”.

Wayne’s interaction with the crowd got better as the night wore on and by giving the audience the choice of simply playing just the album or talk in between tracks about them, it was a no-brainer the latter was chosen. Tracks interspersed with details about how they came about were greeted with enthusiasm and even Gary “Grumpy Cat” Doyle raised a smile at one point.

An hour of astounding music flew by with every new track performed to it’s utmost best and the crowd were indoctrinated to the Rebel Club by obeying 3 rules (if you know you know) but it was soon time to leave the stage although not until one more encore of the Rebel Clubs favourite “Heal” rounding off an amazing evening of pure rock n roll.

As I type this, the Rebels are number 3 in the official charts so can they hold on?

For me, after seeing the Rebels at RockStock last December and again tonight, if they keep going then in my opinion they will be as big as Those Damn Crows are on a years time.

If you get a chance to see The Scarlet Rebels on tour soon, then I would say so not miss the chance to do so.

Dunkan's rating: 9 quacks out of 10

Images (c) Andy Hollis