The Rebel: in support of arachnids, against the rest

Another year, another four-week June residency from The Rebel at The Windmill in Brixton. I said plenty about last year's bash, so there's no need for me to do all that again. But here are a few extra things about the 2018 vintage Rebel ... It's all still there. Droning misanthropic vocals, nagging country-ish guitar lines, crunchy distorted beats, ugly-cum-kitsch costumes: Ben Wallers hasn't exactly mellowed. This year's effort included The Rebel struggling into a full-body spiderman costume topped off by a huge furry white head appendage one week (just the head mask another week, just the suit and head mask hung on the wall another week). Particularly impressive about the spiderman affair was the fact that he put this lot on about halfway through the gig (not at the beginning), seemingly because of the disruption, as well as its all-round oddity appeal. And, to me, the most important thing was the way he wasn’t doing it for laughs. It was minimum showbiz, maximum surrealism. My inner arachnid approves.

The Rebel: doing it for fans

Another of the quartet of gigs saw a woman in the audience apparently fainting during a particularly mournful drone. And instead of playing an encore at the conclusion of week four, we got a couple of jokes (including one that riffed on the fact it was told the previous week). What drollery … As with last year, the audiences were modestly-sized (around 80 I'm told) but often slightly fanatical. And also a distinctly mixed bunch - including a young woman wearing a jacket with The Fat White Family and an anarchy symbol daubed on the back, middle-aged blokes who presumably used to go to Country Teasers gigs, and other assorted oddballs. Although there are bits of The Fall and some kind of warped country in the mix, The Rebel is pretty much sui generis. His guitar says “For Rea”, not “For Real”. (God knows). He's not there to please you, me, or anyone else. (Maybe just spiders). He's "Against the left / Against the right / Against the middle / Against the rest …"