Next Wave #571: Ming City Rockers

British punks from the bitter north...

Anarchic four-piece Ming City Rockers are about to become Immingham’s most sought-after export. They’ve already promised to start a revolution. Online, at least.

Their website manifesto calls for a “revultion (sic) of what we’ve become”. And with well-deserved support from Radio 1 and KEXP, that promise may soon become reality. One thing is assured, you’ll definitely hear them coming.

Drawn together by a mutual distaste for their bleak surroundings – you’ll find Immingham on the Lincolnshire coast, just north of Grimsby (the ‘Ming’ comes from the name of their hometown) – Ming City Rockers have recently finished their most extensive tour to date, which saw them support Palma Violets along the way. The foursome creates impassioned music that channels the sounds of The Stooges, MC5 and a handful of punks from a time when drainpipes were more likely to cling to your legs than hang from your gutters.

The video for ‘I Wanna Get Out Of Here, But I Can’t Take You Anywhere’ encapsulates the Mings’ style, scenery and sound effortlessly. It’s a feral punk-rock performance, complete with a blinding harmonica solo, set in the group’s decrepit graffiti-coated rehearsal room, posed against dreary shots of industrial plains. Frontman Clancey Jones elaborates: “Yeah the old hole, it’s falling down, the floor in the hallway fell through just as we finished recording the video.”

A DIY ethos is applied to everything the band creates, as video for their latest single ‘Twist It’ proves. “We just came up with that when we were drunk and then did it the same day and it turned out better than we thought,” says Clancey. “Or worse, depending on how you look at it.”

Simple, but nonetheless captivating, Ming City Rockers’ three-chord formula does away with contrived complexity – and as a result their turbulent variety of rock ‘n’ roll is extremely relatable and enrapturing.

To truly be appreciated, these red-blooded beasts need to be seen in their natural environment: onstage. Or, more likely, downing your drinks from the middle of the crowd.

“Oh that? That’s Jakki (Walsh, bass), he’s pretty crazy,” says the singer. “On the first day of our tour, for some reason there ended up being all this broken glass all over the stage, so he picked up a shard and cut his arm, then put blood on my face like war paint.”

Delightful.

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WHERE: Immingham, Grimsby

WHAT: Classic punk rock. Debut album, ‘Ming City Rockers: Riot. Rock. Ruination’, is planned for release this summer.

GET 3 SONGS: ‘Twist It’ (video above), ‘I Wanna Get Out Of Here, But I Can’t Take You Anywhere’, ‘Chic And The Motherf*ckers’

FACT: When they’re not playing music, you’ll find members of the band horrifying Travelodge staff across the UK.

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Find Ming City Rockers online here

Words: David Weir

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