Alongside the usually rants and articles there are also interviews with Beat The Red Light, Stand Out Riot, China Shop Bull, Ignorance Is This and much more.

We are a Manchester based, independent Punk & Ska label. That's Not Skanking started life as a monthly gig and a free fanzine in 2003. TNS has evolved to include a label, podcast, distro, gigs and a free fanzine. We are going to use this blog to keep you up to date with the latest TNSrecords news and maybe a few musings.
We’ll also have a music video and a ROCKumentary available early next year. Although we didn’t release any new material, we do feature on the 5 Feet Under, Punk Rock Generation vol. 3 compilation, which you should all definitely purchase.
So in no particular rank order, here are my highlights of 2010.
SATURDAY 16th JANUARY - TNS BEACH PARTY
Featuring - The Stupids, Revenge of..., The Emos, Tool of the Regime and Penis Goes Where? A beach party in January seemed like exactly the sort of stupid idea that only TNS pull off and everything just seemed to fall into place brilliantly. It was the first time the Stupids had played up north in a while so there was lots of hype, the local newspapers all gave the gig loads of coverage, it was significantly over venue capacity (possibly the busiest TNS gig ever) and Mikey Wong wore a beautiful skirt.
It’s not often you can say that you got hit in the face by a 5 foot inflatable dolphin mid-set is it? The atmosphere was amazing, everybody got into the stupidity of the event and all the bands went down a treat. What a start to the year!
SATURDAY 29th MAY - STRUMMERCAMP
What better way is there to celebrate your birthday than being able to pick a lineup for a stage at a festival. Myself and Bev were incredibly proud of the lineup we put together for the TNS stage and it was a pleasure to hang out with all the bands. It was a truly fantastic weekend and one of the best festivals I have ever had the pleasure of being at. It was the first time I’ve ever played a gig on my birthday and it was so much fun. Massive human pyramids galore and punk rock wheelbarrow races were my personal favourite bits of our set. It really couldn’t have been more fun.
21-26 JULY - SUMMER TOUR
Despite only being a short tour this was one of my favourites ever. All the gigs were decent, stupidity hit new levels with the invention of flash pyramids (apparently bouncers in trendy clubs don’t find them as funny as us), we acquired some superb 90s hits CDs and the booze flowed like water from a mountain stream.
We got to hang out with so many great people and really appreciate all the people who cooked, housed and looked after us... we are not capable of doing it ourselves. A big shout-out should go to the Amazingstoke massive for making our final night one of the most fun gigs of the year. Those guys have a great little scene going.
The final night of the tour was hilarious. Big Hands ability to hear karaoke on a Sunday night from half a mile away is astounding. Has anybody else ever done karaoke to Joan Osborn whilst in a pyramid formation and done a humming solo to Beats International whilst on somebodies shoulders and then been offered a gig on the back of the performance... I didn’t think so!
24 AUGUST - BAD RELIGION
Although I’d never want to stop doing small underground gigs, it was an amazing, probably once in a lifetime experience to support a band I had grown up listening to at a big venue at a sold out gig.
It’s crazy playing to that many people and it was very exciting. Thanks to Andy and Kathy for sorting it and to all the people who bought our merch. We used the money to fund the new CD so your support was massively appreciated. It was a great night that I know I’ll never forget!
27/28 NOVEMBER - RECORDING
We spent a weekend with Timothy G recording six brand new tracks and also invented pyramid vocals. We are very happy with the new tunes... they are going to take faces clean off! They will be unleashed very soon!
Cheers to everybody who has helped, supported, watched, listened, purchased anything to do with Revenge in 2010. All three of us appreciate it so much and looking forward to bringing you more rock next year!
We Will Fly - "Fervid"
Mighty Midgets - "You Are Not Alone (the World is Full of Assholes)"
Antillectual - "Cut the Ground From Under Our Feet"
Save the Embers - "Everett"
Manu Armata - "Antagonized"
Archers and Arrows - "The Young Carpetbaggers"
Drunktank - "Last One Standing"
Kensington Arms - "Interpreting the Uninterpretable"
Nemas - "Nemas United
Goodbye Jersey - "The Beast"
Revenge of the Psychotronic Man - "Needles to Say"
The Supervisors - "Machines"
BrainDead - "To This Day"
Revolt of Darwin - "Revolt of Darwin"
Stream City - "Incompetent Doctor"
Rank N File - "People in Glass Houses Sink Ships"
Chainsaw Brigade - "System//Terror"
Kill the Rooster - "Stranger"
Phlegmatix - "Calling for a Revolution"
Still Around - "Restless Hearts"
Rovers Ahead - "One Mad Night at the Pub"
Sodomy Soldiers - "Spraypaint"
The Ignored - "Family Values Seen From A Different Angle"
Losing Must - "Believe"
7PM Meeting - "Fists of Reality"
Loudog - "In Their Eyes"
Sprome - "Unbound Underground"
Dysfunctional Kid - "2000 Cigarettes"
Broken Aris - "The Last Nail in Your Coffin"
Thought Police Brutality - "Surge and Destroy"
The Respirators - "Good Call"
Die Oi!tonome - "Copenhagen"
Lemlæstet Fosterbræk - "Metal Is for Pussies"
Stars Burn Stripes - "I Lost the Point"
Here is an article by Tom Houseman (Sense of Urgency/Rising Strike) that will feature in the next issue of the fanzine, which is due out next month. Enjoy.
WARNING: May Contain Cuts
After decades of spin doctors, broken promises, and bare-faced lies, it should at last be widely acknowledge that the lifeblood of British politics is misdirection. With that in mind, it is bizarre that we have taken at face value the coalition government’s zealous imposition of its cuts. “We all have to do our bit”, chant the slack-jawed public into the reporter’s microphone, as if repetition will suffice in the absence of thought or discussion. The more sophisticated version of this mantra is the claim that “I’m not happy about it, but public sector workers/students/the arts have to shoulder their share of the burden”. Underlying this claim is the ultimate misdirection: by assuming that the state (i.e. the taxpayer) should only pay for things that contribute to the economy, we’re making massively important statements about what society is and should be – and as long as these statements slip under the radar of public debate, austerity budgets will continue to go unopposed.
Education, like art, is not an investment. It should not be judged in terms of its expected financial return, as it has an intrinsic value not captured by its profitability. More importantly, education and art are completely disfigured when left to the brutal logic of cost and benefit. The students who, increasingly, make their university choices with only careers in mind will only learn what is useful for business, until academia is nothing more than the training of the account managers and sales executives of tomorrow. If art is only viable in spaces that attract the approval of private financiers, at best, it will only ever reflect the preferences, lives and experiences of the rich. At worst, it will go the way of all cultural commodities, becoming ever cheaper and more disposable. (In this way, acquiescing to the cuts is tantamount to making the X Factor the model for all creativity).
Lurking behind the increase in university fees and the various cuts to the arts, to education, to public services, and to benefits, is the awful inner logic of a society in which capitalism sets the terms of debate. The government is trying to abdicate our responsibility as a society to guarantee the integrity of things that would be destroyed or mutilated if left to the logic of the market. They are attempting to render all social life subservient to the open competition of narrowly-defined self-interest. As any sane person can recognise, such naked competition will only ever have one result: those with the necessary resources will acquire yet more, while those born with little will die with nothing.
Learning for learning’s sake, art for art’s sake, genuine democracy, and protection from extreme poverty, are not luxuries that can be restricted to those that can afford it when a nation finds itself strapped for cash. They are society itself. If we do not protect these fragile spaces from the overbearing logic of the market, they will wither and die, leaving us with nothing other than a new feudalism, where we serfs eke out an immiserated existence, paying tribute to the Lord-Bankers for little more than the right to keep working for them.
What the fuck are Battle of the Bands all about?
I’ve been meaning to rant about this for a while, but only just got round to it. What is the point of a music competition? When I go to a gig (or play a gig for that matter) I want every single band to be mint. I want to come away thinking I’ve seen some great music. The last thing I want to do is to sit through bands hoping they are shit so mine/my friends band can win a HMV voucher or something. I cannot understand how anyone genuinely into music would want to put one of these things on. If you want a competition go to watch some sport, or if it must be music related go and vote on Pop Idol or the Eurovision song contest.
That is what a battle of the bands is really, a low budget version of that sort of mainstream shite.
To be fair I know bands who have got to do some great things because of competitions, such as quality gigs or studio time, but the way I see it, they shouldn’t have to enter a competition to be noticed and it is a sad state of affairs that bands do need to. If someone from the music industry likes a band, why not just help them rather then asking them to compete in a competition?
(There is a simple answer to that; people from the music industry are money grabbing wankers)
The thing about most battle of the bands is that they are nothing more than a glorified popularity contest to make a venue/promoter a bit of money. Nearly every one of these competitions results in the band who sells the most tickets winning the prize and even if it’s not totally judged by ticket sales it’s normally in the criteria somewhere. Just because a band has a lot of friends, doesn’t mean they are good. Also, the judges more often than not are influenced by their own personal taste. How many people can honestly say a band from a particular genre is better than one from another? It’s nearly always about opinion. Obviously some peoples opinions are more informed than others, but they are at the end of the day still opinions.
Anyway, I needed to get that off my chest. If you are in a band and you want to enter competitions, that’s your choice so I wish you well, but personally I think music is much better without a competitive element and that a community where bands support each other is much more enjoyable.