Wonk Unit – Live at Balter Festival 25th May 2025
(Never Be Quiet)
Tape
Out Now
A pantomime performance by plasterer punks Wonk Unit is captured and released on old school cassette. Nathan Brown writes.
My mate Danny is a plasterer and he loves Wonk Unit because they sing about what it’s like to be a plasterer. Songs about everyday life, littered with smirking humour, are set to a mix of hardcore punk, thrash and ska whizzed up in a plasterer’s bucket. This has built Wonk Unit quite a following.
This claims to be the Greatest Live Album Ever, in the most tongue in cheek way. It’s Alive, Hanx and Space Ritual have nothing to worry about. However, this IS a good quality live album. It was recorded through the mixing desk rather than on a Walkman under a pile of your mate’s coats at the back of the room or so close to the PA speakers that all you get is a distorted farting bass sound. This means you almost get the clarity of a studio performance but with added atmosphere.
What you definitely get, of course is the live experience. All the banter at Balter. It certainly sounds like they were having a good crack. There are elements of pantomime in Wonk Unit’s stage presence but they don’t lay it on too thick. Having listened through I now realise I should get my arse down to see them next time they are playing locally.
There are 22 tracks of “absolutely raging Wonk goodness” clocking in at 56 minutes on this cassette release. If you like Wonk Unit this one will not disappoint. This is the first release by the team who have resurrected Never Be Quiet Records.
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Wonk Unit website and Facebook
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All words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive over here.
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