With an unbelievable cold snap threatening to shut down all rail travel into or out of Bognor Regis – the streets all but deserted until we arrive at the self-contained city calling itself Butlins – Rockaway's 10th birthday bash feels like the last party at the end of the world.
As the second band to take to the stage at Rockaway Beach 2025, Man/Woman/Chainsaw capture exactly what the festival is at its core - a platform for music discovery with a hand-picked edge that pulls true gems to the fore. Swirling worlds of sound engulf a jam-packed Centre Stage for a set that leaves an unquestionable mark. Pulling from their debut EP' Eazy Peasy', it's a foundation for a band who are taking the whims and markers of what has come before but doing so with their own distinct voice. Tracks flow from gorgeous cinematic swirls to overflowing punk breakdowns ('Ode To Clio' is just one example). Grabbing attention so early on with a weekend packed with arcade machines and questionable buffet decisions isn't an easy thing, but Man/Woman/Chainsaw prove they're more than ready to be the welcoming sound to the new year.
Full up from a bite at the buffet, we head back into the cold for more live music. And who better to usher in the apocalyptic evening than Hamish Hawk, with sleek new (new, new, new) wave. The sinister undertones of new album 'A Firmer Hand' play well here – the stalking bassline of 'Machiavelli's Room' and the swagger of 'Big Cat Tattoos' – but it's the country-tinged 'Rests & Veneers', off 2023's 'Angel Numbers' that's the standout, cutting through like a burst of citrus in your coca cola.
After a heady Friday evening in the arcade during which an unnamed Dorkster learns he is too old to clamber in and out of Crazy Ball Drop™, as Saturday breaks we swing from one kind of chaos to another with the delighted mayhem of The Pill. The Isle of Wight's premier punk duo are fresh off the back of a massive 2024, and are starting 2025 on a high. Rattling through a set that springs from the bungee-cord guitars of 'Scaffolding Man' to 'Woman Driver' ’s thrashing riffs and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, The Pill are high-octane, high-quality, relentless. As 'Bale of Hay' unfurls and both Lotte and Lily step back from the mic and scream, it's enough to blow the patches off a thousand battered leather jackets in the room.
Later, Lime Garden bring the bops with a selection of hits from their zingy 5-star album 'One More Thing'. It's an energetic set that shifts from crashing indie to shoegaze to the introspective, and then all the way back again. They weren't going to play 'Love Song', but a request from the signing table sees it slip into the set in the closing slot, and aren't we glad it does. The love song that's not a love song strikes at the heart and ends Lime Garden's set on a high, with a real sense of community.
If you were only judging on genre, Georgia is a bit of a wildcard on this weekend's lineup – more straight-up dance than 'Dance Yrself Clean' – but as an absolutely howling gale shakes Rockaway's newest venue Studio 36, she ups the ante with a beat-heavy set that takes in everything from her earliest forays to the pop euphoria (get it?) of 'Give it Up for Love'. It's just what the doctor ordered – a shot in the arm of pulsing pop bops and primary colours.
Later, while the Dork DJs hit the stage in Reds for what is rumoured to be the DJ set of this and possibly every weekend, Bodega kick off their set upstairs with a cover of – what else? – The Ramone's 'Rockaway Beach'. When we head off into the night, after 'Shiny New Model' ’s anti-capitalist slacker rock and the warping rhythms of 'Name Escape', it's with the refrain of indie underdog anthem 'Jack in Titanic' ringing in our heads.
By Sunday afternoon, Team Dork are a man down from a dodgy non-Rockaway takeout – stick to the buffet lads, lesson learned – but the remaining troops will not be deterred. There are still bands to take in and so we press on in honour of our fallen friend, first and foremost taking up positions to watch The Itch take Centre Stage with a taut set of literary-tinged post punk. The live mainstays have been ones to watch for us since before they dropped their enormous debut single 'Ursula', and this time around, they are just as assured and mesmerising as ever – even a member down, as singer Simon Tyrie lets us know their bassist couldn't be here '...because he's on holiday'. We have to wonder where he'd rather be, but not for long, as The Itch round off the set with 'No More Sprechesgang'.
Katy J Pearson is subject to one of the worst clashes of the weekend: peak dinner buffet hours. She easily comes out on top in this clash of the titans, though, packing out the room and soothing Sunday festivalgoers' aching heads with some of the best folk-pop around. Opening with 'Those Goodbyes' from her most recent album 'Someday, Now', the set is a self-assured romp through a discography which, three albums in, has never lost its footing.
Backlit by moody red lighting and managing to fill the aircraft-hanger-sized Studio 36, Sprints are one of the standouts of the weekend. The hourlong set is a slow build towards some absolutely huge riffs, with the crowd soon reaching boiling point, throwing themselves around so much that they make the cavernous space feel small. Once fever pitch is reached, the energy doesn't subside, and it's a very sweaty group of grinning faces who file out of the venue once the band leave the stage.
As we ride off into the grey Monday sunrise after yet another wet January weekend by the sea, it's with the renewed knowledge that Rockaway Beach is the best way to blow out the cobwebs and start the year strong. No matter how many arcade-related injuries we acquire.
