Move over Brat Summer, we’ve got Shunk Life

Setting the scene

You wander into a small bar on Station Road, Port Talbot to the faint sound of music.

“Is this the place? I think it’s a shop.”

At the back of the room is a serving hatch, showing a glimpse out to the back yard.

“Is that a stage?”

You grab a pint of mango Lilley’s from the bar and head out the back through the narrow corridor.

Past the portaloos, the yard opens up to a tented stage, and bar.

“This is nuts, we could be anywhere right now.”

Now, this is how I imagine a few people stumbled their way into Shunkfest 2024 this year.

As an Afan Ales regular, I forget sometimes that a small off-licence with a maximum capacity of about 50 people isn’t your typical music venue.

The place is small, it shouldn’t work. Yet somehow a 5 piece band sets up in the corner, and you climb over an amp to grab your bottle from the fridge, and it does work.

That’s Afan Ales, but this weekend was Shunkfest, where the tiny venue quadrupled in size by opening up the rear yard, liberating the bands from the shop, to a mini outdoor festival – Afan Ales style.

What makes this more remarkable is the outdoor space hasn’t been used before, it’s been dumped with cars and rubbish and inaccessible.

It’s now been tidied up, secured and adorned with artwork and graffiti by local artists, with a nod to Roo Lewis ‘UFO investigation club’ on the wall peeking in through the tent on stage left.

And for the weekend, joined by a stage, temporary bar, outdoor lighting and of course some portaloos – the infamous single toilet of Afan Ales thankfully didn’t bear the full burden of Shunkfest.

Where other shop units on Station Road have been built on and extended out to the lane, Afan Ales was not. Famous for its diminutive size, now uniquely and ironically, it probably has the biggest outdoor space of any venue on Station Road.

Shunkfest

Now back to Shunkfest for a moment, this is the second year of the festival – named after the legendary Port Talbot word ‘shunk’ which originated as a bit of a pejorative word, meaning scruffy.

It is now, thanks to San Portablo, used as a term of endearment and pride of being from a working-class town. ‘Shunk Life’ is a bit like our version of ‘Brat Summer’, we were ahead of the cultural curve on that one.

Afan Ales has been bravely and confidently forging a reputation for good original live music, starting aptly with The Shunkos back in 2022.

The shop has become a bit of a band and fan favourite since then, with a unique intimate atmosphere with all its quirks.

A steady stream of up and coming local bands have been supported by Gavin and Bethan – the owners. This has grown to hosting bands from all over the UK and even some on a world tour!

It was a natural progression to put on something bigger, particularly as the venue had a long list of bands that had played at the shop, who would ordinarily play to bigger audiences elsewhere.

Last year, given the obvious limitations of hosting it at the shop, the festival took place in the Plaza.

This year I think will be seen as the first proper Shunkfest, ‘out the back of the shop’ as Gavin put it to me with a nervous smile a few months ago.

The Music

As to be expected, the line-up was packed full of talent from Port Talbot, Wales and beyond, credit has to go to Gavin and the team booking the bands and arranging the line-up across the weekend.

I didn’t catch every band (side quest at Casa Pizza to blame..) and there’s too many to go in to full detail here but here’s some highlights.

HKH, The Lost Cause and The Shunkos, local regulars at the shop, played to an eager and familiar local audience which they worked effortlessly. ‘Anxiety Problems’ by The Lost Cause, led by Craig Jones, was a crowd pleaser as always, with their new guitarist Aled sporting a fantastic Love Kebabs, Hate Racism tshirt.

Not to forget the ‘Prince of Port Talbot’ Jackson Lucitt who was joined by his band, Ben Curtis, Tommy Evans, and Sam Fender – performing his set including his latest single, Shots Fired Tonight.

Those familiar with the local music scene will know Tommy and Ben as former members of The Riff, with Tommy now drumming with Waterpistol.

When Jackson isn’t writing and performing, he heads up Shiny Vinyl with another local legend, Phil Vat.

Together, through Shiny Vinyl, they have promoted and showcased a whole load of local musical talent in the shop, including several on the Shunkfest lineup.

This would be a good time to mention two of the youngest and newest bands at Shunkfest, The Sporks, and The Limes who were both given slots in the lineup, a great example of how the shop and the festival are supporting grassroots music at all levels.

My Name Is Ian are a Cardiff based band with an extensive back catalogue. They eased us into the evening on Saturday with a witty set led by frontman Reginald Foxwell which left everyone smiling.

‘In the Best Case Scenario, We’d Die at the Same Time’ was a great song for some crowd interaction, and has a whopping 2m+ streams on Spotify, not bad for the self-dubbed ‘worst band in Wales’.

We were quickly then thrown into the deep end with A.R.T, the five piece band from London fronted by Alfie Clayton – who launched into an energetic and chaotic performance.

We had our first and only taste of the saxophone during the weekend (Jon Proudfoot) while Alfie took control of the tent and captivated the crowd with fantastic vocals and movement.

Their performance culminated in him grabbing the 7ft production stepladder from under the stage and ascending it before the crowd (or stage management) could blink.

As far as energetic and sweaty performances go, now would be a good time to mention Yaki Dah – fronted by Christian Sayers, who never fails to break a sweat during their sets.

As the sunlight dipped and the stage lights took hold we were greeted by Waterpisol, a Cardiff based six piece band, complete with maracas and bongos.

Their venue-filling sound and understated stage presence was a moment to soak up the atmosphere and remind ourselves, we really are in Station Road.

Saloon Dion headlined the Saturday lineup, hailing from across the bridge in Bristol. They brought some grit and attitude to the stage which the lively crowd lapped up.

It’s worth mentioning at this point how great the pacing of each day was with the diverse band lineup. Friday culminated with SHLUG a punky heavy trio (who’s set I mostly missed to conversation in the shop..more on that later).

Sundays headliner, duo Getdown Services, delivered a hilarious set of expletive ridden and at times non-sensical songs including swipes at Jamie Oliver and landlords. In contrast to My Name is Ian, they dub themselves ‘Britain’s best band’.

Their simple setup of a synth keyboard, backing track and guitar allowed them to engage in some great interaction with the crowd.

After three days of Shunkfest this was a fantastic fun end to the weekend, with a few members of the crowd joining them on stage for some sweaty topless dancing (you might spot Gavin if you look closely)

People

I have a note on my phone from the Friday evening, I overheard someone say “It kinda feels like a house party that doesn’t have strangers”, which I think is brilliantly on the money for the weekend.

I bumped into a lot of shop regulars there, and typically for Wales there was rarely more than one degree of separation between everyone, we all knew someone’s uncle or grampa.

The community around Afan Ales itself is wide ranging and goes beyond the bands and music, in the shop, local artist mongogushi manned a stall of posters, a brilliant set of retro advertising, remade into band posters – for sale at a reasonable fee, ‘accessible art’ as he put it.

He’s another shop regular with his ‘assorted creativity’, his art adorning the walls, joining the poetry nights, and also supporting the local creative scene with his Port Talbot Culture Club zines.

Nigel Hunt and Pancho of San Portablo were also there over the weekend enjoying the music, their clothing brand was well represented on the audience and band members.

The guys at World Famous Chilli Dogs kept everyone fed over the weekend, after several previous bank holiday and special pop-ups at the shop.

The backline and on-stage technical support was provided by Matt Selby and the team from Bunkhouse in Swansea, a key part of the South Wales live music scene, and the wider community of independent music venues, with stage management by friend of the shop Sandy Armour.

For Port Talbot as a whole, it was a weekend many will remember, as the last ship docked in the harbour on Saturday, delivering the final batch of coke for the Blast Furnace at Tata Steel.

Being at Shunkfest was a lovely reminder of the community spirit and talent that exists here, something we’ll need to harness as we face a new future less dominated by steelmaking.

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Full Weekend Lineup

Friday

Shlug: 9.15 – 10
The Shunkos: 8.30 – 9
The Pleasures 7.45 – 8.15
Kikker 7 – 7.30
Brass Bambees 6.15 – 6.45

Saturday

Saloon Dion: 9.15 – 10
Waterpistol: 8.25 – 8.55
A.R.T: 7.35 – 8.05
My Name Is Ian: 6.45 – 7.15
Jackson Lucitt: 6 – 6.30
Yaki Dah: 5.15 – 5.45
We The Sun: 4.30 – 5
Ignitemares: 3.45 – 4.15
Violet Row: 3 – 3:30
The False Idles: 2.15 – 2.45
Aims: 1.30 – 2

Sunday

Getdown Services: 9.15 – 10
Pigeon Wigs: 8.25 – 8.55
The Stray Pursuit: 7.35 – 8.05
Adult Leisure: 6.45 – 7.15
The Lost Cause: 6 – 6.30
HKH: 5.15 – 5.45
Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy: 4.30 – 5
Mcdermott & North: 3.45 – 4.15
Modern Rogues: 3 – 3.30
The Sporks: 2.15 – 2.45
The Limes: 1.30 – 2